Badgers Have Championship Hopes; Captain Hoeffel One of the Stars
October 1912, Syracuse Daily Journal
Captain Joseph Hoeffel
The University of Wisconsin's great victory over Northwestern last week has filled Badger football fans with Western Championship hopes. North-Western was trounced 56 to 6. It is said, however, that the game emphasized the Purple eleven's weakness rather than Wisconsin strength.
One of the most reliable men on the Wisconsin team is Captain Joseph Hoeffel. He is now a senior and has played at left end since his freshman year. Hoeffel is a deadly tacklee and fast in getting down the field. Last year he was placed on every all-Western team that was chosen.
____________
_________
Only child. Was a Wisconsin football star. He coached the Green Bay Packers in 1920, but then decided to spend his life continuing his father's business. His son, Joseph Merrill II, is a physician (retired) living in Bryn Mawr, PA. His son, Joseph Merrill III, of Norristown, PA, is the representative from his district to the U.S. Congress in Washington, D.C.
MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL
October 28, 2001
HOEFFEL WAS STAR PLAYER IN HIGH SCHOOL, COLLEGE
Son surprised to hear father coached Packers, hopes he'll get credit.
Although Joseph Merrill Hoeffel has long been forgotten by almost everyone but his surviving family, he was once one of the biggest names in Wisconsin football.
Hoeffel was captain at the University of Wisconsin in 1912, the last year that the school had an unbeaten football team. An end, he also was selected second-team All-American that year by Walter Camp.
Those honors were deemed worthy enough for Green Bay to hold a public banquet for him on November 27, 1912.
A native of Green Bay, Hoeffel was born in 1890 and starred in football at Green Bay East, the same high school that Curly Lambeau later attended. After graduating from Wisconsin, Hoeffel spent three years as an assistant coach at the University of Nebraska.
In 1916, he coached the East High team, and Lambeau was his star player. After coaching the Green bay Packers in 1921, Hoeffel went to work for his family's business and remained in Green Bay until his death on April 15, 1964.
One of his two sons is still living. Joseph Hoeffel, Jr., 84, is a retired physician living in Bryn Mawr, Pa. Hoeffel Jr.'s son, Joseph Merrill Hoeffel, III, is a member of Pennsylvania's delegation in the U.S. House of Representatives.
A great-granddaughter of the former Packers coach lives in Milwaukee, but she requested that her name not be printed in the story.
Joseph Hoeffel, Jr. was 4 years old in 1921. He had no recollection of watching his father coach, he said. He remembered attending his first Packers game in the late 1920s. He went with his dad to old City Stadium in Green Bay to watch the Frankford Yellow-Jackets play.
Hoeffel said his father told him that he served the Packers in a coaching capacity, but he figured he was the end coach.
"It's just a great surprise to me," Hoeffel said. Maybe I just assumed because he was the end coach at Nebraska and that was his position. That's just what I've always thought."
"I can't say which is right, but the newspaper reports at the time are certainly more accurate than what I remember 75 years ago."
Hoeffel said it would be welcome news if the Packers and the NFL decided to recognize his father's role in future publications.
"I think that would be very nice," he said. "The family has talked about it. My brother has been long gone, and he would have been interested also."
- Cliff Christi
MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL
October 28, 2001
REVISING RECORD BOOKS COULD BE MESSY JOB
Officials unsure of how to respond to evidence of Hoeffel's coaching
By CLIFF CHRISTI
Even if the National Football League and the Green Bay Packers officially acknowledge that Curly Lambeau wasn't the team's first coach, they might be reluctant to revise their record books.
To do so would erase what has been accepted as an historical fact for decades.
"I guess you could, but it would take some explaining that would be rather convoluted," said Lee Remmel, the team's executive director of public relations. "I don't know if we will or not.
"I remember when (Lambeau) stepped down, Art Daley (of the green Bay Press-Gazette) wrote the story, alluding to the fact or supposition, if you will, that he had been the coach for 31 years from 1919 to 1949. That's the way everybody has always looked at it. But, obviously, this puts a different light on it, no doubt about it."
Joe Horrigan, vice president/communications-exhibits for the Pro Football Hall of Fame, said someone at the league office would ultimately have to rule on the matter, but that a recommendation to do so would probably have to come from him.
There is no process," he said. "I guess it really starts with us being the historical repository if, in fact, we have factual information. And this now is factual information.
"Is it our right or within our power to change anything? We can change it in our files only. We don't publish for the National Football League. Would we bring it to their attention? Sure. Is there an ear there? Absolutely."
In 1993, the NFL accepted a recommendation from the Hall of Fame to reduce George Halas' victory total by one. At the time, Don Shula was closing in on Halas' record for career victories.
But to expunge Lambeau's first-year record would create numerous complications, not the least of which would be that it would create inaccuracies in the inscriprtion above the bust at Canton.
Horrigan said he probably would leave it up to the Packers to decide if they wanted to make a change in their 2002 media guide. Up to now, Joe Hoeffel's name has never appeared in the guide.
Remmel said that was something that probably should be corrected.
"I think we probably should do that just to be consistent with the history, the history we have now just discovered," he said.
One possible compromise, Remmel said, would be to list Lambeau and Hoeffel as co-coaches. That way Lambeau's record wouldn't be affected and his biography would be altered only slightly.
Bob Carroll, one of the editors of the NFL's official encyclopedia, said there was sufficient evidence to change the record and that if it involved some other team and some other coach, it probably would be done. But he predicted that because of Lambeau's stature, nothing would change.
"It's not Hoeffel Field," Carroll said.
______________
THE WISCONSIN MAGAZINE
Volume X, Number 1 (October 1912)
Captain Hoeffel Expects Championship
THE GRIDIRON outlook for 1912 presages a continuation of Wisconsin's
successful basketball, baseball and crew seasons. Football is the last sport of the twelvemonth to go on record and it is now up to us to make a championship year of it.
For the past two months, Coach Juneau has been busy preparing for a strenuous campaign and it goes without saying that our coach will make a showing similar to the old days when he himself played a prominent part for Wisconsin.
The eligibilty report which was submitted to Coach Juneau was the best that has been given out in years. This indicates that Wisconsin spirit is of the highest order. This spirit has been stimulated very largely by the backing given the team last year by faculty, alumni, and student body.
The loss of such veterans as Captain Buser, Moll, Mackmiller, Branstad, Roberts, Neprud, Hayes, and Pierce is a very severe blow to the team. However the fact that twelve "W" men and over sixty other experienced players have already reported for practice prophesies encouraging conditions. With this wealth of sturdy material on the field, the outlook is certainly very bright.
The earlier games with Lawrence and Beloit ought not to worry us much, but we must not be over confident, as both teams are strong this year. Beloit is a new aggregation for Wisconsin and has not been on our schedule for years. Purdue is another new foe, taking the place of Colorado. While Purdue always plays good ball, reports indicate that this year they will have an exceptionally strong fast team. Additional interest will be aroused regarding the Purdue game owing to the fact that our old team mate, "Keckie" Moll coaches Purdue's back field this year.
Iowa and Northwestern both have heavy and sturdy teams this year and we will have to play our best to win. When we play Minnesota at Minneapolis this fall, there will be a lot of new faces in the line-up. Only two of last year's veterans will be back. However, they have an array of splendid material with weight and speed, and to beat them we must play the game to the limit. With Chicago, however, we will have to face most all the veterans of last year excepting two stars eliminated by Cupid. The battle will be a hard one, but we will win.
The slate must be clean this fall. We must haye the championship.
Merrill J. Hoeffel
Captain, 1912
_____________________
ALL-AMERICANS
This list includes all University of Wisconsin Badgers who made first-, second- or third-team All-America squads. The legend below includes abbreviations for the selecting organizations.
