Chris Dorsey


“The annexation of the eastern stars and the development of home talent has produced a winning team for Pittsburgh.”
— The Pittsburgh Press, 1917

Chris Dorsey

Chris Dorsey.

Team: Scholastic Athletic Association
Home: Pittsburgh, Pa.

Chris Dorsey was the second of Pittsburgh’s five famously athletic and dynamic Dorsey brothers (Jim, Bill, Sparksman, and Mike were the others).

The Dorseys were products of the Smoky City’s tough and gritty sandlot playground culture, and their sports legacy there lasted 70 years beginning in the early 1900s.

His strength and agility made Dorsey an effective defender at the left guard position for the Scholastics, which was one of Pittsburgh’s best basketball teams during the 1910s.

Dorsey also played football with the legendary Delaney Rifles and Collins Tigers, fearsome local semi-pro sandlot teams, and for the Lincoln Athletic Club in Chicago.

Playing for Lincoln, Dorsey’s teammates included Fritz Pollard, who was an All American from Brown University and later became the NFL’s first black quarterback and head coach (Pollard was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2006).