Benjamin Friedman was an American football player and coach, and athletic administrator.
57 Facts About Benny Friedman
2.
Benny Friedman played in the backfield on both offense and defense, handled kicking and return duties, and was known for his passing game.
3.
Benny Friedman was a consensus first-team All-American in both 1925 and 1926, and won the Chicago Tribune Silver Football trophy as the most valuable player in the Big Ten Conference in 1926.
4.
Benny Friedman played eight seasons in the National Football League for the Cleveland Bulldogs, Detroit Wolverines, New York Giants, and Brooklyn Dodgers.
5.
Benny Friedman was the leading passer of his era in the NFL and is credited with revolutionizing the game with his passing prowess.
6.
Benny Friedman led the league in passing for four consecutive years from 1927 to 1930, and was selected as the first-team All-NFL quarterback in each of those years.
7.
Benny Friedman served as the head coach of the Giants for the last 2 games of the 1930 season, both were victories.
8.
Benny Friedman later served as the head football coach at City College of New York from 1934 to 1941, and at Brandeis University from 1950 to 1959.
9.
Benny Friedman was the first Athletic Director at Brandeis, holding the position from 1949 to 1963.
10.
Benny Friedman was part of the inaugural class of inductees into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1951, and was posthumously inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2005.
11.
Benny Friedman's father, Louis Friedman, was a Jewish tailor and furrier who immigrated to the United States from the Russian Empire in approximately 1890.
12.
Benny Friedman's mother, Mayme Atlevonik Friedman, was a Russian Jew, who came to the United States in approximately 1894.
13.
Benny Friedman began his high school education at East Technical High School in Cleveland.
14.
Sam Willaman, the school's football coach, told Benny Friedman, who was then five feet, six inches, and less than 150 pounds, that, due to his small size, he would never make it as a football player.
15.
Benny Friedman played football, baseball and basketball and led Glenville's football team to the city championship in 1922.
16.
Benny Friedman played on the all-freshman football team in the fall of 1923.
17.
One of Michigan's touchdowns was set up when Benny Friedman intercepted a Northwestern pass and returned it 13 yards.
18.
Later in the half, Benny Friedman completed a pass to Charles Grube for a 20-yard gain and then completed another pass to Bruce Gregory for a 30-yard gain and a touchdown.
19.
Benny Friedman accounted for 50 points, throwing five touchdown passes, running 55 yards for a touchdown, and kicking two field goals and eight extra points.
20.
Besides that, Benny Friedman was a regular whirligig in carrying the ball.
21.
Benny Friedman threw two touchdown passes to Oosterbaan, completed seven of 16 pass attempts for 130 yards, and converted all five extra-point kicks.
22.
Historic data collected by the NCAA indicates that Benny Friedman completed 34 of 83 passes during the 1925 season with 13 touchdown passes and eight interceptions.
23.
At the close of the 1925 season, Benny Friedman was elected by his teammates to serve as the captain of the 1926 Michigan team.
24.
Much like Hank Greenberg in the 1930s, Benny Friedman's success in the 1920s was a source of pride for Jews across the United States.
25.
Benny Friedman received the Chicago Tribune Silver Football trophy as the most valuable player in the Big Ten Conference.
26.
Benny Friedman led the NFL during the 1927 with 12 passing touchdowns and 1,721+ passing yards; his closest competitors totaled seven passing touchdowns and 1,362 passing yards.
27.
Benny Friedman was selected as a first-team All-NFL player by both the Chicago Tribune and the Green Bay Press Gazette.
28.
Benny Friedman led the NFL in rushing touchdowns in 1928, making him the only player in NFL history to lead the league in both passing and rushing touchdowns in the same season.
29.
In July 1929, Benny Friedman signed with the New York Giants.
30.
Benny Friedman led the NFL with 985 passing yards, and his 20 touchdown passes set an NFL single season record that stood until 1942.
31.
Benny Friedman led the NFL with 922 passing yards and 10 touchdown passes in 1930.
32.
Benny Friedman's passing proficiency was especially noteworthy considering that the football used at the time was rounder and more difficult to throw.
33.
Benny Friedman called plays at the line of scrimmage and threw on first and second down, when most teams waited until third down.
34.
Benny Friedman forced the defenses out of the dark ages.
35.
In February 1931, Benny Friedman announced that he intended to retire from professional football.
36.
Benny Friedman was hired as an assistant coach for the Yale Bulldogs football team.
37.
On October 26,1931, Benny Friedman signed a contract to return to the Giants for the remainder of the season.
38.
Since the Giants' practices were held in the morning, Benny Friedman indicated that his duties with the Giants would not conflict with his coaching duties at Yale.
39.
In March 1932, Benny Friedman signed as player, manager, and coach for the Brooklyn Dodgers.
40.
Benny Friedman signed to return to the Dodgers in September 1933, though he did not serve as the head coach in 1933.
41.
Benny Friedman started five of ten games for the 1933 Dodgers.
42.
Benny Friedman was the NFL's career leader in passing yardage until Sammy Baugh's seventh NFL season in 1947.
43.
Benny Friedman totaled over 1,000 yards rushing and over 400 yards on punt returns.
44.
At the time of his retirement, Benny Friedman held the NFL record with 66 career touchdown passes.
45.
In February 1934, Benny Friedman was hired as the football coach at City College of New York.
46.
Benny Friedman remained the coach at City College through the 1941 season, stepping down in 1942 for military service.
47.
Benny Friedman was named an assistant football coach at the Great Lakes Naval Training Station in North Chicago, Illinois.
48.
Benny Friedman later served as the deck officer aboard the aircraft carrier USS Shangri-La in the Pacific Ocean theater of World War II.
49.
In June 1949, Benny Friedman was hired as the athletic director at Brandeis University, a university founded in 1948 at Waltham, Massachusetts.
50.
Benny Friedman was the school's first coach of the Brandeis football team when it began play in 1950.
51.
Benny Friedman remained the head football coach at Brandeis through the 1959 season.
52.
Benny Friedman was then nominated by the Hall's veterans committee and received the requisite votes by a 39-member panel of selectors.
53.
Benny Friedman was married in February 1931 to Shirley Immerman, a resident of Brooklyn.
54.
Benny Friedman served as head football coach until the school dropped the program.
55.
Benny Friedman went on sabbatical in September 1962 and resigned the following April, citing business pressures and the growth of his boys' quarterback school at Camp Kohut in Oxford, Maine.
56.
Benny Friedman battled and beat cancer, underwent back surgery, and suffered from heart disease and diabetes.
57.
Benny Friedman underwent a partial amputation of his left leg below the knee.