Bradbury Robinson

Bradbury Norton Robinson, Jr. was a pioneering American football player, physician, and local politician. He played college football at the University of Wisconsin in 1903 and at Saint Louis University from 1904 to 1907. In 1904, through personal connections to Wisconsin governor Robert M. La Follette, Sr. and his wife, Belle Case, Robinson learned of calls for reforms to the game of football from President Theodore Roosevelt, and began to develop tactics for passing. After moving to Saint Louis University, Robinson threw the first legal forward pass in the history of American football on September 5, 1906, at a game at Carroll College in Waukesha, Wisconsin. He became the sports first triple threat man, excelling at running, passing, and kicking.

After Robinsons birth in Bellevue, Ohio and while still a toddler, his family moved to St. Louis, Missouri where Robinsons father, Bradbury Norton Robinson, Sr. , became general baggage agent for the MissouriKansasTexas Railroad. The senior Robinson spent most of his adult life working for railroads. Born in Lowell, Massachusetts, he served one year as a sergeant in the Union Army before moving for the first time to Missouri in 1862 to participate in the construction of the Missouri Pacific Railroad from St. Louis to Kansas City.

Source: Wikipedia