George Watson "Peggy" Parratt (March 21, 1883 – January 3, 1959) 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 who played in the "
Ohio League
The Ohio League was an informal and loose association of American football clubs active between 1902 and 1919 that competed for the Ohio Independent Championship (OIC). As the name implied, its teams were mostly based in Ohio. It is the direct pr ...
" prior to it becoming a part of 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 ...
. Born in
Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...
, Parratt played
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
Shelby Blues
The Shelby Blues were an American football team based in Shelby, Ohio. The team played in the Ohio League from 1900 to 1919. In 1920, when the Ohio League became the APFA (now known as the National Football League), the Blues did not join but conti ...
, Lorain Pros,
Massillon Tigers
The Massillon Tigers were an early professional football team from Massillon, Ohio. Playing in the "Ohio League", the team was a rival to the pre-National Football League version of the Canton Bulldogs. The Tigers won Ohio League championships ...
,
Massillon All-Stars,
Franklin Athletic Club of Cleveland,
Akron Indians
The Akron Pros were a professional football team that played in Akron, Ohio from 1908 to 1926. The team originated in 1908 as a semi-pro team named the Akron Indians, but later became Akron Pros in 1920 as the team set out to become a charter mem ...
and the
Cleveland Tigers between 1905 and 1916. Parratt threw the first legal
forward pass
In several forms of football, a forward pass is the throwing of the ball in the direction in which the offensive team is trying to move, towards the defensive team's goal line. The forward pass is one of the main distinguishers between gridiron ...
in professional football history while playing for the
Massillon Tigers
The Massillon Tigers were an early professional football team from Massillon, Ohio. Playing in the "Ohio League", the team was a rival to the pre-National Football League version of the Canton Bulldogs. The Tigers won Ohio League championships ...
on October 25, 1906.
College career
Parratt 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 ...
at
Case School of Applied Science
The Case School of Engineering is the engineering school at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, USA. It traces its roots to the 1880 founding of the Case School of Applied Science. It became the Case Institute of Technology in 1947 ...
, now known as
Case Western Reserve University
Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) is a private research university in Cleveland, Ohio. Case Western Reserve was established in 1967, when Western Reserve University, founded in 1826 and named for its location in the Connecticut Western Reser ...
. During his time at Case, he became a 3-time All-Ohio college star. However, in 1905, he risked his amateur standing by playing professional ball on Sundays for the
Shelby Blues
The Shelby Blues were an American football team based in Shelby, Ohio. The team played in the Ohio League from 1900 to 1919. In 1920, when the Ohio League became the APFA (now known as the National Football League), the Blues did not join but conti ...
. To hide his identity from the media and school officials, Parratt played under the name "Jimmy Murphy" and used a nose guard to conceal his face. However just weeks after his first game for Shelby, the Cleveland newspapers revealed that "Murphy" was really Peggy Parratt, in disguise. Soon afterwards Parratt was called in for questioning by the chairman of the Case University Athletic Board, Professor Arthur S. Wright. During the interview, Parratt openly admitted to breaking the amateur code. He was then barred from all further intercollegiate play at Case. At this time, Parratt was also a star
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 ...
and
baseball player
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 tea ...
for Case and was removed from those teams as well.
By admitting openly to playing for Shelby, Parratt thus became the first college football star to be disciplined by his school for moonlighting as a professional football player. Several other college players had secretly played professional football, but they always denied the charges when questioned. However Case still awarded Peggy his varsity
letter
Letter, letters, or literature may refer to:
Characters typeface
* Letter (alphabet), a character representing one or more of the sounds used in speech; any of the symbols of an alphabet.
* Letterform, the graphic form of a letter of the alphabe ...
, citing his invaluable leadership on and off the field during the major part of the 1905 football season. He also made All-Ohio Honors for 1905 and was allowed to coach the college's baseball team, after being stripped of captaincy due to the scandal. After graduating from Case in 1906, Parratt was offered the head football coaching job at
Marietta College
Marietta College (MC) is a private liberal arts college in Marietta, Ohio. It offers more than 50 undergraduate majors across the arts, sciences, and engineering, as well as Physician Assistant, Psychology, Clinical Mental Health Counseling, an ...
, however he turned it down to continue his professional playing career. In 1909, however, Peggy was an assistant football coach at Case, while he was also playing for the Shelby Blues.