AAB — All-American Board; ABC — ABC Sports Online; AFCA — American Football Coaches Association; A-P — All-Players; AP — Associated Press; A-S — All-Sports; AW — Athletic World; C — Collier's (picked by WC); CFN — Collegefootballnews.com; CNN/SI — Cable News Network/Sports Illustrated; CP — Consolidated Press; C.P. — Central Press; CPN — College & Pro Football Newsweekly; CS — College Sports; CW — Caspar Whitney; ESPN — espn.com; FM — Frank Menke; F-M — Fox-Movietone; FN — Football News; FW — Football World; FWA — Football Writers' Association; GR — Gridiron Record; G-R — Grantland Rice; H — Hearst; INS — International News Service; L — Look; NEA — Newspaper Enterprise Association; NANA — North American Newspaper Alliance; R — Rivals.com; S-H —Scripps-Howard; TSN — The Sporting News; UP — United Press; UPI — United Press International; WC — Walter Camp; WE — Walter Eckersall
1912: Robert Butler, T (C 1st); Joe Hoeffel, E (C 2nd)
FIRST-TEAM ALL-BIG TEN
1911 Ed Hoeffel, end
John Moll, quarterback
1912 Ed Hoeffel, end
_____________________
JOHN E MOLL '12
John E. "Keekie" Moll, Madison, died at the Madison General Hospital on Christmas morning after a short illness from typhoid fever. He is survived by his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Wm. E. Moll.
After the conference football season in Purdue, where he was the football coach, he returned to Madison physically unwell, and he feared that he had overworked during the training period. He began to experience chills and fever and a general break down. These were the first symptoms of serious complications. He probably had the fever a considerable time before he detected it. A week before his death he was taken to the hospital.
The funeral was held on December 28 from his home and from the First Congregational Church. The pallbearers were Albert H. Tormey, '14, M. J. Hoeffel, '13, W.C. Hammersley, Dr. Harry M. Kay, Dr. W.S. Middleton, and M. C. Johnson.
On the morning of his death he received an offer to coach the Ohio State University football team next fall, the position which Coach John R. Richards, '96, resigned last month. Moll would also have had a renewed contract from Purdue University.
As a football player "Keckie" had a wonderful career for eight years. In his freshman year he gave promise to be one of the greatest quarterbacks in the country, and he did excellent work in his sophomore year. Owing to illness, he was obliged to leave school for a year, but in his senior year under Coach Richards he developed into one of the best quarterbacks Wisconsin ever had. He was just about to begin a successful career as a coach when typhoid fever put a sudden end to his ambitions.
John Moll was remembered by his football and baseball teams, also by many intimate friends who sent beautiful flowers. The funeral was one of the larges ever held in Madison.
Originally published in The Wisconsin Alumni Magazine (Volume 14, Number 4) in January 1913
Note: John E. Moll was a member of the 1906 Madison High School football team, but does not appear in the 1907 Tychoberahn senior photo section. For now, his high school class year is speculative and based, in part, on his University of Wisconsin graduation class year.
_______________
Joseph Hoeffel Sr.
A Pennsylvania congressman now has one more reason to root for the Philadelphia Eagles when they play the Green Bay Packers on Sunday.
Despite published evidence, the Packers refuse to credit Rep. Joseph Hoeffel III's grandfather with coaching Green Bay when the team joined what is now the National Football League in 1921.
Joseph Hoeffel Senior was identified in news stories at the time as "captain" of Green Bay's team.
But Packers president Bob Harlan said the team recognizes Curly Lambeau as the head coach. Harlan said regardless of what the titles were, Lambeau was running things.
Lambeau recruited players for what began as a semipro team and talked his employers at the Acme Packing Company into providing jerseys and a practice field.
_______________
BEFORE THEY WERE PACKERS
Denis J. Gullickson & Carl Hanson
2004, Pages 120 and 137
... The sports pages of local newspapers like the Gazette had put their ears to the ground and heard a hue and cry among football fans in northeastern Wisconsin for news about football at all levels: high school, town team, and college. When high school stars graduated from East or West high schools and moved on to stardom at universities across the nation, local enthusiasts took note, kicjed their fortunes around over coffee and cigars, and demanded updates on their exploits.
Merrill "Joe" Hoeffel fit the bill perfectly. Hoeffel had graduated from East in 1908 and was tearing it up and lettering every season as a left end on the University of Wisconsin-madison eleven. It was noteworthy. "Not for over a decade has Green Bay had a representative on the Wisconsin University eleven," reported the Gazette. Other local boys had swelled the ranks of the gridiron elite at institutes fo higher learning around the nation, but Hoeffel was a pary of the city's football lingo for another decade to come.
...Of special note to green Bay fans was the end of the college career of Joe Hoeffel, a Green Bay lad who captured the University of Wisconsin eleven and closed out a tremendous four-year stint there. Hoeffel had made the varsity aggregation as a freshman and played in every single contest over his tenure as a madison student. He was named to the all-western team as a junior and, as a senior, was named the team captain.
_________________
Look closely at the scan below and you will see who was listed as the head coach of the Acme-Packers Football Team. Earl (Curley) Lambeau, right? Wrong! Joe Hoeffel is listed as coach, with Curley being listed as Captain. [October 16, 1921] "The Dope Sheet" for fourth game.
_______________
The History of The Green Bay Packers: The Lambeau Years, Part One, by Larry D. Names
Most impressive is how thorough the book is. Obviously, Names spent many hours painstakingly researching for this endeavor and it shows. Since the book was first published in 1987 (this book review was written in 2004), 'The History of The Green Bay Packers' series has emerged as the authority on the subject. The series has been referenced in several other books that have followed, including David Zimmerman's 'Curly Lambeau: The Man Behind The Mystique' and John Maxymuk's 'Packers by the Numbers: Jersey Numbers and the Players Who Wore Them.' Also, the October 28, 2001 edition of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel published a front-page (sports section) story stating that Joe Hoeffel, and not Curly Lambeau, was the Packers' first head coach. That newspaper article stated that "of the several books written about the Packers' history, only a collection by Larry Names mentioned Hoeffel."
______________
From: broadview
To: jandrewsfamily@@dol.net
Sent: Thursday, January 24, 2008 9:31 PM
Subject: Bottle I have from the Allouez Mineral Water company
Wondering if you can tell me something about this bottle. I see you have a webpage related to Joseph Hoeffel who founded the company. I been told the bottle is from around 1892, and has all the original label present. I have it going on ebay this Sunday. I would like to know if my information is accurate.
Kind Regards,
Peter
___________
The University of Wisconsin Collection
Necrology - 1964
Joseph Merrill HOEFFEL, Sr. '13,
Green Bay.
________________
Name: Joseph M Hoeffel
Residence: Green Bay city, Brown, Wisconsin
Birth date: Oct 1890
Birth place: Wisconsin
Relationship to head-of-household: Son
Spouse name:
Spouse titles:
Spouse birth place:
Father name: Joseph P Hoeffel
Father titles:
Father birth place: Wisconsin
Mother name: Christine Hoeffel
Mother titles:
Mother birth place: Wisconsin
Race or color (expanded): White
Head-of-household name: Joseph P Hoeffel
Gender: Male
Marital status: Single
Years married:
Estimated marriage year:
Mother how many children:
Number living children:
Immigration year:
Enumeration district: 0009
Sheet number & letter: 9B
Household id: 191
Reference number: 97
GSU film number: 1241778
Image number: 00585
Collection: 1900 United States Census
Name: Joseph Hoeffel
Birth date: 31 Oct 1890
Death date: Apr 1964
Last residence:
Zip code last residence:
Last benefit:
Zip code last benefit:
Social security number: 389-14-3713
Issued: Wisconsin
Source of death record: 52
Estimated age at death: 74
Collection: U.S. Social Security Death Index
________________
The 1912 College Football All-America team consists of American football players selected to the College Football All-America Teams selected by various organizations in 1912. The organizations that chose the teams included Collier's Weekly selected by Walter Camp, Leslie's Weekly, and the New York Evening Telegram.
Ends
Samuel M. Felton, Harvard (WC – 1; RE - 1; WJM - 1; ASH - 1; PHD - 1)
Douglass M. Bomeisler, Yale (College Football Hall of Fame) (WC – 1; RE - 1; WJM - 1; TC - 1; PHD - 1)
Miller Pontius, Michigan (ASH - 1)
Dexter Very, Penn. State (College Football Hall of Fame) (WC-2)
Joseph Hoeffel, Wisconsin (WC-2)
________________________________
The Iron Cross Society
of the University of Wisconsin
The Iron Cross Society was founded in 1902 to honor seniors who had dedicated themselves to serving the University community and managed to achieve personal excellence.
