The NFL has been around for over a century and the sport is currently the most popular in the nation.
Players today are some of the most talented, highly paid and recognized in all of professional sports.
Of course, today’s millionaire NFL players owe a great debt to those who came before them.
Specifically, the first NFL players that suited up with leather helmets and very little padding for even smaller pay.
One of those early pioneers was Guy Chamberlin.
Canton Bulldogs
Guy Chamberlin pic.twitter.com/KEfkrJbRFp— J-Scoop (@jessecrean) January 14, 2021
From 1919 through 1927, Chamberlin played for four different franchises and won six championships.
During the last six of those years, he also served as a player-head coach.
Chamberlin’s winning percentage of .759 is the best in NFL history for head coaches with a minimum of 50 victories.
He also won a championship with three different organizations, something that no other coach in all of pro sports could duplicate until 1997.
After retiring from the game, Chamberlin worked in sales and maintained his family farm.
In the 1960s, he was inducted into both the College Football and Pro Football Halls of Fame.
This is the story of Guy Chamberlin.
Growing Up in Blue Springs
Berlin Guy “Champ” Chamberlin was born on January 16, 1894, in Blue Springs, Nebraska.
Guy Chamberlin started his NFL career with the Canton Bulldogs and was the NFL's premiere end of the 1920s, going on to win four NFL Championships as a player-coach.
The late Chamberlin was born #OTD in 1894. pic.twitter.com/thDv1HNvEP
— Pro Football Hall of Fame (@ProFootballHOF) January 17, 2024
Originally, the family surname was spelled Chamberlain.
However, Guy’s father, a farmer who also sold grain, decided to drop the second “A” from the name so it would fit better on the grain sacks he sold.
Growing up in the early part of the 20th century, Guy and his five brothers and sisters helped out on the family’s 1,000-acre farm.
The toil helped build Guy’s strength and stamina and his work effort established on the farm would be evident the rest of his life.
When it came time to attend Blue Springs High School, Chamberlin either had to walk the four miles each way or, if he was lucky, traveled by horse and buggy.
As a student-athlete at BSHS, Chamberlin played football and baseball and was a team captain for the football squad.
Additionally, he was an All-State selection from 1908 through the 1910 seasons.
In 1951, he was inducted into the Nebraska High School Sports Hall of Fame.
Chamberlin’s talent was obvious as well as his frame, which was rapidly growing over six feet and close to 200 pounds.
Local colleges in the area took note and he enrolled at Nebraska Wesleyan College in 1911.
A “Champ” for the Coyotes
Before he suited up for the Coyotes (now known as the Prairie Wolves) Chamberlin’s father made a major decision.
Instead of traveling back and forth between the school in Lincoln, Nebraska and the family farm, Chamberlin’s dad decided that Guy and his brothers would live in town with their mother.
Then, on summer breaks, they would return to Blue Springs to work the farm.
During the 1911 football season, Chamberlin played halfback and end for first-year coach William Kline.
As the Coyotes went 7-0 (and roughed up opponents to the tune of 93-10 overall that season), Chamberlin led Wesleyan to an NIAA title.
@ProFootballHOF Pro Football Induction Ceremony September 12, 1965 Guy Chamberlin Nebraska Wesleyan & Nebraska. College Football Hall. Chicago Staleys Frankford Yellow Jackets Canton Bulldogs.
John (Paddy) Driscoll Northwestern. College Football Hall. Racine Chicago Cardinals. pic.twitter.com/KlMLMahhug— Timothy C. Kulla (@TCKooo) September 12, 2021
The Omaha World Herald newspaper named Champ as one of its All-Nebraska Team members.
Then, in the spring of 1912, Chamberlin grabbed a glove and bat and played pitcher and outfielder for the Coyotes baseball team.
While Wesleyan won a conference title in that sport as well, Chamberlin hit a robust .316 batting average.
Not one to stay idle long, he also competed on the school’s championship track team where Chamberlin was “… especially strong in the short distances and weights,” according to the athletic department.
In 1912, the game of football changed its rules a bit and the Coyotes went 5-2-1 but still won the conference title.
The local press once again hailed Chamberlin as a great player who doubled as a human bulldozer.
“Chamberlin is almost in a class by himself,” wrote the World Herald. “He is a fierce and aggressive runner and adopts the system of bowling over the opposing tacklers in much the same style as the famous Coy of Yale. Chamberlin rarely used a stiff arm, and yet many times it was next to impossible to stop him.”
Transfer to the Huskers
In 1913, Chamberlin transferred to the University of Nebraska in Lincoln and sat out the season.
