Today's Tidbit... The Horween Brothers and the NFL

The best parts of some stories are the links to seemingly unrelated stories that make perfect sense once you understand how the connections came about. That is the case with the tale of Ralph and Arnold Horween, brothers from Chicago born before the last century turned. Like many Americans then and now, they were the sons of immigrants. Their father, Isadore Horween, learned the tanning process in Ukraine before emigrating to America, arriving in Chicago in time for the 1893 World's Fair, and then working in Chicago tanneries until he opened his own in 1905.

Rose, Ralph, Arnold, and Isadore Horween in the early 1900s (Wiki)

Horween Leather gained a reputation for its quality, leading many of America's finest shoemakers to use their products. As the business grew, Isadore sent his sons to private schools and then to Harvard, where both were athletes whose greatest success came on the gridiron. Two years older than Arnold, Ralph was a field goal-kicking fullback whose 35-yard boot was all Harvard needed to beat Princeton in 1916, helping him earn honorable All-American honors. WWI intervened, leading to two years aboard several Navy vessels, but he returned in time to play football in 1919 and 1920.

Ralph and Arnold at Harvard, with the leather stickum cloth blocks on their chests and arms commonly worn by backs and ends in the late 1910s. (Wiki)