Elmer Rhenstrom

Elmer Gustaf "Swede" Rhenstrom was World War I fighter pilot, professional football player, and airline manager.
Rhenstrom was an end for the inaugural Horlick-Racine Legion team in the National Football League in 1922.

Biography

Elmer Rhenstrom, known to his friends as "Swede", was born in Kenosha, Wisconsin. He was the son of Anthony Rhenstrom and Emma Stahl Rhenstrom, both immigrants from Sweden.
Rhenstrom served as a pilot in France during the First World War, where he shot down two enemy aircraft, for which he was referred to as an ace. He was awarded the Silver Star for his activity during the Great War in October 1941, on the eve of American entry into World War II.
After the war, enrolled at Beloit College in Beloit, Wisconsin, where he played football. He married Dorothy Virginia Miles in 1920.
In 1922, he signed on with the Racine Post of the American Legion to play football for their professional football team — the Racine Legion of the National Football League.
In 1928 he joined Fairfield Aviation in Riverside, Ohio, and in 1929 he became a manager at Texas Air Transport Inc.
In the 1940s he was an officer at Scott [Air Force Base|Scott Field] near Belleville, Illinois.