Joseph Thomas Zeller (May 2, 1908 – September 23, 1983) 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 ...

player. He played professional 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) with the

Green Bay Packers The Green Bay Packers are a professional American football team based in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The Packers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC North, North division. It ...

for one season and the

Chicago Bears The Chicago Bears are a professional American football team based in Chicago. The Bears compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) North division. The Bears have won nine NF ...

for six seasons.

College sport career

Zeller was an outstanding athlete at

Indiana University Bloomington Indiana University Bloomington (IU Bloomington, Indiana University, IU, or simply Indiana) is a public university, public research university in Bloomington, Indiana. It is the flagship university, flagship campus of Indiana University and, with ...

, playing both football and

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

. He is the only person to have won the prestigious Balfour Award for the most valuable player in both sports in the same year, 1931–32, when he was also senior class president. Zeller finished his college career by playing every minute of his final five games.

References

External links

* 1908 births 1983 deaths American football ends American football guards Chicago Bears players Green Bay Packers players Indiana Hoosiers football players Indiana Hoosiers men's basketball players Sportspeople from East Chicago, Indiana Players of American football from Indiana American men's basketball players {{offensive-lineman-1900s-stub