Professional career
Massillon Tigers
After losing his amateur status, Parratt played football for the Lorain Pros for the remainder of the 1905 season. In 1906, Peggy was signed by the Massillon Tigers, in part because of his mastery of the
forward pass
In several forms of football, a forward pass is the throwing of the ball in the direction in which the offensive team is trying to move, towards the defensive team's goal line. The forward pass is one of the main distinguishers between gridiron ...
. He immediately earned the role of starting quarterback. The first forward pass in a professional football game may have been thrown by Parratt on October 25, 1906 to
Dan "Bullet" Riley in a victory over a combined Benwood-Moundsville team, according to Robert W. Peterson in his book ''Pigskin The Early Years of Pro Football''. Parratt though did not receive initial recognition for the pass since
Eddie Wood
Edward Wood was an early professional football player for the Latrobe Athletic Association, the Franklin Athletic Club and finally for the Canton Bulldogs of the "Ohio League". He also played on Dave Berry's Western Pennsylvania All-Star team, ...
of 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 ...
and
Latrobe Athletic Association
The Latrobe Athletic Association was a professional football team located in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, from 1895 until 1909. A member of the unofficial Western Pennsylvania Professional Football Circuit, the team is best known for being the first fo ...
was erroneously credited for catching the first
forward pass
In several forms of football, a forward pass is the throwing of the ball in the direction in which the offensive team is trying to move, towards the defensive team's goal line. The forward pass is one of the main distinguishers between gridiron ...
in pro football by
Harry March
Harry Addison March (December 11, 1875 – June 10, 1940) was an early football historian and promoter, as well as a medical doctor. He also helped organize the National Football League and well as the second American Football League. March is ...
in his book ''
Pro Football: Its Ups and Downs''. During the second game of the 1906
Ohio League
The Ohio League was an informal and loose association of American football clubs active between 1902 and 1919 that competed for the Ohio Independent Championship (OIC). As the name implied, its teams were mostly based in Ohio. It is the direct pr ...
championship, which would later result in a
betting scandal on November 24, 1906, Wood reportedly caught a couple of the new forward passes. March somehow stated that those catches in a championship game, at the end of the season, were very first catches in professional football. It was later discovered that Parratt threw an earlier recorded pass to Bullet Riley on October 25, for professional football's first forward pass. A second recorded pass was thrown to
Clark Schrontz
Clark A. Schrontz was a professional American football player. In 1902 he won a championship in the first National Football League (NFL) with the Pittsburgh Stars. A year later he was a member of the Franklin Athletic Club football team that was c ...
two days later.
During the Tigers season-ending series with 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 ...
, to determine the Ohio League champions, Parratt caught two
interception
In ball-playing competitive team sports, an interception or pick is a move by a player involving a pass of the ball—whether by foot or hand, depending on the rules of the sport—in which the ball is intended for a player of the same team b ...
s while the Tigers won the series second, and deciding game. However
rumors of a betting fix tainted the championship and turned the public off to pro football in Ohio for the next several years. Many of the top players of the day left Ohio when the scandal broke. This left only the local sandlotters to pick up the pieces and try to patch together a respectable season for 1907. Since Parratt was not a part of the scandal, he continued to play for Massillon, now renamed the "Massillon All-Stars" for 1907, however he soon learned that he could make more money playing with the Franklin Athletic Club, which was untouched by the fallout over the betting scandal the year before.
Franklin Athletic Club
During his year with the Franklin A.C., Parratt played in only a few games. He spent the majority of his time, officiating professional football games in the Cleveland-area.
Shelby Blues
Sometime before the 1908 season, Parratt returned to the Shelby Blues, the place where he made his professional debut in 1905. He became the owner of the franchise by helping to organize and financially back the team. He also became a
player-coach
A player-coach (also playing coach, captain-coach, or player-manager) is a member of a sports team who simultaneously holds both playing and coaching duties. A player-coach may be a head coach or an assistant coach. They may make changes to the sq ...
for the Blues and helped the team recruit players. In his first year with the Blues, the team defeated all of their rivals and finished in a tie with the Akron Indians for state honors. However, in 1909, the Indians defeated the Blues 13-9 and claimed the championship.
For the 1910 season, Parratt decided to recruit heavily to put together a contender in Shelby. As a result, Peggy signed several well-known Ohio college graduates and combined them with the best local veteran players he could find. The plan worked and Shelby upset the Indians twice, 16-6 and 8-5, and the Blues claimed the 1910 Ohio title.
