Henry Christian Foldberg Sr. (March 12, 1923 – March 7, 2001) was an American college and professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

player who became a

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

coach. Foldberg played college football for

Texas A&M University Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, or TAMU) is a public, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of the Texas A&M University System in 1948. As of late 2021, T ...

and the

United States Military Academy The United States Military Academy (USMA), also known metonymically as West Point or simply as Army, is a United States service academy in West Point, New York. It was originally established as a fort, since it sits on strategic high groun ...

, and thereafter, he played professionally for

Brooklyn Dodgers The Brooklyn Dodgers were a Major League Baseball team founded in 1884 as a member of the American Association (19th century), American Association before joining the National League in 1890. They remained in Brooklyn until 1957, after which the ...

and the

Chicago Hornets The Chicago Rockets were an American football team that played in the All-America Football Conference (AAFC) from 1946 to 1949. During the 1949 season, the team was known as the Chicago Hornets. Unlike the Cleveland Browns, San Francisco 49ers, an ...

of the

All-America Football Conference The All-America Football Conference (AAFC) was a professional American football league that challenged the established National Football League (NFL) from 1946 to 1949. One of the NFL's most formidable challengers, the AAFC attracted many of the ...

(AAFC). He later served as the head football coach of

Wichita State University Wichita State University (WSU) is a public research university in Wichita, Kansas, United States. It is governed by the Kansas Board of Regents. The university offers more than 60 undergraduate degree programs in more than 200 areas of study in ...

and Texas A&M University.

Early years

Foldberg was born in

Dallas, Texas Dallas () is the third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 million people. It is the largest city in and seat of Dallas County w ...

, and graduated from Sunset High School.Pro-Football-Reference.com, Players
Hank Foldberg
Retrieved May 6, 2011.

College career

Foldberg attended

College Station, Texas College Station is a city in Brazos County, Texas, situated in East-Central Texas in the heart of the Brazos Valley, towards the eastern edge of the region known as the Texas Triangle. It is northwest of Houston and east-northeast of Austin. ...

, where he played for the

Texas A&M Aggies Texas A&M Aggies refers to the students, graduates, and sports teams of Texas A&M University. The nickname "Aggie" was once common at land-grant or "ag" (agriculture) schools in many states. The teams are also referred to as "A&M" or "Texas Aggi ...

football team for a single season in 1942.
2010 Texas A&M Football Media Supplement
', Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, pp. 129, 157, 163 (2010). Retrieved May 6, 2011. He received an appointment to the

West Point, New York West Point is the oldest continuously occupied military post in the United States. Located on the Hudson River in New York, West Point was identified by General George Washington as the most important strategic position in America during the Ame ...

, and played

end End, END, Ending, or variation, may refer to: End *In mathematics: ** End (category theory) ** End (topology) **End (graph theory) ** End (group theory) (a subcase of the previous) **End (endomorphism) *In sports and games **End (gridiron footbal ...

for coach

Earl Blaik Earl Henry "Red" Blaik (February 15, 1897 – May 6, 1989) was an American football player, coach, college athletics administrator, and United States Army officer. He served as the head football coach at Dartmouth College from 1934 to 1940 and at ...

's Army Cadets football team from 1944 to 1946. Army produced back-to-back undefeated 9–0 records in 1944 and 1945,College Football Data Warehouse, Army Black Knights
Army Yearly Results (1940–1944)
an
Army Yearly Results (1945–1949)
. Retrieved May 6, 2011. and the Cadets were recognized as the

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...

national champions National champions are corporations which are technically private businesses but due to governmental policy are ceded a dominant position in a national economy. In this system, these large organizations are expected not only to seek profit but als ...

following both seasons. As a senior in 1946, Army was again undefeated at 9–0–1, and Foldberg was recognized as a consensus first-team All-American at end. As a cadet athlete, he also earned varsity letters in

lacrosse Lacrosse is a team sport played with a lacrosse stick and a lacrosse ball. It is the oldest organized sport in North America, with its origins with the indigenous people of North America as early as the 12th century. The game was extensively ...

and

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

.Associated Press,
Foldberg Turned Down Job As Pro Assistant For Wichita Post
, ''The Ocala Star-Banner'', p. 5 (December 21, 1959). Retrieved May 6, 2011. Foldberg resigned from the U.S. Military Academy in 1948, a year short of graduation, citing family financial hardship.

