TENNESSEE VOLS FOOTBALL: Molinski was able to dish out the pain

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Before treating patients as a physician, Ed Molinski prescribed pain.

The Golden Gloves heavyweight champion was a natural teenage bruiser, initially barred from football by his father to preserve his potential in the ring.

Legendary Massillon, Ohio, football coach Paul Brown saw it differently and trained his sights on Molinski for his Washington High School squad. A deal was struck between the elder Molinski and coach: Ed could dress, and Coach Brown would allow for boxing in the off-season.   

Molinski was a member of the high school’s 1935 state and national championship team, playing guard and linebacker his first two years for the Tigers before moving to quarterback his senior year, often lead blocking for backs in Brown’s offense scheme.

A 5-foot-10, 186 pounds, dual-athlete Molinski donned No. 36 in Volunteer orange, a guard under coach Robert “The General” Neyland. He also captained the UT boxing team. In 1938, Molinski and the Vols went undefeated during the regular season and stone-walled Oklahoma 17-0 in the Orange Bowl, Jan. 2, 1939.

The 1939 Volunteers outscored regular season opponents 212-0, going undefeated again and winning the SEC Championship before falling to Southern California 14-0 in the Rose Bowl. Molinski earned First-Team All-SEC and Consensus All-America honors that year, and, in 1940, was named Second-Team All-SEC and First-Team All-America by The Sporting News.

During World War II, Molinski served in the U.S. Marine Corps, reaching the rank of second lieutenant. Following the war, he served in assistant coaching positions at Memphis State and Mississippi while studying medicine. 

Molinski earned his Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of Tennessee in Memphis and later practiced medicine in Memphis, serving as the team doctor for both Memphis State and Mississippi State football.

Molinski died June 26, 1986, in Memphis. He was inducted into both the College Football Hall of Fame (1990) and Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame (1994).

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