The Football Register: The Rest of the Born and Formed Line

1920–2024

Pro Football Reference's birthplace register for South Bend carries, beyond the entries above, a line that runs the whole century. Frank Bacon, wingback, played 1920–25 — 47 games, 410 rushing yards and nine touchdowns in the league's first years — and John Scanlon, tailback, 1921–26, stands beside him in the leather-helmet register. The Riley High School alumni line adds Joe Domnanovich, center and linebacker, 1946–51, and Lou Mihajlovich, defensive end for the Rams and Green Bay, 1948–54, to Kuharich and Nemeth in the formed-here column. MyCole Pruitt, tight end, born March 24, 1992, in South Bend and schooled at Kirkwood in Missouri — a born-only tie — played 2015–24 across six clubs and more, 121 games with 77 catches, 788 yards and thirteen touchdowns, out of Southern Illinois, where he was twice an FCS All-American. Tom Ehlers, born July 14, 1952 — Bulbs Ehlers's son, of the basketball entry above — captained Kentucky at linebacker, still holding a school single-game tackles record when the Hall cited him, and played for Philadelphia from 1975 to 1977 and Buffalo in 1978 after the Eagles drafted him in the thirteenth round of 1975; the Indiana Football Hall of Fame took him in 1988, joining his father. The register's last lines run Phil Cancik, linebacker, 1980–81, twenty-one games; Bill Roe, linebacker, 1980–87, nineteen games; and John Faylor, defensive back, three games in the 1987 season. Printed at the register's size, the whole of them.

Sources

1. Pro Football Reference — the South Bend birthplace register (Bacon, Scanlon, Pruitt, Cancik, Roe, Faylor) and the James Whitcomb Riley High School register (Domnanovich, Mihajlovich).
2. Indiana Football Hall of Fame and the University of Kentucky record — Tom Ehlers's captaincy, tackles record, draft position, professional seasons and 1988 induction.