Mark Henry Devlin Jr. was a professional 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...

 player. He played in the American Professional Football League

American Professional Football League

The American Professional Football League is a Midwestern United States-based indoor football league founded in 2003. The league consists of professional and semi-professional teams, with a few core teams that play a full 10 game schedule and other teams that play partial schedules. At the end of...

 (which became 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...

 in 1922

1922 NFL season

The 1922 NFL season was the 3rd regular season of what was now called National Football League . The NFL fielded 18 teams during the season, including new league teams such as the Milwaukee Badgers, the Oorang Indians, the Racine Legion, and the Toledo Maroons...

) with the Rock Island Independents

Rock Island Independents

The Rock Island Independents were a professional American football team based in Rock Island, Illinois. One of the first professional football teams, they were founded in 1907 as an independent club. They later played in what is now the National Football League from 1920 to 1925. They joined the...

, Cleveland Tigers and the New York Brickley Giants. Please note that Brickley's New York Giants are not related to the modern-day New York Giants

New York Giants

The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in East Rutherford, New Jersey, representing the New York City metropolitan area. The Giants are currently members of the Eastern Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League...

.

Devlin attended and 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 Holy Cross College

Holy Cross College

Holy Cross College may refer to:*Holy Cross College , Bangladesh*Holy Cross College , in Notre Dame, Indiana, United States*Holy Cross College , Western Province, Sri Lanka*Holy Cross College...

. He was captain of the 1917 squad. Aside from football, he played first base for the school's baseball

Baseball

Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...

 team. He left Holy Cross before the 1917 season. He returned to college in 1920 to coach for St. Ambrose University. While at St. Ambrose, Devlin led the team to a 4-0-2 record. He also served as the school's basketball

Basketball

Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...

coach from 1919-1921.