Bradbury Robinson

Who was 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 sport's first triple threat man, excelling at running, passing, and kicking.

Robinson graduated from Saint Louis University in 1908 with a medical degree and practiced as a surgeon in Rochester, Minnesota. After serving as an infantry officer in France during World War I, he remained in Europe on the staff of Hugh S. Cumming, Surgeon General of the United States. He returned to the United States in 1926 and practiced medicine in St. Louis, Michigan, where he was twice elected the city's mayor. In the 1940s, Robinson was among the first to warn against the dangers of DDT use in agriculture.