William Howard "Cap" Edwards (September 5, 1888 – November 23, 1944) was a

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 ...

coach and

player Player may refer to: Role or adjective * Player (game), a participant in a game or sport ** Gamer, a player in video and tabletop games ** Athlete, a player in sports ** Player character, a character in a video game or role playing game who ...

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 ...

's earliest years. In the early 20th century, football in America was just beginning to catch on, with professional teams popping up in numerous cities, and at the time college football was more popular. Edwards attended and graduated from the

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

, where he played football as an guard. His professional coaching career was short-lived, but nonetheless noteworthy as he coached in the pioneering days of football with such greats as

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 Nativ ...

and

Guy Chamberlin Berlin Guy "Champ" Chamberlin (January 16, 1894 – April 4, 1967), sometimes misspelled Guy Chamberlain, was an American football player and coach. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1962 and the Pro Football Hall of Fame ...

. He first coached the Canton Bulldogs in 1921, which ended in a 5–2–3 record. In

1923 Events January–February * January 9 – Lithuania begins the Klaipėda Revolt to annex the Klaipėda Region (Memel Territory). * January 11 – Despite strong British protests, troops from France and Belgium occupy the Ruhr area, t ...

Edwards coached the

Cleveland Indians The Cleveland Guardians are an American professional baseball team based in Cleveland. The Guardians compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. Since , they have played at Progressive Fi ...

, with a 3–1–3 record, followed by a 5–8–1 record as coach of the

Cleveland Bulldogs The Cleveland Bulldogs were a team that played in Cleveland, Ohio in the National Football League. They were originally called the Indians in 1923, not to be confused with the Cleveland Indians NFL franchise in 1922. However, after team owner ...

. Edwards also served as the head football coach at

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 ...

Buckhannon, West Virginia Buckhannon is the only incorporated city in, and the county seat of, Upshur County, West Virginia, United States, and is located along the Buckhannon River. The population was 5,299 at the 2020 census. The city is located 60 miles southwest ...

from 1910 to 1911.

References

External links

* 1888 births 1944 deaths American football guards Canton Bulldogs coaches Canton Bulldogs players Cleveland Bulldogs players Cleveland Indians (NFL 1923) players Cleveland Indians-Bulldogs coaches Notre Dame Fighting Irish football players Toledo Maroons players West Virginia Wesleyan Bobcats football coaches Players of American football from Missouri {{amfoot-coach-stub