HIRSCH, Elroy Leon ("Crazylegs")

(b. 17 June 1923 in Wausau, Wisconsin), receiver who was the first player to hold the flanker position in the National Football league (NFL), he revolutionized the position in the 1940s and 1950s with his unorthodox running style.

Hirsch was the son of Otto Peter Hirsch and Mayme Sabena Magnusen. His interest in football began early when, as a boy, he often made the trip to Green Bay to watch his hero, Don Hutson, play for the Green Bay Packers.

At Wausau High School, where he attended from 1937 to 1942, Hirsch was an extremely fast athlete who lettered in football, basketball, baseball, and track despite his un-orthodox running style. His strange, flailing form often deceived opponents as to his speed. After a game at Soldier Field in Chicago in 1943, when Hirsch was a sophomore halfback at the University of Wisconsin, a sportswriter for the Chicago Daily News wrote, "Hirsch ran like a demented duck. His crazy legs were gyrating in six different directions all at the same time during a 61-yard touchdown that solidified the win." The description stuck, and Hirsch was known thereafter as "Crazylegs" Hirsch. He won All-American honors that year and helped his team win the national championship. Years later, his coach Harry Stuhldreher of the University of Wisconsin at Madison would say that Hirsch was one of the best athletes he had ever seen—fast, smart, and hard to tackle.

Hirsch transferred to Michigan State in 1944 as part of a U.S. Army training program and had similar success on the field. After an interruption of his college football career by naval service in World War II, Hirsch returned to finish his career by playing in a special game that pitted the College All-Stars against the NFL's Cleveland Rams in 1946. Hirsch scored on a 68-yard run and caught a 35-yard touchdown pass that enabled the All-Stars to upset the Rams 16–0. Hirsch was named the Most Valuable Player of the game.

The Los Angeles Rams drafted Hirsch in the first round of the 1945 draft as a future pick, but he decided instead to join the Chicago Rockets in the newly formed All-America Football Conference (AAFC). The AAFC hoped to rival the NFL by signing young stars such as Hirsch to play in the league. Unfortunately, Hirsch had a number of injuries in the three years he played for the Rockets, including a life-threatening skull fracture. Although doctors said Hirsch could never play football again, he refused to accept that diagnosis and worked hard to regain his full strength and abilities.

Hirsch joined the Rams in 1949. Coach Joe Stydahar moved him to tight end where he excelled as part of the Rams' revolutionary "three-end" offense. Along with receivers Tom Fears and Bob Shaw, Hirsch revolutionized the position of receiver. For most teams at that time, rushing was the staple of offensive football; passing was used either for variety to enhance the running game or as a last resort in long yardage situations. Hirsch and the rest of the Rams' offense made the passing attack a primary force in football for decades to come.

In order to accommodate Hirsch in the wide receiver formation, the Rams created a new position they called "flanker." At six foot, two inches tall, and 190 pounds, Hirsch was the first receiving end to move out closer to the sideline, away from the line of scrimmage. Hirsch's speed and athleticism made him a devastating long threat. He became one of the best at catching long passes over his shoulder without breaking stride, and it is largely because of Hirsch that the word "bomb" came to refer to a long, arcing pass. That year, Hirsch caught touchdown passes of 34, 33, 46, 53, 72, 76, 79, and 81 yards, and he was also a major player when the Rams won the Western Division title in 1949, 1950, and 1951. Hirsch led the NFL in receiving and scoring in 1951, with 66 catches for 1,495 yards and 17 touchdowns. These statistics have since been surpassed, but Hirsch did it in a 12-game season. He averaged an astonishing 22.7 yards-per-catch in 1951, a year in which he helped the Rams win the NFL title, defeating the Cleveland Browns 24–17. After the game, Hirsch characteristically played down his own stunning contributions and praised his teammates for their role in the win.

Hirsch became a superstar in Los Angeles with his own radio and television shows, and even played himself in a 1953 film about his life, Crazylegs, All-American. The following year he also starred in Unchained, another football film. As an example of Hirsch's growing fame, after one game in 1954, a swarm of fans accosted him and stripped him of most of his gear as souvenirs.

Hirsch retired in 1957 with 343 receptions, 6,299 receiving yards, and 53 touchdowns. But retirement did not end Hirsch's involvement in football or athletics. For two years (1958–1960) he was the sports director for Union Oil Company of California, and he replaced Pete Rozelle as the general manager of the Rams in 1960. In 1969 Hirsch moved back to Wisconsin to become athletic director for his alma mater, the University of Wisconsin at Madison, where he spent the next eighteen years. Hirsch had two children with his wife, Ruth Katherine Stahmer, whom he had married in 1946. He remained in Madison after retiring from the University of Wisconsin Athletic Department in 1987.

As the first flanker in football, "Crazylegs" Hirsch revolutionized the position of wide receiver with his deep-threat ability, speed, and athleticism. Hirsch's happy-go-lucky demeanor, quick quips, and refreshing humility about his own abilities made him a success both on and off the field. Hirsch's 18.4 yards-per-catch career average is still one of the best in the NFL. He also caught touchdown passes in eleven straight games, a record since surpassed only by San Francisco 49er Jerry Rice in 1987. Hirsch joined his boyhood hero, Don Hutson, on the NFL 50th-anniversary All-Time Team in 1969. He was inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame in 1968 and the College Football Hall of Fame in 1974.

John McCallum and W. W. Heffelfinger, This Was Football (1954), details Hirsch's abilities with a number of game summaries and anecdotes from his days at Wisconsin and Michigan State. Joe Horrigan and Bob Carroll, Football Greats (1998), describes Hirsch's major accomplishments on the field. Summaries and anecdotes of some of Hirsch's college and NFL achievements are found in Allison Danzig, The History of American Football (1956).

Markus H. McDowell