![]() | |||||
No. 1 | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Position: | Halfback, Blocking back | ||||
Personal information | |||||
Born: | St. Louis, Missouri, U.S. | March 6, 1898||||
Died: | July 31, 1970 St. Louis, Missouri, U.S. | (aged 72)||||
Career information | |||||
High school: | St. Louis (MO) McKinley | ||||
College: | Washington University | ||||
Career history | |||||
As a player: | |||||
As a coach: | |||||
| |||||
Career highlights and awards | |||||
| |||||
Career NFL statistics | |||||
| |||||
Head coaching record | |||||
Career: | 87–63–18 (.571) | ||||
Player stats at PFR | |||||
Coaching stats at PFR | |||||
James Gleason Dunn Conzelman (March 6, 1898 – July 31, 1970) was an American football player and coach, baseball executive, and advertising executive. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1964 and was selected in 1969 as a quarterback on the National Football League 1920s All-Decade Team.
A native of St. Louis, Conzelman played college football for the 1918 Great Lakes Navy Bluejackets team that won the 1919 Rose Bowl. In 1919, he was an All-Missouri Valley Conference quarterback for the Washington University Pikers football team. He then played 10 seasons as a quarterback, halfback, placekicker, and coach in the National Football League (NFL) for the Decatur Staleys (1920), Rock Island Independents (1921–1922), Milwaukee Badgers (1922–1924), Detroit Panthers (1925–1926), and Providence Steam Roller (1927–1929). He was also a team owner in Detroit and, as player-coach, led the 1928 Providence Steam Roller team to an NFL championship.
From 1932 to 1939, Conzelman was the head football coach for the Washington University Bears football team, leading the program to Missouri Valley Conference championships in 1934, 1935, and 1939. He served as head coach of the NFL's Chicago Cardinals from 1940 to 1942 and again from 1946 to 1948. He led the Cardinals to an NFL championship in 1947 and Western Division championships in 1947 and 1948. He was also an executive with the St. Louis Browns in Major League Baseball from 1943 to 1945.