Professional career

The

Washington Redskins The Washington Commanders are a professional American football team based in the Washington metropolitan area. The Commanders compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) N ...

of 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) drafted Foldberg in the fifth round (twenty-eighth pick overall) in the

1947 NFL Draft The 1947 National Football League Draft was held on December 16, 1946, at the Commodore Hotel in New York City, New York. The National Football League in this draft made the first overall pick, a bonus pick determined by lottery. The Chicago B ...

, but he decided to remain in school at West Point for another year. He played professional football in 1948 and 1949, first with

Branch Rickey Wesley Branch Rickey (December 20, 1881 – December 9, 1965) was an American baseball player and sports executive. Rickey was instrumental in breaking Major League Baseball's color barrier by signing black player Jackie Robinson. He also creat ...

's Brooklyn Dodgers of the AAFC in 1948, and then with the AAFC's Chicago Hornets in 1949.National Football League, Historical Players
Hank Foldberg
Retrieved May 6, 2011. In his two seasons as a pro, he played in 25 games, and started 15, while catching 31 passes for 331 yards. Three teams from the AAFC merged into the NFL in 1950, and the AAFC ceased to exist thereafter.

Coaching career

Foldberg's first coaching job was as an assistant with the

Purdue Boilermakers The Purdue Boilermakers are the official intercollegiate athletics teams representing Purdue University, located in West Lafayette, Indiana. As is common with athletic nicknames, the Boilermakers nickname is also used as colloquial designation ...

Purdue University Purdue University is a public land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded in 1869 after Lafayette businessman John Purdue donated land and money ...

West Lafayette, Indiana West Lafayette () is a city in Wabash Township, Tippecanoe County, Indiana, United States, about northwest of the state capital of Indianapolis and southeast of Chicago. West Lafayette is directly across the Wabash River from its sister city, ...

. The following year, he returned to College Station, Texas to become a Texas A&M Aggies assistant. One of Foldberg's former assistant coaches from Army's 1944 and 1945 national championship teams,

Bob Woodruff Robert Warren Woodruff (born August 18, 1961) is an American television journalist. Since 1996, he has served as a reporter for ABC News. Woodruff co-anchored ABC World News Tonight in 2006 alongside ABC News journalist Elizabeth Vargas. He was ...

, became the head coach for the

Florida Gators football The Florida Gators football program represents the University of Florida (UF) in American college football. Florida competes in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and the Eastern Division of ...

team of the

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida, traces its origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its ...

, and invited Foldberg to join the Gators coaching staff in

1952 Events January–February * January 26 – Black Saturday in Egypt: Rioters burn Cairo's central business district, targeting British and upper-class Egyptian businesses. * February 6 ** Princess Elizabeth, Duchess of Edinburgh, becomes m ...

. Foldberg remained one of Woodruff's principal assistants through the

1959 Events January * January 1 - Cuba: Fulgencio Batista flees Havana when the forces of Fidel Castro advance. * January 2 - Lunar probe Luna 1 was the first man-made object to attain escape velocity from Earth. It reached the vicinity of E ...

season.''2010 Florida Gators Football Media Guide''
Gator History
, University Athletic Association, Gainesville, Florida, pp. 193, 196 (2010). Retrieved May 6, 2011. Among other duties, Foldberg served as the Gators line coach.Tom McEwen, ''The Gators: A Story of Florida Football'', The Strode Publishers, Huntsville, Alabama, pp. 171, 182, 186, 208 (1974). From 1960 to 1961, Foldberg served as the head football coach at the University of Wichita (now

) in Wichita, Kansas, where his Wichita Shockers teams compiled a 16–5 record in two seasons,College Football Data Warehouse, All-Time Coaching Records
Henry "Hank" Foldberg Records by Year
. Retrieved May 6, 2011. and won two consecutive

Missouri Valley Conference The Missouri Valley Conference (also called MVC or simply "The Valley") is the third-oldest collegiate athletic conference in the United States. The conference's members are primarily located in the midwest. History The MVC was established ...

