Fred Crawford (American football)

Fred Crawford
No. 32     Duke Blue Devils
Date of birth: July 27, 1910
Place of birth: Waynesville, North Carolina
Date of death: March 5, 1974 (aged 63)
Place of death: Tallahassee, Florida
Career information
Position(s): T/E
Height: 6 ft 2 in (188 cm)
Weight: 190 lb (86 kg)
College: Duke University
High school: Waynesville Township High School
The McCallie School
Organizations
As player:
1932-33
1935		 Duke Blue Devils
Chicago Bears
Career highlights and awards

Championships

Honors

Career stats
Playing stats at DatabaseFootball.com

Frederick Eugene "Fred" Crawford (July 27, 1910 – March 5, 1974) was an American football player.

Early years

Fred Crawford was born on July 27, 1910 in Waynesville, North Carolina, the son of congressman William T. Crawford.[1][2] Fred attended both Tuscola High School and The McCallie School.[3]

Football

College

He played at tackle and end for Wallace Wade's Duke Blue Devils, selected All-Southern in 1932[4] and a consensus All-American in 1933.[5] Crawford was the first football player to gain first-team All-America honors from the state of North Carolina.[6][7] 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.[6] It caused Tennessee coach Bob Neyland to remark: "He gave the finest exhibition of tackle play I have ever seen."[8] Duke won the Southern Conference the same year, winning 9 straight until a loss at Georgia Tech knocked Duke out of contention for the Rose Bowl.[9]

Crawford was elected to the NC Sports Hall of Fame in 1964,[10] the College Football Hall of Fame in 1973, and the Duke Sports Hall of Fame in 1976.[11]

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 "chaged through the line like a lion going in for the kill.[12] Coach Wallace Wade called Crawford "the greatest lineman I ever saw."[13]

NFL

After a brief motion picture career,[14] Crawford played professionally for the Chicago Bears. He played just a year due to a lack of size for an interior line position[10] and a broken leg.[13] 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.[15]

World War 2

He served in the Air Force during World War 2.[14]

Florida

After the war until the time of his death he was a State Motor Vehicle Department official in Florida.[6][14]

References

  1. ↑ North Carolina, Birth Indexes, 1800-2000 [database on-line].
  2. ↑ "Fred Crawford (1910-1974)".
  3. ↑ "Fred Crawford".
  4. ↑ "All-Southern 11 Is Picked". Ironwood Daily Globe. December 1, 1932.
  5. ↑ "AP All America". Bismarck Tribune. 1933-12-02.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 "Frederick A. "Fred" Crawford".
  7. ↑ Theresa Jensen Lacey (2002). Amazing North Carolina. p. 79.
  8. ↑ "Scouts Line Up Stars On Grid Fronts". The Evening Independent. October 25, 1933.
  9. ↑ Hester, James Earl (2005). Crazy about Sports: Great Memories of Special Players, Teams, and Events 1. Author House. p. 198.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 "Fred Crawford".
  11. ↑ "Duke Sports Hall of Fame".
  12. ↑ Robert Franklin Durden (1993). The Launching of Duke University 1924-1949. Duke University Press. p. 242.
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 Michael Beadle. "Waynesville". p. 40.
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 "McCallie Alumni in the College Football Hall of Fame".
  15. ↑ Daly, Dan (September 16, 2012). "Fred Crawford’s heave wowed crowd in ’35". The Washington Times.