1913
October 1912, Syracuse Daily Journal
Captain Joseph Hoeffel
The University of Wisconsin's great victory over Northwestern last week has filled Badger football fans with Western Championship hopes. North-Western was trounced 56 to 6. It is said, however, that the game emphasized the Purple eleven's weakness rather than Wisconsin strength.
One of the most reliable men on the Wisconsin team is Captain Joseph Hoeffel. He is now a senior and has played at left end since his freshman year. Hoeffel is a deadly tacklee and fast in getting down the field. Last year he was placed on every all-Western team that was chosen.
____________
_________
Only child. Was a Wisconsin football star. He coached the Green Bay Packers in 1920, but then decided to spend his life continuing his father's business. His son, Joseph Merrill II, is a physician (retired) living in Bryn Mawr, PA. His son, Joseph Merrill III, of Norristown, PA, is the representative from his district to the U.S. Congress in Washington, D.C.
MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL
October 28, 2001
HOEFFEL WAS STAR PLAYER IN HIGH SCHOOL, COLLEGE
Son surprised to hear father coached Packers, hopes he'll get credit.
Although Joseph Merrill Hoeffel has long been forgotten by almost everyone but his surviving family, he was once one of the biggest names in Wisconsin football.
Hoeffel was captain at the University of Wisconsin in 1912, the last year that the school had an unbeaten football team. An end, he also was selected second-team All-American that year by Walter Camp.
Those honors were deemed worthy enough for Green Bay to hold a public banquet for him on November 27, 1912.
A native of Green Bay, Hoeffel was born in 1890 and starred in football at Green Bay East, the same high school that Curly Lambeau later attended. After graduating from Wisconsin, Hoeffel spent three years as an assistant coach at the University of Nebraska.
In 1916, he coached the East High team, and Lambeau was his star player. After coaching the Green bay Packers in 1921, Hoeffel went to work for his family's business and remained in Green Bay until his death on April 15, 1964.
One of his two sons is still living. Joseph Hoeffel, Jr., 84, is a retired physician living in Bryn Mawr, Pa. Hoeffel Jr.'s son, Joseph Merrill Hoeffel, III, is a member of Pennsylvania's delegation in the U.S. House of Representatives.
A great-granddaughter of the former Packers coach lives in Milwaukee, but she requested that her name not be printed in the story.
Joseph Hoeffel, Jr. was 4 years old in 1921. He had no recollection of watching his father coach, he said. He remembered attending his first Packers game in the late 1920s. He went with his dad to old City Stadium in Green Bay to watch the Frankford Yellow-Jackets play.
Hoeffel said his father told him that he served the Packers in a coaching capacity, but he figured he was the end coach.
"It's just a great surprise to me," Hoeffel said. Maybe I just assumed because he was the end coach at Nebraska and that was his position. That's just what I've always thought."
"I can't say which is right, but the newspaper reports at the time are certainly more accurate than what I remember 75 years ago."
Hoeffel said it would be welcome news if the Packers and the NFL decided to recognize his father's role in future publications.
"I think that would be very nice," he said. "The family has talked about it. My brother has been long gone, and he would have been interested also."
- Cliff Christi
MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL
October 28, 2001
REVISING RECORD BOOKS COULD BE MESSY JOB
Officials unsure of how to respond to evidence of Hoeffel's coaching
By CLIFF CHRISTI
Even if the National Football League and the Green Bay Packers officially acknowledge that Curly Lambeau wasn't the team's first coach, they might be reluctant to revise their record books.
To do so would erase what has been accepted as an historical fact for decades.
"I guess you could, but it would take some explaining that would be rather convoluted," said Lee Remmel, the team's executive director of public relations. "I don't know if we will or not.
"I remember when (Lambeau) stepped down, Art Daley (of the green Bay Press-Gazette) wrote the story, alluding to the fact or supposition, if you will, that he had been the coach for 31 years from 1919 to 1949. That's the way everybody has always looked at it. But, obviously, this puts a different light on it, no doubt about it."
Joe Horrigan, vice president/communications-exhibits for the Pro Football Hall of Fame, said someone at the league office would ultimately have to rule on the matter, but that a recommendation to do so would probably have to come from him.
There is no process," he said. "I guess it really starts with us being the historical repository if, in fact, we have factual information. And this now is factual information.
"Is it our right or within our power to change anything? We can change it in our files only. We don't publish for the National Football League. Would we bring it to their attention? Sure. Is there an ear there? Absolutely."
In 1993, the NFL accepted a recommendation from the Hall of Fame to reduce George Halas' victory total by one. At the time, Don Shula was closing in on Halas' record for career victories.
But to expunge Lambeau's first-year record would create numerous complications, not the least of which would be that it would create inaccuracies in the inscriprtion above the bust at Canton.
Horrigan said he probably would leave it up to the Packers to decide if they wanted to make a change in their 2002 media guide. Up to now, Joe Hoeffel's name has never appeared in the guide.
Remmel said that was something that probably should be corrected.
"I think we probably should do that just to be consistent with the history, the history we have now just discovered," he said.
One possible compromise, Remmel said, would be to list Lambeau and Hoeffel as co-coaches. That way Lambeau's record wouldn't be affected and his biography would be altered only slightly.
Bob Carroll, one of the editors of the NFL's official encyclopedia, said there was sufficient evidence to change the record and that if it involved some other team and some other coach, it probably would be done. But he predicted that because of Lambeau's stature, nothing would change.
"It's not Hoeffel Field," Carroll said.
______________
THE WISCONSIN MAGAZINE
Volume X, Number 1 (October 1912)
Captain Hoeffel Expects Championship
THE GRIDIRON outlook for 1912 presages a continuation of Wisconsin's
successful basketball, baseball and crew seasons. Football is the last sport of the twelvemonth to go on record and it is now up to us to make a championship year of it.
For the past two months, Coach Juneau has been busy preparing for a strenuous campaign and it goes without saying that our coach will make a showing similar to the old days when he himself played a prominent part for Wisconsin.
The eligibilty report which was submitted to Coach Juneau was the best that has been given out in years. This indicates that Wisconsin spirit is of the highest order. This spirit has been stimulated very largely by the backing given the team last year by faculty, alumni, and student body.
The loss of such veterans as Captain Buser, Moll, Mackmiller, Branstad, Roberts, Neprud, Hayes, and Pierce is a very severe blow to the team. However the fact that twelve "W" men and over sixty other experienced players have already reported for practice prophesies encouraging conditions. With this wealth of sturdy material on the field, the outlook is certainly very bright.
The earlier games with Lawrence and Beloit ought not to worry us much, but we must not be over confident, as both teams are strong this year. Beloit is a new aggregation for Wisconsin and has not been on our schedule for years. Purdue is another new foe, taking the place of Colorado. While Purdue always plays good ball, reports indicate that this year they will have an exceptionally strong fast team. Additional interest will be aroused regarding the Purdue game owing to the fact that our old team mate, "Keckie" Moll coaches Purdue's back field this year.
Iowa and Northwestern both have heavy and sturdy teams this year and we will have to play our best to win. When we play Minnesota at Minneapolis this fall, there will be a lot of new faces in the line-up. Only two of last year's veterans will be back. However, they have an array of splendid material with weight and speed, and to beat them we must play the game to the limit. With Chicago, however, we will have to face most all the veterans of last year excepting two stars eliminated by Cupid. The battle will be a hard one, but we will win.
The slate must be clean this fall. We must haye the championship.
Merrill J. Hoeffel
Captain, 1912
_____________________
ALL-AMERICANS
This list includes all University of Wisconsin Badgers who made first-, second- or third-team All-America squads. The legend below includes abbreviations for the selecting organizations.
