There was one that came through the other day that has really stuck with him. It came from Mike Duff Padgett, whose great uncle was a man named Joe Duff.
Who was Joe Duff?
He was a Princeton football player, Class of 1912, which made him a teammate of Hobey Baker's in 1911, a year that saw Baker set the school record for points in a season (92) that stood for more than 60 years. The 1911 season, by the way, was also the last college football season in which a touchdown was worth five points.
It was also a season that ended with a national championship for Princeton, who went 8-0-2 while allowing only 15 points all season. The Tigers ended the season with a 6-3 win over Yale.
Princeton had three consensus All-Americans in 1911.
There was Ed Hart, who is a member of the college football Hall of Fame. Hart went on to serve in the U.S. Army in World War I and the U.S. Marine Corps in World War II.
There was Sanford White, who was also the president of the Class of 1912. The New York Times said this about him:
"He can run, White can. He followed the ball like a hound follows the fox. Ever ready to scoop it up and run with all the speed in his long, lithe limbs."
TigerBlog has written a lot of words in his time here. He's pretty sure he's never used "lithe," though maybe he'll try to find a way to sneak it in at some point.
The third was Joe Duff.
He came to Princeton from Pittsburgh's Shady Side Academy, and after graduation he spent a year as an assistant coach with the Tigers before he went back to Pittsburgh, for law school and as the head football coach. In his two years with the Panthers, he went 14-3-1.
He became a practicing lawyer, one who was turned down three times for the military due to poor vision.
Meanwhile, far removed from the relative serenity of American college football, World War I was raging on in Europe. The United States entered the war in April of 1917, and a few months later, poor vision and all, Joe Duff was able to join the U.S. Army.
He entered as a private an was sent to France as a machine gunner. He'd rise through the ranks, ultimately being promoted to an officer, as a lieutenant.
In September 1918 he was given command of a machine gun unit in the 32nd Division, 125th Infantry.
Duff's unit wasn't part of some small skirmish. No, he led his troops in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive.
If you're not familiar with WWI, this actually became the largest U.S. military presence in any battle ever, with a total of 1.2 million American soldiers. Of that group, there were nearly 100,000 who were wounded and 26,277 more who were killed.
Joe Duff was one in the latter group, having been killed on Oct. 10, 1918, in Romagne-sous-Montfaucon, France. He was 29 years old.
The war ended one month and one day later.
The Meuse-Argonne Offensive was where Alvin York's heroics occurred. You've almost surely seen that movie, with Gary Cooper.
It's also where Frank Cavanaugh was wounded. Who? Cavanaugh was a Dartmouth football player and longtime football coach, at Holy Cross and Dartmouth before the war and then Boston College and Fordham afterwards.
He also got his own movie.
Joe Duff? He didn't get a movie. He didn't get to come home.
He only got those 29 years. He outlived his Princeton teammate Hobey Baker by two months.
As the years went on, Baker was elected to the College Football and the Hockey Halls of Fame. He's as legendary an athlete as Princeton has ever produced, with a hockey rink and the national Player of the Year Awar in his name.
Joe Duff is not a name that many today even know. His story is worth telling, and TB thanks his great-nephew for reaching out.
He's not in the College Football Hall of Fame.
Maybe there's still a chance for that?
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1 comment:
An outstanding write-up on a truly forgotten American hero.
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