1911 Ohio League title forfeit
Parratt used the same plan for the upcoming 1911 season and once again Shelby defeated Akron twice, 6-0 and 3-0. The 1911 title game was then to be between the Blues and the revived Canton Bulldogs, then referred to as the
Canton Professionals. The Blues won the game when Canton forfeited the title game to Shelby, after a heated dispute over an offside ruling. According to reports, Parratt was willing to compromise with Canton over the official's call, however Canton captain
Harry Turner was so upset that he called his team off the field and refused to continue the game. Immediately after the game, Turner vowed to give up football because of the call. However Turner wanted so badly to beat Parratt that he returned to play for Canton for the next three years.
Akron Indians
Before the 1912 season, Parratt left Shelby for Akron. He took the move realizing that he could make more money in the larger football market that Akron could provide. When he arrived in Akron, his first move was to change the team name from the "Akron" Indians to "Parratt's" Indians. With Peggy as player, coach, and owner-manager, the Indians split their series with Shelby and twice defeated Canton, 14-7 and 19-7. However, they were defeated by the unheard of
Elyria Athletics
The Elyria Athletics were an American football team based in Elyria, Ohio. They played in the Ohio League until 1919, and then became an independent team. The team won the 1912 Ohio League championship, with an upset win over Peggy Parratt's Akr ...
, who then took the Ohio championship. The Athletics were mostly former Blues players who formed a team in Elyria after Parratt left for Akron.
The following season, Peggy brought most of Elyria's 1912 championship team to Akron, and adding them to his roster. The Indians then beat Shelby and Elyria. They also managed to tie the rapidly improving Canton Pros. During Indians championship game against Shelby, the Blues loaded their team with a collection of famous players from big Eastern schools and supported each member with a payroll of $700 for just that one game. However, the game was cancelled due to snowstorm. A week later when the Blues returned to Akron, the Indians were prepared with newly recruited talent that was viewed as even superior to that of Shelbys. The Indians won the game 20-0 and brought the Ohio title back to Akron.
The death of Harry Turner
For his 1914 recruiting efforts, Parratt signed the usual big names players, which consisted of a lineup that changed from week to week, with just enough stars on hand to guarantee a win. However, in 1914, he also employed several former
Notre Dame stars, including the legendary
Knute Rockne
Knut (Norwegian and Swedish), Knud (Danish), or Knútur (Icelandic) is a Scandinavian, German, and Dutch first name, of which the anglicised form is Canute. In Germany both "Knut" and "Knud" are used. In Spanish and Portuguese Canuto is used whi ...
, Howard "Horse" Edwards, "Deke" Jones, and
Joe Collins
Joseph Edward Collins (born Joseph Edward Kollonige; December 3, 1922 – August 30, 1989) was an American Major League Baseball player born in Scranton, Pennsylvania.
On September 25, he began his major league career playing for the New York Y ...
. As well as several Ohio collegiate stars like
Ed Kagy
Edmund Leroy Kagy (April 21, 1889 – November 16, 1960) was a professional American football player in the Ohio League, which was the direct predecessor to the modern National Football League, from 1912 until 1915. During that time he played wit ...
,
Dwight Wertz
Dwight Lyman Moody "Del" Wertz (October 11, 1888 – May 26, 1958) was a right-handed baseball shortstop for the Buffalo Buffeds of the Federal League in 1914 and a professional American football, football player in the Ohio League.
Early life
D ...
,
Homer Davidson
Homer Hurd Davidson (October 14, 1884 – July 26, 1948) was a professional Major League Baseball player for the Cleveland Naps (later renamed the Cleveland Indians in 1914). Born in Cleveland, Ohio, he played only 6 games for the Naps during th ...
,
Dutch Powell
Dutch commonly refers to:
* Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands
* Dutch people ()
* Dutch language ()
Dutch may also refer to:
Places
* Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States
* Pennsylvania Dutch Country
People ...
,
Frank Nesser and
Ralph "Fat" Waldsmith.
