fred long

Fred Long was a Detroit Stars outfielder in the early 1920s who went on to become a legendary college football coach.  I had never seen a photograph of Long, but recently ran across this in a July 10, 1948, story about Long in the Chicago Defender:
 


Then I checked this very familiar photograph of the 1920 Detroit Stars, in which several players remain unidentified:



In some books, the middle player in the back row is identified as Charles “Chick” Harper:



I don’t think I have any other photos of Harper, so it’s impossible for me to say.  But that player, to my mind, looks an awful lot like Long:


UPDATE 4:44 p.m.  Here’s a photo of Fred Long in 1918, as a student at Millikin University in his hometown of Decatur, Illinois (from the Chicago Defender Digital Edition, 2010):

UPDATE 12/7/2012 In the comments Badgerhistory links to a fantastic photograph of the Millikin football team in 1916, with Fred Long in the middle of the front row:

Comments

[Todd Rudat]

Long played 3 seasons with the Stars and one with Indianapolis. 1920-21,26 with Detriot and 1925 with Indy

[Todd Rudat]

I came to that exact conclusion back in 2010 when I first saw the cover of the Turkey Stearns book and knew that was Long and not Harper.

I'm currenlty working on a book on both of the Long's, Fred and his brother Harry. Though I'm no longer in the Archives at Millikin (I left there in 2011) I am the one in the picture in the AP story the Defender used in 2010 and am now in Oklahoma.

[Badgerhistory]

Here is Fred Long with the 1916 Millikin University football team:

http://www.millikin.edu/staley/archives/history/Pages/football1916.aspx