Guy Chamberlin entered the portal before it even existed #GBR pic.twitter.com/bJ5oSuzRpT
— Husker Wave (@HuskerWave) November 21, 2023
However, Chamberlin donned pads in 1914 as one of head coach Ewald Stiehm’s heralded “Stiehm-Rollers.”
That season, he played defensive end and halfback for the Cornhuskers and tossed the ball from his position as a southpaw.
Chamberlin scored nine touchdowns as Nebraska went 7-0-1, and along the way, Champ made several highlight reel plays.
During a contest against Michigan Agricultural College (now known as Michigan State) on October 24, Chamberlin scored on a 90-yard kick return and on a two-yard rushing plunge.
Three weeks later, he scored on a 70-yard romp through the Kansas Jayhawks defense on the way to a 35-0 win.
Following the season in which Nebraska outscored its opponents 174-28, Chamberlin was chosen as a member of the All-Missouri Valley Conference Team.
Senior Year
Chamberlin didn’t slow down a bit in 1915.
That season he played left end in addition to defense and scored 15 times for the 8-0 Cornhuskers.
On October 23, Notre Dame and head coach Jesse Harper traveled to Lincoln for a much-ballyhooed game.
Chamberlin scored the first two touchdowns of the afternoon on rushes of 20 and 10 yards.
Later on, he threw two passes for 49 total yards and what proved to be the game-winning touchdown.
Following Nebraska’s 20-19 victory, the World Herald newspaper wrote, “His defensive stunts bordered upon the miraculous, while his open field running, in which he displayed that famous ‘side walk trot’ to the best advantage, brought victory to the colors of the Cornhuskers.”
In the final game of the season against Iowa, Champ scored four times including a 60-yard touchdown in the 52-7 win.
Wooky Roberts and Canton Bulldog stars: Guy Chamberlin (Nebraska) , Link Lyman (Nebraska), and Harry Robb (Penn State) pic.twitter.com/tUr6xw2F6t
— OldRabbleLore (@OldRabbleLore) September 3, 2024
Notre Dame scored the most points against Nebraska in a contest the entire season while the ‘Huskers rolled up a total of 282 points to their opponents’ 39.
When the ‘15 season concluded, Chamberlin was heralded as a consensus All-American, the first such honor in program history.
Decades later, he was inducted into the 1962 class of the College Football Hall of Fame.
During the festivities, Chamberlin was humble and gave all the credit to his teammates.
“Dick Rutherford was the standout. But while Dick had more guts than I had, I was a little faster and Jumbo Stiehm made him the workhorse and gave me the glory.”
Teacher, Coach, Farmer and Member of the Army
When Chamberlin’s playing eligibility ended following the 1915 season, he returned to help on his father’s farm.
In 1916 he was the athletic director and football coach at Doane College in Crete, Nebraska.
He then taught science, was the principal and coached football at Lexington High School in Lexington, Nebraska.
World War I was raging at the time, and in the spring of 1918, Chamberlin joined the Army and was stationed at three different sites in the U.S.
His final station, at Camp Kearney outside San Diego, 2nd Lieutenant Chamberlin was the athletic director for the base until he left the service in October 1919.
That was the same year he married his first wife, Lucile Lees.
Chamberlin Begins His Pro Career
As hard as it is to imagine now, professional football was not very popular at the time.
Once a football player left the college game, he faced real life as the pro game didn’t offer anywhere near the payday it does now.
However, the Canton, Ohio Bulldogs just happened to employ Jim Thorpe, the legendary athlete and Olympian who was also the team’s head coach.
Chamberlin was a huge fan of Thorpe’s and was flattered when the latter invited Champ to play with the squad in the fall of 1919.
With the 878th pick in the #8thAnnualATMockDraft the Canton Bulldogs select:
Best Player alive in the 1920s
5x NFL champ
Ohio League champ
4x All-Pro (Inaugural All-Pro consensus selection)
6 Defensive TDs
All-1920sLB/E Guy Chamberlin@CMESportsNews & the NY Giants are OTC pic.twitter.com/nQcpEXrmYs
— ✝️he Reborn Hater ⚡️ (@Supercharged33) July 4, 2021
He threw on the pads once again and delighted when the Bulldogs went 9-0-1.
Near the end of the season, Chamberlin’s play stood out to Decatur Staleys head coach and player George Halas.
Halas signed Champ to play for the Staley’s in 1920 for the newly formed American Professional Football Association (APFA).
Although Decatur went 10-1-2 that season, Chamberlin did not record any stats despite being the organization’s highest-paid player and was still named a first-team All-Pro.
