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John Joseph Schommer (January 29, 1884 – January 11, 1960) was an American multi-sport athlete in the 1900s. He is considered by some to be the first basketball superstar and one of the first great all-around athletes. The
Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...
native was the first athlete in
University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chic ...
history to win 12 letters in
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 ...
,
basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...
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baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...
and track. This earned him the nickname "Mr. Everything". Schommer was a four-time All-American in basketball and led the Maroons to three straight Big Ten championships (1907–09). He was named the
Helms Foundation College Basketball Player of the Year The Helms Foundation College Basketball Player of the Year was an annual men's college basketball award given to the most outstanding men′s player in the United States. It was awarded by the Helms Athletic Foundation, an organization founded in ...
for the 1908-09 season. One of his most famous moments was when he made an 80-foot field goal which helped lift Chicago over
University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...
in the final game of the 1907-08 regular season, winning them the championship. He was one of the first four players inducted to the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1959.


References

1884 births 1960 deaths All-American college men's basketball players American men's basketball players Baseball players from Chicago Basketball coaches from Illinois Basketball players from Chicago Basketball referees Centers (basketball) Chicago Maroons baseball players Chicago Maroons football players Chicago Maroons men's basketball coaches Chicago Maroons men's basketball players Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame inductees National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame inductees Players of American football from Chicago {{1880s-US-basketball-bio-stub