Joe Fogg

Joe Fogg
Place of birth: Mount Vernon, Iowa, United States
Date of death: December 2, 1946
Career information
Position(s): Quarterback
College: Wisconsin
Organizations
As coach:
1907-1910 Case Western
As player:
1903 Akron East Ends
Career highlights and awards
  • Ohio League Runner-up (1903)
  • Case Western Varsity Hall of Fame (1986)

Joseph G. Fogg (died December 2, 1946) was an American football player for the Wisconsin Badgers and the Akron East Ends. Born in Mount Vernon, Iowa, he was also the founder and president of the Cleveland Touchdown Club as well as prominent attorney in Cleveland, Ohio. At the beginning of his law career he had practiced law part-time and coached the East High School football team. From 1907-1910, he was the head football coach at Case Western Reserve University. He was later inducted into the school's varsity hall of fame on April 4, 1986.

Fogg was also a part-owner of the Cleveland Rams of the National Football League.

1904 Akron-Massillon Ohio League Championship

In a Thanksgiving Day game between the Massillon Tigers and Akron East Ends was scheduled to determine the champion of the "Ohio League", which was the direct predecessor to the modern National Football League. During the game Massillon score the first touchdown of the game (which counted as 5 points at the time) and made the extra point to make the score 6-0. In the last moments of the game though, Akron scored a touchdown to make the score 6-5. Fogg, who was Akron's quarterback, had to make the extra point in order for East Ends to get a share of the title. Under the rules of the time, an extra point came on a free kick straight out from where the touchdown was scored (a rule still in place in both codes of rugby but not in American football, which abolished it upon the creation of hash marks in 1932). This made for a very difficult kick by Fogg since the ouchdown was scored on a difficult angle from the goal posts and he had to deal with a crosswind blowing. Fogg missed the extra point as Massillon won the title outright 6-5.

Legacy

Fogg died on December 2, 1946 from a cerebral hemorrhage. Today the Cleveland Touchdown Club's Joe Fogg Memorial Award is presented to the national collegiate player of the year in the Midwest. His son, Joe G. Fogg Jr. became a 1941 graduate from Princeton University and served in the American Field Service during World War II. His unit, on active duty through Sicily, Italy, France, and Germany, ultimately evacuated the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. He later died on April 2, 1992.

References