The Staley’s relocated to Chicago before the 1921 season and Halas guided the franchise to a 9-1-1 record and the APFA title.
As an end on offense and a defender, Chamberlin scored three times that year and had a huge game against the Buffalo All-Americans on December 4 that led to a big win.
“Chamberlin was the best 2-way end I’ve ever seen. He was a tremendous tackler on defense and a triple-threat performer on offense. He was the star of the day against Buffalo, running 70 yards with an intercepted pass to score our only touchdown in a 10-to-7 victory,” Halas wrote about Chamberlin in 1957.
Following the football season, Chamberlin and Halas played on the Staley’s basketball, baseball and track teams.
Player/Coach
During the spring of 1922, Chamberlin was asked to return to Canton and become a player/coach for the Bulldogs in the newly rebranded National Football League (NFL) and he accepted.
His salary for the 1922 and 1923 seasons was reported at $7,000, a princely sum at the time.
In his new role as head coach, Champ signed former Staley’s teammate, John “Tarzan” Taylor, and Roy “Link” Lyman (Lyman would later become a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame).
1922: Los Canton Bulldogs serían los campeones de la NFL. El entrenador en jefe de los Bulldogs era Guy Chamberlin.
Los Bulldogs tuvieron un récord perfecto de 10-0-2. #NFL100 #football #NFL @ProFootballHOF pic.twitter.com/e7p6FHYL1e— Pepe Villalva (@ElPepeSports) May 30, 2019
As a halfback/end for Canton, Chamberlin scored seven touchdowns including four on offense and three on defense.
The powerful Bulldogs were not to be trifled with as they went 10-0-2 with nine shutouts and the opposing teams scoring a mere 15 points on them all season.
By virtue of their record, Canton won the NFL title.
Things remained the same in 1923 as Canton won the NFL Championship again after going 11-0-1.
Chamberlin’s team had eight shutouts and opponents scored 19 total points that year.
The player/coach himself was credited with only two touchdowns, but he reiterated that he just loved playing the sport.
“I love the game. That’s why I play it. I might make more money in some other line of endeavor so it is not the ‘sugar’ that keeps me at it,” he told the press.
New team owner Samuel Deutsch moved the franchise to Cleveland before the 1924 season.
A new location didn’t matter to the Bulldogs as Chamberlin whipped his charges into shape to prepare, something many of the players at the time weren’t used to.
“Before Guy came to Cleveland, we just met on Sunday afternoons, ate lunch, and then played the game. But he made us work; he had us start practicing every day,” remarked one of the Bulldogs.
The result of the coach’s preparation resulted in another NFL title with a 7-1-1 record while Chamberlin scored on two receiving touchdowns.
More Wins
Deutsch experienced financial problems that year and the team disbanded after the season.
Chamberlin wasn’t unemployed for long and was hired to be the player/coach for the Frankford, Pennsylvania, Yellow Jackets in 1925.
Once again, Chamberlin prepared his team for the trenches.
“Chamberlin’s system of preparing a certain style of play for each game is bringing great results. The Frankford mentor is familiar with the various styles used by other league teams and every week grounds his men in the best way to battle with the opposing eleven,” wrote the Philadelphia Inquirer.
A 9-1 start regressed to a 13-7 finish as a number of injuries, including to Champ, hobbled the team.
However, in 1926, Frankford was healthy again and blazed through a 14-1-1 record including a big win against Halas’s Bears.
Before the Eagles, Philadelphia had the Frankford Yellow Jackets. Formed as the Frankford Athletic Association in 1899, the Yellow Jackets were one of the best football teams in the 1920s. In 1933 Bert Bell purchased the franchise, establishing the Philadelphia Eagles. pic.twitter.com/miGYgwXNWW
— Historical Society of Pennsylvania (@historicalpa) February 11, 2023
On December 4, Chamberlin beat Chicago almost single-handedly on the way to a 7-6 victory.
During the contest, Champ, “broke through to block Paddy Driscoll’s try for an extra point following a Chicago touchdown, and late in the game he blocked Driscoll’s attempt at a field goal. Frankford scored in the dying minutes of the contest, then added the extra point, to eke out a 7-6 win,” wrote the local media.
Frankford had two more wins than Chicago by the end of the season, giving the Yellow Jackets the NFL Championship.
It was Chamberlin’s fourth title in five years.
End of the Road
By all accounts, Chamberlin had a good thing going with Frankford.
That’s why it was vexing that he wanted to move on before the 1927 NFL season and rumors swirled that he might wear the uniform of the Green Bay Packers or New York Giants.
