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| No. 7, 20, 45 | |
|---|---|
| Position: | Guard,Center,Linebacker |
| Personal information | |
| Born: | (1907-12-18)December 18, 1907 Douglass, Texas, U.S. |
| Died: | November 26, 1998(1998-11-26) (aged 90) Austin, Texas, U.S. |
| Height: | 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m) |
| Weight: | 203 lb (92 kg) |
| Career information | |
| High school: | Orange (Orange, Texas) |
| College: | Texas |
| Career history | |
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| Career highlights and awards | |
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| Stats atPro Football Reference | |
Grover Conner “Ox” Emerson (December 18, 1907 – November 26, 1998) was anAmerican footballplayer.
Born and raised in ruralEast Texas, Emerson playedhigh school football atOrange High School. He later played startingleft guard on theTexas Longhorns team of 1929 and 1930 under coachClyde Littlefield. He garnered all-Southwest Conference honors in 1930. He expected to play for the Longhorns in the 1931 season and was to be theteam captain but he had participated in two plays with thevarsity in the 1928Baylor game and was declared ineligible for the 1931 season.
He began his pro career with thePortsmouth Spartans in 1931 for a salary of $75 per game. In 1934, the Spartans became theDetroit Lions. With Emerson blocking and leading the way the 1936 Lions team set a rushing record of 2,885 yards in a twelve-game season, a record that lasted 36 years. It was finally broken by theMiami Dolphins in 1972 in a fourteen-game season. Emerson retired in 1937 to become line coach underPotsy Clark for theBrooklyn Dodgers, but then briefly returned as player.
Finally retiring in 1939, Emerson returned to Detroit, working in the personnel department of theFord Motor Company and coaching atWayne State University. DuringWorld War II he served his country in theU.S. Navy in 1942 and attained the rank oflieutenant commander. He served on theaircraft carrierUSSBlock Island, which was sunk in theAtlantic byGerman submarineU-549. Transferred back to the United States, Emerson coached theNaval Air Station Corpus Christi team until his discharge.
He stayed inCorpus Christi coachingAlice High School andDel Mar Junior College until he took the freshman coaching position at theUniversity of Texas at Austin in 1951. Emerson remained at Texas until the end of the 1956 football season and returned to high school coaching in theAustin, Texas area. In 1976, he coached football and taughtAmerican history at St. Louis Catholic School until his final retirement in 1985.
TheProfessional Football Researchers Association named Emerson to the PRFA Hall of Very Good Class of 2010.[1]
Emerson is one of ten players that were named to theNational Football League 1930s All-Decade Team that have not been inducted into thePro Football Hall of Fame. He was a Hall of Fame Finalist in 2020 and a nominee again in 2023.[2]
