Walt Buland Explained

Walt Buland
Birth Date:7 February 1892
Birth Place:Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S.
Death Place:Rock Island, Illinois, U.S.
College:None
Databasefootball:PFR=BulaWa20
Playing Years1:1907–1909, 1911–1917
Playing Years2:1916
Playing Team2:West Duluth
Playing Years3:1917, 1919–1921, 1924, 1927
Playing Years4:1922–1923, 1925
Playing Team4:Hibbing All-Stars
Playing Years5:1924
Playing Years6:1926

Walter Daniel "Fat" Buland (February 7, 1892 – May 26, 1937) was a professional football player in the early National Football League 9NFL). He played in the NFL for the Rock Island Independents, Green Bay Packers and Duluth Eskimos. He also played for the Minneapolis Marines prior to their entry into the NFL.[1]

Buland played in one of the two very first NFL games. On October 3, 1920, during a game between the Independents and the Muncie Flyers, Buland blocked a Ken Huffine punt in the Flyers endzone and recovered it for a touchdown.[2]

Buland played as a ringer for West Duluth in 1916 and for Rock Island in 1917. He also played for and coached the Hibbing All-Stars in 1922, 1923, and 1925.[3]

Buland served in the 122nd Machine Gun Battalion during World War I and fought in the trenches near Amiens, France, and in the battle of Saint-Mihiel. He is buried in the Rock Island National Cemetery.[3]

After Buland's death, sportswriter George Barton of the Minneapolis Tribune remembered that men who had played against Buland, including many former University of Minnesota Gophers players, declared Buland "could have won a place at tackle at any university in the Western conference, or anywhere else for that matter, had he decided upon a college career."[3]

Notes and References

  1. The Minneapolis Marines: Minnesota's Forgotten NFL Team . Coffin Corner . Professional Football Researchers Association . 20 . 1 . 1998 . 1 - 3 . Jim . Quirk . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20101218204303/http://profootballresearchers.org/Coffin_Corner/20-01-732.pdf . 2010-12-18 .
  2. The First NFL Game(s) . The Coffin Corner . Professional Football Researchers Association . 2 . 1981 . 1 - 4 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20101218224025/http://profootballresearchers.org/Coffin_Corner/03-02-059.pdf . 2010-12-18 .
  3. Book: Christiansen, R. C. . 2023 . Mill City Scrum: The History of Minnesota's First Team in the National Football League . Independently published . 979-8398571127.