Milton Pomeroy Ghee, Jr. (November 17, 1891 – March 16, 1975) 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 ...

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

. Born in

Wilmette, Illinois Wilmette is a village in New Trier Township, Cook County, Illinois, United States. Bordering Lake Michigan and Evanston, Illinois, it is located north of Chicago's downtown district. Wilmette had a population of 27,087 at the 2010 census. The ...

, Ghee attended Oak Park High School before enrolling at

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College (; ) is a private research university in Hanover, New Hampshire. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, it is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution. Although founded to educate Native A ...

. He played college football for Dartmouth where he was selected as an All-American in 1914. Ghee played professional football in the early days of the professional game. From 1916 to 1917, he played for the

Canton Bulldogs The Canton Bulldogs were a professional American football team, based in Canton, Ohio. They played in the Ohio League from 1903 to 1906 and 1911 to 1919, and the American Professional Football Association (later renamed the National Football Leag ...

the included

Jim Thorpe James Francis Thorpe ( Sac and Fox (Sauk): ''Wa-Tho-Huk'', translated as "Bright Path"; May 22 or 28, 1887March 28, 1953) was an American athlete and Olympic gold medalist. A member of the Sac and Fox Nation, Thorpe was the first Native ...

. The Bulldogs won the professional league championship in both years. According to one historical account of the 1916 Bulldogs, "the Dartmouth All-America was a fine passer who deserved his acclaim, but he needed some time to acclimate himself to his new teammates." In 1917, Ghee threw for 17 touchdown passes and was picked for the All-Pro Team by a Cleveland newspaper. He helped the Bulldogs win the 1917 championship, hitting

Greasy Neale Alfred Earle "Greasy" Neale (November 5, 1891 – November 2, 1973) was an American football and baseball player and coach. Early life and playing career Neale was born in Parkersburg, West Virginia. Although writers eventually assumed that Nea ...

with a short touchdown pass for a 7-0 win over the

Detroit Heralds Detroit had four early teams in the National Football League before the Detroit Lions. The Heralds played in 1920, and had played as an independent as far back as 1905. The Tigers, a continuation of the Heralds, played in 1921, folding midseason ...

in a Thanksgiving Day match with 8,000 fans in attendance. A historical account published by ''

Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence twic ...

'' in 1964 credits Ghee and Greasy Neale with pioneering the use of the

huddle In sport, a huddle is the action of a team gathering together, usually in a tight circle, to strategize, motivate or celebrate. It is a popular strategy for keeping opponents insulated from sensitive information, and acts as a form of insulation ...

during the 1917 season. He traced the practice to a 1917 game between Canton and Youngstown. With Canton at Youngstown's 22-yard line on a third down with one to go, Ghee noted, "In the huddle, our quarterback, Milt Ghee, an All-America from Dartmouth, said, 'Greasy, what will we do?'" In 1917, quarterbacks called the plays while information, and the huddle was not generally adopted until a decade later. According to Neale, "We used the huddle in 1917 because that was the only way we could figure out what we were going to do since we never practiced before the game." Ghee also played in the APFA for the

Chicago Tigers The Chicago Tigers of the American Professional Football Association (APFA) played their first and only season in 1920, the first year of the league ( 1920), and have the distinction of being the first NFL team to fold. They had a record of 2 ...

in 1920 and the

Cleveland Indians The Cleveland Guardians are an American professional baseball team based in Cleveland. The Guardians compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. Since , they have played at Progressive F ...

team (coached by Jim Thorpe in 1921. Ghee was 5-feet, 7-inches tall and weighed 167 pounds.

References

External links

Pro-Football-Reference

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ghee, Milt 1891 births 1975 deaths American football quarterbacks Canton Bulldogs (Ohio League) players Chicago Tigers players Cleveland Indians (NFL) players Dartmouth Big Green football players People from Wilmette, Illinois Players of American football from Illinois