Crawford was born in 1910 in
Waynesville, North Carolina, the son of congressman
William T. Crawford. He attended both Waynesville Township high school and
The McCallie School in
Chattanooga, Tennessee.
College football Crawford played at
tackle and
end for
Wallace Wade's
Duke Blue Devils, selected
All-Southern in 1932 and a consensus
All-American in 1933. Crawford was the first football player to gain first-team All-America honors from the state of
North Carolina. He was mainly responsible in 1933 for the defeat of the
Tennessee Volunteers, that team's first loss in over two and a half seasons. Duke won the
Southern Conference the same year, winning nine straight games until a loss at
Georgia Tech knocked Duke out of contention for the
Rose Bowl. One description of Crawford's play said he was "a hell-for-leather, hard-hitting, hard-charging, fast-running juggernaut" who "covered punts like a run-away express'" and "charged through the line like a lion going in for the kill. Coach Wallace Wade called Crawford "the greatest lineman I ever saw." including an appearance in 1934's
Bright Eyes starring
Shirley Temple, Crawford played in the
National Football League (NFL) for the
Chicago Bears. He played just a year due to a lack of size for an interior line position and a broken leg.
George Halas discovered Crawford could throw quite far indeed, and in a preseason game let him throw what was a completion to
Ed Kawal that went 82 yards in the air.
Later life Crawford served in the
United States Air Force during
World War II. He died in 1974, aged 63. ==References==