Fred Crawford (American football)

Biography

Crawford was born in 1910 in Waynesville, North Carolina, the son of congressman William T. Crawford. He attended both Waynesville Township high school and The McCallie School in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

College football

Crawford played at tackle and end for Wallace Wade's Duke Blue Devils, selected All-Southern in 1932 and a consensus All-American in 1933. Crawford was the first football player to gain first-team All-America honors from the state of North Carolina. He was mainly responsible in 1933 for the defeat of the Tennessee Volunteers, that team's first loss in over two and a half seasons. Duke won the Southern Conference the same year, winning nine straight games until a loss at Georgia Tech knocked Duke out of contention for the Rose Bowl.

One description of Crawford's play said he was "a hell-for-leather, hard-hitting, hard-charging, fast-running juggernaut" who "covered punts like a run-away express'" and "charged through the line like a lion going in for the kill. Coach Wallace Wade called Crawford "the greatest lineman I ever saw."

Professional football

After a brief motion picture career, including an appearance in 1934's Bright Eyes starring Shirley Temple, Crawford played in the National Football League (NFL) for the Chicago Bears. He played just a year due to a lack of size for an interior line position and a broken leg. George Halas discovered Crawford could throw quite far indeed, and in a preseason game let him throw what was a completion to Ed Kawal that went 82 yards in the air.

Later life

Crawford served in the United States Air Force during World War II. He died in 1974, aged 63.

References

References

1. North Carolina, Birth Indexes, 1800-2000 [database on-line].
2. "Fred Crawford (1910-1974)".
3. "Fred Crawford".
4. (December 1, 1932). "All-Southern 11 Is Picked". Ironwood Daily Globe.
5. (1933-12-02). "AP All America". Bismarck Tribune.
6. (14 December 2005). "Frederick A. "Fred" Crawford".
7. Theresa Jensen Lacey. (2002). "Amazing North Carolina". Harper Collins.
8. (October 25, 1933). "Scouts Line Up Stars On Grid Fronts". The Evening Independent.
9. Hester, James Earl. (2005). "Crazy about Sports: Great Memories of Special Players, Teams, and Events". Author House.
10. Robert Franklin Durden. (1993). "The Launching of Duke University 1924-1949". Duke University Press.
11. "McCallie Alumni in the College Football Hall of Fame".
12. (December 16, 1934). "(untitled)". [[The Paris News]].
13. "Fred Crawford".
14. Michael Beadle. (23 August 2010). "Waynesville". Arcadia.
15. Daly, Dan. (September 16, 2012). "Fred Crawford's heave wowed crowd in '35".
16. "Duke Sports Hall of Fame".