Theodore Nesser 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-coach

Player-coach

A player-coach, in sports, is a member of a sports team who simultaneously holds both playing and coaching duties. The term can be used to refer to both players who serve as head coaches, or as assistant coaches....

 in the "Ohio League

Ohio League

The Ohio League was an informal and loose association of American football clubs active between 1903 and 1919 that competed for the Ohio Independent Championship . As the name implied, its teams were based in Ohio...

" and the early 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...

. During his career he played mainly for the Columbus Panhandles, however he did also play for a little for the Massillon Tigers

Massillon Tigers

The Massillon Tigers were an early professional football team from Massillon, Ohio. Playing in the "Ohio League", the team was a rival to the pre-National Football League version of the Canton Bulldogs. The Tigers won Ohio League championships in 1903, 1904, 1905, and 1906, then merged to become...

, Akron Indians, Canton Bulldogs

Canton Bulldogs

The Canton Bulldogs were a professional American football team, based in Canton, Ohio. They played in the Ohio League from 1903 to 1906 and 1911 to 1919, and its successor, the National Football League, from 1920 to 1923 and again from 1925 to 1926. The Bulldogs would go on to win the 1917, 1918...

 and the Shelby Blues

Shelby Blues

The Shelby Blues were an American football team based in Shelby, Ohio. The team played in the Ohio League from 1900 to 1919. In 1920, when the Ohio League became the APFA , the Blues did not join but continued to play against APFA teams, only to later suspend operations...

.

He was also a member of the Nesser Brothers

Nesser Brothers

The Nesser Brothers were a group of football playing brothers who helped make up the most famous football family in the United States from 1907 until the mid-1920s...

, a group consisting of seven brothers who made-up the most famous football family in the United States from 1907 until the mid-1920s. Ted was the first Nesser to make money at football, playing for Massillon's state championship teams in 1904, 1905 and 1906.

Ted was considered the toughest of the Nesser brothers. In 1906, he reputedly ended the career of Willie Heston

Willie Heston

William Martin "Willie" Heston was an American football player and coach. He played halfback at San Jose State University and the University of Michigan. Heston was the head football coach for Drake University in 1905 and North Carolina College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, now North...

, a former Michigan All-American, with a hard tackle in a Massillon Tigers-Canton Bulldogs game. In 1908, Ted reputedly stayed for a game with two broken bones protruding from an arm, just because he thought that his brothers needed him. Nesser was also reported to have had broken his nose at least eight times.

He was also considered a football genius and is credited with originating several plays including the triple pass, the criss-cross and the short kickoff. These plays became popular in the college game of that day.

None of the Nesser brothers attended college. However in 1909, Texas A&M

Texas A&M University

Texas A&M University is a coeducational public research university located in College Station, Texas . It is the flagship institution of the Texas A&M University System. The sixth-largest university in the United States, A&M's enrollment for Fall 2011 was over 50,000 for the first time in school...

 coach Charley Moran

Charley Moran

Charles Barthell Moran , nicknamed "Uncle Charley," was an American sportsman who gained renown as both a catcher and umpire in Major League Baseball and as a collegiate and professional football coach.-Early life:...

, fearing a loss to Texas, offered to pay Ted for his help. Even though Ted had never finished high school, he wore a freshman beanie on campus and suited up for the game. The Aggies never trailed, so Ted never got in, but afterward Moran paid him $200 for his trouble.

Ted's son Charlie

Charlie Nesser

Charles T. Nesser was a professional football player in the National Football League for the Columbus Panhandles. Charlie played only season, 1921, in the NFL. He was son of Ted Nesser, a member of the infamous Nesser Brothers. During the 1921 season, six of the Nessers played for the Panhandles,...

also played briefly for the Panhandles in 1921. This is marked as the only father-son combination to play together in NFL history.