1921 Exhibits A. Earle 'Greasy' Neale ⭐ Reds Great
One of the all-time great athletes from the early 1900's and a very scarce card.
Alfred Earle "Greasy" Neale was a legendary sports pioneer, recognized as the only person in history to play in a Major League World Series, coach a team in the Rose Bowl, and be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
As a multi-sport athlete, he starred in college basketball, played early professional football alongside Jim Thorpe for the Canton Bulldogs, and spent eight seasons as an outfielder for the Cincinnati Reds, leading them with a .357 batting average during the infamous 1919 "Black Sox" World Series.
He later cemented his football legacy on the sidelines, coaching Washington & Jefferson College to a scoreless tie in the 1922 Rose Bowl and leading the Philadelphia Eagles to back-to-back NFL Championships in 1948 and 1949.
Famous Nickname: Neale revealed it actually originated from a childhood name-calling match in Parkersburg, West Virginia. After Neale poked fun at a neighborhood friend's untidy appearance, the friend fired back by calling him "Greasy" because Neale had briefly worked as a grease boy in a local rolling steel mill. The moniker stuck for the rest of his life, to the point that he refused to change it even when Ivy League officials at Yale later asked reporters to refrain from using it.