Francis Earl Hering (April 30, 1874 – July 11, 1943) was an American social reformer, public speaker, and fraternal organization leader.
In his youth, Hering was a college football player and coach of football, basketball, and baseball at the University of Notre Dame.
Later, Hering achieved national fame as a leader of the Fraternal Order of Eagles, and served as its Grand Worthy President twice, elected in 1909 and 1911. He was publisher of the order's national magazine The Eagle for more than three decades. In his role as an Eagles leader during the heyday of fraternal societies, Hering used his pulpit to lead several national campaigns for social justice, most importantly his work on behalf of social security benefits.
Early Life and Sports Career Hering was born in Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, to Solomon and Mary (Neuer) Hering.
He attended high school in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, graduating in 1892.
After a year working for the Pennsylvania Railroad, Hering enrolled at the University of Chicago, and played quarterback for the Chicago Maroons for the 1893 and 1894 seasonsTimothy Edward Howard, A History of St. Joseph County, Indiana, Vol. 1, The Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago, 1907, p. 527 under the tutelage of legendary Chicago coach Amos Alonzo Stagg. Stagg remembered Hering's unique talents in his memoir, Touchdown!
Frank Hering... was my quarter in 1894, and the first man I encountered who could throw a football as a baseball is thrown, an ability arising from the unusual size and grip of his hands. I trained Hering, if he got the ball on the kick-off, to pass it back to an end or a half or to shoot it to a sleeper lying outside.Amos Alonzo Stagg and Wesley Winans Stout, Touchdown!, Longmans Green and Company, New York, 1927, p. 190
Stagg added, "He spiraled the pass." Bill Leiser, the legendary sports columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle, published his conclusion that Hering was the first football player recorded to have used the single-handed overhand spiral pass that is such a central part of the game today."Stagg and the Forward Pass," South Bend Tribune, January 3, 1943, p. 1 (Credit for the first legal overhand pass generally goes to Bradbury Robinson in 1906, after the official rules were changed to explicitly permit this style of throw.)"Was the First Forward Pass in Football History Thrown at Saint Louis University?" St. Louis Magazine, Jan. 14, 2016, retrieved from https://www.stlmag.com/news/sports/was-the-first-forward-pass-in-football-history-thrown-at-slu/
Hering left the University of Chicago in 1895 and got his first head coaching job, with the Bucknell Bisons. That same year, Hering married Florence Madison Dalmond, of Chicago.Howard, A History of St. Joseph County, Indiana, Vol. 1, p. 527 At Bucknell, Hering joined the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity.
The following year, he left Bucknell and enrolled at the University of Notre Dame and began serving as its director of athletics for the Fighting Irish. He also served as the team's quarterback, and as the school's full-time head football coach from 1896 to 1898, compiling a record of 12–6–1. He earned the title of "Father of Notre Dame Football" for his success in expanding the football program from an intramural activity to a full-fledged intercollegiate sport. According to a 1909 profile, during his entire football career "he never weighed more than 120 pounds.""Hering Famous With Other Gridiron And Diamond Stars," Omaha Daily Bee, September 11, 1909, p. 1
Hering is credited with introducing the game of basketball to Notre Dame. On February 17, 1897, the South Bend Tribune announced an exhibition game between two Notre Dame squads, "trained by the university coach, Mr. Hering. This will be the first game of basketball played in South Bend," the paper proclaimed. "It is full of action and keeps the spectator interested from start to finish.""Basket Ball at C.-A. Club," South Bend Tribune, Feb. 17, 1897, p. 6 Hering then served as basketball coach at Notre Dame, coaching one season in 1897–98, and captained the school's baseball team for three seasons, from 1897 to 1899.
Hering received a bachelor's degree in philosophy from Notre Dame in 1898. According to a 1902 local newspaper article, that same year Hering's career as an athlete and coach for Notre Dame came to an end "because of his failure to agree with Notre Dame students," an unexplained conflict that hints toward some of the controversies that would pepper his career."F.E. Hering Named," South Bend Tribune, April 2 , 1902, P. 1
After he ceased coaching, Hering continued to study law at Notre Dame, earning a law degree in 1902.Howard, A History of St. Joseph County, Indiana, Vol. 1, p. 527 Beginning in his student years, he also taught English and American Colonial History at the university until 1905, and was, according to reporting at the time, the first Protestant to join the Notre Dame faculty."Mother Of Man Who Founded Mother's Day Still Lives," by NEA Service, Nebraska News-Press, May 11, 1930
Business and Political Career After leaving the university, Hering stayed in South Bend and began his lifelong career as an orator and public figure working as a political operative during the 1900 Congressional election season. A one-time Republican, he left the party to join the Democrats in 1900 and was tapped to make issue speeches at public gatherings."F.E. Hering Named," South Bend Tribune, April 2 , 1902, P. 1 The speech-heavy public culture of the day afforded him many opportunities. He was usually identified in the press at this time as "Professor Frank Hering," since he was still teaching at Notre Dame.
For his first topic, Hering adopted William Jennings Bryan's passionate polemic in favor of adding silver coinage to the country's money supply. According to the coverage in the staunchly Republican South Bend Tribune coverage at the time, Hering's speeches were:
more interesting for the oratorial features than for the solidness of their arguments. These speeches gave Mr. Hering standing with the free silver element of the district and placed the party under obligations to him.
