Jimmy Snyder (racing driver)

James Leroy Snyder was an American racing driver. He also played one game for the Milwaukee Badgers of the National Football League in 1925. Aged 16 during his NFL debut, he was the youngest player in NFL history.

Football career

Snyder, a member of the Englewood High School football team, was convinced by Chicago Cardinals substitute quarterback Art Folz to play for the recently disbanded Milwaukee Badgers, who were being hastily reorganized to play against the Cardinals. In contention for the 1925 National Football League season championship, the Cardinals were looking for an easy victory to pad their record.
Synder along with three other Englewood students participated in the game under assumed names. Their amateur participation in the game, a 58-0 rout, later became a scandal resulting in punishment for Folz and the Chicago Cardinals.

Snyder was part of the midget car racing "Chicago Gang" with Emil Andres, Tony Bettenhausen, Cowboy O'Rourke, Paul Russo, and Wally Zale. These racers toured tracks in the Midwest and East Coast of the United States.
Snyder won the 1937 track championship at the Chicago Armory & Riverview. He also set a new track record at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for that season's Indianapolis 500.
Snyder appeared in five Indianapolis 500s. He won the pole for the 1939 Indianapolis 500, setting another new track record in the process. He finished second in the event.

Snyder died in East St. Louis, Illinois hospital on June 29, 1939, shortly after being injured in a midget racing accident in Cahokia, Illinois.