13 Facts About Ed Healey

Ed Healey was named in 1969 to the NFL 1920s All-Decade Team.

Ed Healey played professional football as a tackle in the NFL for the Rock Island Independents from 1920 to 1922 and for the Chicago Bears from 1922 to 1927.

Ed Healey never played for a team with a losing record during his NFL career and, in 1922, became the first player in NFL history to be sold to another team.

Ed Healey was named as a first-team All Pro player by at least one selector for five consecutive years from 1922 to 1926.

Ed Healey was born in 1894 in Indian Orchard, a neighborhood at the northeast end of Springfield, Massachusetts.

Ed Healey's father worked in the street sprinkler business and later as a contractor in the wood business.

Ed Healey then attended and played college football at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts, in 1914 and at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, for three years.

Ed Healey began playing professional football with the Rock Island Independents in 1920, the inaugural season of the National Football League.

Halas indicated that he had been blocking against Ed Healey and did "just a wee bit of holding" in order to spring star halfback and Bears co-owner Dutch Sternaman for a 7 yard gain.

Ed Healey spent six seasons with the Bears, playing the final three games of 1922 through the end of the 1927 season.

Ed Healey was selected as a first-team All-Pro by at least one major selector each year from 1922 to 1926.

Ed Healey died three years later in December 1978 at age 83 from multiple causes, including malnutrition, cardiac and pulmonary failure, and cancer of the stomach and lung.

Ed Healey died at the Cardinal Nursing Home in South Bend, Indiana.