AAB — All-American Board; ABC — ABC Sports Online; AFCA — American Football Coaches Association; A-P — All-Players; AP — Associated Press; A-S — All-Sports; AW — Athletic World; C — Collier's (picked by WC); CFN — Collegefootballnews.com; CNN/SI — Cable News Network/Sports Illustrated; CP — Consolidated Press; C.P. — Central Press; CPN — College & Pro Football Newsweekly; CS — College Sports; CW — Caspar Whitney; ESPN — espn.com; FM — Frank Menke; F-M — Fox-Movietone; FN — Football News; FW — Football World; FWA — Football Writers' Association; GR — Gridiron Record; G-R — Grantland Rice; H — Hearst; INS — International News Service; L — Look; NEA — Newspaper Enterprise Association; NANA — North American Newspaper Alliance; R — Rivals.com; S-H —Scripps-Howard; TSN — The Sporting News; UP — United Press; UPI — United Press International; WC — Walter Camp; WE — Walter Eckersall
1912: Robert Butler, T (C 1st); Joe Hoeffel, E (C 2nd)
FIRST-TEAM ALL-BIG TEN
1911 Ed Hoeffel, end
John Moll, quarterback
1912 Ed Hoeffel, end
_____________________
JOHN E MOLL '12
John E. "Keekie" Moll, Madison, died at the Madison General Hospital on Christmas morning after a short illness from typhoid fever. He is survived by his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Wm. E. Moll.
After the conference football season in Purdue, where he was the football coach, he returned to Madison physically unwell, and he feared that he had overworked during the training period. He began to experience chills and fever and a general break down. These were the first symptoms of serious complications. He probably had the fever a considerable time before he detected it. A week before his death he was taken to the hospital.
The funeral was held on December 28 from his home and from the First Congregational Church. The pallbearers were Albert H. Tormey, '14, M. J. Hoeffel, '13, W.C. Hammersley, Dr. Harry M. Kay, Dr. W.S. Middleton, and M. C. Johnson.
On the morning of his death he received an offer to coach the Ohio State University football team next fall, the position which Coach John R. Richards, '96, resigned last month. Moll would also have had a renewed contract from Purdue University.
As a football player "Keckie" had a wonderful career for eight years. In his freshman year he gave promise to be one of the greatest quarterbacks in the country, and he did excellent work in his sophomore year. Owing to illness, he was obliged to leave school for a year, but in his senior year under Coach Richards he developed into one of the best quarterbacks Wisconsin ever had. He was just about to begin a successful career as a coach when typhoid fever put a sudden end to his ambitions.
John Moll was remembered by his football and baseball teams, also by many intimate friends who sent beautiful flowers. The funeral was one of the larges ever held in Madison.
Originally published in The Wisconsin Alumni Magazine (Volume 14, Number 4) in January 1913
Note: John E. Moll was a member of the 1906 Madison High School football team, but does not appear in the 1907 Tychoberahn senior photo section. For now, his high school class year is speculative and based, in part, on his University of Wisconsin graduation class year.
_______________
Joseph Hoeffel Sr.
A Pennsylvania congressman now has one more reason to root for the Philadelphia Eagles when they play the Green Bay Packers on Sunday.
Despite published evidence, the Packers refuse to credit Rep. Joseph Hoeffel III's grandfather with coaching Green Bay when the team joined what is now the National Football League in 1921.
Joseph Hoeffel Senior was identified in news stories at the time as "captain" of Green Bay's team.
But Packers president Bob Harlan said the team recognizes Curly Lambeau as the head coach. Harlan said regardless of what the titles were, Lambeau was running things.
Lambeau recruited players for what began as a semipro team and talked his employers at the Acme Packing Company into providing jerseys and a practice field.
_______________
BEFORE THEY WERE PACKERS
Denis J. Gullickson & Carl Hanson
2004, Pages 120 and 137
... The sports pages of local newspapers like the Gazette had put their ears to the ground and heard a hue and cry among football fans in northeastern Wisconsin for news about football at all levels: high school, town team, and college. When high school stars graduated from East or West high schools and moved on to stardom at universities across the nation, local enthusiasts took note, kicjed their fortunes around over coffee and cigars, and demanded updates on their exploits.
Merrill "Joe" Hoeffel fit the bill perfectly. Hoeffel had graduated from East in 1908 and was tearing it up and lettering every season as a left end on the University of Wisconsin-madison eleven. It was noteworthy. "Not for over a decade has Green Bay had a representative on the Wisconsin University eleven," reported the Gazette. Other local boys had swelled the ranks of the gridiron elite at institutes fo higher learning around the nation, but Hoeffel was a pary of the city's football lingo for another decade to come.
...Of special note to green Bay fans was the end of the college career of Joe Hoeffel, a Green Bay lad who captured the University of Wisconsin eleven and closed out a tremendous four-year stint there. Hoeffel had made the varsity aggregation as a freshman and played in every single contest over his tenure as a madison student. He was named to the all-western team as a junior and, as a senior, was named the team captain.
_________________
Look closely at the scan below and you will see who was listed as the head coach of the Acme-Packers Football Team. Earl (Curley) Lambeau, right? Wrong! Joe Hoeffel is listed as coach, with Curley being listed as Captain. [October 16, 1921] "The Dope Sheet" for fourth game.
_______________
The History of The Green Bay Packers: The Lambeau Years, Part One, by Larry D. Names
Most impressive is how thorough the book is. Obviously, Names spent many hours painstakingly researching for this endeavor and it shows. Since the book was first published in 1987 (this book review was written in 2004), 'The History of The Green Bay Packers' series has emerged as the authority on the subject. The series has been referenced in several other books that have followed, including David Zimmerman's 'Curly Lambeau: The Man Behind The Mystique' and John Maxymuk's 'Packers by the Numbers: Jersey Numbers and the Players Who Wore Them.' Also, the October 28, 2001 edition of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel published a front-page (sports section) story stating that Joe Hoeffel, and not Curly Lambeau, was the Packers' first head coach. That newspaper article stated that "of the several books written about the Packers' history, only a collection by Larry Names mentioned Hoeffel."
______________
From: broadview
To: jandrewsfamily@@dol.net
Sent: Thursday, January 24, 2008 9:31 PM
Subject: Bottle I have from the Allouez Mineral Water company
Wondering if you can tell me something about this bottle. I see you have a webpage related to Joseph Hoeffel who founded the company. I been told the bottle is from around 1892, and has all the original label present. I have it going on ebay this Sunday. I would like to know if my information is accurate.
Kind Regards,
Peter
___________
The University of Wisconsin Collection
Necrology - 1964
Joseph Merrill HOEFFEL, Sr. '13,
Green Bay.
________________
Name: Joseph M Hoeffel
Residence: Green Bay city, Brown, Wisconsin
Birth date: Oct 1890
Birth place: Wisconsin
Relationship to head-of-household: Son
Spouse name:
Spouse titles:
Spouse birth place:
Father name: Joseph P Hoeffel
Father titles:
Father birth place: Wisconsin
Mother name: Christine Hoeffel
Mother titles:
Mother birth place: Wisconsin
Race or color (expanded): White
Head-of-household name: Joseph P Hoeffel
Gender: Male
Marital status: Single
Years married:
Estimated marriage year:
Mother how many children:
Number living children:
Immigration year:
Enumeration district: 0009
Sheet number & letter: 9B
Household id: 191
Reference number: 97
GSU film number: 1241778
Image number: 00585
Collection: 1900 United States Census
Name: Joseph Hoeffel
Birth date: 31 Oct 1890
Death date: Apr 1964
Last residence:
Zip code last residence:
Last benefit:
Zip code last benefit:
Social security number: 389-14-3713
Issued: Wisconsin
Source of death record: 52
Estimated age at death: 74
Collection: U.S. Social Security Death Index
________________
The 1912 College Football All-America team consists of American football players selected to the College Football All-America Teams selected by various organizations in 1912. The organizations that chose the teams included Collier's Weekly selected by Walter Camp, Leslie's Weekly, and the New York Evening Telegram.
Ends
Samuel M. Felton, Harvard (WC – 1; RE - 1; WJM - 1; ASH - 1; PHD - 1)
Douglass M. Bomeisler, Yale (College Football Hall of Fame) (WC – 1; RE - 1; WJM - 1; TC - 1; PHD - 1)
Miller Pontius, Michigan (ASH - 1)
Dexter Very, Penn. State (College Football Hall of Fame) (WC-2)
Joseph Hoeffel, Wisconsin (WC-2)
________________________________
The Iron Cross Society
of the University of Wisconsin
The Iron Cross Society was founded in 1902 to honor seniors who had dedicated themselves to serving the University community and managed to achieve personal excellence.
