Elgie Tobin

Who is Elgie Tobin?

Elza Williams Tobin was a professional football player with the independent Youngstown Patricians and a player-coach with the Akron Pros of the American Professional Football Association where he wore number 8. Tobin played with Patricians from 1915 until 1919. When the team folded, Tobin joined the Akron Pros of the newly formed AFPA. In 1920, Tobin coached the Pros to win the first ever NFL Championship. The very next season, he split the team's coaching duties with Fritz Pollard, making Pollard the first African-American coach in the NFL.

Tobin was slated to coach a proposed Youngstown team granted by the National Football League in 1922. However the project died in the planning stages.

Prior to playing professional football, Tobin played college football at Penn State and West Virginia. He lettered in football for the Mountaineers in 1907. At Penn State, where records list him as "Yegg Tobin," he lettered for three years.