“I have nothing to say. It is a long time between now and next football season and I may decide to do something which I may not even have in my mind at the present time,” Chamberlin told the press.
In early August, he signed on with the Chicago Cardinals to become the organization’s new head coach and player.
Unfortunately, the Cards were awful and limped through a losing record.
The lone bright spot was a date against Frankford when Chamberlin was honored before the game with a standing ovation from the home crowd.
He was also given a basket of flowers and a gold watch by the Yellow Jacket faithful before Frankford beat Chicago, 12-8.
Surprisingly, with the team sitting at 2-6-1, Chamberlin was fired with two games to go in the season.
“Dissatisfied with the showing of the Cardinals, Manager Chris O’Brien has changed his lineup for this morning’s game. Guy Chamberlin, Cardinal coach, has been released and the Cardinals will be directed by Ben Jones, captain of the team,” wrote the Chicago Tribune.
Retirement
Instead of finding new employment in pro football, Chamberlin abruptly retired and told the media he wanted to coach at Nebraska.
“Chamberlin declared he had tired of pro football and not only would like to coach at his alma mater but would guarantee to produce an all-victorious team his first year, regardless of schedule or accept no salary.”
Even the promise of taking no salary couldn’t persuade the Cornhusker administration and Chamberlin was not hired for the position.
As a head coach in the NFL, Chamberlin’s record varies slightly based on how the NFL assigned wins and losses at the time.
However, most accounts have his overall record at 58-16-7.
OTD April 4, 1967. Guy Chamberlin. NFL winningest coach by pct. passes. Chamberlin went 58-16-7 (.759). Coached four NFL teams in 6 seasons. Canton (21-0-3), Cleveland (7-1-1), Frankford (27-8-2), Chicago (3-7-1). Won 4 NFL titles, incl. three straight to start coaching career. pic.twitter.com/cTmqucvMIS
— John Salzman (@HighPrairieFarm) April 4, 2025
That .759 winning percentage remains the best of all time in the league as of 2024 for coaches who have coached at least 50 games.
He won a championship with three different franchises, something that wasn’t equaled in pro sports until Scotty Bowman won an NHL title with the Detroit Red Wings in 1997.
During his career, Bowman coached the Montreal Canadiens, Pittsburgh Penguins and Red Wings to Stanley Cup victories.
While playing and coaching, Chamberlin scored 102 total points, was an Ohio League champion with Canton in 1919 and a five-time NFL champion.
Furthermore, he was a four-time first-team All-Pro and later added to the NFL’s 1920s All-Decade Team.
In 1962, Champ was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame and inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1965.
Each year, the Guy Chamberlin Award is given to a senior who uses his qualities and dedication for the betterment of the Nebraska Football team.
This year’s recipient ➡️ @Thekidstan#GBR 🌽🏆 pic.twitter.com/sYCyw95NdP
— Nebraska Football (@HuskerFootball) January 10, 2019
Two years later, the Nebraska football program started awarding the Guy Chamberlin Trophy to the Huskers player who best shows the quality and tradition of Cornhusker football.
Chamberlin Passes Away
For the next few decades after retiring, Chamberlin and his family moved to Cleveland where he was a salesman.
When the Great Depression struck America in the 1930s, the Chamberlins’ returned to Blue Springs where he helped run his father’s farm.
Guy coached high school football in the area for a few years in the late 30s.
OTD 1965: The third Pro Football Hall of Fame class is enshrined in Canton.
• Bob Waterfield, QB-DB
• Guy Chamberlin, E-HC
• Danny Fortmann, G-LB
• Sid Luckman, QB-DB
• Otto Graham, QB-DB
• Steve Van Buren, HB-DB
• Paddy Driscoll, QB-HB-HC pic.twitter.com/oIOXoanFjd— Kevin Gallagher (@KevG163) September 12, 2020
By 1940, Chamberlin had divorced Lucile and he remarried to Bernyce Weekes in 1941.
The couple moved to Nebraska City in 1948 when Chamberlin bought a tractor dealership.
In the mid-1950s, Chamberlin sold the dealership and the couple again relocated to Lincoln where he was a guard and teacher at the State Reformatory.
When he retired in 1962, the athletic field at the Reformatory was named after him.
On April 4, 1967, Chamberlin passed away and his ashes were scattered over the fields of the Chamberlin farm.
He was 73 years old.
References
https://footballfoundation.org
https://sportshistorynetwork.com
https://www.pro-football-reference.com
https://www.profootballhof.com
NEXT: The Life And Career Of Wilber Marshall
