Joe Brandy

Who was Joe Brandy?

Joseph Ralph Brandy was an American football player and coach.

After serving as an Army lieutenant in World War I, Brandy enrolled at the University of Notre Dame and became the starting quarterback for the Fighting Irish football team during the undefeated 1920 season—which was the final season for the legendary George Gipp prior to his death from pneumonia. Brandy was also a starting guard and a captain for the basketball team.

After graduation, Brandy accepted a position as a mathematics instructor and coach at St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota for five years, directing nearly all of the athletic programs, including football, baseball, basketball, and hockey. He also spent one year in the National Football League coaching the Minneapolis Marines in 1924.

In 1926, he returned to his hometown of Ogdensburg, New York, where he headed up the Advance News weekly newspaper for 16 years, and also coached for three seasons at the Ogdensburg Free Academy. He then founded radio station WSLB and operated it until the late 1950s, at which time he became president of the board at Claxton-Hepburn Medical Center.

Brandy died in 1971 at the age of 73, and was buried at St. Mary's Cemetery in Ogdensburg.