Tikvah
Editors’ Pick

February 9, 2026

The Greatest Jewish Football Legend You’ve Never Heard Of

In his day, Arnold Horween meant more to Jews than Sandy Koufax in his.

The recent naming of the Israeli-born basketball player Deni Avidja to the NBA’s all-star game has caused considerable excitement among a certain stratum of American Jewish sports fans. But this is nothing compared to the excitement caused when Arnold Horween became Harvard’s football coach in 1926, an event that was the subject of countless synagogue sermons and articles in Jewish newspapers—and ruffled the feathers of anti-Semites.

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