1913
Badgers Have Championship Hopes; Captain Hoeffel One of the Stars
October 1912, Syracuse Daily Journal
Captain Joseph Hoeffel
The University of Wisconsin's great victory over Northwestern last week has filled Badger football fans with Western Championship hopes. North-Western was trounced 56 to 6. It is said, however, that the game emphasized the Purple eleven's weakness rather than Wisconsin strength.
One of the most reliable men on the Wisconsin team is Captain Joseph Hoeffel. He is now a senior and has played at left end since his freshman year. Hoeffel is a deadly tacklee and fast in getting down the field. Last year he was placed on every all-Western team that was chosen.
____________
_________
Only child. Was a Wisconsin football star. He coached the Green Bay Packers in 1920, but then decided to spend his life continuing his father's business. His son, Joseph Merrill II, is a physician (retired) living in Bryn Mawr, PA. His son, Joseph Merrill III, of Norristown, PA, is the representative from his district to the U.S. Congress in Washington, D.C.
MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL
October 28, 2001
HOEFFEL WAS STAR PLAYER IN HIGH SCHOOL, COLLEGE
Son surprised to hear father coached Packers, hopes he'll get credit.
Although Joseph Merrill Hoeffel has long been forgotten by almost everyone but his surviving family, he was once one of the biggest names in Wisconsin football.
Hoeffel was captain at the University of Wisconsin in 1912, the last year that the school had an unbeaten football team. An end, he also was selected second-team All-American that year by Walter Camp.
Those honors were deemed worthy enough for Green Bay to hold a public banquet for him on November 27, 1912.
A native of Green Bay, Hoeffel was born in 1890 and starred in football at Green Bay East, the same high school that Curly Lambeau later attended. After graduating from Wisconsin, Hoeffel spent three years as an assistant coach at the University of Nebraska.
In 1916, he coached the East High team, and Lambeau was his star player. After coaching the Green bay Packers in 1921, Hoeffel went to work for his family's business and remained in Green Bay until his death on April 15, 1964.
One of his two sons is still living. Joseph Hoeffel, Jr., 84, is a retired physician living in Bryn Mawr, Pa. Hoeffel Jr.'s son, Joseph Merrill Hoeffel, III, is a member of Pennsylvania's delegation in the U.S. House of Representatives.
A great-granddaughter of the former Packers coach lives in Milwaukee, but she requested that her name not be printed in the story.
Joseph Hoeffel, Jr. was 4 years old in 1921. He had no recollection of watching his father coach, he said. He remembered attending his first Packers game in the late 1920s. He went with his dad to old City Stadium in Green Bay to watch the Frankford Yellow-Jackets play.
Hoeffel said his father told him that he served the Packers in a coaching capacity, but he figured he was the end coach.
"It's just a great surprise to me," Hoeffel said. Maybe I just assumed because he was the end coach at Nebraska and that was his position. That's just what I've always thought."
"I can't say which is right, but the newspaper reports at the time are certainly more accurate than what I remember 75 years ago."
Hoeffel said it would be welcome news if the Packers and the NFL decided to recognize his father's role in future publications.
"I think that would be very nice," he said. "The family has talked about it. My brother has been long gone, and he would have been interested also."
- Cliff Christi
MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL
October 28, 2001
REVISING RECORD BOOKS COULD BE MESSY JOB
Officials unsure of how to respond to evidence of Hoeffel's coaching
By CLIFF CHRISTI
Even if the National Football League and the Green Bay Packers officially acknowledge that Curly Lambeau wasn't the team's first coach, they might be reluctant to revise their record books.
To do so would erase what has been accepted as an historical fact for decades.
"I guess you could, but it would take some explaining that would be rather convoluted," said Lee Remmel, the team's executive director of public relations. "I don't know if we will or not.
"I remember when (Lambeau) stepped down, Art Daley (of the green Bay Press-Gazette) wrote the story, alluding to the fact or supposition, if you will, that he had been the coach for 31 years from 1919 to 1949. That's the way everybody has always looked at it. But, obviously, this puts a different light on it, no doubt about it."
Joe Horrigan, vice president/communications-exhibits for the Pro Football Hall of Fame, said someone at the league office would ultimately have to rule on the matter, but that a recommendation to do so would probably have to come from him.
There is no process," he said. "I guess it really starts with us being the historical repository if, in fact, we have factual information. And this now is factual information.
"Is it our right or within our power to change anything? We can change it in our files only. We don't publish for the National Football League. Would we bring it to their attention? Sure. Is there an ear there? Absolutely."
In 1993, the NFL accepted a recommendation from the Hall of Fame to reduce George Halas' victory total by one. At the time, Don Shula was closing in on Halas' record for career victories.
But to expunge Lambeau's first-year record would create numerous complications, not the least of which would be that it would create inaccuracies in the inscriprtion above the bust at Canton.
Horrigan said he probably would leave it up to the Packers to decide if they wanted to make a change in their 2002 media guide. Up to now, Joe Hoeffel's name has never appeared in the guide.
Remmel said that was something that probably should be corrected.
"I think we probably should do that just to be consistent with the history, the history we have now just discovered," he said.
One possible compromise, Remmel said, would be to list Lambeau and Hoeffel as co-coaches. That way Lambeau's record wouldn't be affected and his biography would be altered only slightly.
Bob Carroll, one of the editors of the NFL's official encyclopedia, said there was sufficient evidence to change the record and that if it involved some other team and some other coach, it probably would be done. But he predicted that because of Lambeau's stature, nothing would change.
"It's not Hoeffel Field," Carroll said.
______________
THE WISCONSIN MAGAZINE
Volume X, Number 1 (October 1912)
Captain Hoeffel Expects Championship
THE GRIDIRON outlook for 1912 presages a continuation of Wisconsin's
successful basketball, baseball and crew seasons. Football is the last sport of the twelvemonth to go on record and it is now up to us to make a championship year of it.
For the past two months, Coach Juneau has been busy preparing for a strenuous campaign and it goes without saying that our coach will make a showing similar to the old days when he himself played a prominent part for Wisconsin.
The eligibilty report which was submitted to Coach Juneau was the best that has been given out in years. This indicates that Wisconsin spirit is of the highest order. This spirit has been stimulated very largely by the backing given the team last year by faculty, alumni, and student body.
The loss of such veterans as Captain Buser, Moll, Mackmiller, Branstad, Roberts, Neprud, Hayes, and Pierce is a very severe blow to the team. However the fact that twelve "W" men and over sixty other experienced players have already reported for practice prophesies encouraging conditions. With this wealth of sturdy material on the field, the outlook is certainly very bright.
The earlier games with Lawrence and Beloit ought not to worry us much, but we must not be over confident, as both teams are strong this year. Beloit is a new aggregation for Wisconsin and has not been on our schedule for years. Purdue is another new foe, taking the place of Colorado. While Purdue always plays good ball, reports indicate that this year they will have an exceptionally strong fast team. Additional interest will be aroused regarding the Purdue game owing to the fact that our old team mate, "Keckie" Moll coaches Purdue's back field this year.
Iowa and Northwestern both have heavy and sturdy teams this year and we will have to play our best to win. When we play Minnesota at Minneapolis this fall, there will be a lot of new faces in the line-up. Only two of last year's veterans will be back. However, they have an array of splendid material with weight and speed, and to beat them we must play the game to the limit. With Chicago, however, we will have to face most all the veterans of last year excepting two stars eliminated by Cupid. The battle will be a hard one, but we will win.
The slate must be clean this fall. We must haye the championship.
Merrill J. Hoeffel
Captain, 1912
_____________________
ALL-AMERICANS
This list includes all University of Wisconsin Badgers who made first-, second- or third-team All-America squads. The legend below includes abbreviations for the selecting organizations.
