Frank Hoffman

Who was Frank Hoffman?

Frank "Nordy" Hoffman was an American football player. Notre Dame, All-American Guard, 1930-1931. He was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame in 1978.

His full name was Frank Nordoff Hoffmann, and everyone called him "Nordy." Born in Seattle, Washington, he attended St. Martin High School but didn't play football there. He enrolled at the University of Notre Dame and met football coach, Knute Rockne. The coach noted his size, 6-2 and 224 pounds, and asked Nordy to try out for football. As a sophomore he was a fourth-string tackle on the 1929 squad that included some legendary Notre Dame names...Frank Carideo, Marty Brill, Frank Leahy, Marchy Schwartz, Tommy Yarr and Jack Cannon. He moved up to the varsity as a second-string tackle in 1930 and first-string guard in 1931. The Associated Press and Liberty Magazine named him to their All-America teams. The Notre Dame publicist, Joe Petritz, described Nordy as "the spark plug of the line, inspirational, fast, aggressive and consistent." He was a shot putter on the track team, and the student paper referred to him as a blue-eyed, blond-haired athlete who played piano and sang. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1978, and he called the ceremonies of the National Football Foundation, "the most beautiful thing that has happened to me." One of his prizes at his Hall of Fame induction was a book filled with letters of congratulation from Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford and 100 U.S. Senators. Nordy served as sergeant-at-arms of the U.S. Senate, retiring in 1984. He was born December 19, 1909, at Seattle, Washington; he died April 5, 1996. at Potomac, Maryland.