Marshall Goldberg

Marshall Goldberg (October 25, 1917 – April 3, 2006) was an American football halfback with the Chicago Cardinals in the National Football League.

Football career
Goldberg was born in Elkins, West Virginia. He was a high school legend there, captaining his Elkins High School football, basketball, and track teams in 1935, and was elected All-State in each sport.

College
At the University of Pittsburgh, under coach Jock Sutherland, he led the Panthers to back-to-back national championships in 1936 and 1937. Goldberg's 1936 team won the Rose Bowl, and the 1937 Panthers earned the National Collegiate Championship.

He finished third in the 1937 Heisman Trophy voting, and was runner-up for the 1938 Heisman Trophy. He was also a two-time All-American in both 1937 and 1938, first as a half back and then as a full back. During his Pitt career he amassed 1,957 rushing yards, a school record that stood until 1974 when Tony Dorsett surpassed it.

Professional
After college he played in the National Football League for the Chicago Cardinals from 1939–43, interrupted by his service during World War II in the U.S. Navy, then again from 1946–48. The Cardinals won the 1947 NFL Championship and captured the Division title in 1948. Goldberg was named 2nd team all-pro once, in 1942.

Later, Sports Illustrated named him a member of the 1930s College Football Team of the Decade. In 1958 he was enshrined in the College Football Hall of Fame, and later he was also inducted into the Halls of Fame of West Virginia, the City of Pittsburgh, Pop Warner Football, and the National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame.

On August 24, 2007, Goldberg and Emmitt Thomas were selected by the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s Seniors Committee as finalists for election into the Hall of Fame with the Class of 2008. However, he was not selected with the class of 2008.

Personal
Goldberg's father emigrated from Rumania to Cumberland, Maryland in the United States, where he met and married the woman who later become Marshall's mother. The couple settled in the small mountain community of Elkins, West Virginia, some 170 mi from Pittsburgh, where they set up a ladies clothing store.

Goldberg joined Navy in 1943 and spent two years in the South Pacific earning the rank of lieutenant.

Goldberg worked in the insurance industry after his football career ended. In 1965 he took over a machine parts company, Marshall Goldberg Machine Tools Ltd., of Rosemont, Illinois.

Goldberg died at age 88 at a nursing home in Chicago.

Following his death, his daughter, Ellen Tullos, and his widow, Rita Goldberg, helped to set up The Marshall Goldberg Traumatic Brain Injury Fund at The University of Illinois at Chicago. Goldberg had sustained a number of concussions during his career, which the family felt contributed to difficulties later in his life. This fund has been instrumental in bringing attention to the problem of head injury in athletes.