Pudge Heffelfinger

William Walter "Pudge" Heffelfinger (December 20, 1867 – April 2, 1954), also spelled Hafelfinger, was an American football player and coach. He is considered the greatest lineman of his time, and the first athlete to play American football professionally, having been paid to play in 1892 for the Allegheny Athletic Association.

Heffelfinger played college football from 1888 to 1891 at Yale University, where he was a three-time consensus All-American as a guard. He served as the head football coach at the University of California in 1893, Lehigh University in 1894, and the University of Minnesota in 1895, compiling a career coaching record of 17–13–1. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as player with the inaugural class of 1951.

Early life and education Heffelfinger was born in 1867 in Minneapolis, to Christopher B. Heffelfinger and Mary Ellen Totton, both of whom were born in Pennsylvania. Heffelfinger's father came by riverboat to Minneapolis, eventually joining the Union Army at the outset of the Civil War. He was wounded at the Battle of Gettysburg. After the Civil War, he started the family shoe manufacturing business. During Heffelfinger's lifetime, the family rose to prominence in Minneapolis.

As a boy, Heffelfinger was nicknamed "Pudge". He played baseball and football at Minneapolis Central High School. Occasionally, during his junior and senior years of high school he also played both sports for the University of Minnesota, where he was a catcher in baseball and a halfback in football.

Playing career Yale Heffelfinger, a three-time All-American, played for Walter Camp at Yale College in 1888, 1889, 1890, and 1891, graduating in 1892.

Heffelfinger originally planned to attend the University of Minnesota, but in May of his senior year in high school a local Yale alumnus who recognized his athletic talent convinced him to play for Yale instead, and tutored him so he could pass the entrance exam. On Heffelfinger's first day of freshman practice in 1888, the captain of the varsity team, "Pa" Corbin, spotted him on the field and gave him a position on the varsity line.

The 1888 Yale team was not only undefeated and untied, but unscored upon, with a season scoring record of 698 to 0.

During Heffelfinger's four years playing for Yale under Camp, the team only lost two games. His teammates included, besides Pa Corbin: Alonzo Stagg, Charley Gill, Billy Rhodes, Lee "Bum" McClung and George Washington Woodruff. Heffelfinger felt that the greatest of these teams was the undefeated 1891 team he played on in his senior year, which he described as "one of the best balanced teams I ever saw."

Although the payment for Heffelfinger's play was not published or admitted at the time, his presence set off quite a controversy as the Pittsburgh A.C. protested the presence of the Chicago Athletic Association players in their line-up. Allegheny retaliated with the fact that Pittsburgh had imported players as well. The game ended in a 4–0 Allegheny win. Heffelfinger scored the game's only touchdown on a recovered fumble. A touchdown was only worth four points at the time.

In the 1960s a man known only as "Nelson Ross" walked into the office of Art Rooney, the president of the Pittsburgh Steelers of the National Football League. After a brief discussion, the man gave Rooney a typed, 49-page manuscript about the early history of pro football. Ross' examination of Pittsburgh newspapers indicated that the first pro American football player actually was Pudge Heffelfinger, an all-American guard from Yale, who was hired to play for Allegheny on November 12, 1892, for $500 . The Pro Football Hall of Fame soon discovered a page torn from an 1892 account ledger prepared by Allegheny manager, O. D. Thompson, that included the line item: "Game performance bonus to W. Heffelfinger for playing (cash) $500." Though the payment was not verified until the acquisition of an Allegheny Athletic Association expense ledger from the day by the Pro Football Hall of Fame, this fee established Heffelfinger as being the first professional American football player on record.

Lehigh Heffelfinger was the third head football coach for Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and he held that position for the 1894 season. His overall coaching record at Lehigh was 5 wins and 9 losses.

Later life Heffelfinger married Grace Harriet Pierce in 1901. The couple remained married until his death in 1954. After his official coaching career ended, Heffelfinger immersed himself in the business world in Minneapolis. He joined the family shoe manufacturing business. The business suffered heavily in the Panic of 1907, and was forced into bankruptcy in 1910, as were Heffelfinger and his father.

After the failure of the manufacturing business, Heffelfinger had an active career in real estate, including major commercial deals. In his real estate work, Heffelfinger is credited with important contributions to the early development of the upper Nicollet Avenue area, with organizing the company which built the 1910 Physicians and Surgeons building, and with bringing Butler Brothers to Minneapolis. During his first election campaign, Heffelfinger competed energetically, and compared politics to football, telling a reporter he would reduce taxes "if I make a touchdown in this political game, which I'll admit is tougher than football, a whole lot." Heffelfinger continued to serve on the Hennepin County Board for 24 years, including four years as board chairman.

Throughout his life, Heffelfinger, maintained a high level of involvement with football. Into his fifties, Heffelfinger not only coached the Bulldogs from the sideline, but scrimmaged with them on the field, showing remarkable toughness.

Heffelfinger died in Texas on April 2, 1954. Heffelfinger was chosen as one of two guards on the pre-1920 squad. He was named one of the 10 inaugural members for the Football Learning Academy's Hall of Honor in 2022, which looks to acknowledge icons not currently inducted in the hall.

Head coaching record