Richard Vernon Huffman (December 18, 1914 – March 18, 1995) 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 wi ...

and

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 ...

player. He was born in

Mooreland, Indiana Mooreland is a town in Blue River Township, Henry County, Indiana, United States. The population was 375 at the 2010 census. History Mooreland was platted in 1882 on farmland belonging to Miles M. Moore. A post office has been in operation in ...

and was raised in and around

New Castle, Indiana New Castle is a city in Henry County, Indiana, east-northeast of Indianapolis, on the Big Blue River. The city is the county seat of Henry County. New Castle is home to New Castle Fieldhouse, the largest high school gymnasium in the world. ...

. He played basketball for the New Castle High School team that won the Indiana state basketball championship in 1932. He enrolled at

Indiana University Indiana University (IU) is a system of public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana. Campuses Indiana University has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration of IUPUI. *Indiana Universi ...

in 1932 and played both football and basketball there. He was an All-American in both basketball and football at Indiana and won the 1936 ''Chicago Tribune'' Silver Football as the best football player 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 ...

. He played two seasons of professional football in 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 majo ...

for the

Detroit Lions The Detroit Lions are a professional American football team based in Detroit. The Lions compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) North Division. The team play their home games at For ...

in 1937 and 1938. Huffman later managed a dairy and worked for the

Federal Bureau of Investigation The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice ...

. He was inducted into the Indiana Hoosiers Hall of Fame in 1982. Huffman died in 1995 at age 80 in

Bloomington, Indiana Bloomington is a city in and the county seat of Monroe County in the central region of the U.S. state of Indiana. It is the seventh-largest city in Indiana and the fourth-largest outside the Indianapolis metropolitan area. According to the Mo ...

. Huffman's brother Marv was also an All-American basketball player at Indiana and later played professionally with the Akron Goodyear Wingfoots of the National Basketball League.

References

1914 births 1995 deaths All-American college men's basketball players American football halfbacks American football quarterbacks American men's basketball players Basketball players from Indiana Detroit Lions players Indiana Hoosiers football players Indiana Hoosiers men's basketball players Indianapolis Kautskys players New Castle Chrysler High School alumni People from New Castle, Indiana Players of American football from Indiana {{runningback-1910s-stub