The Offside Kid - A Michigan Legend

Most of the people who frequent this website know the names of the legends of Michigan football. Bennie Oosterbaan, Ron Kramer, Tom Harmon, Gerald Ford, the Wistert brothers, but many may not know the name Bill Hewitt. Playing defensive end, tight end, and fullback at 5 foot 9 and 190 pounds in today's game would be suicide, but football in those days was a much different sport. He would later earn the nickname "The Offside Kid" for his unnatural ability to jump the snap as a defensive player. He was voted MVP of the Michigan football team as well as All-Big 10 in his senior year in 1931. Hewitt flourished in the NFL and went on to be selected first team All-Pro six times in his 9 year pro career while winning two NFL titles. His number 56 is retired by the Chicago Bears, where he played under George Halas (whom he despised) for 5 seasons. He and Bronco Nagurski were responsible for creating the "hook and lateral" trick play in a practice during the 1933 season and using it to score the winning touchdown in the very first NFL championship game that same year. In 1937 the Bears traded him and $4,000 cash to the Eagles for the number one overall pick in the upcoming draft. After playing for the Eagles for 3 seasons he retired, only to come out of retirement in 1943 and play for the Steagles, a combination of the Eagles and Steelers teams who had lost a large portion of their players to World War II. He is most famously known for being one of, if not the last players in the NFL to wear a helmet, which he refused to do until the league forced him to in 1939. Tragically, Hewitt was killed in a car accident in 1947 at only 37 years old. He was posthumously elected to the NFL Hall of Fame in 1971 and to the University of Michigan Hall of Honor in 2008. One of Bill Hewitt's sisters was my grandmother, who passed away at the age of 95 on Wednesday night. She loved telling stories of Bill and I figured this would make her happy. I apologize if this is too OT for this time of year.