Nicholas Stephen Dinkel (May 12, 1874 in

Springfield, Ohio Springfield is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Clark County, Ohio, Clark County. The municipality is located in southwestern Ohio and is situated on the Mad River (Ohio), Mad River, Buck Creek, and Beaver Creek, approxim ...

– May 14, 1919 in

Cincinnati, Ohio Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...

) 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 and a starting

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 ...

for the

University of Notre Dame The University of Notre Dame du Lac, known simply as Notre Dame ( ) or ND, is a private Catholic research university in Notre Dame, Indiana, outside the city of South Bend. French priest Edward Sorin founded the school in 1842. The main campu ...

. Dinkel played his first two years with the

Notre Dame football The Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team is the intercollegiate football team representing the University of Notre Dame in Notre Dame, Indiana, north of the city of South Bend, Indiana. The team plays its home games at the campus' Notre Dame ...

team at the right end position. But during his senior season in 1894, new head coach James L. Morison installed an offense based upon speed running to the outside. Seeking to capitalize on this philosophy, Dinkel swapped positions with then-Irish

Charles Zeitler Charles W. Zeitler (August 1871 – 1903) was an American football player from South Bend, Indiana. Zeitler was the first quarterback for the University of Notre Dame to win four games. Zeitler was born to a family of Bavarian immigrants in Cla ...

and led the team from under center. Dinkel's team achieved easy victories over Hillsdale, Wabash and Rush Medical, but struggled to a 0-1-1 mark in a home-and-home series with

Albion Albion is an alternative name for Great Britain. The oldest attestation of the toponym comes from the Greek language. It is sometimes used poetically and generally to refer to the island, but is less common than 'Britain' today. The name for Scot ...

, thus finishing the year at 3-1-1. After graduating, Dinkel returned to his home in

, where in 1896 he was involved in a controversial 24-6 victory by

Wittenberg College Wittenberg University is a private liberal arts college in Springfield, Ohio. It has 1,326 full-time students representing 33 states and 9 foreign countries. Wittenberg University is associated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Americ ...

over

Ohio State The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best public ...

: Allegedly, Dinkel was not enrolled at Wittenberg but merely played for them as a "ringer" at right tackle. Shortly thereafter, Dinkel moved to

, where he worked as a salesman until his death from

heart disease Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a class of diseases that involve the heart or blood vessels. CVD includes coronary artery diseases (CAD) such as angina and myocardial infarction (commonly known as a heart attack). Other CVDs include stroke, hea ...

in 1919.

References

* Steele, Michael R. ''The Fighting Irish Football Encyclopedia.'' Champaign, IL: Sports Publishing LLC (1996). * Park, Jack. ''The Official Ohio State Football Encyclopedia.'' Champaign, IL: Sports Publishing LLC (2003). 1874 births American football quarterbacks Notre Dame Fighting Irish football players Sportspeople from Springfield, Ohio 1919 deaths {{quarterback-stub