According to the Wikipedia article about him Harry Turner “was one of the most popular players on the Canton Professionals, the pre-National Football League version of the Canton Bulldogs who played in the Ohio League. The team’s center, Turner played with the Pros from around 1911…”
At the end of the 1914 season, while making a tackle, his back fractured, severing his spinal cord. He lingered briefly, but died on this day, the 15th of November, in 1914.
Harry Turner would be the first person known to die from playing American football. He would not be the last.
And, of course, the real issue is not the possibility of being killed on the field, it’s brain damage. A horrific and lingering consequences. A price, I suggest, too high to pay…
A couple of years ago I wrote a piece titled: Mothers, Don’t Let Your Children Play Football. Unlike with many things I’ve written over the years, I continue to stand by every word of this today.
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