Francis Emil Billock (May 20, 1912 – October 11, 1964) was an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

lineman who played in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

(NFL) with the

Pittsburgh Pirates The Pittsburgh Pirates are an American professional baseball team based in Pittsburgh. The Pirates compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Founded as part of the American Associati ...

Early life

Billock was born in

Grand Rapids, Minnesota Grand Rapids is a city in Itasca County, Minnesota, United States, and it is the county seat. The population is 11,126 according to the 2020 census. The city is named for the long rapids in the Mississippi River which was the uppermost limit ...

and attended

Grand Rapids High School Grand Rapids High School is a four-year public high school located in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, United States, on 800 Conifer Drive. GRHS offers a wide range of extracurricular activities, and has one of the few competitive field show marching band ...

. Frank was one of eight children. Frank married Clairnita Steinmetz on December 27, 1937. They had three daughters Janet, Mary Elizabeth, and Judith. He attended college at Saint Mary's College, Winona, Minnesota on a football scholarship. Frank served in the United States Navy as a gunnery instructor at the Norman Oklahoma Naval Base before being assigned to a ship for overseas duty. Lieutenant JG Francis E. Billock received an honorable discharge from the U.S. Navy December 9, 1945.

Professional football

Billock was acquired by the

in September 1937 in a trade with the

Chicago Cardinals The professional American football team now known as the Arizona Cardinals previously played in Chicago, Illinois, as the Chicago Cardinals from 1898 to 1959 before relocating to St. Louis, Missouri, for the 1960 through 1987 seasons. Roots ca ...

for

center Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentricity ...

Lee Mulleneaux. Billock had played previously with a professional team, the Heileman Lagers in

La Crosse, Wisconsin La Crosse is a city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of La Crosse County. Positioned alongside the Mississippi River, La Crosse is the largest city on Wisconsin's western border. La Crosse's population as of the 2020 census w ...

. He was with Pittsburgh for roughly a month during which time he played in two games, starting one. He was released by the Pirates in October 1937.

Personal

Billock died in

Wauwatosa, Wisconsin Wauwatosa (; known informally as Tosa; originally Wau-wau-too-sa or Hart's Mill) is a city in Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 48,387 at the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census. Wauwatos ...

at the age of 52.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Billock, Frank 1912 births 1964 deaths American football guards American football tackles Pittsburgh Pirates (football) players Saint Mary's Redmen football players Players of American football from Grand Rapids, Michigan