Ernest Alonzo Nevers was born on June 11, 1903 in Willow River, Minnesota, United States. He was the son of George and Mary Nevers. His parents, who had immigrated to the United States from Nova Scotia, Canada, were innkeepers in several small towns in northeastern Minnesota during Nevers's childhood.
Nevers attended high school in nearby Superior, Wisconsin, where his brother worked. At Superior Central High School, Nevers developed into an outstanding basketball player and played American-style football for the first time.
Nevers attended high school in Santa Rosa in 1919 and helped organize the school's first football team. The following year he returned to Superior, where he was a star athlete in four sports, and completed his high school education before returning to California. After spending a year at Santa Rosa Junior College to remedy a foreign language deficiency, he entered Stanford University in 1922. At Stanford, Nevers became a star athlete in basketball, football, and baseball.
He was best known as the six-foot, 205-pound smashing fullback who helped lead the Stanford team, coached by Glenn ("Pop") Warner, to the Rose Bowl. Having broken both ankles during the course of the season, Nevers was not expected to play in the game on January 1, 1925, against the Notre Dame team, coached by Knute Rockne and featuring the famed "Four Horsemen" in the backfield. Despite heavily taped ankles and a noticeable limp, he was the outstanding player on the field in a 27-10 Stanford defeat, gaining 114 yards in 34 carries.
The following season Nevers was an All-America selection despite playing for a subpar Stanford team. In three seasons, he led Stanford to an overall won-lost-tied record of 22-5-1. In comparing Nevers to Jim Thorpe (whom he had also coached in college), Coach Warner remarked: "Nevers could do everything Thorpe could do. And Ernie always tried harder. Ernie gave 60 minutes of himself in every game. " Nevers's jersey number 1 was retired upon his graduation. After his final season at Stanford, Nevers turned professional and organized the Jacksonville (Florida) All-Stars in order to capitalize on a pro football boom triggered by Harold ("Red") Grange's signing with the Chicago Bears.
As one of the most publicized football players ever, Grange drew 40, 000-50, 000 fans to Bears games. Previously, a crowd of 10, 000 was considered excellent in the NFL. He was paid $25, 000 to play in two last games, one of which was against Grange and the Bears in Jacksonville in January 1926. Nevers outperformed Grange despite a 19-6 Chicago victory. The Jacksonville team disbanded shortly thereafter. In the fall of 1926, Nevers signed with the Duluth Eskimos of the National Football League (NFL) and became the centerpiece of a legendary barnstorming tour. Owner Ole Haugsrud, a high school classmate, agreed to pay him $15, 000 and a percentage of the larger gate proceeds. The team began its tour on September 20 and played twenty-nine league and exhibition games before it disbanded on the West Coast in early February with a record of 19-7-3. Nevers played in all but twenty-seven minutes of the games and outshone Red Grange, who played in the rival American Football League that year. He was unanimously selected as all-NFL fullback in a poll conducted by a Green Bay, Wisconsin, newspaper. The following season he served as player-coach for Duluth, but despite his superb play the Eskimos had a 1-8-0 record on the road. Beginning with the 1926 season, Nevers played three years of major league baseball with the St. Louis Browns, who gave him a $10, 000 signing bonus and $7, 000 per season.
Nevers also played one season of pro basketball for a Chicago team in 1926. After sitting out the 1928 football season because of a back injury, Nevers returned to the NFL in 1929 with the Chicago Cardinals and led the league in scoring with eighty-five points.
Nevers had outstanding seasons with the Cardinals in 1930 and 1931, serving as player-coach in 1930. He was selected to the all-NFL team as a fullback in each of his seasons with Chicago. A wrist injury forced him to retire after the 1931 campaign. In five NFL seasons, he scored 301 points. Nevers was assistant coach at Stanford from 1932 to 1935 and served in the same capacity at Iowa in 1937 and 1938. He was head coach at Lafayette College in Pennsylvania in 1936. Returning to the NFL in 1939 as head coach of the Chicago Cardinals, he finished with a disappointing 1-10 record.
During World War II, he served in the South Pacific as a captain in the United States Marine Corps. After the war, Nevers was briefly involved in setting up the Chicago Rocket franchise in the All-America Football Conference. He soon returned to California and settled in Tiburon near San Francisco, where he worked in public relations for a wholesale liquor company and hosted a radio sports program.
He died in San Rafael, California.
Ernie registered one of the best single-game performances in NFL history. On November 28, against the rival Chicago Bears, he made a record six touchdowns and kicked four extra points in a 40-7 victory. A journeyman pitcher, he ended his career with a record of six wins and twelve losses and a 4. 64 earned run average. He is best known for giving up two of Babe Ruth's record-setting sixty home runs in 1927. Nevers was elected to both the National Football Foundation's College Football Hall of Fame and the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Sports Illustrated selected Nevers as the best college player of all time, and he was a Football Writers of America choice for All-Time All-America team.
Ernie's courage and stamina won him national recognition.
In 1926, Nevers had married Mary Elizabeth Haegerty, who died in 1943. He married Margery Luxem in 1947; they had one child.
