Early Life
LeRoy Sprankle was born on June 11, 1894 in Beach City, OH. He was the older brother of Dale R. Sprankle, who would also become famous as a college athletics coach and athletics director in Michigan. At the age of sixteen, his family moved to Canton, OH where he graduated from high school and first became involved in athletics. He then attended Mount Union College and competed in baseball, basketball, and football while completing a degree in mathematics. In 1918 Sprankle was drafted into the First World War, and served as a Second Lieutenant at Camp Gordon in Georgia. After Armistice, he resumed civilian life as the general manager of the Canton Independents professional basketball team. It was around this time that he became affiliated with the Canton Bulldogs professional football team and became good friends with several early football "legends", most notably Jim Thorpe.
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