Ralph Horween

File:Isadore Horween and family.jpg]]

Horween's Jewish parents, Isidore and Rose (Rabinoff), immigrated to Chicago from Ukraine in the Russian Empire in 1892.{{cite journal|last=Raphael |first=Sven |url=http://www.gentlemansgazette.com/horween-leather-company-chicago/ |title=Horween Leather Company Chicago |publisher=Gentleman's Gazette |date=March 21, 2012 |access-date=March 13, 2014}}{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=j2_XAAAAMAAJ&q=isidore+horween|title=Who's who in American Jewry |author1=Julius Schwartz |author2=Solomon Aaron Kaye |author3=John Simons |publisher=Jewish Biographical Bureau|volume=3 |year= 1933|access-date=March 23, 2013}}{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4E15AAAAMAAJ&q=Ralph+Horween |title=The Sentinel's history of Chicago Jewry, 1911–1961 |year=1961 |publisher=Sentinel Publishing Co. Chicago |access-date=March 22, 2013}} His family changed its name during his youth to Horween from its original name, which was either Horwitz or Horowitz.{{cite web |url=http://pjn.library.cmu.edu/books/CALL1/CRI_1926_067_021_04021926/vol0/part0/copy0/ocr/txt/0008.txt |author=Charles H. Joseph |title=18M |publisher=The Jewish Criterion |year=1926 |access-date=March 25, 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131213071629/http://pjn.library.cmu.edu/books/CALL1/CRI_1926_067_021_04021926/vol0/part0/copy0/ocr/txt/0008.txt |archive-date=December 13, 2013 |df=mdy-all }}{{cite web |url=http://www.profootballresearchers.org/Coffin_Corner/18-06-680.pdf |title=Ralph Horween |publisher=profootballresearchers.org |access-date=March 25, 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101218205508/http://profootballresearchers.org/Coffin_Corner/18-06-680.pdf |archive-date=December 18, 2010 |df=mdy-all }}{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=culCAAAAIAAJ&q=Ralph+Horween |title=The Jew in sports |author= Stanley Bernard Frank |publisher= The Miles Publishing Company|year=1936 |access-date=March 22, 2013}}{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yfSsthTaa2gC&q=Ralph+Horween&pg=PA131 |title=For Pride, Profit, and Patriarchy: Football and the Incorporation of American Cultural Values|author=Gerald R. Gems |publisher= Scarecrow Press|year=2000 |isbn=9780810836853|access-date=March 22, 2013}}

Horween was born in Chicago.{{cite news|url=https://www.nfl.com/news/schwartzes-first-jewish-brothers-in-nfl-since-1923-09000d5d829f2c7c |author=Gregg Rosenthal |title=Schwartzes first Jewish brothers in NFL since 1923 |work=Nfl.com |date=June 19, 2012 |access-date=March 21, 2013}} He was the brother of Arnold Horween, who was two years younger.{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofje00post |url-access=registration |quote=Ralph Horween. |title=Encyclopedia of Jews in Sports |author1=Bernard Postal |author2=Jesse Silver |author3=Roy Silver |publisher=Bloch Pub. Co. |year= 1965|access-date=March 22, 2013}} The Horween brothers were the last Jewish brothers to play in the NFL until offensive tackles Geoff Schwartz and Mitchell Schwartz in the 2000s.{{cite web|url=https://www.nfl.com/news/schwartzes-first-jewish-brothers-in-nfl-since-1923-09000d5d829f2c7c |author= Gregg Rosenthal|title=Schwartzes first Jewish brothers in NFL since 1923 |website=NFL.com |date=June 19, 2012 |access-date=March 15, 2013}}{{cite news|last=Barnathan |first=Lee |url=http://www.jewishjournal.com/sports/article/browns_pick_schwartz_in_nfl_draft_20120502 |title=Browns pick Schwartz in NFL draft |publisher=Jewish Journal |date=May 2, 2012 |access-date=March 15, 2013}}

Horween played high school football at Francis W. Parker School.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vZEBAAAAYAAJ&q=Ralph+Horween&pg=PA419 |title=Arnold Horween Elected|publisher=Harvard Alumni Bulletin |date=September 25, 1919 |access-date=March 23, 2013}}

