Hubbard, "Cal" (Robert Calvin)
Football
b. Oct. 31, 1900, Keytesville, MO
d. Oct. 17, 1977
At 6-foot-5 and somewhere around 250 pounds, Hubbard was football's first giant and the first lineman to consistently knock down passes almost as soon as they were thrown. He played tackle for "Bo" McMillin at little Centenary College in Louisiana for three seasons beginning in 1922.
When McMillin went to Geneva, PA, College in 1925, Hubbard left school for a year. But he showed up at Geneva to play one more college season in 1926, when he was used mostly at end. He then signed with the New York Giants of the NFL.
The Giants won the league championship in his first season, allowing only 20 points in 13 games. However, Hubbard didn't like the big city and he joined the Green Bay Packers in 1929. The Packers won three straight NFL championships in his first three years with the team, 1929 through 1931.
Other teams stopped running at Hubbard early in his professional career, so he developed the habit of moving out of the line and chasing the play wherever it went--in effect, becoming a linebacker. On offense, he was a devastating blocker, and the Packers often used him as a receiver on the tackle eligible play. He caught at least two touchdown passes as a professional and also had at least six interceptions. (The NFL didn't keep official statistics until 1932.)
Hubbard was named to the first official All-Pro team in 1931 and was an All-Pro again in 1932 and 1933. He left football in 1934 to pursue a career as a minor-league baseball umpire, but returned to the Packers for the 1935 season.
In 1936, Hubbard became an American League umpire. He played one game for the New York Giants and then was traded to the NFL's Pittsburgh Pirates (later the Steelers), where he finished his football career that season.
Amiable and mild-mannered off the field, Hubbard was a very tough player and just as tough as an umpire. He once said to a rookie teammate, "You see those two holes over the ears in the helmet? Well, they're not to hear through. They're for you to stick your fingers in his helmet and jerk his face down when you raise your knee up."
Hubbard became the American League's supervisor of umpires in 1958. He's the only person enshrined in three major sports halls of fame.