Throwback Thursday: Dutch Clark

"If Dutch Clark stepped on the field with Red Grange, Jim Thorpe and George Gipp, Dutch would be the general."
                           -a rival coach

"He is one sweet football player."
                           -AP Sports Editor Alan Gould in 1928


Earl Harry "Dutch" Clark has been one of my favorite early day football players ever since I first read about him. He did everything on the football field. While often listed as a quarterback Clark was actually a play-calling tailback in a single wing offense. He ran, pass, caught and blocked. He played safety on defense. He was the last of the dropkicking specialists and one of the best. He punted. He returned kicks. He was a player-coach. He established professional football in Detroit. After a handful of failed attempts at putting a team in Detroit, the excitement and success of the Lions in the mid-'30s solidified the Motor City as a football city. Dutch Clark, the man and the football player, was the main reason why. He may also have been the kindest, most humble football player to ever pass through the NFL.

Clark's incredible success at tiny Colorado College, he was an All-American in 1928, turned the attention of football people in the east to the football talents that lay west of the Rockies. Clark was always opening doors for others but he didn't enter the NFL easily. The professional league had only been around for a decade and was still struggling to gain some footing in the sporting world. Clark coached for a year before the financially shaky Portsmouth Spartans came calling. Dutch Clark was an immediate success in the NFL earning All-Pro honors in 1931 and '32. The Spartans might have been a strong team on the field but management wasn't too strong at paying their players. Needing financial security during a shaky time, Clark retired to become head coach at the Colorado School of Mines. The security was so much better that he missed the first playoff game in league history. The Chicago Bears and Portsmouth Spartans ended the season tied for the title. It was decided that the two teams would play a tie-breaking playoff game to decide the 1932 NFL Championship. Clark missed the impromptu game because he'd already made a commitment to the Colorado School of Mines. The Bears defeated the Clark-less Spartans 9-0 to win the title. Clark returned to professional football in 1934 rejoining his team, which had been sold and had become the Detroit Lions. Owner George Richards provided the financial support and guaranteed paychecks. That and his passion for football brought Dutch Clark to Detroit. The Lions had a very talented roster. Clark, Glenn Presnell, Ernie Caddell, Ace Gutowsky, Ox Emerson. Coach Potsy Clark had a contending team in Detroit immediately. Dutch Clark led the Lions to the 1935 NFL Championship and football in Detroit was firmly established.

Dutch Clark wasn't especially fast. He was pretty much blind. "Left-eye twenty-two hundred, right-eye twenty-one hundred," according to Clark. Yet, he was an incredible football player. Chicago Bears owner and coach George Halas called Dutch Clark "the greatest player in professional football." Clark was an incredibly smart football player. In play calling, in setting up his blocks, he was always several steps ahead of everybody else. He was always where he needed to be to make a play. I'd love to have been around to watch him play. He was magic on the football field.

Dutch Clark was one of the 17 members of the very first Hall of Fame class. He may not be as well known as Red Grange, Jim Thorpe, Don Hutson and others from that class. On the football field, he was at least their equal.