He was {{convert|5|ft|10|in|m|abbr=on}}, and weighed {{convert|200|lb|kg}}.{{cite web |url=http://www.jewsinsports.org/football.asp?ID=73 |title=Horween, Ralph |access-date=March 24, 2013 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130317030523/http://www.jewsinsports.org/football.asp?ID=73 |archive-date=March 17, 2013 |url-status=dead }} He eloped and married Genevieve Brown (born March 4, 1901) in October 1924; they were married for 64 years until her death on November 25, 1987. They moved to Cismont, Virginia, in 1952, and later to Charlottesville, Virginia.{{cite news|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/1997/05/28/ralph-horween/ |title=Ralph Horween |work=Chicago Tribune |date=May 28, 1997 |access-date=March 24, 2013}} He had two sons, Ralph Stow and Frederick Stow.

Horween played fullback and halfback in the backfield, the two running back positions, and was known as a good punter and drop-kicker, at Harvard University for the Harvard Crimson. He was an All-American.{{cite news|url=https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/boston/access/719359722.html?dids=719359722:719359722&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:AI&date=Oct+28%2C+1920&author=MELVILLE+E+WEBB+JR&pub=Boston+Daily+Globe&desc=RALPH+HORWEEN+ACE+IN+HARVARD+KICKING&pqatl=google |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130411165420/http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/boston/access/719359722.html?dids=719359722:719359722&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:AI&date=Oct+28,+1920&author=MELVILLE+E+WEBB+JR&pub=Boston+Daily+Globe&desc=RALPH+HORWEEN+ACE+IN+HARVARD+KICKING&pqatl=google |url-status=dead |archive-date=April 11, 2013 |author= Melveille E. Webb, Jr.|title=Ralph Horween Ace in Harvard Kicking |publisher=Boston Daily Globe |date=October 28, 1920 |access-date=March 23, 2013}}{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5Bk9AAAAIAAJ&q=Ralph+Horween |title=Co-operation |year=1950 |access-date=March 22, 2013}}{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tbyEWvm1AhEC&q=Ralph+Horween&pg=PR12 |title=Centenarians |author=Dale Richard Perelman |year= 2012 |publisher=AuthorHouse |isbn=9781477217306 |access-date=March 21, 2013}}{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=p71J2x3re1MC&q=Ralph+Horween&pg=PA109 |author= Ephraim Historical Foundation|title=Ephraim |publisher= Arcadia Publishing|year=2008 |isbn= 9780738551968|access-date=March 22, 2013}}{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/passinggamebenny0000gree |url-access=registration |page=[https://archive.org/details/passinggamebenny0000gree/page/353 353] |quote=Ralph Horween. |title=Passing Game: Benny Friedman and the Transformation of Football |author=Murray Greenberg |publisher=PublicAffairs |year=2008 |access-date=March 22, 2013}} He was described as a "line plunger" of "tremendous power."{{cite magazine|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2xBbAAAAYAAJ&q=Ralph+Horween&pg=PA158 |author= Donald Grant Herring |title= Football; Princeton 10, Harvard 10 |magazine=Princeton Alumni Weekly |year=1919 |access-date=March 21, 2013}}

On November 11, 1916, he kicked a {{convert|35|yd|m|adj=on}} field goal to lead Harvard over previously unbeaten Princeton, 3–0.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dAq4TGQsWwwC&q=Ralph+Horween&pg=PA316 |title=Day By Day in Jewish Sports History |author=Bob Wechsler |publisher=KTAV Publishing House |year= 2008|isbn=9780881259698 |access-date=March 22, 2013}} That year, he was named Walter Camp All-America honorable mention at fullback, and New York Times All-East honorable mention.

