A Brief History
On November 15, 1914, the pre-National Football League professional football world was saddened by the death of a seasoned pro, Center Harry Turner of the Canton Professionals (now there is a catchy name) of the Ohio League. Turner was playing in a game against Akron Indians when he suffered a broken back, completely severing his spinal cord.
Digging Deeper
When Turner died soon afterwards in the hospital, he became the first fatality caused by injury playing in a professional football game. Appropriately, Turner was from Canton, Ohio, the birthplace of pro football. A real home town guy, Turner played for the Canton Indians, Canton Cohen Tigers, Canton Simpson Tigers, and the Canton Professionals in a career that spanned from 1907 until his death in 1914. The Canton Professionals were the pre-National Football League version of the Canton Bulldogs who played in the Ohio League.
Turner was a popular player, and respected enough on the field to be named as Captain of the Professionals. The first of several pro football players to die either during a game or shortly afterwards due to injury or illness (usually heart attack), Turner was one of extremely few to die from an injury. (At least 3 other players that died from injury were also from spinal cord injuries.)
In the amateur ranks of football, there are many more deaths caused by playing or practicing football, and in the US about 9 kids each year (high school and under) suffer such deaths. In 2015 (as of November 6) 11 youngsters have died. Most of these junior football deaths (college players as well) are caused by heart attack or complications from heat stroke or dehydration. Often times an underlying but unknown heart condition is discovered only too late, after the tragedy occurs.
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Of course, football is a rough and dangerous sport, and injuries are many as well as often severe. Many players that play throughout junior high, high school, college and then professionally suffer accumulative type of injuries and sometimes die early, painful deaths because of the extreme wear and tear on their bodies. In the last few years the negative effects of steroid use and frequent concussions have taken the spotlight in examining the detrimental physical effects of playing football.
Many parents today hesitate to allow their children to play tackle football, fearing such injury. Doctors certainly advise against it (at least our family doctor did). Despite ever improving protective gear and protocols for handling injuries, especially now head injuries, there will still be injuries and deaths.
Question for students (and subscribers) to ponder: Is football worth the risk? Do you want your child to play tackle football? What do you think about the pros and cons of the benefits of sports such as football compared to the negative effects of injuries?
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Herget, James E. American Football: How the Game Evolved. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2013.
The featured image in this article, a regular old football by feraliminal, is from the Open Clip Art Library, which released it explicitly into the public domain (see here) (Original URL: http://openclipart.org/user-detail/feraliminal). This file is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication. The person who associated a work with this deed has dedicated the work to the public domain by waiving all of his or her rights to the work worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights, to the extent allowed by law. You can copy, modify, distribute and perform the work, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission.
