Guyon, Joseph N.
Football
b. Nov. 26, 1892, White Earth Indian Reservation, MN
d. Nov. 27, 1971
A full-blooded Chippewa, Guyon attended Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania. He played tackle on the football team until Jim Thorpe left in 1912 and then replaced Thorpe at halfback for a season. He was named to Walter Camp's second-team All-American team in 1913.
Guyon went to Georgia Tech in 1917 and played on a team that won all 9 of its games, outscoring its opposition, 491 to 17. His coach, John Heisman, later wrote, "I rate Guyon among the three or four greatest players of all time."
The 6-foot-1, 195-pound Guyon rejoined Thorpe with the Canton Bulldogs in 1919 and was with the team when it entered the new American Professional Football Association the following year. He followed Thorpe to the Cleveland Indians in 1921, the Oorang Indians in 1922 and 1923, and the Rock Island Independents in 1924.
Late in the 1924 season, Guyon went to the Kansas City Cowboys and played for them through 1925. He was out of football in 1926, but returned for one last season with the New York Giants. The versatile Guyon played guard, tackle, blocking back, and tailback as the Giants won the NFL championship with an 11-1-1 record.
A fast, dangerous runner and a crushing blocker and tackler, Guyon was also an outstanding kicker. As late as 1935, Ralph McGill wrote in the Atlanta Constitution, "There is no doubt in my mind that Joe Guyon is the greatest football player the South ever saw. He was almost a team all by himself."