Sport: Basketball, Baseball & Football
Born: February 7, 1890
Died: April 29, 1966
Town: Millville, New Jersey
Louis Frederick Grieg was born February 7, 1890 in Millville. The town had tripled in size in a generation and would continue to grow during Fred’s childhood to become a hotbed of year-round competitive sports. It was a center of the glass-blowing industry and provided good jobs for thousands of people. Fred’s father, Harry, worked as the deputy postmaster and would become the town’s mayor in 1913.
Fast, tall and muscular, he excelled in football, baseball and basketball and honed his athletic abilities at the Pennington Seminary, which at the time was a co-ed school. The scholarship he received from Pennington opened all kinds of doors for Fred.
During school breaks, he played for Millville’s independent semipro basketball club. During Christmas vacation his senior year, he traveled to Western Pennsylvania and was talked into taking a leave of absence from Pennington to play for the Greenburg AAA basketball team. Lightning-quick and well over six feet tall, Fred collected $10 a game and was typically assigned to an opponent’s top scorer. A serious student, he kept up with his studies and returned to school that spring and graduated with honors.
Fred turned down a scholarship offer from the University of Pittsburgh and decided to stay closer to home, enrolling at Swarthmore. That summer, he played for the Ocean City Collegians, a top semipro club, while working as a lifeguard. It was during Fred’s beach duty that he met Marie Wall, who would become his wife. They maintained a summer home in Ocean City for many years.
Fred continued to carve out a reputation as a multisport star at Swarthmore. He was named captain of the baseball team as a hard-hitting outfielder, and captained the football and basketball teams. He earned All-America recognition as a football running back and defensive lineman and a basketball forward. In 1912, Fred led the Quakers to a 6–3 victory over powerhouse Penn on enemy territory at Franklin Field. The game was decided on a “muffed” forward pass at the goal line by All-American Lon Jourdet—also a top basketball player (and later coach) of the era. Fred was criticized afterwards for running out the clock in the fourth quarter by changing signals and formations multiple times before each snap. At one point the referee whistled Swarthmore for delay of game—a rare call in those days.
When Fred graduated with an engineering degree in 1913, he joined the Trenton Tigers of the Eastern Basketball League to pick up a little cash while he forged ahead in his business career. He also coached the Swarthmore football team for two seasons, succeeding George Brook. The Tigers were led by player-coach Harry Hough, the scoring sensation of the era. Fred became the team’s defensive enforcer at a time when the rules on physical contact were extremely liberal. His final season as a pro was 1916–17.
By this time, Fred had decided not to pursue a career in professional sports. The only real money available was in baseball. He had been offered a contract by the Cleveland Naps after college but turned them down. Soon he was making his way as a mechanical engineer and used his knowledge to bring several canning innovations to market as president of the National Can Company.
For much of Fred’s life, Millville boasted one of the state’s best semipro football teams, which often held its own against NFL clubs in exhibition contests. He was known as Millville’s greatest athlete for the better part of a century, until the arrival of Mike Trout.
Fred’s son, Louis Frederick Gieg Jr., continued the family basketball tradition in the 1950s, earning first-team All-Ivy honors for Dartmouth College before going to work for US Steel. His other son, Chares, had a long career with Shell Oil. Fred lived in the Main Line suburbs outside of Philadelphia and passed away in Bryn Mawr at the age of 76.