Herbert Louis Stock Sr. (September 3, 1899 – December 21, 1987) 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 ...

halfback who played one season 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

Columbus Tigers The Columbus Panhandles were a professional American football team based in Columbus, Ohio. The club was founded in 1901 by workers at the Panhandle shops of the Pennsylvania Railroad. They were a part of the Ohio League from 1904 before fol ...

and three for the independent

Ironton Tanks The Ironton Tanks were a semi-professional football team organized in 1919 in Ironton, Ohio. Their historical marker gives the story of the Tanks origin: "Semi-professional football began in Ironton in 1893 with a team known as the Irontonians. ...

Early life and education

Stock was born on September 3, 1899, in

Columbus, Ohio Columbus () is the state capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Ohio. With a 2020 census population of 905,748, it is the 14th-most populous city in the U.S., the second-most populous city in the Midwest, after Chicago, and t ...

. He attended Commerce High School in Ohio, along with three other people who would later play professionally. In 1918, he joined

Kenyon College Kenyon College is a private liberal arts college in Gambier, Ohio. It was founded in 1824 by Philander Chase. Kenyon College is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission. Kenyon has 1,708 undergraduates enrolled. Its 1,000-acre campus is se ...

Gambier, Ohio Gambier is a village in Knox County, Ohio, United States. The population was 2,391 at the 2010 census. Gambier is the home of Kenyon College. A major feature is a gravel path running the length of the village, referred to as "Middle Path". This ...

, where he attended one year before serving as a member of the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. He returned to the school in 1920, and earned a

varsity letter A varsity letter (or monogram) is an award earned in the United States for excellence in school activities. A varsity letter signifies that its recipient was a qualified varsity team member, awarded after a certain standard was met. Description ...

in the following three seasons. Following his junior year, Stock was unanimously elected team captain for the . '' The Democratic Banner'' reported, "Herbert L. Stock of Columbus on Saturday was unanimously elected captain of the 1922 football team of Kenyon. Stock has completed his second year on the varsity and has been reckoned Ohio's best fullback by several noted sport authorities."

Professional career

In 1924, two years after his last season of

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 ...

, Stock was given a position on the

(NFL) team, becoming one of two Kenyon attendees ever to play professionally. He was given the team's starting halfback position, but he played several other positions as well, including

defensive back In gridiron football, defensive backs (DBs), also called the secondary, are the players on the defensive side of the ball who play farthest back from the line of scrimmage. They are distinguished from the other two sets of defensive players, the ...

, tailback,

blocking back The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ameri ...

fullback Fullback or Full back may refer to: Sports * A position in various kinds of football, including: ** Full-back (association football), in association football (soccer), a defender playing in a wide position ** Fullback (gridiron football), in Americ ...

linebacker Linebacker (LB) is a playing position in gridiron football. Linebackers are members of the defensive team, and line up three to five yards behind the line of scrimmage and the defensive linemen. They are the "middle ground" of defenders, p ...

, and wingback. In the season, he played in between 6 and 7 games, starting five. The Tigers finished 4–4 that season, and placed tenth in the NFL. Following the season Stock left the Columbus Tigers, and joined the independent

. He played the following three years with the team before retiring.

Death

Stock died on December 21, 1987, in his hometown of

, at the age of 88.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Stock, Herb 1899 births 1988 deaths American football defensive backs American football halfbacks American football fullbacks American football linebackers Kenyon Lords football players Players of American football from Columbus, Ohio Columbus Tigers players Ironton Tanks players United States Army personnel of World War I