Fred Rehor Frederick Lee " Fritz " Rehor ( December 15 , 1893 – July 19 , 1959 ) was an American football player . He played college football for Fielding H . Yost ' s Michigan Wolverines football teams from 1914 to 1916 . He also played professional football and was a member of the 1917 professional football champion Massillon Tigers , coached by Knute Rockne . He later operated a drug store in Canton , Ohio . Early years . Rehor was born in Hastings , Michigan in 1893 . His parents , Jacob and Louisa Rehor , emigrated to the United States from Germany . His father operated a buzz planer in a table factory . University of Michigan . Rehor attended the University of Michigan as a pharmacy student . He graduated in 1917 . While attending Michigan , he was a member of the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity and played guard for Fielding H . Yost ' s Michigan Wolverines football teams from 1914 to 1916 . Following a November 1916 game against Penn , " The New York Times " wrote : " The work of Rehor on the line ranked the best ever seen in Michigan . The husky 250 - pounder outplayed Henning from start to finish , and broke through and nailed the backs for losses . " In a summary of the 1916 season , " The Michigan Alumnus " wrote : " Of the linemen , Rehor was always prominent , breaking up numerous plays and showing an excellent nose for the ball . Many a spectator will long retain the mental image of the big guard catching a short kick - off and ploughing down the field with the ball . " Professional football . After graduating from Michigan , Rehor played professional football . In October 1917 , he joined the Massillon Tigers . When it was announced that Rehor would join the Tigers , " The Evening Independent " in Massillon ran a feature story on Rehor , billing him as the " Newest Tiger Giant . " The article noted : " Rehor , who graduated from Michigan last spring , tips the beam at 255 pounds . He stands nearly six feet tall and was one of the big men on the Michigan eleven for three seasons . The Michigan giant will arrive here early Saturday morning . He comes here backed by a reputation of being one of the best linemen who played college foot ball in 1916 . He should be a tower of strength to the Tiger line , especialy when the big battles with Akron , Canton and Youngstown are staged . " Rehor started at right guard in Massillon ' s 14 – 6 victory over Buffalo . After the game , " The Evening Independent " wrote : " Rehor with his 256 odd pounds bowled over the visiting linemen and formed a defensive bulwark that couldn ' t be budged . " After a 3 – 0 loss to Akron , the paper noted that the team put up a strong battle on defense with Rehor and Copley ( playing at right guard and right tackle ) playing " strong defensive games , tackling hard and accurately . " In a 28 – 0 victory over the Columbus Panhandles , Rehor also handled kickoffs . After the game , the Massillon paper wrote : " Exhibiting the same stonewall defense that has characterized their play all season , the Tigers had little trouble in stopping the battering tactics of the Panhandles . . . The visitors made four first down but three of them came on forward passes and the other on a penalty . Gains through the Tiger line were few and far between as Nash , Copley , Thornhill , Wesbecher , Rehor and Rambaud were in every mixup and dropped the heavy Panhandle backs in their tracks most of the time . " During the fourth quarter of the last game of the regular season , Rehor got into a fight with " Unk " Russell of the Canton Bulldogs , and both were ejected by the referee . The Massillon newspaper reported : " Rehor claimed that Russell had slugged him in scrimmage . Fritz ' s fighting blood became warm and he wasn ' t long opening hostilities with the giant Pennsylvanian . Fists flew freely for a few seconds but the mix up was stopped without damage to either player . " The Tigers advanced to play Jim Thorpe ' s Canton Bulldogs in the 1917 " world ' s professional football championship " game on December 2 , 1917 . Prior to the game , the Massillon paper noted that the " former giant Michigan guard " had been " a tower of trength on the Tiger line this season . " The Tigers were coached in the championship game by Knute Rockne and defeated the Bulldogs by a score of 6 to 0 ; Rehor was the starting left guard in the game . Family and later years . In April 1918 , Rehor married Gertrude E . Ricker of Canton , Ohio . Following a quiet wedding ceremony in Canton , the couple left on a trip to Detroit and Hastings , Michigan . On their return , the couple planned to live in Canton , where Rehor was employed as a chemist at the Central Steel plant . At the time of the 1920 U . S . Census , Rehor was living in Canton with his wife Gertrude ; he was employed as a chemist in the steel industry . At the time of the 1930 U . S . Census , Rehor was living in Canton with his wife Gertrude ( age 38 ) , daughter Marilyn Jean Rehor ( age 5 ) and son Richard Dale Rehor ( age 11 months ) . He was employed as a merchant operating a retail drugstore . In 1941 , Rehor was still living in Canton and operating a drug store . Rehor died in Canton in July 1959 .