AAB — All-American Board; ABC — ABC Sports Online; AFCA — American Football Coaches Association; A-P — All-Players; AP — Associated Press; A-S — All-Sports; AW — Athletic World; C — Collier's (picked by WC); CFN — Collegefootballnews.com; CNN/SI — Cable News Network/Sports Illustrated; CP — Consolidated Press; C.P. — Central Press; CPN — College & Pro Football Newsweekly; CS — College Sports; CW — Caspar Whitney; ESPN — espn.com; FM — Frank Menke; F-M — Fox-Movietone; FN — Football News; FW — Football World; FWA — Football Writers' Association; GR — Gridiron Record; G-R — Grantland Rice; H — Hearst; INS — International News Service; L — Look; NEA — Newspaper Enterprise Association; NANA — North American Newspaper Alliance; R — Rivals.com; S-H —Scripps-Howard; TSN — The Sporting News; UP — United Press; UPI — United Press International; WC — Walter Camp; WE — Walter Eckersall
1912: Robert Butler, T (C 1st); Joe Hoeffel, E (C 2nd)
FIRST-TEAM ALL-BIG TEN
1911 Ed Hoeffel, end
John Moll, quarterback
1912 Ed Hoeffel, end
_____________________
JOHN E MOLL '12
John E. "Keekie" Moll, Madison, died at the Madison General Hospital on Christmas morning after a short illness from typhoid fever. He is survived by his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Wm. E. Moll.
After the conference football season in Purdue, where he was the football coach, he returned to Madison physically unwell, and he feared that he had overworked during the training period. He began to experience chills and fever and a general break down. These were the first symptoms of serious complications. He probably had the fever a considerable time before he detected it. A week before his death he was taken to the hospital.
The funeral was held on December 28 from his home and from the First Congregational Church. The pallbearers were Albert H. Tormey, '14, M. J. Hoeffel, '13, W.C. Hammersley, Dr. Harry M. Kay, Dr. W.S. Middleton, and M. C. Johnson.
On the morning of his death he received an offer to coach the Ohio State University football team next fall, the position which Coach John R. Richards, '96, resigned last month. Moll would also have had a renewed contract from Purdue University.
As a football player "Keckie" had a wonderful career for eight years. In his freshman year he gave promise to be one of the greatest quarterbacks in the country, and he did excellent work in his sophomore year. Owing to illness, he was obliged to leave school for a year, but in his senior year under Coach Richards he developed into one of the best quarterbacks Wisconsin ever had. He was just about to begin a successful career as a coach when typhoid fever put a sudden end to his ambitions.
John Moll was remembered by his football and baseball teams, also by many intimate friends who sent beautiful flowers. The funeral was one of the larges ever held in Madison.
Originally published in The Wisconsin Alumni Magazine (Volume 14, Number 4) in January 1913
Note: John E. Moll was a member of the 1906 Madison High School football team, but does not appear in the 1907 Tychoberahn senior photo section. For now, his high school class year is speculative and based, in part, on his University of Wisconsin graduation class year.
_______________
Joseph Hoeffel Sr.
A Pennsylvania congressman now has one more reason to root for the Philadelphia Eagles when they play the Green Bay Packers on Sunday.
Despite published evidence, the Packers refuse to credit Rep. Joseph Hoeffel III's grandfather with coaching Green Bay when the team joined what is now the National Football League in 1921.
Joseph Hoeffel Senior was identified in news stories at the time as "captain" of Green Bay's team.
But Packers president Bob Harlan said the team recognizes Curly Lambeau as the head coach. Harlan said regardless of what the titles were, Lambeau was running things.
Lambeau recruited players for what began as a semipro team and talked his employers at the Acme Packing Company into providing jerseys and a practice field.
_______________
BEFORE THEY WERE PACKERS
Denis J. Gullickson & Carl Hanson
2004, Pages 120 and 137
... The sports pages of local newspapers like the Gazette had put their ears to the ground and heard a hue and cry among football fans in northeastern Wisconsin for news about football at all levels: high school, town team, and college. When high school stars graduated from East or West high schools and moved on to stardom at universities across the nation, local enthusiasts took note, kicjed their fortunes around over coffee and cigars, and demanded updates on their exploits.
Merrill "Joe" Hoeffel fit the bill perfectly. Hoeffel had graduated from East in 1908 and was tearing it up and lettering every season as a left end on the University of Wisconsin-madison eleven. It was noteworthy. "Not for over a decade has Green Bay had a representative on the Wisconsin University eleven," reported the Gazette. Other local boys had swelled the ranks of the gridiron elite at institutes fo higher learning around the nation, but Hoeffel was a pary of the city's football lingo for another decade to come.
...Of special note to green Bay fans was the end of the college career of Joe Hoeffel, a Green Bay lad who captured the University of Wisconsin eleven and closed out a tremendous four-year stint there. Hoeffel had made the varsity aggregation as a freshman and played in every single contest over his tenure as a madison student. He was named to the all-western team as a junior and, as a senior, was named the team captain.
_________________
Look closely at the scan below and you will see who was listed as the head coach of the Acme-Packers Football Team. Earl (Curley) Lambeau, right? Wrong! Joe Hoeffel is listed as coach, with Curley being listed as Captain. [October 16, 1921] "The Dope Sheet" for fourth game.
_______________
The History of The Green Bay Packers: The Lambeau Years, Part One, by Larry D. Names
Most impressive is how thorough the book is. Obviously, Names spent many hours painstakingly researching for this endeavor and it shows. Since the book was first published in 1987 (this book review was written in 2004), 'The History of The Green Bay Packers' series has emerged as the authority on the subject. The series has been referenced in several other books that have followed, including David Zimmerman's 'Curly Lambeau: The Man Behind The Mystique' and John Maxymuk's 'Packers by the Numbers: Jersey Numbers and the Players Who Wore Them.' Also, the October 28, 2001 edition of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel published a front-page (sports section) story stating that Joe Hoeffel, and not Curly Lambeau, was the Packers' first head coach. That newspaper article stated that "of the several books written about the Packers' history, only a collection by Larry Names mentioned Hoeffel."
______________
From: broadview
To: jandrewsfamily@@dol.net
Sent: Thursday, January 24, 2008 9:31 PM
Subject: Bottle I have from the Allouez Mineral Water company
Wondering if you can tell me something about this bottle. I see you have a webpage related to Joseph Hoeffel who founded the company. I been told the bottle is from around 1892, and has all the original label present. I have it going on ebay this Sunday. I would like to know if my information is accurate.
Kind Regards,
Peter
___________
The University of Wisconsin Collection
Necrology - 1964
Joseph Merrill HOEFFEL, Sr. '13,
Green Bay.
________________
Name: Joseph M Hoeffel
Residence: Green Bay city, Brown, Wisconsin
Birth date: Oct 1890
Birth place: Wisconsin
Relationship to head-of-household: Son
Spouse name:
Spouse titles:
Spouse birth place:
Father name: Joseph P Hoeffel
Father titles:
Father birth place: Wisconsin
Mother name: Christine Hoeffel
Mother titles:
Mother birth place: Wisconsin
Race or color (expanded): White
Head-of-household name: Joseph P Hoeffel
Gender: Male
Marital status: Single
Years married:
Estimated marriage year:
Mother how many children:
Number living children:
Immigration year:
Enumeration district: 0009
Sheet number & letter: 9B
Household id: 191
Reference number: 97
GSU film number: 1241778
Image number: 00585
Collection: 1900 United States Census
Name: Joseph Hoeffel
Birth date: 31 Oct 1890
Death date: Apr 1964
Last residence:
Zip code last residence:
Last benefit:
Zip code last benefit:
Social security number: 389-14-3713
Issued: Wisconsin
Source of death record: 52
Estimated age at death: 74
Collection: U.S. Social Security Death Index
________________
The 1912 College Football All-America team consists of American football players selected to the College Football All-America Teams selected by various organizations in 1912. The organizations that chose the teams included Collier's Weekly selected by Walter Camp, Leslie's Weekly, and the New York Evening Telegram.
Ends
Samuel M. Felton, Harvard (WC – 1; RE - 1; WJM - 1; ASH - 1; PHD - 1)
Douglass M. Bomeisler, Yale (College Football Hall of Fame) (WC – 1; RE - 1; WJM - 1; TC - 1; PHD - 1)
Miller Pontius, Michigan (ASH - 1)
Dexter Very, Penn. State (College Football Hall of Fame) (WC-2)
Joseph Hoeffel, Wisconsin (WC-2)
________________________________
The Iron Cross Society
of the University of Wisconsin
The Iron Cross Society was founded in 1902 to honor seniors who had dedicated themselves to serving the University community and managed to achieve personal excellence.
