Who am I? Pro Football Hall of Fame. NFL Champion. College Football Hall of Fame. National champion. Two time All-American – at two different positions. Rushed for 344 yards on 12 carries. Threw the game-winning touchdown pass in the NFL Championship Game. Hit .340 three straight years – in pro baseball.
a. Bo Jackson.
b. Deion Sanders.
c. John Elway.
d. Joe Guyon.
Answer: Joe Guyon. Who?
No finer pedigree than that of Joe Guyon. Coached by both Pop Warner and John Heisman. Teammate of Jim Thorpe in college and the NFL. Played in Chicago. New York. Washington. Cleveland. The Canton Bulldogs. Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets. The legendary Carlisle Indian Industrial School. A triple threat: passing, running, punting – as well as an excellent blocker and tackler. Neither Deion nor Bo equaled Guyon’s feats. Joe was Bo before Bo.
One hundred years ago Georgia Tech was a national powerhouse. The Golden Tornado won 33 straight games from 1914-1918, with high scores of 222, 128, 119, and 118. From 1915 to 1920 Tech went 45-5-2 and outscored its opponents 2180-142.
In 1917 against Vandy, Guyon ran for 344 yards on only 12 carries (28.7 yards per carry). Tech won 83-0. The record stood for over sixty years, until Eddie Lee Ivery ran for 356 yards in the snow against Air Force November 11, 1978, averaging a modern record 13.7 yards on 26 carries. As a sophomore at Tech I remember Guyon being mentioned as the previous record-holder. I was amiss to exclude Guyon from my list of Top Ten Tech football players.
Guyon was a busy bee. After college he played pro football and baseball – AND coached football and baseball. All at the same time! A timeline:
12 13 Carlisle Indian Industrial School with Jim Thorpe (above). Coached by Pop Warner.
13 All-American at Carlisle. Played against Army player Dwight D Eisenhower.
14 15 16 Keewatin Academy in Chicago
17 18 Georgia Tech under John Heisman
17 national champions, all-conference (Dream Team Backfield photo below).
18 All-American at GT
19, 23-27 coached Union University in Jackson Tenn
19 – 20 NFL Canton Bulldogs with Jim Thorpe
20 backfield coach at Georgia Tech
20-1936 hit .340 for the Kentucky Colonels
21 NFL Washington Senators
22 NFL Cleveland Indians
23 NFL Oorang Indians
24 NFL Rock Island Independents
25 – 26 NFL Kansas City Cowboys
27 New York Giants with Jim Thorpe – NFL Champions
28-31 head coach Clemson baseball
31 manager Anderson Electrics of the Palmetto League
31-33 coached St. Xavier HS Louisville KY
32 manager Asheville Tourists
36 manager of the Fieldale Towlers
His college football hall of fame bio: Joe Guyon had a dual history in many respects. He played for two teams, Carlisle Indian School 1912-13 and Georgia Tech 1917-18. He was under two great coaches, first Pop Warner then John Heisman. He was honored at two positions - at halfback in 1913 and 1917 on Walter Camp's second All-America team; at tackle in 1918 on Frank Menke's first All-America team. In his two Carlisle years, the school had season records of 12-1-1, 10-1-1, scored 504 points one year, 295 another. In Guyon's Georgia Tech years, the team went 9-0 and 6-1, scoring 491 points then 462. Against Vanderbilt in 1917 Guyon ran 12 times for 344 yards. Guyon played pro 1919-27 with six teams. Between his college years, he attended Keewatin Academy. The Georgia Tech 1917 team was national champion. In 1914-18 Georgia Tech had a 33-game unbeaten streak. In four games of the streak Georgia Tech made high scores - 222 in one game, then 128, 119, 118. Guyon played outfield for Louisville in the American Association 1925-27; an injury ended his baseball career. He coached football at St. Xavier High School Louisville, 1931-33, with a 16-7-2 record.
His Pro Football Hall of Fame bio: Joe Guyon, an American Indian from the Chippewa Tribe, was born O-Gee-Chidah on the White Earth Indian Reservation in Minnesota. He received only a sixth-grade education from the American government. "It was hard trying to make something of yourself," Guyon once said. "Sports were one of the few ways a youngster could pull himself up."
So Guyon did the only thing he could do. He used his athletic skills to gain a college education and a satisfying professional career. After playing on Georgia Tech’s national championship team in 1917, Joe signed to play pro football with the Canton Bulldogs in 1919.
After the NFL was organized in 1920, Guyon played seven more seasons with six different teams. From 1919 to 1924, Joe teamed with another outstanding Indian halfback, the fabled Jim Thorpe. Both were talented players but the better-known Thorpe grabbed most of the headlines.
The paths of the talented Indian pair parted late in the 1924 season when Guyon left the Rock Island Independents to go to the Kansas City Cowboys. Guyon stayed with the Cowboys in 1925 while Thorpe, then 37, moved on to the New York Giants.
Two years later in 1927, Guyon became a Giant and he played a major role in leading the New Yorkers to the 1927 NFL championship. Guyon, away from the shadow of Thorpe, enjoyed one of his finest seasons and gained the first significant publicity he had enjoyed since his college days. The 1927 Giants compiled an 11-1-1 record largely on the strength of a superior defensive that allowed only 20 points all season. But Guyon, flashing all of his many abilities – passing, running, punting, tackling and blocking – played a leading role in scoring the necessary points for his team that also finished second in scoring that season.
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