Paul Gordon Goebel Sr. is best known as a former mayor of Grand Rapids, political leader and sporting goods store owner, but he was also a star football player at Central High, an All-American in 1922 while playing for the University of Michigan, played professional football for five years, including two All-Pro seasons, and was a Big Ten Conference football official for 16 years.
Goebel played at Michigan from 1920-’22 and was a team captain regarded as one of the nation’s top pass receivers as a 6-foot-3 athlete, which was especially tall in that era. He was All-American in two seasons and missed several games one year with a knee injury. An engineering school student, he earned a Big Ten Conference Medal of Honor for proficiency in academics and athletics.
Michigan football in recent years has developed a tradition of a top pass receiver wearing the No. 1 jersey, essentially since Anthony Carter played for the Wolverines in 1979-’82. Goebel was the first All-American at Michigan to wear that number.
Goebel played professional football for the Columbus Tigers from 1923- ’25, the Chicago Bears in 1925, and the New York Yankees (the football team) in 1926. He was All-Pro in ’23 and ’24.
After retiring from football, he worked in his sporting goods business, and also worked during football season as a game official for the Big Ten from 1935-’52. He officiated in the 1952 Rose Bowl, serving as the head linesman in his last game.
His leadership went beyond being mayor and on the football field. During World War II he served in the U.S. Navy as a Lieutenant Commander on an aircraft carrier.
He was active in Republican Party politics and was elected mayor of Grand Rapids three times in the 1950s. He was later elected to the University of Michigan Board of Regents, where he served from 1962 to 1970. He recommended young Gerald Ford to the football coach at the University of Michigan, and later served on committees for the aspiring future U.S. president.
Goebel was also an award-winning trout fisherman named the Trout King at the National Trout Festival of 1949. He died in 1988 at the age of 86.