Walter Clarence "Tillie" Voss (March 28, 1897 – December 14, 1975) was an American professional football and basketball player. An end and tackle in football, and a center and forward in basketball, he played for record 10 National Football League (NFL) teams (tied with Shayne Graham) along with seven teams in the American Basketball League (ABL). A native of Detroit, Michigan, Voss was a top athlete in high school and college, where he competed in four sports for the University of Detroit: football, basketball, baseball, and track and field. He captained both the football and basketball teams and starred in both sports, earning first-team All-American honors in football and All-Western honors in basketball. Voss concluded his collegiate career as Detroit basketball's all-time leading scorer.
Considered, at the peak of his career, both one of the greatest ends in football and one of the best centers in basketball, Voss played many seasons professionally in both sports. In football, Voss played in the NFL for nine seasons, being a member of the Detroit Tigers (1921), Buffalo All-Americans (1921), Rock Island Independents (1922), Akron Pros (1922), Toledo Maroons (1923), Green Bay Packers (1924), Detroit Panthers (1925), New York Giants (1926), Chicago Bears (1927–1928), Dayton Triangles (1929) and Buffalo Bisons (1929). He also had stints with several other independent teams and a non-playing stint with the NFL's Cleveland Bulldogs. Voss was honored as an All-Pro four times and was a first-team selection in 1923 and 1924, becoming the first first-team All-Pro in the history of the Green Bay Packers. While in Green Bay, he also led the NFL in receiving touchdowns for the 1924 season.
Voss also played for numerous basketball teams in his career. He was a star player for the Fort Wayne Caseys and Detroit Kelly Greens early in his career, before becoming one of the founders of the American Basketball League (ABL) in 1925. At the start of the ABL, Voss served as player-coach for the Detroit Pulaski, although he did not remain there long. Across five ABL seasons, he played for Detroit Pulaski (1925–1926), the Rochester Centrals (1926), Brooklyn Arcadians (1926), Washington Palace Five (1926–1927), Detroit Cardinals (1927–1928), Fort Wayne Hoosiers (1928) and Chicago Bruins (1928–1930), earning All-ABL honors in 1927. Voss retired from playing after the 1930 season. He later was a welfare worker in Michigan before moving to Florida for the final years of his life. Voss died in 1975 and was posthumously inducted into the University of Detroit Sports Hall of Fame in 1978.
Early life Voss was born on March 28, 1897, in Detroit, Michigan. He grew up there and began playing basketball in grammar school. Voss attended the University of Detroit Jesuit High School and Academy, as well as Georgetown Preparatory School in North Bethesda, Maryland. He was an accomplished athlete in high school and continued competing in sports in college at the University of Detroit.
College career 1915–1917 At the University of Detroit, Voss competed in football, basketball, baseball, and track and field. While still attending high school, he began appearing for the University of Detroit varsity basketball team. Starting in 1915, Voss also began playing for the Detroit Tigers football team, playing tackle, end and placekicker in his career.
In the 1915 football season, Voss "gave signs of developing into one of the best tackles the U. of D has turned out," reported the Detroit Free Press. After the season, he was elected team captain for 1916, although he missed the beginning of that year due to an eligibility issue. He started as a member of the Detroit reserve team before returning to the varsity team when his eligibility was restored in October 1916. Playing end, he earned a varsity letter for the 1916 season while the Tigers compiled a record of 3–2–2. While playing end, Voss was noted for his pass catching ability. In 1917, Voss remained Detroit's captain and played as a tackle, being one of the heaviest players on the team at . He led the team to a record of 8–1, with Detroit outscoring opponents by a margin of 389 to 34, with their only loss being to the Michigan Wolverines. Among his notable performances that year were 10 extra points kicked in a 145–0 win over Toledo and two blocked punts in a 35–6 win against Kalamazoo Normal.
Voss was also a standout center and forward for the Detroit basketball team, earning recognition as being "about the best pivot man in the city or state" during the 1915–16 season. The next year, he served as the team's captain, making him the first person in the history of the University of Detroit to serve as team captain in two major sports; he led the 1916–17 basketball team with an average of 12.9 points per game. Outside of college basketball, Voss was also a member of an independent club, the Detroit Rayls, helping them win a championship series over the Detroit YMCA in 1916, and later playing for them again from 1918 to 1919. In his second stint with the Rayls, he contributed to them winning the middle west championship.
1918–1921: World War I enlistment and return to Detroit Voss left the University of Detroit in June 1918, enlisting in the U.S. Army Tank Corps during World War I. He was stationed at Camp Gettysburg before being sent back to Detroit to assist in recruiting efforts for the Army. While back in Detroit, Voss played football for the Detroit Heralds during the 1918 season. In 1919, he returned to college and rejoined the Detroit football team, although he missed the start of the season due to injury. Voss helped the 1919 Detroit football team to a record of 8–1. He was honored as All-Western for the 1919 season and reported to be an All-American selection. Voss then returned to Detroit's basketball team for the 1919–20 season; according to the Buffalo Courier, some critics considered him to be the best center in the country.