championships. After the 1961 regular season, he accepted an offer to become the head football coach and

athletic director An athletic director (commonly "athletics director" or "AD") is an administrator at many American clubs or institutions, such as colleges and universities, as well as in larger high schools and middle schools, who oversees the work of coaches and ...

at Texas A&M University, telling his Wichita Shockers players that it was the only job for which he would leave Wichita. He had previously turned down an offer from the

University of Nebraska A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, the ...

to coach the

Nebraska Cornhuskers football The Nebraska Cornhuskers football team competes as part of the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision, representing the University of Nebraska–Lincoln in the West Division of the Big Ten. Nebraska plays its home games at Memorial Stadium ...

team. Foldberg's 1961 Shockers were defeated 17–9 by the

Villanova Wildcats The Villanova Wildcats are the athletic teams of Villanova University. They compete in the Big East (NCAA Division I) for every sport; except football and rowing where they compete in the Colonial Athletic Association (Football Championship Sub ...

in the

Sun Bowl The Sun Bowl is a college football bowl game that has been played since 1935 in the southwestern United States at El Paso, Texas. Along with the Sugar Bowl and Orange Bowl, it is the second-oldest bowl game in the country, behind the Rose Bowl. ...

. Foldberg coached the Texas A&M Aggies football team for three seasons from 1962 to 1964. He inherited an Aggies program that had not had a winning season since former Aggies coach

Bear Bryant Paul William "Bear" Bryant (September 11, 1913 – January 26, 1983) was an American college football player and coach. He is considered by many to be one of the greatest college football coaches of all time, and best known as the head coach of ...

left for the

University of Alabama The University of Alabama (informally known as Alabama, UA, or Bama) is a Public university, public research university in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Established in 1820 and opened to students in 1831, the University of Alabama is the oldest and la ...

after the 1957 season. He was unable to duplicate his successful turnaround of the Wichita Shockers program, compiled an overall record of 6–23–1 as the Aggies head coach, and was replaced by

Gene Stallings Eugene Clifton Stallings Jr. (born March 2, 1935) is a retired American football player and coach. He played college football at Texas A&M University (1954–1956), where he was one of the "Junction Boys", and later served as the head coach at ...

after the 1965 season. He resigned as the Aggies' athletic director in July 1965.

Life after football

Folberg was married to the former Margaret Smith, and they had a son and a daughter. After he left the coaching profession, he entered the real estate business in Arkansas. Foldberg's son, Hank Foldberg, Jr., later played

tight end The tight end (TE) is a position in American football, arena football, and Canadian football, on the offense. The tight end is often a hybrid position with the characteristics and roles of both an offensive lineman and a wide receiver. Like ...

for the Florida Gators football team from

1971 * The year 1971 had three partial solar eclipses ( February 25, July 22 and August 20) and two total lunar eclipses (February 10, and August 6). The world population increased by 2.1% this year, the highest increase in history. Events Ja ...

1973 Events January * January 1 - The United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and Denmark enter the European Economic Community, which later becomes the European Union. * January 15 – Vietnam War: Citing progress in peace negotiations, U.S. ...

. Foldberg died at his home in

Bella Vista, Arkansas Bella Vista is a city in Benton County, Arkansas, Benton County, Arkansas, United States. First established in 1917 as a summer resort destination, Bella Vista has evolved and redesigned itself over the succeeding years. Bella Vista became a reti ...

; he was 77 years old. Former end at Army dies at 77
, ''The Victoria Advocate'', p. 5B (March 9, 2001). Retrieved May 6, 2011.

Head coaching record

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Foldberg, Henry 1923 births 2001 deaths American football ends Texas A&M Aggies football players Army Black Knights football players Army Black Knights men's lacrosse players Brooklyn Dodgers (AAFC) players Chicago Hornets players Florida Gators football coaches Purdue Boilermakers football coaches Texas A&M Aggies athletic directors Texas A&M Aggies football coaches Wichita State Shockers football coaches All-American college football players Sportspeople from Dallas Coaches of American football from Texas Players of American football from Dallas Lacrosse players from Texas United States Military Academy alumni Military personnel from Texas