Duke Iversen

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Duke Iversen was an American football player who played as a back in the NFL and AAFC in the late 1940s and early 1950s. He was born on February 26, 1920, in Petaluma, California, to Danish immigrant parents. His family name was Iverson, but a doctor misspelled it as Iversen on his birth certificate. He grew up on a sheep and poultry ranch and played football at Petaluma High School.

Iversen attended the University of Oregon, playing for the Ducks from 1939 to 1942. His college career was interrupted by World War II, when he served as a Marine, including time in Jacksonville and Okinawa. He returned to Oregon in 1946 for a final season and played in the East-West Shrine Game. He was drafted in 1947 by the New York Giants in the seventh round. He played for the Giants in 1947, then moved to the AAFC’s New York Yankees (and later the Brooklyn-New York Yankees) through 1949. He finished his career with the NFL’s New York Yanks from 1950 to 1951. After football, he sold the family ranch and went into real estate. He died May 20, 2011, in Petaluma, California, at age 91.