Voss played his last season with the football team in 1920 as they compiled a record of 8–2. He was named All-Western and first-team All-American by Walter Eckersall, as well as third-team All-American by Walter Camp. Voss is the lone player in the history of Detroit's football program to be named All-American by Camp, while Eckersall called him "the greatest tackle seen in the middle west" since Curtis Redden. In naming him, along with Duke Slater, All-Western, the Detroit Free Press noted that he and Slater had no equals at their position: "Both have great physical strength and rugged endurance ... Offensively and defensively, Voss and Slater have done all and even more than anyone could reasonably expect of a tackle." After his last football season, Voss played his final season with the basketball team in 1920–21; he received a fifth varsity letter in the sport as an exemption due to the war. Voss was the team's leading scorer with 8.7 points per game in his last year. In his final game in college, he made eight field goals and "turned in a brilliant floor performance [to] finish his intercollegiate career in a veritable burst of glory", according to the Free Press. He was an All-Western selection with the basketball team. Following Detroit's 1920–21 season, Voss joined the Detroit YMO team. By the end of his basketball career, Voss was regarded as the greatest player in school history. He scored 752 points with the Detroit basketball team, a school record that stood until the late 1930s when it was eclipsed by Bob Calihan. In 1936, he was a first-team selection on an all-time All-Detroit basketball team.
According to the son of Howard Philippart, one of Voss's Detroit football teammates, Voss once allegedly ran into a cinder block to get sleep before an important game. Philippart's son said, "so the story was told from my father ... [Voss] one day had a terrible toothache. Aspirin did not seem to help and he desperately needed sleep for the big Navy game the following day. 'I gotta do something,' he told my father and ran full tilt head first into the cinder block wall. As they carted him off to bed for a good night sleep, the players silently applauded his dedication and loyalty."
Professional football career 1920–1921: Start of career According to a 1921 article in The Dayton Herald, Voss made one appearance for the Dayton Triangles of the American Professional Football Association (APFA) – now known as the National Football League (NFL) – during the inaugural 1920 APFA season. The paper mentioned that he made a brief appearance in their season-ending loss to the Akron Pros, and "the few minutes the Triangle fans had to see him in action sold them on him". However, Voss was still in college at the time of the Pros–Triangles game and did not appear in newspaper box scores.
Voss signed with the Detroit Tigers of the APFA for the 1921 season to play at tackle and end; he was also the team's vice president. He opened the 1921 season as the Tigers' starting right end, blocking a field goal in the season-opening 0–0 tie to the Rock Island Independents. The following week, he led the Tigers to what would be their lone win as an APFA franchise – a 10–7 defeat over the Dayton Triangles in which Voss returned a fumble 66 yards for a touchdown and kicked an extra point. The Tigers then lost all five of their remaining APFA games, being shut out in four of them. Despite the team's poor performances, newspaper reports several times mentioned Voss as one of the their top players. In a 20–0 loss to the Akron Pros, Voss caught a 35-yard pass, the Tigers' only completed pass of the game, while he scored an extra point in a 20–9 loss to the Decatur Staleys. The Tigers finished the season with a record of 1–5–1, placing 16th in the APFA, as Voss started all of their games. He was responsible for 8 of the 19 total points the Tigers scored in their one-year stay in the league.
After the Tigers season ended, Voss, along with teammates Charlie Guy, Steamer Horning and Waddy Kuehl, joined the Buffalo All-Americans, a team that still had several remaining games to play. He appeared in four or five games, four as a starter, for the All-Americans, as they finished the season with a record of 9–1–2 and controversially placed second in the league. Voss ended the year with 11 or 12 games played, one touchdown, and two extra points.
1922–1924: Rock Island, Akron, Toledo, Cleveland, and Green Bay In September 1922, Voss, along with his college and Tigers teammate Walt Clago, signed with the Rock Island Independents, who were impressed by his play against them the previous season. He became one of the team's top receivers and was also known for his speed in punt coverage. For the Independents, Voss started all seven games and helped the team to a record of 4–2–1, fifth place in the now-NFL, with three of their wins being shutouts. Among his performances with Rock Island were six extra points in a 60–0 win against the Evansville Crimson Giants, a receiving touchdown and fumble return touchdown in a 43–0 victory against the Dayton Triangles, and a 72-yard interception return in a season-ending 3–0 loss to the Chicago Bears.
After Rock Island's season ended, Voss joined the Akron Pros in time for their next game, against the Bears. He started the Pros' final three games of the season, all losses. Voss ended the season with 10 games played, posting two touchdowns and six extra points, for a total of 18 points; he was Rock Island's fourth-leading scorer. George Halas, an NFL founder and head coach of the Bears, selected Voss second-team All-Pro for the 1922 season.