The Goodyear Silents Championship
Football Team Had A Jewish Fullback
The deaf community, at one time, boasted of their own championship semi-pro football team. It was the Goodyear Silents of Akron, OH that existed for 12 seasons from 1915 through 1927.
How great were the Silents? Their best seasons were between 1917 through1923. In that span of seven glorious seasons, the combined record was 60 won, 9 lost and 5 tied, winning several local and state semi pro titles. And the competition was fierce. A team that the Silents never defeated was the Akron Pros, one of the NFL teams in the pioneering days of the National Football League! These four Silents-Pros games were epic black and blue battles, with the Pros winning 9-0, 20-7, 6-0 and 14-0. If one would say that the Silents faced a future NFL team, that statement would be true!
How did the Silents come into being is an interesting story. The demand for employment at the Goodyear tire plant in Akron was high. Young men from all over USA moved to Akron to take jobs at the plant. The Silents football team consisted of these restless young deaf men that had plenty of energy and time on their hands. The Goodyear factory had nothing to do with the football program; it was these young deaf men putting together a team on their own. The word got around; the players recruited other better players, especially taping into the Gallaudet football pipe line. And the team just got better and better each season.
Unfortunately good times came to an end; the players got older and slower. Recruiting new blood became harder and harder especially when the Goodyear plant, cut back production at the end of World War I, stopped hiring new employees. Did the Silents have a Jewish deaf player? You bet! That player was the late Louis Seinensohn, who sort of grew up in the backyard, a product of the Ohio School for the Deaf (OSD).
Louis was one of the best players the Silents ever had. How great was he? Just to give an idea, he was one of the earliest inductees into the AAAD Hall of Fame, getting inducted first and before other well known deaf athletic greats. All of these athletes were great in their own rights, but Louis was elected before them!
And he was just the second Silents player in the long line of Silents that made it to the AAAD Hall. The player inducted before Louis was Frederick Moore, considered to be one of the greatest quarterbacks in Gallaudet football history. It was Moore who frequently called for Louis to carry the ball on many plays. Louis was almost impossible to stop every time he carried the ball. On many sustained Goodyear drives which resulted in touchdowns, Louis was the primary ball carrier.
Author Philip J. Dietrich wrote the book “The Silent Men,” which chronicles the rise and fall of the Goodyear Silents. Dietrich wrote “….and, even more importantly, the newcomers included Louis Seinensohn….” He was short in stature, somewhat squat, with a low center of gravity, all of which held him in good stead when lugging the ball for extra yardage as opposing tacklers piled up on him. Author Dietrich repeatedly referred to Louis in the book as the”plunging Louis.”
Louis, a graduate of OSD, was a star on his state championship football team in 1916. He was a starter at the age of 15.
Asides from his gifted ball carrying skills, Louis was a master psychologist. The Silents faced an opponent, whose tackle was a former University of Virginia star, a big man on the line. Scouting that opponent, the Silents agreed to run the ball away from that tackler. Louis disagreed, feeling that the best strategy was to repeatedly run the ball at him! The Silents let Louis have his way. Louis ran the ball at him three straight times for sizable gains.
After the third time, the tackler was taken out of the game for good! So highly regarded the Silents thought of Louis was that he was elected the team captain in just his second season of play with the team. A kid, not yet 20 years old!
Interestingly enough, one of the OSD wins during that championship season was a 15-0 win over the Goodyear Silents, Louis’ future team for seasons to come! And the last football game Louis would ever play was a 18-7 victory over his alma mater, the OSD in 1927. The Silents disbanded for good after that game.
All in all, it was a great football career for Louis, spending eleven productive seasons with the Silents. Louis passed away at the age of 55 on March 7, 1953.