During World War I, he enlisted and was a Junior Lieutenant in the United States Navy, on active duty from April 1917 to July 1919.{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/harvardsmilitar00meadgoog |page=[https://archive.org/details/harvardsmilitar00meadgoog/page/n504 478] |quote=Ralph Horween. |author=Frederick Sumner Mead |title=Harvard's Military Record in the World War |publisher=Harvard Alumni Association |year= 1921|access-date=March 23, 2013}}{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cINRAAAAYAAJ&q=Ralph+Horween&pg=PA8 |title= Harvard Wins from Oregon 7 to 6 |publisher=Our Paper – Massachusetts Reformatory (Concord, Mass.) |date=January 3, 1920 |access-date=March 23, 2013}} He attended cadet school at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and served on the patrol vessel {{USS|Talofa|SP-1016|6}}, the battleship {{USS|Connecticut|BB-18|6}}, the destroyer {{USS|Maury|DD-100|6}}, and the destroyer {{USS|Gregory|DD-82|6}}.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JjlHAQAAIAAJ&q=Ralph+Horween&pg=PA80|author= United States. Navy Dept. Bureau of Navigation|title=Navy directory: officers of the United States Navy and Marine Corps, also including officers of the United States Naval Reserve, active, Marine Corps Reserve, active, and foreign officers serving with the Navy |publisher=Govt. Printing Office. |year= 1918|access-date=March 23, 2013}}

In both 1919 and 1920 Harvard was undefeated (9–0–1, as they outscored their competition 229–19, and 8–0–1, respectively).{{cite web |url=http://www.jewsinsports.org/football.asp?ID=72 |title=Horween, Arnold |date=March 3, 2013 |access-date=March 24, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201204132127/https://www.jewsinsports.org/football.asp?ID=72 |archive-date=December 4, 2020 |url-status=dead }}{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5vygvFMFm64C&q=marchmont+schwartz+jewish&pg=PT218 |title=The Gipper: George Gipp, Knute Rockne, and the Dramatic Rise of Notre Dame Football |author=Jack Cavanaugh |publisher= Skyhorse Publishing|year=2010|isbn=9781616081102 |access-date=March 23, 2013}} In 1919, Donald Grant Herring ranked Horween the Third-Team center on the Princeton-Yale-Harvard composite team, and opined that if he had played regularly at center for the entire season he might have been the number one choice, and the New York Times named him All-East honorable mention.

Horween was part of the unbeaten Harvard football team that won the 1920 Rose Bowl against Oregon, 7–6.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Yt0zAQAAIAAJ&q=Ralph+Horween |title=The New York Times Biographical Service |publisher=New York Times & Arno Press |year=1997 |access-date=March 22, 2013}}{{cite news|author=Ralph Goldstein |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1997/05/29/sports/ralph-horween-100-the-oldest-ex-nfl-player.html |title=Ralph Horween, 100, the Oldest Ex-N.F.L. Player| newspaper=New York Times |date=May 29, 1997 |access-date=March 19, 2013}} Horween sustained a chipped collarbone and dislocated shoulder in the victory.{{cite news|author=Richard Goldstein |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1997/05/29/sports/ralph-horween-100-the-oldest-ex-nfl-player.html |title=Ralph Horween, 100, the Oldest Ex-N.F.L. Player |newspaper=New York Times |date=May 29, 1997 |access-date=March 24, 2013}}{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=n3i4KOu7MiEC&q=Ralph+Horween&pg=PA115 |title=Football: The Ivy League Origins of an American Obsession |author=Mark F. Bernstein |publisher= University of Pennsylvania Press|year= 2001 |isbn=0812236270 |access-date=March 21, 2013}} It remain's the only bowl game appearance in Harvard football history.{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1996/08/04/sports/a-league-first-former-player-turns-100.html |title=A League First: Former Player Turns 100 |newspaper=New York Times |date=August 4, 1996 |access-date=March 23, 2013}} He graduated with an A.B. in May 1920.{{cite book|url=http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3479900049.html |title=Horween Leather Company |publisher=Encyclopedia.com |access-date=March 25, 2013}}

