Today's Tidbit... When Coaches Wrote Newspaper Columns

Nowadays, we often see top football coaches playing television studio commentators following their teams' elimination from the playoffs. Their technical knowledge and perspective as the person in charge can offer unique insights into a game's events.

However, while their teams are still playing, coaches stick to their knitting, stay out of the studios, and certainly do not write newspaper columns predicting who will win upcoming games. Others in the football business do the same. Coaches coach, officials officiate, and reporters report. Everyone stays in their lane.

But that is not how things used to be, especially before radio and television gave coaches a public voice or face. Football heroes often played dual roles back in the day. Take, for example, Walter Eckersall, an All-American halfback at Chicago turned Chicago Tribune reporter who regularly officiated the biggest games of the year, including multiple Rose Bowls and the 1926 Army-Navy game in Chicago. Yet, as a reporter, he predicted the outcomes of games and published stories the next day detailing the battles he officiated.

Eckersall, a local boy, was the star of stars for Chicago during the aughts. (RPPC, Personal collection)