The narrative presented in this podcast centers upon the intriguing history of the Richmond Tigers, a semi-professional football team from the 1920s, and their connection to the notable NFL figure, Weeb Eubank. Through the exploration of a serendipitous discovery involving a letter from the team, we delve into the familial ties and athletic backgrounds of the Eubank brothers, revealing how Weeb played for the Tigers while simultaneously attending Miami University. The discussion unveils the complexities surrounding the identity of a key player, known as Shorty Thomas, and the enigmatic ringer of the team, ultimately shedding light on the intertwining stories of lesser-known football legends. This episode not only highlights the historical significance of the Richmond Tigers but also illuminates the broader narrative of football's evolution and the individuals who shaped it. Join us as we navigate this captivating tale, enriched by meticulous research and a passion for uncovering the hidden gems of football history.

Timothy P. Brown of FootballArchaeology.com brings the fun and keeps us guessing based on his original story: The Richmond Tigers, the Ewbanks, and A Mystery Ringer .

Join us at the Pigskin Dispatch website and the Sports Jersey Dispatch to see even more Positive football news! Sign up to get daily football history headlines in your email inbox @ Email-subscriber

Don't forget to check out and subscribe to the Pigskin Dispatch YouTube channel for additional content and the regular Football History Minute Shorts.

Miss our football by the day of the year podcasts, well don't, because they can still be found at the Pigskin Dispatch website.

Mentioned in this episode:

Sports History Theme Song

This theme song was produced by Ron "Tyke" Oliver of Music Meets Sportz https://sites.google.com/view/sportsfanztastic/sports-history-network?authuser=0

We have an interesting story from footballarchaeology.com's Timothy P.

Brown today of the Richmond Tigers football team and a very famous NFL person that played under a pseudonym.

We have more coming up from Tim in just a moment.

This is the Pigskin Daily History Dispatch, a podcast that covers the anniversaries of American football events throughout history.

Your host, Darrin Hayes is podcasting from America's North Shore to bring you the memories of the gridiron one day at a time.

Hello, my football friends.

This is Darren Hayes of pigskindispatch.com welcome once again to the Pig Pen, your portal to positive football history.

And welcome to another evening where we get to visit with our friend Timothy p.

Brown of footballarchaeology.com and talk about one of his recent tidbits.

Tim, welcome back to the Pig Pen.

Hey there.

Look forward to chatting this evening.

There are.

Sometimes you don't know where I'm coming from in my little opening statements, but this time you bank on a really good pun.

Yeah.

And I, I think I, I get what you're coming for.

Money.

It's almost like getting a tiger by the tail here.

But we got a great.

We're done.

We're done.

Yeah.

Yeah, that's.

That's it, folks.

Thanks for joining us tonight.

No, we, we have a great story tonight that Tim's going to share with us that he wrote in one of his most recent tidbits, and it was titled the Richmond Tigers.

The Eubanks and a mystery Ringer.

Tim, what can you tell us about this tale?

Well, so this one, you know, some of my tales start by, you know, I see something on ebay and so I, I try to do a little bit of research, try to see if I can figure out what, what it is.

And this, this is one of those where they were offering.

Well, they offered one letter that showed it was from the Richmond Tigers.

And when I got it, it actually had two letters.

But anyways, it was, you know, basically it was a letter from the, the manager of the team to another team, basically inviting them to, to play a game and send us your guarantee and we'll come and play you on a given, you know, Sunday afternoon.

So it's basically their, you know, scheduling letter.

And so just in looking at it, it was, you know, I'd never heard of the Richmond Tigers before, but I'm not, you know, a real aficionado of those kinds of teams.

And so.

But, you know, I was looking at it and I saw that the manager's name was like VC Eubank.

So I was like, oh, you make, I wonder.

And this is Richmond in Indiana.

So I did a quick, you know, found the Wikipedia entry for Web UBank.

And sure enough he was from Richmond, Indiana.

