Henry Marvin "Heinie" Benkert (June 30, 1901 – July 15, 1972) was a professional
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 ...
running back
A running back (RB) is a member of the offensive backfield in gridiron football. The primary roles of a running back are to receive American football plays#Offensive terminology, handoffs from the quarterback to Rush (American football)#Offen ...
who starred collegiately at
Rutgers University
Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's ...
, where he won the unofficial collegiate scoring crown as a senior, and played for four non-consecutive seasons 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), for the
New York Giants
The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Giants compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East division. ...
, the
Pottsville Maroons
The Pottsville Maroons were an American football team based in Pottsville, Pennsylvania, in the northeastern part of the state. Founded in 1920, they played in the National Football League (NFL) from 1925 to 1928. In 1929 they relocated to Boston ...
and the
Orange/Newark Tornadoes
The Orange Tornadoes and Newark Tornadoes were two manifestations of a long-lived professional American football franchise that existed in some form from 1887 to 1941 and from 1958 to 1970, having played in the American Amateur Football Union from ...
Pro-Football-Reference.com
Pro-Football-Reference.com is a website providing a variety of statistics for American football. It is one of the few sites that provides information on both active and retired players. The site provides statistics for teams dating back to 1920. ...
. Accessed January 17, 2018. "Born: June 30, 1901 in Newark, NJ... High School: East Side (NJ)"
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', July 17, 1972. Accessed January 17, 2018. "Henry (Heinie) Benkert, halfback in the 1920s for the New York Giants football team, died here yesterday. He was 71 years old. Mr. Benkert was a star in the early 1920s at Rutgers University, which he attended after winning all‐state honors in New Jersey on the Newark East Side High School team."
College career
Benkert, with 16
touchdown
A touchdown (abbreviated as TD) is a scoring play in gridiron football. Whether running, passing, returning a kickoff or punt, or recovering a turnover, a team scores a touchdown by advancing the ball into the opponent's end zone. In Ameri ...
s and four
extra points
The conversion, try (American football, also known as a point(s) after touchdown, PAT, or (depending on the number of points) extra point/2-point conversion), or convert (Canadian football) occurs immediately after a touchdown during which the sc ...
for the
1924 Rutgers Queensmen football team
The 1924 Rutgers Queensmen football team represented Rutgers University as an independent during the 1924 college football season. In their first season under head coach John Wallace, the Queensmen compiled a 7–1–1 record and outscored thei ...
, he led the nation's college football players in scoring, with a total of 100 points; his 16 touchdowns also led the nation. His 1924 season included an October 4 game against Lebanon Valley College, won 56–0 by Rutgers, in which Benkert scored four touchdowns and kicked three extra points, scoring one of his touchdowns on an 86-yard run. Benkert gained a total of 2,124 rushing yards in his three collegiate seasons from 1922 to 1924, making him the first Rutgers player to cross the 2,000-yard mark.
Professional career
New York Giants
After college, Benkert went professional, playing in the NFL for the
New York Giants
The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Giants compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East division. ...
team that finished the season with an 8–4 record in its inaugural season in 1925, starting 10 of the team's 12 NFL games – typical of the less-regimented early barnstorming days in the league, the team played five games against non-league opponents—and earning recognition as a first-team All-Pro by '' Collyer's Eye'' for his play that year.
Pottsville Maroons
He played for the
Pottsville Maroons
The Pottsville Maroons were an American football team based in Pottsville, Pennsylvania, in the northeastern part of the state. Founded in 1920, they played in the National Football League (NFL) from 1925 to 1928. In 1929 they relocated to Boston ...
in 1926, starting four games and appearing in eight as the team finished with a 10–2–2 record, good for third place in the league.
Orange/Newark Tornadoes
In 1929 and 1930, Benkert played in New Jersey for the Tornadoes (the team moved from Orange to Newark in 1930), appearing in 13 games in his two seasons with the Tornadoes and also serving as a coach for a team that finished 3–5–4 in 1929 (in eighth place in the NFL among 12 teams) and 1–10–1 in 1930 (good for 11th, and last, place in the league). Characteristic of the experimental nature of the early National Football League, the Tornadoes experimented with using letters instead of numbers on player jerseys in the 1929 season; Benkert wore the letter "C" on his uniform in a game against the Frankford Yellow Jackets, while Johnny Tomaini had the letter "X" on his jersey.
Rutgers Scarlet Knights football
The Rutgers Scarlet Knights football team represents Rutgers University in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA). Rutgers competes as a member of the East Division of the Big Ten Conference. ...
. Accessed January 17, 2018. "Henry Benkert, Junior Varsity Coach... He spent a number of years in pro football and high school coaching before returning to Rutgers as a coach in 1941–42."