Albert Preston Baston was an American football end who played for the Cleveland Tigers of the American Professional Football Conference for one season.
13 Facts About Bert Baston
1.
2.
Bert Baston played college football for the Minnesota Golden Gophers, where he was an All-American and one of the first great catchers of the forward pass.
3.
Bert Baston was awarded the Navy Cross for "extraordinary heroism" in World War I Bert Baston was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame in 1954.
4.
Bert Baston was captain of the team his final year.
5.
Bert Baston was president of the Athletic Board of Control, a member of the University Senate, of the Junior Ball Association, elected to Iron Wedge, a senior society, and to Phi Delta Phi international legal honor society, along with various local clubs.
6.
Bert Baston suffered a critical leg injury while serving in the Battle of Belleau Wood, with a hole in his leg "big enough to stick a broom handle through," according to family lore.
7.
Bert Baston spent almost a year in the hospital, and when he got out he started a bakery in Detroit.
8.
Bert Baston played that same year for the Cleveland Tigers, an early NFL team.
9.
Bert Baston served as the Minnesota Gophers' ends coach from 1930 to the 1941 and again from 1946 to 1950.
10.
In World War II Bert Baston again was called into service, this time in the North Africa Campaign as a colonel in the Marines, where he commanded a battalion that repaired equipment ranging from jeeps to rocket guns for armies in the European and African Theaters.
11.
Bert Baston remained active in the community and was appointed as General Chairman of the 1948 Minneapolis Aquatennial.
12.
Bert Baston moved to St Cloud later in life and opened a dealership there.
13.
Bert Baston died in St Cloud on November 15,1979, and is buried at Lakewood Cemetery in Minneapolis.