Josiah Calvin McCracken (March 30, 1874 – February 15, 1962)[1] was an American football player and track and field athlete.

During 1899 he played alongside Outland and A. R. Kennedy, another transfer students from the University of Kansas football program.

Richard Sheldon also representing the US, elected to participate on Sunday and won the gold medal in the shot put.

After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, McCracken remained involved in college football as both a game official and coach.

McCracken spent a total of 36 years in China training Chinese doctors and improving existing medical schools.

When the Japanese occupied China in 1942, McCracken and his family were expelled and placed aboard an Italian ship in Shanghai.

In Mozambique they were transferred to a Swedish ship that took them around the Cape of Good Hope to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and finally to New York.

During retirement McCracken continued to raise funds for the hospitals and medical schools in China until the takeover in 1952 by the communist government.

A son of Joe and Helen, Josiah C. McCracken Jr., was a Penn football running back in the 1930s, whose nickname was the "Shanghai Express."

During World War II Joe Jr. rose to the rank of Major in the U.S. Army Medical Corps and received the Bronze Star for his service in the southwest Pacific.

He donated the proceeds from the sale of the family farm to Sterling College in appreciation for what the school had done for him and other young people since then.