He played 22 career games in the National Football League. Playing under the alias of the Irish name Ralph McMahon or B. McMahon or R. McMahon,{{cite web | work=Arizona Cardinals official site | url=http://www.azcardinals.com/history/index.php | title=Franchise history | access-date=February 10, 2008 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080201050804/http://www.azcardinals.com/history/index.php |archive-date = February 1, 2008}}{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Z6MoniVvH40C&q=Ralph+Horween&pg=PA67 |title=Dr. Eddie Anderson, Hall of Fame College Football Coach: A Biography |author=Kevin Carroll |publisher= McFarland|year=2007 |isbn=9780786430079 |access-date=March 22, 2013}} Horween started playing professional football a year after the NFL was founded, and played for the Cardinals for three years (first as they were called the Racine Cardinals, in the American Professional Football Association, the predecessor to the NFL).{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Gw3_obTNh4QC&q=Ralph+Horween&pg=PA377 |title=NFL Head Coaches: A Biographical Dictionary, 1920–2011 |author=John Maxymuk |publisher=McFarland |year= 2012|isbn=9780786465576 |access-date=March 22, 2013}} He played for the renamed Chicago Cardinals from 1921 to 1923. He was paid $40 (${{formatnum:{{Inflation|US|40|1921|r=-2}}}} in current dollar terms) a week.{{cite web|url=http://www.oldestlivingprofootball.com/ralphhorween.htm |title=Ralph Horween |publisher=Oldestlivingprofootball.com |access-date=March 25, 2013}} His brother Arnold teamed up with him, playing for the Cardinals as well. On November 30, 1922, he kicked a {{convert|34|yd|m|adj=on}} field goal as the Cardinals beat the Chicago Staleys 6–0.

On October 7, 1923, he and his brother both scored in the same game, as he ran for a touchdown and his brother kicked two extra points as the Cardinals beat the Rochester Jeffersons 60–0 at Normal Park in Chicago. On December 2, 1923, they did it again, as ran for a touchdown and his brother kicked a {{convert|35|yd|m|adj=on}} field goal as the Cardinals beat the Oorang Indians 22–19. In 1923, his brother became head coach of the Cardinals and Ralph joined him as an assistant coach, as both continued to play as well. He played in 11 games that season as the team went 8–4–0. He was paid $275 (${{formatnum:{{Inflation|US|275|1923|r=-2}}}} in current dollar terms) for a late season game, and used it to buy an engagement ring and elope. He retired following the 1923 season.

After retiring from football, Horween returned to Harvard Law School, where he wrote "The Effect of Certain Types of State Statutes Upon the Criteria, in the Federal Courts, of the Adequacy of the Remedy at Law as a Basis for Federal Equity Jurisdiction", which was published by the law school in 1929.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FS4rtwAACAAJ&q=Ralph+Horween |title=The Effect of Certain Types of State Statutes Upon the Criteria, in the Federal Courts, of the Adequacy of the Remedy at Law as a Basis for Federal Equity Jurisdiction|author=Ralph Horween |publisher= Law School of Harvard University|year= 1929|access-date=March 23, 2013}} He earned an LL.B. law degree in 1929, and that year became a member of the Illinois State Bar and a patent attorney.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qsEjAQAAMAAJ&q=Ralph+Horween |title=The American Bar |author=James Clark Fifield |publisher= J.C. Fifield Company|year=1937 |access-date=March 23, 2013}}{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=z5wtAAAAIAAJ&q=Ralph+Horween |title=Illinois Bar Journal |publisher=Illinois State Bar Association|volume=28 |year= 1950|access-date=March 22, 2013}}{{cite journal|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eroqAAAAMAAJ&q=Ralph+Horween |title=Harvard Magazine |publisher=Circulation Department|volume= 100|year= 1997|access-date=March 22, 2013}} He later had a successful law practice in Chicago, known as Topliff, Horween & Merrick from 1940 to 1942, and Topliff & Horween after 1942.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EmVmAAAAMAAJ&q=topliff+horween |title=Who's who in Michigan: A Biographical Dictionary of Leading Men and Women of the Commonwealth |year=1947 |access-date=March 23, 2013}} He was also a successful businessman, as he raised cattle and helped run a family business that supplied the leather for the footballs used in the NFL.

