Ralph George "Fat" Waldsmith (August 7, 1892 – June 7, 1925) 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 during the early years of 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...

. Waldsmith won an NFL championship with the Canton Bulldogs

Canton Bulldogs

The Canton Bulldogs were a professional American football team, based in Canton, Ohio. They played in the Ohio League from 1903 to 1906 and 1911 to 1919, and its successor, the National Football League, from 1920 to 1923 and again from 1925 to 1926. The Bulldogs would go on to win the 1917, 1918...

 in 1922

1922 NFL season

The 1922 NFL season was the 3rd regular season of what was now called National Football League . The NFL fielded 18 teams during the season, including new league teams such as the Milwaukee Badgers, the Oorang Indians, the Racine Legion, and the Toledo Maroons...

. before that season, he played for the Cleveland Indians

Cleveland Indians (NFL)

The Cleveland Indians was a professional football team in the National Football League for the 1931 season. The 1931 team was a league-sponsored club that only played games on the road. The NFL intended to locate this team permanently in Cleveland...

 in the American Professional Football Association, which was the run-up to the NFL.

Pre-NFL era

Prior to playing the NFL, Waldsmith played in the Ohio League

Ohio League

The Ohio League was an informal and loose association of American football clubs active between 1903 and 1919 that competed for the Ohio Independent Championship . As the name implied, its teams were based in Ohio...

 with the Akron Indians in 1914, alongside Knute Rockne

Knute Rockne

Knute Kenneth Rockne was an American football player and coach. He is regarded as one of the greatest coaches in college football history...

. He played in every game that season. In 1916 and 1917, Ralph won the Ohio League championship with the Canton Bulldogs. In 1919 Waldsmith was the coach and co-owner of the Akron Indians. That year he signed 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...

 to play for Akron ao that the team could compete against the Massillon Tigers

Massillon Tigers

The Massillon Tigers were an early professional football team from Massillon, Ohio. Playing in the "Ohio League", the team was a rival to the pre-National Football League version of the Canton Bulldogs. The Tigers won Ohio League championships in 1903, 1904, 1905, and 1906, then merged to become...

 and Canton.

Akron Zips Hall of Fame

In 1978, Waldsmith was inducted into the University of Akron's

University of Akron

The University of Akron is a coeducational public research university located in Akron, Ohio, United States. The university is part of the University System of Ohio. It was founded in 1870 as a small college affiliated with the Universalist Church. In 1913 ownership was transferred to the City of...

Varsity “A” Sports Hall of Fame.