So then it's like, okay, is this a cousin?

Is this his dad?

Is it?

You know, so I'm doing a bunch of research and eventually I figure out I was able to show, you know, that VC was like Vern Claire, I think it was, and that his younger brother was a guy named Weeb, who that was his real name.

The next younger brother couldn't pronounce Wilbur.

All he could come up with was Weeb.

And so then he picked up the name Weave.

So anyways, you know, they grew up in this town, both athletes, both you know, very active at the high school level etc and the, the older brother kind of goes down the.

It was a big, it was the center of a lot of like lawn mowing, you know, lawnmower equipment.

So you know, a lot of kind of a factory town.

And so he ends up going down the machinist route.

And whereas Wilbur Wieb, he goes to Miami, Ohio, which is like 20 miles away across the Ohio border.

So kind of mid state, you know, from a north south standpoint.

And so anyways, you know, he's playing there and all the while that then, then this, his older brother starts up this semi protein.

And so you know, kind of as I dug into the story, the story of the team, there was reference to this guy, Shorty Thomas, who was the star quarterback and the coach listed on the letterhead, this guy named not Boris, whatever, Bruno Thomas.

So I was like, you know, and so I'm googling trying to, and using ancestry and all kinds of stuff, trying to find Bruno Thomas.

Well, there's no Bruno Thomas anywhere to be found.

And there was a Shorty Thomas who was more of a golfer and was, you know, basically grew up in the same time in town.

So it turns out that all the time that we Eubank played football at Miami, he, he would play for them on Saturday and then he'd go and play semi pro with his brother's team on Sunday wherever they were playing.

And you know, he'd make, make a little bit of money and you know, so it's just one of those deals where you know, he was the ringer and there's, they tried to hide it and yet like even like the newspaper guys from that town, there were one or two newspapers There, you know, they clearly had seen these guys time and time again, you know, playing in high school and now they know Weaves playing at Miami.

But oh yeah, here, here he is, you know, being Mr.

Thomas, you know, on the, on Sunday for this semi pro team.

So.

So was we Bruno or was he Shorty or were they the same?

I think it's the same guy.

I mean, that's one of the little mysteries of it, I think.

So he clearly is discussed as being Shorty Thomas by like opposing team newspapers.

Okay, fairly regular, because he was a star, you know, at that level.

And.

But I can't find any Bruno Thomas.

I think Bruno was supposed to be like the, just their way of the.

Formal name of the Thomas character, Shorty.

Shorty's real fake name.

So anyways, you know, and like, I guess I should have maybe said something at the beginning, but, you know, we view bank for anybody who isn't familiar with him.

He was, you know, he's ended up, you know, he ended up becoming like a companion, friend, co worker with Paul Brown.

So he was, you know, worked with Paul Brown at Great Lakes Naval Station, then with the Cleveland Browns, you know, beginning in like late early 50s, and then he ends up becoming the NFL.

They're the Baltimore Colts head coach.

So he's their head coach when they win the greatest game ever played in 58, and then when they win the 59 championship, gets fired a year, a couple years later and takes over the Jets.

And then he's the coach when, you know, Joe Namath and the jets, you know, beat the Colts in the 69 or in the third Super Bowl.

So anyways, I mean, he's.

While maybe he's somewhat forgotten in the football community, you know, it's still.

He won two NFL championships plus the super bowl or, you know, in a separate.

And the Browns were in like three other championship games or four other championship games that they lost that he was assistant coach on.

So he had quite a bit of NFL championship experience before Super Bowl 3.

Yeah.

So it, I mean, he's, you know, kind of an interesting guy and you know, it's just, it's kind of fun, like for me because that's the kind of item I don't normally collect, that kind of thing, but, you know, I got it for like next to nothing and.

And it just turned out to be kind of fun story.

Now it does have a bit of a tragic end too because the older brother, you know, apparently was out drinking with some friends one night, you know, mixed group, men and women and and one of the other guys, you know, either punched or slapped a woman, he intervened and then they got into a fight a little bit later again.