He served as chief of the Chicago office of the federal Petroleum Administrative Board that administered crude oil permits, and was a special assistant federal attorney who handled prosecutions of oil code violations.{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=P7tQAAAAIBAJ&pg=7041,989263&dq=ralph+horween&hl=en |title=Trial on Code Case Extended |newspaper=The Milwaukee Journal |date=May 7, 1934 |access-date=March 24, 2013}}{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=iOo0AAAAIBAJ&pg=6849,9714561&dq=ralph+horween&hl=en |title=Deaths; Ralph Horween |newspaper=Toledo Blade |date= May 27, 1997 |access-date=March 24, 2013}}{{cite news|url=https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/djreprints/access/110201089.html?dids=110201089:110201089&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:AI&type=historic&date=Oct+13%2C+1934&author=&pub=Wall+Street+Journal&desc=Horween+Appointed+Oil+Official&pqatl=google |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130411155912/http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/djreprints/access/110201089.html?dids=110201089:110201089&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:AI&type=historic&date=Oct+13,+1934&author=&pub=Wall+Street+Journal&desc=Horween+Appointed+Oil+Official&pqatl=google |url-status=dead |archive-date=April 11, 2013 |title=Horween Appointed Oil Official |newspaper=Wall Street Journal |date=October 13, 1934 |access-date=March 23, 2013}} Horween served as Assistant for Oil to Harold L. Ickes, the Oil Administrator and United States Secretary of the Interior, resigning in 1934.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QFpAAQAAIAAJ&q=Ralph+Horween |title=World Oil |publisher=Gulf Publishing Company |year=1934 |access-date=March 22, 2013}}{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AuczAQAAIAAJ&q=Ralph+Horween |title=Pacific Oil World |publisher=Petroleum Publishers |year=1934 |access-date=March 23, 2013}} He authored What are the Essentials of Sound Oil Conservation Legislation for Illinois?, which was published in 1939, and presented on "Illinois Oil and Gas Legislation" to the Illinois State Bar Association and the Indiana State Bar Association the same year.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lelyHAAACAAJ&q=Ralph+Horween |title=What are the Essentials of Sound Oil Conservation Legislation for Illinois? |author=Ralph Horween |year=1939 |access-date=March 21, 2013}}{{cite journal|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9M4DAQAAIAAJ&q=Ralph+Horween|author= Illinois State Bar Association|title=Annual Report of the Illinois State Bar Association – Illinois State Bar Association |publisher= Interstate Print. Company|year= 1939|access-date=March 22, 2013}}

He and his brother inherited the family leather tannery business, Horween Leather Company in Chicago which had been founded in 1905. Among other things, the company provided the leather used in NFL footballs for many years. He was the company's chief manufacturing executive, and was working at the company in 1950.{{cite web|url=http://horween.com/about/ |title=About « Horween Leather Company |publisher=Horween.com |access-date=March 24, 2013}}

He endowed the Horween Professorship at the University of Virginia, a research chair in the field of small manufacturing enterprises, in honor of his father and in memory of his wife, Genevieve Brown Horween.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=alRXAAAAYAAJ&q=Ralph+Horween |title=Inside UVA |publisher=Office of Publications, University of Virginia |year=1990|access-date=March 23, 2013}}{{cite journal|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=M1ZXAAAAYAAJ&q=Ralph+Horween |title=The University of Virginia Record |author=University of Virginia |year= 2000|access-date=March 23, 2013}}

In 1994, the NFL honored 95-year-old Arda Bowser as the league's oldest living ex-NFL player.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LHsK3nJgRakC&q=Ralph+Horween&pg=PA42 |title=Old Leather: An Oral History of Early Pro Football in Ohio, 1920–1935 |author=Chris Willis |publisher=Scarecrow Press |year= 2005|isbn=9780810856608 |access-date=February 27, 2016}} It was only later that NFL officials discovered that they had made a mistake – because Horween, who was 99 years old at the time, was still alive.

In 1996, Horween turned 100, becoming the first NFL player to turn 100.

He died in Charlottesville, Virginia, on May 26, 1997.

• List of select Jewish football players

{{reflist|2}}

• {{Footballstats |pfr=H/HorwRa20}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Horween, Ralph}}

Category:1896 births

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