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Pudge Heffelfinger ... William Walter " Pudge " Heffelfinger (December 20, 1867 – April 2, 1954), also spelled Hafelfinger, was an American football player and coach.
Heffelfinger was paid $500 to play one game for the Allegheny Athletic Association (AAA) on Nov. 12, 1892. He helped Allegheny defeat its archrival, the Pittsburgh Athletic Club, 4-0 and became the first known pro foo...
In the 1930s he published Heffelfinger Football Facts and ran an advertising agency that produced the first sports quiz on radio. He continued to play in semiprofessional and exhibition football games, as well as to p...
William W. "Pudge" Heffelfinger played guard for Yale at 6-3, 195-pounds, and was the greatest lineman of his time. All- America selections originated in 1889, and Pudge was on the team. He repeated in 1890-91, his la...
William Walter "Pudge" Heffelfinger was a strapping 6-foot-3, 205-pound lineman for the dominant Yale teams of 1888 to 1891.
Heffelfinger was the son of Christopher B. Heffelfinger, a shoe manufacturer, and Mary Ellen Totton, a homemaker, in a family with three sons and four daughters. Nicknamed "Pudge" for his size, which was huge by the s...
Meet William Heffelfinger: The First Paid Football Star! William “Pudge” Heffelfinger is a name that resonates deeply in the annals of professional football history. Born in 1867, Heffelfinger emerged as a remarkable ...
William Walter “Pudge” Heffelfinger, widely documented as the first paid professional football player in the United States, died on April 2, 1954, in Blessing, Texas. He was 86 years old.
The winning touchdown was scored by William ("Pudge") Heffelfinger, who received $500 for playing. He was the first football player known to have been paid outright, and pro football traces its origin from this game.
William Walter "Pudge" Heffelfinger is considered the first athlete to play American football professionally since, as an all-American guard from Yale, he was paid a game performance bonus of $500 to play for Alleghen...
