……………………….
A story
https://bit.ly/2zvALAQ about Howard
Glenn, who played football for Linfield in the late 1950s, indicates Paul Durham, his Linfield head football
coach, believed Howard Glenn to be the first Linfield football player to go on
to play professional football. In this case, Howard Glenn played in 1960 for
the New York Titans of the American Football League.
Howard
Glenn has that distinction, but Wilkie
Moody, a former McMinnville College (which became Linfield College in 1922)
student, who transferred to Denison University in Ohio, also played
professional football, 1920-1925.
Howard
Glenn played pro football after playing football at Linfield. Wilkie Moody
never played football at Linfield, but played for Denison.
Even if Wilkie
Moody had wanted to play football at McMinnville College he could not have.
During his time in McMinnville, the college didn't compete in football.
McMinnville College had no football in the 1906 through 1921 seasons.
Read about
Wilkie Moody as a football player. Story by Kevin Bennett in fall 2011 edition
of The Historic Times of the
Granville, Ohio, Historical Society. Scroll to pages 10, 11 and 12 to read
story about Wilkie Moody:
…………
Wilkie
Osgood Moody was born May 12, 1897, in Belgian Congo, a Belgian colony in
central Africa in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
He was the
son of Baptist missionaries -- the Rev.
Thomas Moody and Elizabeth Wilkie
Moody -- who served in the Belgian Congo.
Wilkie,
whose name sometimes appeared as W.O. Moody, attended Grand Island (Neb.)
Academy and graduated from Colby Academy, New London, N.H. He also attended McMinnville
Academy, the college preparatory (high school) part of McMinnville College,
which is now Linfield College, McMinnville, Ore.
He
attended McMinnville College during the 1914-1915 academic year and was a
member of Adelphic (spelling is correct) Fraternity. In that academic year, his
father, Rev. Moody, on furlough from missionary duties in Africa, was a McMinnville
College chapel service speaker.
Wilkie
transferred from McMinnville College to Denison University in Granville, Ohio,
and graduated from Denison in 1920. At the time Denison was Baptist affiliated.
It is now non-sectarian.
Some source
says Wilkie Moody attended Emory University (Atlanta, Georgia) and transferred
to Denison from Emory. However it may be that he did not attend Emory or studied
there briefly. The papers of his wife, novelist, journalist and poet Minnie Hite Moody, are in the Emory
Archives. They married in Nov. 9, 1918, in the Fort Jackson, S.C., chapel while
he was serving as a lieutenant in the U.S. Army.
A Denison
publication says Wilkie took part in class basketball apparently in his second
and third years at Denison and football in his third year.
His time
as a student at Denison (Class of 1918) was interrupted by service in the U.S.
Army during World War I. In 1917, he enlisted as a private and in 1919 was
honorably discharged as a lieutenant.
One
source/some sources say Wilkie played football for Linfield and Denison.
Assuming he attended McMinnville College 1914-15 that would not have been
possible. McMinnville College did not compete in football 1906-1921. In 1922,
McMinnville College became Linfield College.
The
Denison University football media guide shows W.O. Moody lettering in the
university's 1916 season.
The
NFL/National Football League was founded in 1920. A story issued in 1981 and
headlined, "The First NFL Game(s)," says the first NFL game was one
of two games played on Oct. 3, 1920. In one of those games, the Dayton
Triangles beat the Columbus Panhandles, 14-0, at Dayton; W. O. Moody was a
substitute for Columbus in that game.
A
different story says between 1920 and 1925, Wilkie played for three Ohio
professional football teams, the Columbus Panhandles, Dayton Triangles, and
Columbus Tigers.
One source
shows him playing for the 1920 Columbus Panhandles, 1921 Dayton Triangles and
1924 and 1925 Columbus Tigers. Apparently he did not play in the 1923 season.
(The Columbus team was originally called the Panhandles, later changing its
name to Tigers.)
Other
information about Wilkie, he:
--was
5-foot-7 and 179 pounds.
--played
on the offensive line and as a running back. Another source says he played fullback,
guard, halfback and tackle.
--was,
“The first Africa born player to play in the NFL.”
--died at age
78 on Feb. 23, 1976, in Newark, Ohio.
His obituary in the Feb. 23, 1976 (page 16)
edition of the Newark, Ohio, Advocate:
Wilkie Osgood Moody
"Private graveside services for Wilkie
Osgood Moody, 78, of 635 Newark Rd., Granville, will be Wednesday in Welsh
Hills Cemetery, Granville, with the Rev. John Woodson Baker officiating. Mr.
Moody died Sunday morning in Licking Memorial Hospital. He was born May 12,
1897, in Irabo, Congo Beige, Southwest Africa, to the late Dr. and Mrs. Thomas
Moody. He attended Grand Island (Neb.) Academy; graduated from Colby (N.H.)
Academy; attended McMinnville (Ore.) College; and graduated from Denison
University in 1920, his diploma deferred from the class of 1918, because of WWI
service. He served as athletic director and coach at Altoona (Pa.) High School;
Clanon (Pa.) College; Warren G. Harding High School, Warren Ohio;
Columbus-Bartholomew County High School, Columbus, Ind.; and from 1929 until
retirement in 1961, he served as coach and athletic director with the Atlanta,
Ga., high schools. He was a member of Phi Kappa Alpha graduate fraternity,
Emory University, Atlanta, Ga.; the Disabled American Veterans, and the Disabled
Emergency Officers WWI." Mr. Moody and his wife, Minnie Hite Moody, had
two daughters, Elizabeth Moody and Mary Lou Moody Prieto.
NOTES:
--Thanks
for assistance of Linfield College Archives including the work of Maia Patten and to Sasha Griffin of
Denison University Archives.
--Much of
this story compiled using information found on the Internet. One of those
sources is an issue of The Historic Times
of the Granville, Ohio, Historical Society. Another is information about Wilkie
Moody’s military service posted online by the Licking County Library of Newark,
Ohio:
-- Oval
photo from 1925, Clarion University, Clarion, Pa. Rectangular photo from 1929
Columbus, Ind., High School Log yearbook. Also a photo of Denison football
player (“first eligible year”) Wilkie Moody from Dec. 8, 1916, football edition
of The Denisonian student newspaper.
A story in the same edition about the university’s men’s basketball team
mentions Moody as a guard on that team.
--The Adytum 1920 for Denison University includes biographic information about Denison Class of 1920 members including Grace B. Moody, sister of Wilkie Moody. She was Class of 1920 vice president, and Wilkie O. Moody. He would have graduated in 1918 and she in 1920, but his studies were interrupted by World War I service. Thus, they both graduated from Denison in 1920. Her bio info shows she attended "McMinnville College Prep" and that he attended "McMinnville Academy" and "McMinnville College (1)." ("McMinnville Academy" or the Academy of McMinnville College also known as McMinnville College prep was a preparatory school.)
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