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Remembering Greasy Neale: Parkersburg’s most accomplished athlete and coach

Alfred “Greasy” Neale, among the most significant and accomplished athletes from the Mid-Ohio Valley, died 50 years ago today. This is a photo of Neale in 1922. (Photo Provided)

PARKERSBURG — One of Parkersburg and Marietta’s most renowned sports figures died 50 years ago today.

Alfred Earle “Greasy” Neale is among the area’s most significant and highly decorated athletes and coaches.

But many people in the Mid-Ohio Valley, except senior citizens, probably don’t know much about Greasy. Folks are likely much more familiar with modern father and son baseball all-stars Steve Swisher and Nick Swisher, who enjoyed great careers in their own right.

Neale, a member of both the College Football Hall of Fame and Pro Football Hall of Fame, was born in Parkersburg, the second oldest of six children, on Nov. 5, 1891, and passed away on Nov. 2, 1973, in Lake Worth, Fla.

He is buried in Parkersburg Memorial Gardens behind Stadium Field at Parkersburg High School. A simple marker designates Neale’s resting place.

Neale, whose unusual nickname came from name-calling with friends as a youngster rather than his athletic prowess, played baseball and football at the collegiate and professional levels. However, most of his accolades come from coaching football.

Just how well thought of Neale is as a pro football coach is confirmed that the Maxwell Football Club honors what it considers the top professional football coach each year with the “Greasy” Neale Award.

As a collegian on the gridiron, Neale starred as an end at West Virginia Wesleyan where he caught 14 passes in a 1914 win over West Virginia University. From Buckhannon, where he wore uniform No. 21, he went on to play professional baseball and coach college football in the same years, many times.

In big league baseball, Neale was a corner outfielder for the Cincinnati Reds from 1916-20 and again from 1921-22 and 1924. In between, he played part of the 1921 season with the Philadelphia Phillies.

Neale batted .357 in the 1919 World Series against the Chicago White Sox (also known as the “Black Sox” for scheming with gamblers to intentionally lose the Series) and led the victorious Reds with 10 hits. Neale’s only full season in the majors was in 1919 as he typically left the Reds late in the baseball season to play and later coach football.

Neale was a .259 hitter with eight homers, 200 runs batted in and 139 stolen bases in his major league career. He finished in the National League top 10 in steals on four occasions.

Neale’s top individual major league seasons included a .294 batting average in 1917, three homers in 1920, 54 runs batted in in 1919 and 29 stolen bases in 1920. He was the last Cincinnati player to steal second base, third base and home in the same game on Aug. 15, 1919, until Reds rookie Elly De La Cruz accomplished the feat four months ago.

As a professional football player in the days before the National Football League, Neale toiled for the Canton Bulldogs in the Ohio League in 1917 and as player-coach for the Dayton Triangles in 1918. His last season as a pro football player was 1919 with the Massillon Tigers.

Neale’s college football coaching career began in the fall of 1915 with Muskingum and his team went 2-4-1 by way of a record. He coached his West Virginia Wesleyan alma mater for two seasons with a 10-8 record before moving on to Marietta College for the 1919 and 1920 seasons, where the Pioneers finished an impressive 14-1. He also coached basketball two winters at Marietta College and his teams sported a 26-11 record.

Neale coached football at Washington & Jefferson in 1921-22 and led the Presidents to a 16-3-2 record, including a scoreless tie with California in the Rose Bowl at the conclusion of the 1921 season.

Ever one to keep moving, Neale coached football at Virginia from 1923-28 (28-22-5 record) and West Virginia from 1931-33 (12-16-3). Neale’s football teams won 60% of their games and his total college football coaching record was 82-54-11. Neale, who additionally coached the independent professional football Ironton Tanks in 1930, also coached baseball at Virginia and, not surprisingly, produced a winning record.

Following his stint at WVU, Neale coached the backs as a football assistant at Yale from 1934-40.

Neale spent the entirety of his NFL coaching career with the Philadelphia Eagles and his 1944-49 squads finished in first place in the Eastern Conference three times and wound up second on two other occasions.

Philadelphia lost to the Chicago Cardinals, now the Arizona Cardinals, in the 1947 NFL Championship Game, but returned to win back-to-back titles in 1948 and 1949, defeating the Cardinals 7-0 in a snowstorm and the Los Angeles Rams 14-0 in the rain. The Eagles would not win another championship until 1960.

Neale’s record with Philadelphia from 1941 to 1950 was 66-44-5 (after a 4-17-1 start in his first two seasons, including three wins in four post-season tilts. His 1948-49 teams, led by Hall of Fame running back Steve Van Buren, Hall of Fame end Pete Pihos and quarterback Tommy Thompson went a combined 20-3-1 record. Neale’s overall coaching mark stood as an Eagles record until 2004.

Neale was named to the College Football Hall of Fame in 1967 and enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame as a coach in 1969. Neale was 81 at the time of his passing, just three days shy of his birthday.

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