And you know, in the fight he ends up, you know, getting some kind of, you know, brain clot or whatever and he dies basically on the spot.

So as a 33 year old know, he, you know, suffered a brain injury and died.

So I just, it was an interesting thing just because like now, and maybe, maybe it's just journalism that's different today, but now if somebody underwent an experience like that, had a, you know, brother passed, you know, tragically, you, you'd expect that to be like in profiles when they're, you know, doing background stories and all that kind of stuff.

I, I couldn't find anything, you know, about the story, you know, in terms of profiles of Eubank when he's coaching and etc.

So anyway, it's just kind of an interesting situation.

Yeah, it's, I mean, it's an amazing story how you became associated with the story just by a random purchase of something you're normally not interested in and then how it unfolds into this famous family of friends, football, you know, icons here, especially Weeb, and really makes it that much more interesting.

It's interesting by itself.

But then you put that effect of the celebrity status of We View bank.

That's tremendous.

So, yeah, great job.

I mean, one of the funny things too is like, like I only have a couple of items that are like autograph kind of.

I just don't.

That stuff normally doesn't, just doesn't interest me.

Right.

So.

But one of the other things I do have is a letter written by We View bank when he was, you know, on the staff at Great Lakes.

And he's, he's about ready to leave and he's going to go coach at Brown, you know, that fall.

So anyways, like what.

It's just odds also odd of the two things in that category that I have, of the several things that I have, two of them are We View making, you know, related.

So anyways, just.

And who knows how many pieces of letterhead there are sitting out there from the Richmond Tigers, right?

Yeah, probably not too many.

Yeah, not too many at all.

But all the other famous teams he's on.

I mean, you just named some of the iconic teams in history, you know, Great Great Lakes and the Cleveland Browns of the 50s and probably the late 40s too, when they were AAFC.

I'm sure they won four straight championships in that league, you know, the Colts and then the Jets.

You know, that's.

Yeah, that's a, some pretty low legendary teams there.

So he's pretty influential in football and probably is one of the reasons why those teams did make it that far.

I'm sure Paul Brown had something to do with Brown's teams too.

But Weave is no slouch and very tremendous great football mind.

He had no doubt about it.

Yeah.

So great story.

And you come up with these brilliant little pieces of football history that really not many people know about or if anybody other than maybe the Eubanks family, maybe some of them don't even know.

And you, you do it by your really astute research and your, your keen eye for items like this collectible or newspaper articles.

And you share them with us in the football family of, you know, with your tidbits.

Maybe you could tell folks how they could partake in your tidbits.

Yep, just go to footballarchaeology.com it's a substack site.

So put in your email, you subscribe, and then every time that I issue a new story, you'll get an email with the story in your inbox.

If you don't want emails, you can follow me or subscribe on substack.

Just don't get the email notifications and, you know, just read it, you know, on your own.

You can also just bookmark it or, you know, follow me on, on Blue sky because I every time I post the new story, then I put it on Blue sky as well.

So that's the way to do it.

All right.

Well, Tim, we really appreciate you sharing the story with us and sharing with us each and every Tuesday, and we'd love to talk to you again next week.

I think we'll find time.

Thanks.

That's all the football history we have today, folks.

Join us back tomorrow for more of your football history.

We invite you to check out our website, pigskindispatch.com not only to see the daily football history, but to experience positive football.

With our many articles on the good people of the game as well as our own football comic strip cleat marks comics, pigskindispatch.com is also on social media outlets, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and don't forget the BigSkin Dispatch YouTube channel to get all of your positive football news and history.

Special thanks to the talents of Mike and Gene Monroe as well as Jason Neff for letting us use their music during our podcast.

This podcast is part of the Sports.

History Network, your headquarters for the, yes.

The year of your favorite sport.

You can learn more@sportshistorynetwork.com.