Elza Williams Tobin was a professional football

American football

American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...

 player with the independent Youngstown Patricians

Youngstown Patricians

The Youngstown Patricians were a semi-professional football team based in Youngstown, Ohio. In the 1910s, the team briefly held the professional football championship and established itself as a fierce rival of more experienced clubs around the country, some of which later formed the core of the...

 and a player-coach

Player-coach

A player-coach, in sports, is a member of a sports team who simultaneously holds both playing and coaching duties. The term can be used to refer to both players who serve as head coaches, or as assistant coaches....

 with the Akron Pros

Akron Pros

The Akron Pros were a professional football team located played in Akron, Ohio from 1908–1926. The team originated in 1908 as a semi-pro team named the Akron Indians, however name was changed to the Pros in 1920 as the team set out to become a charter member of the American Professional...

 of the American Professional Football Association (renamed the National Football League

National Football League

The National Football League is the highest level of professional American football in the United States, and is considered the top professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing...

 in 1922) where he wore number 8. Tobin played with Patricians from 1915 until 1919. When the team folded, Tobin joined the Akron Pros of the newly formed AFPA. In 1920

1920 NFL season

The 1920 APFA season was the inaugural regular season of the National Football League which was called the American Professional Football Association in 1920 and 1921...

, Tobin coached the Pros to win the first ever NFL Championship. The very nest season, he split the team's coaching duties with Fritz Pollard

Fritz Pollard

Frederick Douglass "Fritz" Pollard was the first African American head coach in the National Football League . Pollard along with Bobby Marshall were the first two African American players in the NFL in 1920...

, making Pollard the first African-American coach in the NFL.

Tobin was slated to coach a proposed Youngstown team granted by the National Football League in 1922. However the project died in the planning stages.

Prior to playing professional football, Tobin played college football

College football

College football refers to American football played by teams of student athletes fielded by American universities, colleges, and military academies, or Canadian football played by teams of student athletes fielded by Canadian universities...

 at Penn State and West Virginia

West Virginia University

West Virginia University is a public research university in Morgantown, West Virginia, USA. Other campuses include: West Virginia University at Parkersburg in Parkersburg; West Virginia University Institute of Technology in Montgomery; Potomac State College of West Virginia University in Keyser;...

. He lettered in football for the Mountaineers in 1907. At Penn State, where records list him as "Yegg Tobin," he lettered for three years (1912, 1913, 1914).