Ed Smith (football player)
Encyclopedia
Edward Smith was an American football
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...

 running back
Running back
A running back is a gridiron football position, who is typically lined up in the offensive backfield. The primary roles of a running back are to receive handoffs from the quarterback for a rushing play, to catch passes from out of the backfield, and to block.There are usually one or two running...

 in the National Football League
National Football League
The National Football League is the highest level of professional American football in the United States, and is considered the top professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing...

 for the Boston Redskins
Washington Redskins
The Washington Redskins are a professional American football team and members of the East Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League . The team plays at FedExField in Landover, Maryland, while its headquarters and training facility are at Redskin Park in Ashburn,...

 and Green Bay Packers
Green Bay Packers
The Green Bay Packers are an American football team based in Green Bay, Wisconsin. They are members of the North Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League . The Packers are the current NFL champions...

. He played college football
College football
College football refers to American football played by teams of student athletes fielded by American universities, colleges, and military academies, or Canadian football played by teams of student athletes fielded by Canadian universities...

 at New York University
New York University
New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...

 and was drafted
NFL Draft
The National Football League Draft is an annual event in which the National Football League teams select eligible college football players and it is their most common source of player recruitment. The basic design of the draft is each team is given a position in the drafting order in reverse order...

 in the third round of the 1936 NFL Draft
1936 NFL Draft
The 1936 National Football League Draft was the first draft of the National Football League. It took place on February 8, 1936 at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and has taken place every year since. The draft was instituted in an effort to equalize strength amongst the...

.

Ed Smith is important as the individual who posed for the Heisman Trophy
Heisman Trophy
The Heisman Memorial Trophy Award , is awarded annually to the player deemed the most outstanding player in collegiate football. It was created in 1935 as the Downtown Athletic Club trophy and renamed in 1936 following the death of the Club's athletic director, John Heisman The Heisman Memorial...

with the now iconic straight arm. This was in the fall of 1935, just prior to the first ever presentation of the now celebrated award. The image is an excellent likeness of the young New York City football star in his football uniform.

Sculptor Frank Eliscu asked his former high school classmate, Ed Smith, to pose for a commissioned work involving a football player. They both attended George Washington High School in New York City’s Washington Heights neighborhood. Smith was a local football legend, having starred in high school and later by virtue of his outstanding football career at New York University. NYU played its home games at Yankee Stadium and football had a strong following. Smith did not realize that the sculpture, for which he posed, became the fabled Heisman Trophy until 1982. A documentary filmmaker tracked down Smith through his brother-in-law, Bob Pastor, a former heavyweight boxer who fought Joe Louis twice. The Downtown Athletic Club subsequently presented Smith with a Heisman Trophy of his own in 1985.

Ed Smith was what sportswriters used to refer to as a triple-threat; i.e., he ran, passed and often quick-kicked as the key element in New York University’s powerful single-wing offense during the 1933-35 seasons. He was powerfully built for his time, standing 6′2″ and weighing in at 210 pounds. He was big and strong and a magnificent runner in his era. Smith and the Violets suffered through a 3-4-1 season in 1934, due to Smith’s having a torn ligament in his left leg and a hemorrhage in his right leg. The 1935 NYU team on which Smith played was much celebrated. The NYU Violets were 7-0 going into the final game of the season. On Thanksgiving Day, November 28, 1935, a crowd of 78,000 filled Yankee Stadium to watch Fordham (5-1-2) face off against New York University. Fordham, coached by James Crowley, who had been one of the legendary Four Horsemen of Notre Dame, had a formidable line known as The Seven Blocks of Granite. One of those lineman was a tough Italian kid from Brooklyn named Vince Lombardi. Smith and Lombardi, both born in 1913, were outstanding New York City high school football players who went on to play college for cross-town rivals. Fordham beat NYU that Thanksgiving Day 21-0. NYU avenged its loss the following year by upsetting an unbeaten Fordham by a score of 7-6 in the last game of the season, depriving Fordham of playing in the 1936 Rose Bowl.

The 1935 Thanksgiving game was the last of Ed Smith’s outstanding collegiate career. The first Heisman Trophy presentation was on December 5, 1935. The Boston Redskins drafted Ed in the NFL’s first ever draft in February 1936. He was selected in round three, the #20 pick overall. Smith graduated from NYU in the spring of 1936 and proceeded to a career in professional football. The pay was two hundred dollars a game for the twelve-week season.

Ed Smith played with the professional Boston Redskins in the 1936 season. The Redskins played in the 1936 NFC Championship game at New York's Polo Grounds on December 13, 1936. The Skins lost to the Green Bay Packers 21-6. Smith played with the Green Bay Packers under Coach Curly Lambeau in the 1937 season. His ligament injury returned while playing in Green Bay and Smith left professional sports. He later played and coached semi-pro football in Springfield, Massachusetts in 1941, hitting the gridiron after a long day at work. As player-coach, Smith again connected with Vince Lombardi, who played under Smith.

Ed Smith and his loving wife Hilda lived most of their life in Washington Heights. Ed worked for Otis Elevator and played a role in the amazing growth of New York City in the post-war era.
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