University of Minnesota Athletics
Bobby Marshall: M Club Hall of Fame
Bobby Marshall
Football, 1904-06
Baseball, 1904-06
Men’s Track & Field, 1904-06
HOF Class of 1991
Bobby Marshall, one of Minnesota's first great athletes, was also the first man of color to play in what would become the Big Ten.
The Minneapolis Central High School grad played end for the football Gophers. From 1904 through 1906, he led Minnesota to a 27-2 record where they outscored their opponents 1,238-63.
In 1906, he kicked a 60-yard field goal in rain and mud to beat the University of Chicago, 4-2. (At that time, field goals counted for four points).
Marshall received All-Western honors each of his three years at Minnesota, where he was also an all-conference baseball first baseman and lettered in track as a sprinter.
He later starred in professional football, baseball, boxing and even hockey, where, in 1908, he became the first African American to play professionally by suiting up for the semi-pro Minneapolis Wanderers. He played for the Negro Baseball League’s Colored Gophers and the Chicago Leland Giants. He played football with the Minneapolis Deans, Minneapolis Marines, Duluth Eskimos and Rock Island Independents, all members of the early NFL.
Inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1971, Marshall was later named to the National Football Foundation Hall of Fame.