John Charles Depler (January 6, 1899 – December 5, 1970) was a professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

player and coach. Prior to his professional career, he played

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 ...

for the Illinois Fighting Illini football team of the University of Illinois. 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 of ...

of the National Football League (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, 1913–1 ...

, at Columbia University, where he stayed for the next eight seasons. In 1929, Depler rejoined the NFL as a player-coach with the Orange Tornadoes. In following season, he bought the

Dayton Triangles The Dayton Triangles were an original franchise of the American Professional Football Association (now the National Football League (NFL)) in 1920. The Triangles were based in Dayton, Ohio, and took their nickname from their home field, Triangl ...

and relocated the team to Brooklyn, New York, with the help of Bill Dwyer, an early Prohibition gangster and bootlegger. Depler was now the co-founder and coach of the NFL's new

Brooklyn Dodgers The Brooklyn Dodgers were a Major League Baseball team founded in 1884 as a member of the American Association (19th century), American Association before joining the National League in 1890. They remained in Brooklyn until 1957, after which the ...

. 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 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