By late season, the entire left side of his Akron Indian line was from Notre Dame. The team dominated the Ohio League for the season, however they managed to lose to Canton 6-0 on November 15, 1914. That game was memorable not because of Canton's win, but because Harry Turner, who had fostered a need to beat Parratt at football, died when his spine broke during a tackle on Akron's fullback, Joe Collins. Turner's death marked the first fatal accident involving a major professional football team in Ohio. According to Canton manager
Jack Cusack
Jack Cusack (November 17, 1890 – 1973) was one of the prominent early figures in professional football in Ohio. At the age of twenty-one, Cusack became the manager and owner of the Canton Bulldogs, one of the leading teams of the day. During h ...
, Turner on his deathbed whispered, "I know I must go, but I'm satisfied, for we beat Peggy Parratt!" A week later Akron defeated a mourning Canton team 21-0 to claim the 1914 title.
Cleveland Tigers
To avoid an Akron title in 1915 the owners of the Massillon Tigers raided Parratt's Akron roster and took away many of his star players. Canton manager, Jack Cusack, also picked up some former Akron players and signed
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 ...
to his renamed Canton Bulldogs team. By the end of the season, Parratt's team was made up mostly of Akron sandlotters.
After the disastrous 1915 season, Parratt returned to Cleveland, where he took some of his former Akron players and a few ex-collegians into a respectable team which he named the Cleveland Tigers. The 1916 Tigers compiled a winning record despite falling to the Bulldogs and splitting a two-game series with the
Columbus Panhandles
The Columbus Panhandles were a professional American football team based in Columbus, Ohio. The club was founded in 1901 by workers at the Panhandle shops of the Pennsylvania Railroad. They were a part of the Ohio League from 1904 before foldi ...
. Parratt played his last professional football game on October 22, 1916, as his Tigers lost to Columbus 9-6.
Formation of the NFL
After his retirement from football, Parratt's name was always brought up when anyone tried to establish a concrete football league. Peggy was not part of the 1920 meetings set-up by
Ralph Hay
Ralph Edward Hay (January 12, 1891July 29, 1944) was the owner of the Canton Bulldogs from 1918 through the 1922 season. However, he is mostly recognized for organizing the first meeting of teams that would later form the American Professional Fo ...
which saw the birth of the National Football League. He did reappear on the football scene on August 1, 1925, in
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name ...
, representing Cleveland Tigers owner
Samuel Deutsch
Samuel H. Deutsch (April 2, 1892 - September 4, 1958) was a prominent sports franchise owner and jeweler. He is best known as being the owner of the National Football League's Cleveland Indians, formerly the Cleveland Tigers, in 1923 as well as fo ...
. A few months later on February 6, 1926, Parratt was appointed to two of the NFL's most important committees. The first committee consisted of a seven-member panel that was charged with redrafting the NFL constitution and by-laws. The second committee was a three-man committee to meet with the
Intercollegiate Committee of Athletics (ICA) in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
. The other two members of this panel were
George Halas
George Stanley Halas Sr. (; February 2, 1895October 31, 1983), nicknamed "Papa Bear" and "Mr. Everything", was an American professional football player, coach, and team owner. He was the founder and owner of the National Football League's Chic ...
and
Dr. Harry March.
Bridge player
After his football-playing days, he achieved some notability at tournaments in the later days of
auction
An auction is usually a process of buying and selling goods or services by offering them up for bids, taking bids, and then selling the item to the highest bidder or buying the item from the lowest bidder. Some exceptions to this definition ex ...
and the early days of
contract bridge
Contract bridge, or simply bridge, is a trick-taking card game using a standard 52-card deck. In its basic format, it is played by four players in two competing partnerships, with partners sitting opposite each other around a table. Millions o ...
.
Death
Parratt died on January 3, 1959, and was interred at
Lake View Cemetery
Lake View Cemetery is a privately owned, nonprofit garden cemetery located in the cities of Cleveland, Cleveland Heights, and East Cleveland in the U.S. state of Ohio. Founded in 1869, the cemetery was favored by wealthy families during the Gil ...
in Cleveland.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Parratt, Peggy
1959 deaths
1883 births
American football executives
Akron Indians (Ohio League) players
Akron Indians coaches
Akron Pros
All-Massillons players
Burials at Lake View Cemetery, Cleveland
Canadian players of American football
Case Western Spartans football players
Case Western Spartans football coaches
Case Western Spartans baseball players
Case Western Spartans men's basketball players
Cleveland Tigers (NFL) players
Franklin Athletic Club of Cleveland players
Massillon Tigers players
Shelby Blues players
Sportspeople from Ontario
American men's basketball players