After the Democrats lost the election in South Bend's 13th Congressional District, Hering kept up a steady stream of public speaking appearances, aligning himself with social justice causes like publicly-funded insurance. He embraced the Democratic party's shift towards a more progressive agenda (which had begun in earnest with Bryan's 1896 presidential campaign), and regularly delivered speeches on "The History of Socialism.""Hering Lectures on Socialism," South Bend Tribune, April 17, 1901, p. 4
By 1902, Hering had, by his public appearances, positioned himself as the obvious choice to run for Congress against the Republican incumbent, Abraham Brick. Hering was nominated on April 2, 1902, at a gathering of Democratic Party officials at the Centennial Opera House in Plymouth, Indiana."F.E. Hering Named," South Bend Tribune Hering ran as a pro-labor candidate, speaking out on behalf of unions. He did well at the polls in November but still lost, receiving 46.3% of the vote to Brick's 50.3%. He ran again in 1904, but lost by a larger margin, 40.1% to 52.5% Kalb, Deborah, ed. (2016). Guide to U.S. elections (Seventh edition (Online-Ausg.) ed.). Thousand Oaks: SAGE. ISBN 978-1-4833-8036-0.
In 1902, he co-founded the firm Murphy & Hering with partner Daniel Murphy; the company harvested and stored ice from local bodies of water for sale to ice retailers in the region. Some of his ice houses were on the Notre Dame campus. The company also sold coal for heating residences."Consumers of Ice To Provide Own Crop," Indianapolis News, October 6, 1903, p. 3
Fraternal Order of Eagles In 1903, a local branch of the Fraternal Order of Eagles was established in South Bend, and Hering joined.
In the first thirty years of the 20th century, fraternal organizations boasted huge and loyal memberships and their leaders often commanded national attention. Many of these organizations, including the Eagles, offered "mutual aid" like health care and death benefits, long before the U.S. Government did. For middle-class Americans, these fraternal societies took on great significance as sources of both civic and social support, and their leaders were often invited to speak on matters of civic importance."Reciprocal Aid: Fraternalism and Early Social Welfare History," by Sarah H. Shepherd, on the Virginia Commonwealth University Social Welfare History Project, May, 2024. Retrieved from https://socialwelfare.library.vcu.edu/organizations/reciprocal-aid-fraternalism-and-early-social-welfare-history/ The Fraternal Order of Eagles was a relative latecomer to the crowded field of fraternal societies - it was founded in 1898 - but it grew quickly, in part because of its comparatively open membership rules (Americans of any religion were welcome, but Black people were not - only "pure caucasions" were eligible for membership),"Buffalo Eagles Home After Glorious Trip," The Buffalo News, August 11, 1912, p. 14 and also due to its generous medical and burial benefits. Eagles literature boasted that "no Eagle lies in a potter's field."
By 1905, the Eagles claimed to have 1,300 local lodges, or "aeries," and the South Bend aerie boasted 450 members."Eagles Invade City," South Bend Tribune, November 20, 1905, p. 1 In its heyday the group's annual national conventions, known as "Grand Aeries," were massive events during which tens of thousands of visitors descended on the host community. Cities competed for the honor of hosting the Grand Aerie each August; its opening ceremonies, parades, speeches and even officer elections were a spectacle for the public not unlike the Olympics today: in 1913, a relay of eight runners traveling five miles each carried a message of greeting from U.S. President Woodrow Wilson from the White House to the Eagles gathering in Baltimore, 40 miles away."Eagles Sound A Lofty Nitice," Baltimore Sun, August 5, 1913, p. 12
After his efforts in the political arena fell short, the Eagles proved an effective vehicle through which Hering built a national profile as a speaker and an outspoken advocate for social justice. He spent most of his career as a prominent member of the order, becoming its most influential representative in its peak years.
Hering was quickly recognized as a capable fraternal speaker and organizer. In 1904, he gave the annual memorial address to the Indianapolis aerie."Hering To Make Address," South Bend Tribune, Feb. 6, 1904, p. 5 In August 1905, at age 31, Hering was elected "grand treasurer" of the national Eagles organization at the order's annual convention. His appointment caused a flurry of excitement in the South Bend business community, as funds under the treasurer's management typically were invested in the treasurer's home town. "South Bend members are congratulating each other that so high an honor has come to South Bend," reported a local paper. "It usually goes to larger cities.""City Gets Treasurership," South Bend Tribune, August 22, 1905, p. 5 When Hering returned to South Bend a week later, he was met by 300 Eagles at the train station, and then honored with a glittering banquet hosted by the city's mayor."Reception for F.E. Hering," South Bend Tribune, Sept. 1, 1905, p.5 South Bend banks eventually received some $275,000 (about $10 million in 2026 dollars) from the pooled dues of the roughly quarter-million Eagles members nationwide. This appointment began Hering's long career as a well-known Eagles figure, with substantial influence or control over the large-scale resources generated by the membership. Hering himself was known to point out that salaries for Eagles "grand officers" were higher than those of any other fraternal organization.