Bill Edwards (American Football Coach) - Early Life and College

Early Life and College

Edwards grew up in Massillon, Ohio and attended Massillon Washington High School. He was a schoolmate of Paul Brown, who later became the coach of the Cleveland Browns and helped found the Cincinnati Bengals in the National Football League. The son of a Welsh coal miner, Edwards dropped out of school when he was 14 to help his family by working in the mines of East Greenville, near Massillon. He returned three years later, however, and became a star player on Massillon's football team. Edwards was a linebacker at Massillon between 1922 and 1924.

Edwards enrolled at Ohio State University and was Brown's roommate as he captained the Buckeyes freshman football team. After the season, however, he transferred to Wittenberg University in Springfield, Ohio. At Wittenberg, he played as a center starting in 1928 and was the captain of the football team in 1929 and 1930. A tough player, Edwards did not like to wear a helmet, saying "you skin your ears a little without them, but I never had any trouble." He won All-Ohio honors at Wittenberg and was named an honorable mention All-American in 1930. One of Edwards's most memorable games as a collegian came in 1938 against the Ohio Wesleyan Battling Bishops. In the last game of a season in which Wesleyan had a perfect record and beat football powerhouses Michigan and Syracuse, Edwards kicked an extra point as time expired and gave Wittenberg a 7–6 victory. Grantland Rice, a prominent sportswriter of the time, called him the best center in college football. Walter Eckersall of the Chicago Tribune named him an All-American.