Vern Elmo Mullen (February 27, 1900 - September 14, 1980) 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 from

Taylorville, Illinois Taylorville is a city in and the county seat of Christian County, Illinois, United States. The population was 10,506 at the 2020 census, making it the county's largest city. History Taylorville was founded on May 24, 1839, and was named after J ...

Early life

Mullen was born in Taylorville, Illinois and graduated from Taylorville High School. After high school, Mullen split his college time between the

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the University ...

and

West Virginia Wesleyan College West Virginia Wesleyan College is a private college in Buckhannon, West Virginia. It has an enrollment of about 1,400 students from 35 U.S. states and 26 countries. The school was founded in 1890 by the West Virginia Conference of the Methodist E ...

. While at Illinois, Mullen also competed in track and field, was a member of

Sigma Pi Sigma Pi () is a collegiate fraternity with 233 chapters at American universities. As of 2021, the fraternity had more than 5,000 undergraduate members and over 110,000 alumni. Sigma Pi headquarters are in Nashville, Tennessee. The fraternity ...

fraternity, and participated in student opera.

College scandal

In 1921, Mullen served as a ringer for his hometown Taylorville team against a team from rival

Carlinville Carlinville is a city and the county seat of Macoupin County, Illinois, United States. It is also the home of Blackburn College, a small college affiliated with the Presbyterian church, and the former home of Prairie Farms Dairy. As of the 202 ...

, who was also using ringers from Notre Dame. He left college to play in the game with nine other Illinois players. Taylorville's plan was to use its regular team in the first half and substitute the Illinois players in the second half. However Mullen, being a hometowner, would play the entire game. After two scoreless quarters, Mullen broke through the line to block a Carlinville punt and returned it 50 yards to the Carlinville two-foot-line. This later set up a score. Taylorville would go on to win the game 16-0 and an estimated $50,000-$100,000 in winnings. The game was well-publicized, but the college players' participation was not revealed until late January 1922. The nine Illinois players were banned from further intercollegiate competition. The eight Notre Dame players were expelled from school. This incident led to a revision of the eligibility rules and codes in the

Big Ten Conference The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference) is the oldest Division I collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representati ...

and the appointment of a full-time commissioner.

Pro football

Mullen made his NFL debut in 1923 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 ...

, where he helped the team win the NFL Championship. He then played for the

Chicago Bears The Chicago Bears are a professional American football team based in Chicago. The Bears compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) North division. The Bears have won nine NF ...

from 1924 until 1926, before traveling crosstown to play for the

Chicago Cardinals The professional American football team now known as the Arizona Cardinals previously played in Chicago, Illinois, as the Chicago Cardinals from 1898 to 1959 before relocating to St. Louis, Missouri, for the 1960 through 1987 seasons. Roots ca ...

. He finished his career with the

Pottsville Maroons The Pottsville Maroons were an American football team based in Pottsville, Pennsylvania, in the northeastern part of the state. Founded in 1920, they played in the National Football League (NFL) from 1925 to 1928. In 1929 they relocated to Bosto ...

in 1927.

After Pro football

During the 1940s, Mullen coached football for the Taft Union High School Wildcats in

Taft, California Taft (formerly Moron, Moro, and Siding Number Two) is a city in the foothills at the extreme southwestern edge of the San Joaquin Valley, in Kern County, California. Taft is located west-southwest of Bakersfield, at an elevation of . The popula ...

Notes

References

The Decatur Staleys
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mullen, Vern Canton Bulldogs players Chicago Bears players Chicago Cardinals players Pottsville Maroons players Illinois Fighting Illini football players People from Taylorville, Illinois 1900 births 1980 deaths