1913
October 1912, Syracuse Daily Journal
Captain Joseph Hoeffel
The University of Wisconsin's great victory over Northwestern last week has filled Badger football fans with Western Championship hopes. North-Western was trounced 56 to 6. It is said, however, that the game emphasized the Purple eleven's weakness rather than Wisconsin strength.
One of the most reliable men on the Wisconsin team is Captain Joseph Hoeffel. He is now a senior and has played at left end since his freshman year. Hoeffel is a deadly tacklee and fast in getting down the field. Last year he was placed on every all-Western team that was chosen.
____________
_________
Only child. Was a Wisconsin football star. He coached the Green Bay Packers in 1920, but then decided to spend his life continuing his father's business. His son, Joseph Merrill II, is a physician (retired) living in Bryn Mawr, PA. His son, Joseph Merrill III, of Norristown, PA, is the representative from his district to the U.S. Congress in Washington, D.C.
MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL
October 28, 2001
HOEFFEL WAS STAR PLAYER IN HIGH SCHOOL, COLLEGE
Son surprised to hear father coached Packers, hopes he'll get credit.
Although Joseph Merrill Hoeffel has long been forgotten by almost everyone but his surviving family, he was once one of the biggest names in Wisconsin football.
Hoeffel was captain at the University of Wisconsin in 1912, the last year that the school had an unbeaten football team. An end, he also was selected second-team All-American that year by Walter Camp.
Those honors were deemed worthy enough for Green Bay to hold a public banquet for him on November 27, 1912.
A native of Green Bay, Hoeffel was born in 1890 and starred in football at Green Bay East, the same high school that Curly Lambeau later attended. After graduating from Wisconsin, Hoeffel spent three years as an assistant coach at the University of Nebraska.
In 1916, he coached the East High team, and Lambeau was his star player. After coaching the Green bay Packers in 1921, Hoeffel went to work for his family's business and remained in Green Bay until his death on April 15, 1964.
One of his two sons is still living. Joseph Hoeffel, Jr., 84, is a retired physician living in Bryn Mawr, Pa. Hoeffel Jr.'s son, Joseph Merrill Hoeffel, III, is a member of Pennsylvania's delegation in the U.S. House of Representatives.
A great-granddaughter of the former Packers coach lives in Milwaukee, but she requested that her name not be printed in the story.
Joseph Hoeffel, Jr. was 4 years old in 1921. He had no recollection of watching his father coach, he said. He remembered attending his first Packers game in the late 1920s. He went with his dad to old City Stadium in Green Bay to watch the Frankford Yellow-Jackets play.
Hoeffel said his father told him that he served the Packers in a coaching capacity, but he figured he was the end coach.
"It's just a great surprise to me," Hoeffel said. Maybe I just assumed because he was the end coach at Nebraska and that was his position. That's just what I've always thought."
"I can't say which is right, but the newspaper reports at the time are certainly more accurate than what I remember 75 years ago."
Hoeffel said it would be welcome news if the Packers and the NFL decided to recognize his father's role in future publications.
"I think that would be very nice," he said. "The family has talked about it. My brother has been long gone, and he would have been interested also."
- Cliff Christi
MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL
October 28, 2001
REVISING RECORD BOOKS COULD BE MESSY JOB
Officials unsure of how to respond to evidence of Hoeffel's coaching
By CLIFF CHRISTI
Even if the National Football League and the Green Bay Packers officially acknowledge that Curly Lambeau wasn't the team's first coach, they might be reluctant to revise their record books.
To do so would erase what has been accepted as an historical fact for decades.
"I guess you could, but it would take some explaining that would be rather convoluted," said Lee Remmel, the team's executive director of public relations. "I don't know if we will or not.
"I remember when (Lambeau) stepped down, Art Daley (of the green Bay Press-Gazette) wrote the story, alluding to the fact or supposition, if you will, that he had been the coach for 31 years from 1919 to 1949. That's the way everybody has always looked at it. But, obviously, this puts a different light on it, no doubt about it."
Joe Horrigan, vice president/communications-exhibits for the Pro Football Hall of Fame, said someone at the league office would ultimately have to rule on the matter, but that a recommendation to do so would probably have to come from him.
There is no process," he said. "I guess it really starts with us being the historical repository if, in fact, we have factual information. And this now is factual information.
"Is it our right or within our power to change anything? We can change it in our files only. We don't publish for the National Football League. Would we bring it to their attention? Sure. Is there an ear there? Absolutely."
In 1993, the NFL accepted a recommendation from the Hall of Fame to reduce George Halas' victory total by one. At the time, Don Shula was closing in on Halas' record for career victories.
But to expunge Lambeau's first-year record would create numerous complications, not the least of which would be that it would create inaccuracies in the inscriprtion above the bust at Canton.
Horrigan said he probably would leave it up to the Packers to decide if they wanted to make a change in their 2002 media guide. Up to now, Joe Hoeffel's name has never appeared in the guide.
Remmel said that was something that probably should be corrected.
"I think we probably should do that just to be consistent with the history, the history we have now just discovered," he said.
One possible compromise, Remmel said, would be to list Lambeau and Hoeffel as co-coaches. That way Lambeau's record wouldn't be affected and his biography would be altered only slightly.
Bob Carroll, one of the editors of the NFL's official encyclopedia, said there was sufficient evidence to change the record and that if it involved some other team and some other coach, it probably would be done. But he predicted that because of Lambeau's stature, nothing would change.
"It's not Hoeffel Field," Carroll said.
______________
THE WISCONSIN MAGAZINE
Volume X, Number 1 (October 1912)
Captain Hoeffel Expects Championship
THE GRIDIRON outlook for 1912 presages a continuation of Wisconsin's
successful basketball, baseball and crew seasons. Football is the last sport of the twelvemonth to go on record and it is now up to us to make a championship year of it.
For the past two months, Coach Juneau has been busy preparing for a strenuous campaign and it goes without saying that our coach will make a showing similar to the old days when he himself played a prominent part for Wisconsin.
The eligibilty report which was submitted to Coach Juneau was the best that has been given out in years. This indicates that Wisconsin spirit is of the highest order. This spirit has been stimulated very largely by the backing given the team last year by faculty, alumni, and student body.
The loss of such veterans as Captain Buser, Moll, Mackmiller, Branstad, Roberts, Neprud, Hayes, and Pierce is a very severe blow to the team. However the fact that twelve "W" men and over sixty other experienced players have already reported for practice prophesies encouraging conditions. With this wealth of sturdy material on the field, the outlook is certainly very bright.
The earlier games with Lawrence and Beloit ought not to worry us much, but we must not be over confident, as both teams are strong this year. Beloit is a new aggregation for Wisconsin and has not been on our schedule for years. Purdue is another new foe, taking the place of Colorado. While Purdue always plays good ball, reports indicate that this year they will have an exceptionally strong fast team. Additional interest will be aroused regarding the Purdue game owing to the fact that our old team mate, "Keckie" Moll coaches Purdue's back field this year.
Iowa and Northwestern both have heavy and sturdy teams this year and we will have to play our best to win. When we play Minnesota at Minneapolis this fall, there will be a lot of new faces in the line-up. Only two of last year's veterans will be back. However, they have an array of splendid material with weight and speed, and to beat them we must play the game to the limit. With Chicago, however, we will have to face most all the veterans of last year excepting two stars eliminated by Cupid. The battle will be a hard one, but we will win.
The slate must be clean this fall. We must haye the championship.
Merrill J. Hoeffel
Captain, 1912
_____________________
ALL-AMERICANS
This list includes all University of Wisconsin Badgers who made first-, second- or third-team All-America squads. The legend below includes abbreviations for the selecting organizations.
