John Charles Depler (January 6, 1899 – December 5, 1970) was a professional
football player and coach. Prior to his professional career, he played
college football for the
Illinois Fighting Illini football
The Illinois Fighting Illini football program represents the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in college football at the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (formerly Division I-A) level. The Fighting Illini are a founding member of ...
team of the
University of Illinois
The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Univer ...
. There he helped lead Illinois to its second national championship in 1919, and earned first-team
All-American honors in 1920. After graduation, Depler played for the
Hammond Pros
The Hammond Pros from Hammond, Indiana played in the National Football League from 1920 to 1926 as a traveling team.
History
The Pros were established by local businessman Paul Parduhn and Dr. Alva Young. Young, a boxing promoter and owner o ...
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). The following year, he was hired as an assistant coach to
Frank "Buck" O'Neill
Frank J. "Buck" O'Neill (March 6, 1875 – April 21, 1958) was an American football player and coach. He served as head football coach at Colgate University (1902, 1904–1905), Williams College (1903), Syracuse University (1906–1907, 1913†...
, at
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
, where he stayed for the next eight seasons.
In 1929, Depler rejoined the NFL as a
player-coach
A player-coach (also playing coach, captain-coach, or player-manager) is a member of a sports team who simultaneously holds both playing and coaching duties. A player-coach may be a head coach or an assistant coach. They may make changes to the sq ...
with the
Orange 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 ...
. In following season, he bought the
Dayton Triangles and relocated the team to
Brooklyn, New York
Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
, with the help of
Bill Dwyer, an early
Prohibition
Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcohol ...
gangster and
bootlegger. Depler was now the co-founder and coach of the NFL's new
Brooklyn Dodgers. He took most of the members of the 1929 Tornadoes with him for the new Dodgers team.
After a successful
first season, little went right for the club. After the team's
second season, Depler resigned as coach and the team was sold to
Chris Cagle
Christopher Norris Cagle (born November 10, 1968) is an American country music artist. He was first known for writing songs for David Kersh before signing to Virgin Records Nashville in 2000. Cagle made his debut on ''Billboard'' Hot Country Si ...
and
Shipwreck Kelly.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Depler, Jack
1970 deaths
American football centers
American football tackles
Brooklyn Dodgers (NFL) coaches
Columbia Lions football coaches
Hammond Pros players
Illinois Fighting Illini football players
Orange Tornadoes coaches
Orange Tornadoes players
National Football League owners
People from Lewistown, Illinois
Players of American football from Illinois
1899 births
Psi Upsilon