November 2016 Auction
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 11/19/2016
The Los Angeles Dons were an American football team in the now defunct All-America Football Conference from 1946 to 1949 that played in the Los Angeles Coliseum. The Dons were the first professional football team to play a regular season game in Los Angeles, beating the rival Los Angeles Rams of the National Football League by two weeks. The Dons' head coach was "Dud" DeGroot, a Stanford football player who had gone on to earn a PhD from that institution. DeGroot had served as head coach of the NFL's Washington Redskins in 1944 and 1945 before jumping over to the rival AAFC for its debut 1946 season.
Dudley Sargent "Dud" DeGroot (November 10, 1899 – May 5, 1970) was an American athlete and coach, primarily of American football. He served as the head coach for the NFL's Washington Redskins from 1944 and 1945, tallying a mark of 14–5–1; his winning percentage of .737 is the best in franchise history for coaches with at least one full season. DeGroot was also the head football coach at Santa Barbara State College—now the University of California, Santa Barbara (1926–1928), San Jose State University (1932–1939), the University of Rochester (1940–1943), West Virginia University (1948–1949), and the University of New Mexico (1950–1952), compiling a career college football record of 117–67–9. In addition, he served as the head coach of the Los Angeles Dons of the All-America Football Conference from 1946 to 1947.
DeGroot's collegiate participation in sports records that at Stanford University he competed in basketball, football, swimming, and water polo. Playing under the legendary coach, Glenn "Pop" Warner, he became the Stanford Cardinal football team captain in 1922 and their first All-American athlete. DeGroot was a member of the United States rugby team that won an Olympic gold medal during the 1924 competition in Paris
Pete Berezney (D. 2008) played his college football Notre Dame, winning a National Championship under head coach, Frank leahy. He would end up playing a few years in the AAFC (All American Football Conference) for the Los Angeles Dons and the Baltimore Colts.
We offer his rookie AAFC L.A. Dons contract signed by Berezney and head coach, Dudley DeGroot (a very tough autograph to find).