Pre-World War One nominees for 2025 class

[Halas Hall]

I have zero familiarity with this year's three nominees who played before World War One - Herman Kerkhoff, Bob Shiring, and Peggy Parratt.

Is the best thing to review Myron Cope's / Robert Peterson's books on the early days of pro football? All suggestions welcomed.

Thank you.
Nick

[JWL]

Shiring is mentioned in one sentence in Pigskin for a being a Massillon ringer. Kerkhoff is not mentioned in that book at all. Parratt was written about on a few pages. He was described as the best quarterback of his era. My copy of Cope's The Game That Was is sitting in my mom's home in Florida and she's in New Jersey right now. Therefore, I cannot say for sure if those three players are mentioned in that book but I don't recollect them garnering any mentions.

[sluggermatt15]

There are a number of Coffin Corner articles that discuss pre-WWI football that include information about Kerkhoff and Shiring.

https://web.archive.org/web/20101218220 ... An-053.pdf

https://web.archive.org/web/20140928221 ... An-209.pdf

https://web.archive.org/web/20101127042 ... An-079.pdf

https://web.archive.org/web/20101127045 ... An-388.pdf

https://web.archive.org/web/20131204032 ... An-209.pdf

https://web.archive.org/web/20120226105 ... r_Trap.pdf

https://web.archive.org/web/20120326054 ... dirons.pdf


Also some articles on Shiring:

https://www.newspapers.com/article/the- ... 154495952/

https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=n ... ring&hl=en

[JuggernautJ]

Assuming it is OK to post these links here (please delete them if this is not the case), The Football Learning Academy's Hall of Honor has "enshrined" each of those three and dedicated a page on their site to them (which is an excellent source of information):

Hall of Honor - Herman Kerchoff:
https://www.football-learning-academy.c ... n-kerchoff

Hall of Honor - Peggy Parratt:
https://www.football-learning-academy.c ... gy-parratt

Hall of Honor - Bob Shiring:
https://www.football-learning-academy.c ... ob-shiring

There's also this Coffin Corner article about Peggy Parratt:
https://profootballresearchers.com/arch ... 06-008.pdf

[TanksAndSpartans]

For Shiring, one of our members, Gregg Ficery, wrote a book recently that's relevant:

https://www.gridironlegacy.com

Kerkhoff's Wikipedia entry is pretty strong:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herman_Kerkhoff

It only lists a handful of secondary references, but I think one or more persons dug into primary sources to find stuff like Kerkhoff playing for Indianapolis Artillery, etc. (I also speculated in conversation that there may be a relative behind some of the Wikipedia content).

For Parratt, it doesn't talk much about his career, but the best argument I've seen is from Keith McClellan in his book Sunday Game: At the Dawn of Professional Football: Ch. 1, p7 says: "George Waterson "Peggy" Parratt did more than anyone else in America to foster the transition from independent to professional football".