Warren Frank Alfson (May 10, 1915June 4, 2001) 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 ...

guard Guard or guards may refer to: Professional occupations * Bodyguard, who protects an individual from personal assault * Crossing guard, who stops traffic so pedestrians can cross the street * Lifeguard, who rescues people from drowning * Prison ...

and

linebacker Linebacker (LB) is a playing position in gridiron football. Linebackers are members of the defensive team, and line up three to five yards behind the line of scrimmage and the defensive linemen. They are the "middle ground" of defenders, p ...

for the

Nebraska Cornhuskers The Nebraska Cornhuskers (often abbreviated to Huskers) are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. The university is a member of the Big Ten Conference, and the Cornhuskers compete in NCAA Divis ...

, as well as the

Brooklyn Dodgers The Brooklyn Dodgers were a Major League Baseball team founded in 1884 as a member of the American Association (19th century), American Association before joining the National League in 1890. They remained in Brooklyn until 1957, after which the ...

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 ...

Early years

He was born and raised in

Wisner, Nebraska Wisner is a city in northwestern Cuming County, Nebraska, Cuming County, Nebraska, United States. The population was 1,170 at the United States Census, 2010, 2010 census. History Wisner was platted in 1871 shortly before the railroad was extende ...

. Alfson graduated from Wisner High School in 1933, where he was a halfback on the school's

single wing In American football, American and Canadian football, a single-wing formation was a precursor to the modern Spread offense, spread or shotgun formation. The term usually connotes formations in which the snap (football), snap is tossed rather th ...

football team.

College career

After graduating from high school, Alfson worked and farmed for several years until earning enough money to attend the

University of Nebraska-Lincoln A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...

, Class of 1941, where he was a member of the

Chi Phi Fraternity Chi Phi () is considered by some as the oldest American men's college social fraternity that was established as the result of the merger of three separate organizations that were each known as Chi Phi. The earliest of these organizations was for ...

. When he attended school, he decided to try out for the Cornhusker football team (at the urging of fellow Wisner native

Jerry LaNoue Gerald LaNoue (1912–1983) was a three-year starting quarterback for the Nebraska Cornhuskers, and earned All Big Six Conference recognition in 1935, while playing for coach Dana X. Bible. A native of Wisner, Nebraska, LaNoue wore jersey #11 th ...

, a Cornhusker

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 ...

), but as a lineman. After one year on the freshman squad, he asked the school's permission to continue practicing, but to not play, so that he could get himself into proper condition as well as to wait for the upperclassmen ahead of him to graduate. This made Alfson the first recorded

redshirt Redshirt, Red Shirt, or Redshirts may refer to: Entertainment * ''Red Shirts'' (film), a 1952 film about Anita Garibaldi by Franco Rossi * Redshirt (stock character), originally derived from ''Star Trek'', a stock character who dies soon after b ...

in Cornhusker history, and likely the first in collegiate history - the inventor of "redshirting" - a jersey with the Nebraska color, but without a number. Alfson's year of conditioning would pay off well, as he returned to become a three-year starter for Nebraska. In the era of one-platoon football, he was a guard on offense, and a linebacker on

defense Defense or defence may refer to: Tactical, martial, and political acts or groups * Defense (military), forces primarily intended for warfare * Civil defense, the organizing of civilians to deal with emergencies or enemy attacks * Defense industr ...

, and he wore

jersey number In team sports, the number, often referred to as the uniform number, squad number, jersey number, shirt number, sweater number, or similar (with such naming differences varying by sport and region) is the number worn on a player's uniform, to ...

#22 throughout his Cornhusker career. He would ultimately become recognized as first team All

Big Six Conference The Big Eight Conference was a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)-affiliated Division I-A college athletic association that sponsored football. It was formed in January 1907 as the Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Associatio ...

in 1939 and 1940, second team

All-America The All-America designation is an annual honor bestowed upon an amateur sports person from the United States who is considered to be one of the best amateurs in their sport. Individuals receiving this distinction are typically added to an All-Am ...

in 1939, and he would earn first team All-America status in 1940, the year the Nebraska Cornhuskers went 8-2 and played

Stanford Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is considere ...

in the

1941 Rose Bowl The 1941 Rose Bowl was the 27th edition of the college football bowl game, played at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, on Wednesday, January 1. The undefeated and second-ranked Stanford Indians of the Pacific Coast Conference defeated the # ...

under coach

Biff Jones Lawrence McCeney "Biff" Jones (October 8, 1895 – February 12, 1980) was an American football player, coach, and college athletics administrator. He served as a head coach at the United States Military Academy, Louisiana State University (LSU), ...

NFL career

Alfson would play one year with the NFL's Brooklyn Dodgers, and earned NFL All-Rookie status, despite being drafted in the sixteenth round due to his age (Alfson was twenty-five in 1940, and was nicknamed "Pops" and "Dad" by his younger teammates). However,

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

cut his career short, and Alfson (who had enlisted in the

Navy A navy, naval force, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval warfare, naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral zone, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations and ...

in a special ceremony at the

College All-Star Game The Chicago Charities College All-Star Game was a preseason American football game played from 1934 to 1976 between the National Football League (NFL) champions and a team of star college seniors from the previous year. It was also known as the C ...

) married and served in the war.

Post-war

After the war he returned to Wisner and farmed, and he also served on the Wisner school board as well as other organizations, and also briefly served as Wisner's mayor. He also took great pride in his Cornhusker connections, and attended many Nebraska games. In 1975, he was inducted into the Nebraska Football Hall of Fame. In 2005, Alfson was recognized with 'honorable mention' recognition for the state of Nebraska's "Our Top 100" athletes of all time, as selected by the ''

Omaha World-Herald The ''Omaha World-Herald'' is a daily newspaper in the midwestern United States, the primary newspaper of the Omaha-Council Bluffs metropolitan area. It was locally owned from its founding in 1885 until 2020, when it was sold to the newspaper ch ...

''. Alfson died in his home in

, in 2001. He had two daughters and one granddaughter.

References

External links

Warren Alfson's NFL Career Statistics Brooklyn Dodger Football History Nebraska Top 100 Athletes
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Alfson, Warren 1915 births 2001 deaths People from Wisner, Nebraska Players of American football from Nebraska American football linebackers American football guards Nebraska Cornhuskers football players Brooklyn Dodgers (NFL) players Mayors of places in Nebraska 20th-century American politicians United States Navy personnel of World War II