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.
Read more about this topic: Le Roy Sprankle
Famous quotes containing the words early and/or life:
“I believe that if we are to survive as a planet, we must teach this next generation to handle their own conflicts assertively and nonviolently. If in their early years our children learn to listen to all sides of the story, use their heads and then their mouths, and come up with a plan and share, then, when they become our leaders, and some of them will, they will have the tools to handle global problems and conflict.”
—Barbara Coloroso (20th century)
“St. Teresa of Avila described our life in this world as like a night at a second-class hotel.”
—Malcolm Muggeridge (1903–1990)