Born in Elkins, West Virginia, to a Jewish family of Romanian descent, Marshall “Biggie” Goldberg was a three-sport All-State athlete before becoming one of college football’s most celebrated backs at the University of Pittsburgh. Under coach Jock Sutherland, Goldberg led the Panthers to back-to-back national championships in 1936 and 1937, including a Rose Bowl victory, earned two consensus All-American selections, and finished as runner-up in the 1938 Heisman Trophy voting. His 1,957 career rushing yards stood as a Pitt school record until Tony Dorsett broke it in 1974. Drafted by the Chicago Cardinals in the second round of the 1939 NFL Draft, Goldberg brought that championship pedigree directly to the professional game.

Goldberg spent eight seasons with the Cardinals from 1939 to 1948, interrupted by two years of Navy service in the South Pacific during World War II, where he rose to the rank of lieutenant. A four-time NFL All-Pro, he was a key member of the 1947 Cardinals squad that won the NFL Championship, the franchise’s last title to date. His jersey number 99 was later retired by the Arizona Cardinals, and he is enshrined in the Cardinals’ Ring of Honor.

After football, Goldberg worked in insurance before taking over a machine parts company, Marshall Goldberg Machine Tools Ltd., based in Rosemont, Illinois. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1958 and was also honored by the National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame and the West Virginia Sports Writers Hall of Fame. Following his passing in Chicago in 2006, his widow Rita and daughter Ellen established The Marshall Goldberg Traumatic Brain Injury Fund at the University of Illinois at Chicago to advance research on head injuries in athletes.