Jack C. Carpenter (July 29, 1923 – October 16, 2005) 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 wi ...

player. He played at the tackle position for the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

in 1946. He played professional football for the Buffalo Bills of the All-America Football Conference (AAFC) from 1947 to 1949 and for the

San Francisco 49ers The San Francisco 49ers (also written as the San Francisco Forty-Niners) are a professional American football team based in the San Francisco Bay Area. The 49ers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the league's National ...

of the AAFC in 1949. He also played five years in the

Canadian Football League The Canadian Football League (CFL; french: Ligue canadienne de football—LCF) is a professional sports league in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football. The league consists of nine teams, each located in a ci ...

(CFL) for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats (1950–1951) and

Toronto Argonauts The Toronto Argonauts (officially the Toronto Argonaut Football Club and colloquially known as the Argos) are a professional Canadian football team competing in the East Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL), based in Toronto, Ontario ...

(1952–1954).

College football

A native of Kansas City, Missouri, Carpenter began his college football career at the

University of Missouri The University of Missouri (Mizzou, MU, or Missouri) is a public land-grant research university in Columbia, Missouri. It is Missouri's largest university and the flagship of the four-campus University of Missouri System. MU was founded in ...

. He played football for the

Missouri Tigers The Missouri Tigers intercollegiate athletics programs represent the University of Missouri, located in Columbia. The name comes from a band of armed Union Home Guards called the Fighting Tigers of Columbia who, in 1864, protected Columbia fro ...

in 1942. He also played for the

United States Marine Corps The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through combi ...

. Carpenter enrolled at the

in 1946 and won the starting right tackle position on

Fritz Crisler Herbert Orin "Fritz" Crisler (; January 12, 1899 – August 19, 1982) was an American college football coach who is best known as "the father of two-platoon football," an innovation in which separate units of players were used for offense and ...

's 1946 Michigan Wolverines football team that finished the season with a record of 6-2-1, ranked No. 6 in the final AP poll. At the end of the 1946 season, Carpenter was selected as an All-

Big Nine Conference The Big Nine Conference, formerly the Big Eight Conference, was a high school sports conference in Genesee County, Michigan, that ended with four high schools in 2012. History Formed in 1960 as the Big Eight Conference, the conference became th ...

player by the United Press. Carpenter,

Alex Agase Alexander Arrasi Agase (March 27, 1922 – May 3, 2007) was an American football guard and linebacker who was named an All-American three times in college and played on three Cleveland Browns championship teams before becoming head football coac ...

and Earl Banks received the most votes among the lineman. The ''United Press'' noted at the time: "Carpenter was stamped by numerous scouts as the ideal tackle."

Professional football

In January 1947, Carpenter announced that he intended to withdraw from school at the end of the semester to play professional football. Carpenter had been drafted by 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 ...

in the

1944 NFL Draft The 1944 National Football League Draft was held on April 19, 1944, at the Warwick Hotel in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. With the first overall pick of the draft, the Boston Yanks selected quarterback Angelo Bertelli. Player selections Round ...

, but he opted instead to play in the new All-America Football Conference. He initially signed with the

New York Yankees The New York Yankees are an American professional baseball team based in the New York City borough of the Bronx. The Yankees compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. They are one of ...

, but was traded to the

Cleveland Browns The Cleveland Browns are a professional American football team based in Cleveland. Named after original coach and co-founder Paul Brown, they compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (A ...

and then in late August 1947 to the Buffalo Bills. Carpenter played for the Bills from 1947 to 1949. He was traded to the San Francisco 49ers during the 1949 AAFC season and finished the season there. The AAFC folded after the 1949 season, and Carpenter signed to play for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats of the

in 1950. His signing led one Canadian sports columnist to write: "The advance notices indicate that local football fans will see a real lineman when Jack Carpenter shows here with the Tiger-Cats on Saturday." He played for the Tiger-Cats in 1950 and 1951. Carpenter played for the

from 1952 to 1954. During the 1954, he also served as the Argonauts' line coach and was singled out by head coach Frank Clair as "the pillar of strength on the Argos' front wall."

Later years

After retiring from football, Carpenter opened Jack Carpenter's Hotel, a popular restaurant, bar and bowling alley in

South Wales, New York South Wales is a hamlet in the towns of Aurora and Wales in Erie County, New York, United States. WGRZ's broadcast tower and in-house weather radar are based in the hamlet. The Gow School is located in South Wales. Notable people * Wally Sch ...

. He was a resident of

Honolulu, Hawaii Honolulu (; ) is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an unincorporated county seat of the consolidated City and County of Honolulu, situated along the southeast coast of the island o ...

in his later years. After a long illness, he died in 2005 at age 82 in a Honolulu nursing home.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Carpenter, Jack 1923 births 2005 deaths Buffalo Bills players Hamilton Tiger-Cats players Michigan Wolverines football players San Francisco 49ers players Toronto Argonauts players Players of American football from Kansas City, Missouri Players of Canadian football from Kansas City, Missouri Missouri Tigers football players United States Marine Corps personnel of World War II