44 Facts About Eddie Cochems

Edward Bulwer Cochems was an American football player and coach.

Eddie Cochems is considered by some to be the "father of the forward pass" in American football.

Eddie Cochems was born in 1877 at Sturgeon Bay, the county seat of Door County on Wisconsin's Door Peninsula.

Eddie Cochems had a twin brother, Carl Eddie Cochems, who became a noted opera singer.

Eddie Cochems attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he competed for the Badgers in football, baseball and track.

Eddie Cochems was the captain of the 1901 Wisconsin baseball team, but he gained his greatest acclaim as a football player.

Eddie Cochems began playing at the left end position, but was moved to the left halfback position for the 1900 and 1901 seasons.

Eddie Cochems played four years of 70-minute football, and I don't remember him ever being taken out of a game because of injuries.

Nothing approaching the play of the Badgers trio of backs, Larson, Driver and Eddie Cochems, has ever been seen on Randall Field.

On November 28,1901, in his final game as a Wisconsin football player, Eddie Cochems ran back a kickoff for a touchdown against Amos Alonzo Stagg's Chicago Maroons.

Eddie Cochems was a bicycling enthusiast who gained attention for a 1900 bicycle trip across Europe with classmate George Mowry.

Eddie Cochems led the North Dakota Aggies to an undefeated and unscored upon record in 1902, outscoring opponents by a combined 168 to 0.

In January 1904, the University of Wisconsin athletic board voted to select Eddie Cochems to serve as the school's assistant football coach at a salary of $800.

Eddie Cochems returned to Madison in 1904 as both assistant football coach and assistant athletic director.

In December 1904, the selection of a new head coach at Wisconsin was put to a straw vote with Eddie Cochems running against Phil King and two other candidates.

In February 1906, Eddie Cochems was hired as the head football coach at St Louis University.

Eddie Cochems had reportedly long been an enthusiast of the forward pass.

At St Louis, Eddie Cochems rejoined fellow Wisconsiner and former Badger halfback Bradbury Robinson.

Eddie Cochems was an assistant coach with the Badgers that year.

Eddie Cochems reportedly did not start calling pass plays in the Carroll game until after he had grown frustrated with the failure of his offense to move the ball on the ground.

Eddie Cochems did not protect his receiver by surrounding him with teammates, as was the case in the East.

Eddie Cochems explained in words and photographs how the forward pass could be thrown and how passing skills could be developed.

Eddie Cochems was disappointed that his pass-oriented offense did not catch on quickly.

In September 1907, Eddie Cochems introduced another innovation at St Louis, having his players wear numbers to allow spectators to identify individual players.

Eddie Cochems team defeated the Nebraska Cornhuskers on November 28,1907, by a score of 34 to 0.

Eddie Cochems took his team to the West Coast for a Christmas Day game against Washington State College.

On January 1,1909, Eddie Cochems coached a St Louis all-star football team against a Chicago all-star football game coached by Walter Eckersall.

In 1909, Eddie Cochems worked for a time as the director of the public playground system in St Louis.

In November 1909, a Wisconsin newspaper reported that Eddie Cochems was coaching "a minor team" in St Louis and had been beaten badly by "another equally minor institution" from Chicago.

Eddie Cochems coached a Missouri "all-star" team that played against Frank Longman's Notre Dame team at Sportsman's Park in St Louis on Christmas Day 1910.

In January 1911, Eddie Cochems was considered for the position of football coach at the University of Wisconsin, but did not get the job.

Eddie Cochems briefly returned to coaching in 1914 as the head football coach for the University of Maine.

Eddie Cochems attended meetings of the Rules Committee with the likes of Walter Camp and John Heisman.

Eddie Cochems worked in the campaigns of Calvin Coolidge and Herbert Hoover.

Eddie Cochems was a national organizer for the American Commission for Relief in Belgium.

Eddie Cochems served on the staff of the Gibson Private Relief Association of New York.

Eddie Cochems married May Louise Mullen of Madison in August 1902.

Eddie Cochems died after a long illness on April 9,1953, in the same Madison hospital in which his 14th grandchild had been born the day prior.

Eddie Cochems is a tricky and resourceful gridiron master with a large repertoire of plays and a dynamic personality.

Eddie Cochems's gimmick is a claim, 'based on considerable research,' that St Louis was the first team to throw a forward pass.

Honors and recognition of Eddie Cochems' accomplishments have been slow coming.

Eddie Cochems was twice nominated to the College Football Hall of Fame, the last time in 1965, but was not elected.

Eddie Cochems was inducted into the University of Wisconsin Athletics Hall of Fame in 1994 and the Madison Sports Hall of Fame in 1968.

In December 1999, Eddie Cochems was ranked 29th in Sports Illustrated's list of the 50 greatest sports figures in Wisconsin history.