The Story And Significance Of Joe Guyon - Mr. Everthing For The 1927 Champion New York Giants

Joseph Napoleon "Big Chief" Guyon was an American Indian from the Ojibwa tribe (Chippewa) who was an American football and baseball player and coach. He played college football at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School from 1912 to 1913 and Georgia Tech from 1917 to 1918 and with a number of professional clubs from 1919 to 1927. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1966 and the College Football Hall of Fame in 1971.

Guyon signed to play professional football with the Canton Bulldogs in 1919. After the NFL was organized in 1920, he played seven more seasons with the Washington Senators, Cleveland Indians, Oorang Indians, Rock Island Independents, Kansas City Cowboys, and the New York Giants. From 1919 to 1924, he teamed with another outstanding Indian halfback, Jim Thorpe. They parted ways late in the 1924 season when Guyon left the Independents to go to Kansas City. He stayed with the Cowboys in 1925 while Thorpe went to the 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 and played a leading role in scoring the necessary points for his team that also finished second in scoring that season.

Guyon coached the Bulldogs of Union University in Jackson, Tennessee in 1919. He returned to Union in 1923 and coached all sports from 1923 to 1927. Union inducted Guyon into its sports hall of fame in 2008.

Guyon coached the backfield of the 1920 Georgia Tech team. He also coached high school football at St. Xavier High School in Louisville, Kentucky from 1931 to 1933, with a 16–7–2 record.

Sources

https://www.pro-football-reference.com/

https://www.profootballarchives.com/index.html

https://americanfootballdatabase.fandom.com/wiki/Football_Wiki

https://www.gridiron-uniforms.com/GUD/controller/controller.php?action=main

https://www.profootballhof.com/hall-of-famers/

 "Joe Guyon's HOF Profile". Pro Football Hall of Fame. Retrieved January 21, 2009.

 "Georgia Tech Boasts All-Southern Eleven". Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette. November 20, 1918. p. 6. Retrieved December 17, 2015 – via Newspapers.com. Open access icon

 "Joe Guyon". College Football Hall of Fame. Football Foundation. Retrieved January 21, 2009.

 C. Richard King (March 10, 2015). Native Americans in Sports. Routledge. p. 137. ISBN 9781317464037.

 Sentinel, Joseph Cress, The (November 8, 2012). "Carlisle vs. Army: 100 years later, game remembered for celebrity players".

 Willis, Chris (May 5, 2017). Walter Lingo, Jim Thorpe, and the Oorang Indians: How a Dog Kennel Owner Created the NFL's Most Famous Traveling Team. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 9781442277663.

 Rozendaal, Neal (July 9, 2012). Duke Slater: Pioneering Black NFL Player and Judge. McFarland. ISBN 9780786469574.

 "All-Time Football Team Lists Greats Of Past, Present". Gadsden Times. July 27, 1969.

 Umphlett 1992, p. 142

 Umphlett 1992, p. 141

 Spalding Football Guide. Shawnee Mission, Kansas, NCAA Publishing Service. 1918.

 "Strupper and Guyon of Georgia Tech Are Hailed As Two of the Greatest Pigskin Heroes In Seasons". The Day. November 19, 1917.

 "Jackets Win Double Bill" (PDF). The Technique. October 2, 1917. p. 4. Archived from the original (PDF) on October 30, 2014.

 "Georgia Crushes W. and L." The New York Times. October 21, 1917. p. 118. Retrieved November 10, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.

 McCarty 1988a, p. 5

 McCarty 1988b, p. 15

 "Golden Tornado Wins Great Victory" (PDF). The Technique. December 4, 1917. p. 4.

 Union University (January 1, 1920). Lest We Forget 1920. Student Organizations of Union University.

 "Coach Guyon Leaves Union". Cardinal and Cream. April 8, 1927 – via Union University Archives.

 "Union to induct six into Sports Hall of Fame Nov. 7 - News Release". November 5, 2008.

 "Alumni Events 2008" (PDF). Union University. Retrieved November 10, 2024.

 "Blue Print, 1921". School Yearbooks. Georgia Institute of Technology. January 1, 1921.

 Powers-Beck, Jeffrey (August 16, 2011). ""A Role New to the Race": A New History of the Nebraska Indians" (PDF). Nebraska History. Archived from the original on May 22, 2013.

McCarty, Bernie (February 1988). "Georgia Tech's 1917 backfield, better than the Four Horsemen: Part 1" (PDF). College Football Historical Society Newsletter. 1 (3). Archived from the original (PDF) on March 4, 2016.

McCarty, Bernie (May 1988). "Georgia Tech's 1917 backfield, better than the Four Horsemen: Part 2" (PDF). College Football Historical Society Newsletter. 1 (4). Archived from the original (PDF) on March 4, 2016.

Umphlett, Wiley Lee (1992). Creating the Big Game: John W. Heisman and the Invention of American Football. Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 141. ISBN 978-0-313-28404-5.