Kohler Brothers Inducted into OSU Football Hall of Fame - 1993

The Clay County News carried the story of Sutton's Kohler brothers being enshrined in the Oregon State University Football Hall of Fame in the December 2, 1993 issue.

Morrie Kohler and Vic Kohler

Morrie Kohler graduated from Sutton High in 1935, Vic in 1936. They attended Hastings College for their freshman year where they excelled. (They did pretty well at Sutton High, too.)

Morrie and Vic Kohler transferred to Oregon State sitting out the 1937 season. They starred at OSU during that program's best seasons. Morrie had a brief run in the pros after OSU.

Personal note: several years ago I received a call from the NFL Historian (who'd of thought that was a job?). He had a web site listing the oldest living ex-professional football players and wanted to know when Morris Kohler had died. I let him know that that had not happened yet. He got somewhat excited. 

I connected him with Kris Moody, then at The Clay County News who arranged for the NFL fellow to talk to Mary Lou and Morrie Kohler. Morrie was added to the website list as No. 12 of the list of 1,000 oldest surviving ex-professional football players. 

Although it was an NFL Historian working on the website, the list was for all ex-professionals. Morrie was drafted by the Cleveland Browns but his playing days were with teams of variations of the American Football League and other competitive leagues at the time. 

Morris Henry "Morrie" Kohler was born 5 March 1917 and died 13 March 2011. Victor Otto Kohler was born 2 February 1918 and died 14 March 1999. Both men are buried in the Sutton Cemetery.

When Morrie Kohler was added to the list of 1,000 oldest living ex-pro players, he was only the third oldest on the list with Nebraska connections. Ahead of him was William Henry Harrison Dye, better known as Tippy Dye (historical reference to Tippecanoe and Tyler too). Tippy Dye was athletic director at the University of Nebraska from 1962 to 1967. He was the clever fellow who hired Bob Devaney in 1962 kicking off the heyday of Nebraska football. As I recall, Tippy Dye was No. 2 on that list at the time.

Also on the list, older than Morrie was Bill Glassford, Nebraska's head football coach from 1949 to 1955. Bill Glassford just makes the cut for the site's current list of all-time oldest old timers as he lived to be 102. See: Oldest Pro Players website