Cliff Battles Clifford Franklin Battles ( May 1 , 1910 – April 28 , 1981 ) was an American football halfback in the National Football League . Battles was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1968 . Early life . Battles was born in Akron , Ohio , the son of Frank Battles , a saltworker for Goodrich and Firestone tire companies , and Della Battles . He played high school football at Kenmore High School . Kenmore today honors athletes who carry on Battles ' tradition , those who letter in three sports their senior year , with the Cliff Battles Award . Kenmore High School is seated on the corner of 13th Street and Battles Avenue , named after Cliff . College career . Battles attended and played college football at West Virginia Wesleyan College . His most prominent season was 1931 , when he scored 15 touchdowns and had four extra points . The best game of his college career was also in 1931 in a game against Salem College , when he scored seven touchdowns and had 354 rushing yards , 91 kick return yards , and 24 receiving yards , totalling 469 . He acquired the nickname " Gip " ( sometimes spelled " Gipp " ) because of his admiration for Notre Dame back George Gipp , the subject of Knute Rockne ’ s " win one for the Gipper " speech . While at West Virginia Wesleyan , Battles won 15 letters in five sports - four each in football and track , three each in baseball and basketball , and one in tennis . While there , he was a Phi Beta Kappa scholar and Rhodes Scholarship candidate . He was named to the West Virginia Hall of Fame in 1950 and the College Football Hall of Fame in 1955 . While at West Virginia Wesleyan , Battles also played semipro football for the South Akron Awnings under the name of Jones . Professional career . After college , Battles got many offers from NFL teams including the New York Giants and Portsmouth Spartans , among other NFL teams . But he signed with the Boston Braves ( now the Washington Redskins ) in 1932 , who offered him $ 175 per game , compared with a high of $ 150 from the other teams . In 1932 , Battles won the NFL ' s rushing title as a rookie . He also performed well during the 1933 season and on October 8 , 1933 , Battles , playing for the newly - named Boston Redskins , became the first player to exceed 200 rushing yard in a game , finishing with 215 yards on 16 rushes and one touchdown against the Giants . In 1937 , the Redskins moved from Boston to Washington , D . C . and acquired quarterback Sammy Baugh . For the 1937 , Baugh and Battles combined their talents just as everyone had anticipated . During their last regular - season game , Battles scored three touchdowns and the Redskins beat the Giants for the Eastern Division title . In the 1937 NFL Championship against the Chicago Bears a week later , Battles scored the first touchdown in a 28 - 21 victory that gave the Redskins their first NFL title . In what would end up being his last regular - season game on December 5 , 1937 , Battles ran for 165 yards against the Giants at the Polo Grounds . This was the record for most rushing yards for a player in the final regular - season game of his NFL career until Tiki Barber broke the record on December 30 , 2006 with 234 rushing yards . In 1937 , Battles was again the league ’ s leading rusher with 874 yards on 216 carries and won all - league honors for the fifth time in six years . In six seasons , Battles totaled 3 , 511 yards rushing . A two way threat , he also finished his career with 15 interceptions , including one returned for a touchdown . After 1937 , Battles hoped for a raise in salary . George Preston Marshall , the owner of the Redskins , refused to pay him more than $ 3 , 000 a year ( the amount Battles had been paid since his rookie season ) . Battles chose retirement instead , and left the game as a player at the end of 1937 . Coaching career . After the 1937 season , the Battles accepted a $ 4 , 000 job as an assistant football coach at Columbia University coached there from 1938 to 1943 . While at Columbia , Battles was also the head coach of the men ' s basketball team from 1942 to 1943 . He then served in the United States Marine Corps during World War II . After the war , Battles became head coach of the Brooklyn Dodgers of the All - America Football Conference from 1946 to 1947 . After football . After the end of his coaching career , Battles became an associate with General Electric in the Washington Metropolitan Area before retiring in 1979 . He died on April 28 , 1981 in Clearwater , Florida , and is buried in Parklawn cemetery in Rockville , Maryland .