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FB Fred Norton (4-sport letterman, DSC and Croix de Guerre winner)

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BB73

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This year, tOSU is awarding a long overdue honor, and inducting the late Fred Norton into the tOSU Athletic Hall of Fame.

Not only a blocker for Chic Harley, Fred was the first Buckeye to earn letters in 4 different varsity sports, and he was also the first Ohio State graduate to be killed in World War I.

He flew in the 27th "Eagle" Pursuit Squadron in France, and after dying in the aftermath of an air battle at Chateau-Thierry, received the Distinguished Service Cross and the French Croix de Guerre with Palm.

Official.site

Fred Norton
Football, Basketball, Baseball and Track 1914-17
The first four-sport varsity letterwinner at Ohio State (baseball, basketball, football and track), Norton was a member of the 1916 championship football team as a blocking back for Chic Harley and was the baseball team's most valuable player in 1917. Norton led the 1917 baseball Buckeyes with a .442 batting average and once scored six touchdowns in one half against Indiana on the gridiron in 1916. After graduation, Norton enlisted in the United States Air Force as a fighter pilot and died in combat less than a year after graduating from Ohio State. He was inducted into the Sphinx Honorary, the oldest and most prestigious honorary at Ohio State.

"Fred Norton's athletic performance, coupled with his faithful service, made him a perfect hall of fame candidate," Tony White, Men's Varsity O president, said. "As the first letterwinner in four different sports at Ohio State he has been noted by members of the press as the 'greatest all-around athlete' in Ohio State history. Perhaps because he was lost in battle just a year after his graduation he has not received the fanfare many of the other outstanding athletes have been afforded. We are pleased he will now be enshrined in the Ohio State Athletics Hall of Fame."
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Ohio.History.Central



Fred Norton was an outstanding Ohio State University student athlete who had gone on to become a member of the 27th "Eagle" Pursuit Squadron in France. He was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Service Cross and the French Croix de Guerre with Palm. Norton Field was named for this heroic pilot who was also the first Ohio State graduate to be killed in World War I. This photograph shows Fred Norton in his football uniform, ca. 1913-1917.
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Forgotten jewel
Fred Norton, OSU's first four-sport letter winner, will finally join school's Athletics Hall of Fame
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
By Tom Reed
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

osufb-norton-art-g969vdfu-1osufbnorton1-jpg.jpg

Eric Albrecht | DISPATCH
Tom Lynch holds photos of his relative Fred Norton, a four-sport standout at Ohio State and hero during World War I.

The rain had stopped in Ohio Stadium just long enough to give Tom Lynch an unobstructed view of his destiny.

Seated in section 17A, the retired clothier watched as members of the Ohio State Athletics Hall of Fame were introduced at halftime of the Buckeyes' game against Illinois a year ago.

Had the precipitation continued, Lynch probably would have joined others in seeking shelter. Why fate afforded him the 15-minute respite is one of several mysteries to a weekend that would alter his family's fortunes and return the name of Fred Norton to OSU prominence.

Only a day earlier, the 71-year-old Lynch had been driving through Norton's hometown of Marblehead - 120 miles north of Columbus - to store his boat for the winter. Impulsively, he pulled into Danbury High School to see if there was any mention of Norton, his second cousin.

"I never go past the school and I certainly wasn't thinking about Fred Norton that day," the Columbus resident said. "I really can't remember the last time I had thought of him."

As a child, the businessman with the distinguished pelt of white hair used to sit at his grandfather's knee, listening to stories about Norton's football and military experiences. Grandpa Lynch would take a sip of whiskey and tell family members how "The Smiling Irishman," his first cousin, had opened holes for Chic Harley on the iconic 1916 team, which won OSU's first Big Ten title.

Lynch recalls the fascination of seeing a black-and-white portrait of Norton in an Army uniform on his grandparents' living-room table. Next to the picture was a letter from the World War I aviator promising he'd come home to take Grandpa Lynch on a plane ride once he finished fighting the Germans in France.

But the family's memories of Norton were no match for the glass-enclosed tribute that awaited Lynch inside the Danbury gym lobby. It cited Norton as OSU's first four-sport letter winner, a running back who scored five touchdowns in a game, the most valuable player on the Buckeyes baseball team and a war hero.

"It's like I had stumbled on buried treasure and I wasn't sure what to do with it," Lynch said.
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http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/sports/stories/2010/09/21/forgotten-jewel.html?sid=101
 
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Official.site

2010 Ohio State Athletics Hall of Fame: Fred Norton

This week we will take a moment to individually recognize each member of the 2010 Ohio State Athletics Hall of Fame class on Ohiostatebuckeyes.com. The nine members will be inducted Friday at the reception at the Ohio Union and recognized during the Ohio State-Eastern Michigan football game Saturday afternoon. Today we look at the distinguished career of four-sport athlete Fred Norton.

For more information about Fred Norton, click here for a story from the Columbus Dispatch.

Fred Norton
Football, Basketball, Baseball and Track 1914-17

The first four-sport varsity letterwinner at Ohio State (baseball, basketball, football and track), Norton was a member of the 1916 championship football team as a blocking back for Chic Harley and was the baseball team's most valuable player in 1917. Norton led the 1917 baseball Buckeyes with a .442 batting average and once scored six touchdowns in one half against Indiana on the gridiron in 1916. After graduation, Norton enlisted in the United States Air Force as a fighter pilot and died in combat less than a year after graduating from Ohio State. He was inducted into the Sphinx Honorary, the oldest and most prestigious honorary at Ohio State.
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Danbury's Fred Norton 'buried treasure' no longer
The star athlete, a 1912 Lakeside grad, is being enshrined in the OSU Athletic Hall of Fame today
BY VINCE GUERRIERI AND CATHARINE HADLEY ? Staff writers ? September 24, 2010

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Various items of Fred Norton memorabilia are on display in the library at Danbury High School. (Jonathon Bird | News-Messenger)

COLUMBUS -- Danbury High School Principal Karen Abbott is going to her first Ohio State football game this weekend.

It's a trip almost 100 years in the making.

Abbott will be on the field at halftime with Tom Lynch, as they are recognized on behalf of Fred Norton, a Danbury native among this year's class of inductees in the Ohio State Athletic Hall of Fame.

"The more I read about him and do some investigation, the more amazing he was," Abbott said of Norton. "It's just astounding."

Norton will be formally inducted into the hall of fame today. He was a 1912 graduate of Lakeside High School, and was selected as Ottawa County's most valuable athlete that year.

"He was an extremely good student as well as being an outstanding athlete," Abbott said.

He went to Ohio State, and became the school's first four-sport letterman: in baseball, basketball, football and track.

He played on the 1916 Buckeyes, the first Ohio State team to win the Western Conference -- the forerunner to the Big Ten Conference. The Buckeyes went undefeated in seven games, including a 128-0 thrashing of Oberlin. Norton scored six touchdowns in the first half of a 46-7 win against Indiana, but was primarily used as a blocking back for Chic Harley.

Norton and Harley also were teammates in baseball. The 1917 team won the conference, and Norton was its most valuable player, with a .442 batting average.

After graduating from college, Norton attained another, more tragic, first: The first Ohio State graduate killed in combat in World War I.
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http://www.thenews-messenger.com/article/20100924/SPORTS/9240317
 
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