AAB — All-American Board; ABC — ABC Sports Online; AFCA — American Football Coaches Association; A-P — All-Players; AP — Associated Press; A-S — All-Sports; AW — Athletic World; C — Collier's (picked by WC); CFN — Collegefootballnews.com; CNN/SI — Cable News Network/Sports Illustrated; CP — Consolidated Press; C.P. — Central Press; CPN — College & Pro Football Newsweekly; CS — College Sports; CW — Caspar Whitney; ESPN — espn.com; FM — Frank Menke; F-M — Fox-Movietone; FN — Football News; FW — Football World; FWA — Football Writers' Association; GR — Gridiron Record; G-R — Grantland Rice; H — Hearst; INS — International News Service; L — Look; NEA — Newspaper Enterprise Association; NANA — North American Newspaper Alliance; R — Rivals.com; S-H —Scripps-Howard; TSN — The Sporting News; UP — United Press; UPI — United Press International; WC — Walter Camp; WE — Walter Eckersall
1912: Robert Butler, T (C 1st); Joe Hoeffel, E (C 2nd)
FIRST-TEAM ALL-BIG TEN
1911 Ed Hoeffel, end
John Moll, quarterback
1912 Ed Hoeffel, end
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JOHN E MOLL '12
John E. "Keekie" Moll, Madison, died at the Madison General Hospital on Christmas morning after a short illness from typhoid fever. He is survived by his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Wm. E. Moll.
After the conference football season in Purdue, where he was the football coach, he returned to Madison physically unwell, and he feared that he had overworked during the training period. He began to experience chills and fever and a general break down. These were the first symptoms of serious complications. He probably had the fever a considerable time before he detected it. A week before his death he was taken to the hospital.
The funeral was held on December 28 from his home and from the First Congregational Church. The pallbearers were Albert H. Tormey, '14, M. J. Hoeffel, '13, W.C. Hammersley, Dr. Harry M. Kay, Dr. W.S. Middleton, and M. C. Johnson.
On the morning of his death he received an offer to coach the Ohio State University football team next fall, the position which Coach John R. Richards, '96, resigned last month. Moll would also have had a renewed contract from Purdue University.
As a football player "Keckie" had a wonderful career for eight years. In his freshman year he gave promise to be one of the greatest quarterbacks in the country, and he did excellent work in his sophomore year. Owing to illness, he was obliged to leave school for a year, but in his senior year under Coach Richards he developed into one of the best quarterbacks Wisconsin ever had. He was just about to begin a successful career as a coach when typhoid fever put a sudden end to his ambitions.
John Moll was remembered by his football and baseball teams, also by many intimate friends who sent beautiful flowers. The funeral was one of the larges ever held in Madison.
Originally published in The Wisconsin Alumni Magazine (Volume 14, Number 4) in January 1913
Note: John E. Moll was a member of the 1906 Madison High School football team, but does not appear in the 1907 Tychoberahn senior photo section. For now, his high school class year is speculative and based, in part, on his University of Wisconsin graduation class year.
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Joseph Hoeffel Sr.
A Pennsylvania congressman now has one more reason to root for the Philadelphia Eagles when they play the Green Bay Packers on Sunday.
Despite published evidence, the Packers refuse to credit Rep. Joseph Hoeffel III's grandfather with coaching Green Bay when the team joined what is now the National Football League in 1921.
Joseph Hoeffel Senior was identified in news stories at the time as "captain" of Green Bay's team.
But Packers president Bob Harlan said the team recognizes Curly Lambeau as the head coach. Harlan said regardless of what the titles were, Lambeau was running things.
Lambeau recruited players for what began as a semipro team and talked his employers at the Acme Packing Company into providing jerseys and a practice field.
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BEFORE THEY WERE PACKERS
Denis J. Gullickson & Carl Hanson
2004, Pages 120 and 137
... The sports pages of local newspapers like the Gazette had put their ears to the ground and heard a hue and cry among football fans in northeastern Wisconsin for news about football at all levels: high school, town team, and college. When high school stars graduated from East or West high schools and moved on to stardom at universities across the nation, local enthusiasts took note, kicjed their fortunes around over coffee and cigars, and demanded updates on their exploits.
Merrill "Joe" Hoeffel fit the bill perfectly. Hoeffel had graduated from East in 1908 and was tearing it up and lettering every season as a left end on the University of Wisconsin-madison eleven. It was noteworthy. "Not for over a decade has Green Bay had a representative on the Wisconsin University eleven," reported the Gazette. Other local boys had swelled the ranks of the gridiron elite at institutes fo higher learning around the nation, but Hoeffel was a pary of the city's football lingo for another decade to come.
...Of special note to green Bay fans was the end of the college career of Joe Hoeffel, a Green Bay lad who captured the University of Wisconsin eleven and closed out a tremendous four-year stint there. Hoeffel had made the varsity aggregation as a freshman and played in every single contest over his tenure as a madison student. He was named to the all-western team as a junior and, as a senior, was named the team captain.
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Look closely at the scan below and you will see who was listed as the head coach of the Acme-Packers Football Team. Earl (Curley) Lambeau, right? Wrong! Joe Hoeffel is listed as coach, with Curley being listed as Captain. [October 16, 1921] "The Dope Sheet" for fourth game.
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The History of The Green Bay Packers: The Lambeau Years, Part One, by Larry D. Names
Most impressive is how thorough the book is. Obviously, Names spent many hours painstakingly researching for this endeavor and it shows. Since the book was first published in 1987 (this book review was written in 2004), 'The History of The Green Bay Packers' series has emerged as the authority on the subject. The series has been referenced in several other books that have followed, including David Zimmerman's 'Curly Lambeau: The Man Behind The Mystique' and John Maxymuk's 'Packers by the Numbers: Jersey Numbers and the Players Who Wore Them.' Also, the October 28, 2001 edition of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel published a front-page (sports section) story stating that Joe Hoeffel, and not Curly Lambeau, was the Packers' first head coach. That newspaper article stated that "of the several books written about the Packers' history, only a collection by Larry Names mentioned Hoeffel."
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From: broadview
To: jandrewsfamily@@dol.net
Sent: Thursday, January 24, 2008 9:31 PM
Subject: Bottle I have from the Allouez Mineral Water company
Wondering if you can tell me something about this bottle. I see you have a webpage related to Joseph Hoeffel who founded the company. I been told the bottle is from around 1892, and has all the original label present. I have it going on ebay this Sunday. I would like to know if my information is accurate.
Kind Regards,
Peter
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The University of Wisconsin Collection
Necrology - 1964
Joseph Merrill HOEFFEL, Sr. '13,
Green Bay.
________________
Name: Joseph M Hoeffel
Residence: Green Bay city, Brown, Wisconsin
Birth date: Oct 1890
Birth place: Wisconsin
Relationship to head-of-household: Son
Spouse name:
Spouse titles:
Spouse birth place:
Father name: Joseph P Hoeffel
Father titles:
Father birth place: Wisconsin
Mother name: Christine Hoeffel
Mother titles:
Mother birth place: Wisconsin
Race or color (expanded): White
Head-of-household name: Joseph P Hoeffel
Gender: Male
Marital status: Single
Years married:
Estimated marriage year:
Mother how many children:
Number living children:
Immigration year:
Enumeration district: 0009
Sheet number & letter: 9B
Household id: 191
Reference number: 97
GSU film number: 1241778
Image number: 00585
Collection: 1900 United States Census
Name: Joseph Hoeffel
Birth date: 31 Oct 1890
Death date: Apr 1964
Last residence:
Zip code last residence:
Last benefit:
Zip code last benefit:
Social security number: 389-14-3713
Issued: Wisconsin
Source of death record: 52
Estimated age at death: 74
Collection: U.S. Social Security Death Index
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The 1912 College Football All-America team consists of American football players selected to the College Football All-America Teams selected by various organizations in 1912. The organizations that chose the teams included Collier's Weekly selected by Walter Camp, Leslie's Weekly, and the New York Evening Telegram.
Ends
Samuel M. Felton, Harvard (WC – 1; RE - 1; WJM - 1; ASH - 1; PHD - 1)
Douglass M. Bomeisler, Yale (College Football Hall of Fame) (WC – 1; RE - 1; WJM - 1; TC - 1; PHD - 1)
Miller Pontius, Michigan (ASH - 1)
Dexter Very, Penn. State (College Football Hall of Fame) (WC-2)
Joseph Hoeffel, Wisconsin (WC-2)
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The Iron Cross Society
of the University of Wisconsin
The Iron Cross Society was founded in 1902 to honor seniors who had dedicated themselves to serving the University community and managed to achieve personal excellence.
1913
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