An article in the Daily Calumet credits Butkus with driving in all of the Sundodgers' runs in a loss, hitting a home run to center field. In the summer of 1960, Butkus was the starting catcher on a Chicago Park District baseball team known as the Sundodgers.
Injuries limited his play as a senior, but he was still heavily recruited by colleges to play football. In 1959, he was the first junior to be honored by the Chicago Sun-Times as Chicago's high school player of the year. In Butkus' first year on the varsity team, Chicago Vocational surrendered only 55 points in eight games. He averaged five yards per carry as a fullback, but preferred playing linebacker, where he made 70 percent of his team's tackles. īutkus played high school football as a fullback, linebacker, punter, and placekicker for coach Bernie O'Brien at Chicago Vocational High School.
For four years starting at age 15, Butkus worked with his four brothers as a mover. His older brother Ron played football for three colleges and tried out for the Cardinals before quitting due to a bad knee. He was a fan of the NFL's Chicago Cardinals and attended their games at Comiskey Park. Butkus grew up in the Roseland neighborhood on Chicago's South Side. His mother, Emma, worked 50 hours a week at a laundry. His father John, a Lithuanian immigrant to Ellis Island who spoke broken English, was an electrician and worked for the Pullman-Standard railroad car manufacturing company. He was a very large baby, weighing 13 pounds 6 ounces (6.1 kg) at birth. Richard Marvin Butkus was born in Chicago, Illinois, the youngest of eight children, but the first to be born in a hospital. He is active in philanthropy through the Butkus Foundation, which manages various charitable causes. Following his playing career, Butkus began careers in acting, sports commentary, and celebrity endorsement.
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According to Hall of Fame defensive end Deacon Jones, Butkus "was a well-conditioned animal, and every time he hit you, he tried to put you in the cemetery, not the hospital." In 2009, the NFL Network named Butkus the most feared tackler of all time.īutkus is credited with having defined the middle linebacker position, and is still viewed as the "gold standard by which other middle linebackers are measured." He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1979, and his No. His tackling ability earned him both admiration and trepidation from opposing players. In his NFL career, he intercepted 22 passes, recovered 27 fumbles (a record when he retired), and was responsible for causing many more fumbles with his jarring tackles. He soon established himself as a ball hawk with his penchant for forcing turnovers. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1983.īutkus was drafted by the Bears as the third overall pick in the 1965 NFL Draft. A two-time consensus All-American, he led the Illini to a Rose Bowl victory in 1963 and was deemed the most valuable player in the Big Ten Conference, and in 1964 he was named college football's Lineman of the Year by United Press International (UPI). As a college football player at the University of Illinois, he was a linebacker and center for the Fighting Illini. Renowned as a fierce tackler and for the relentless effort with which he played, Butkus is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most intimidating linebackers in pro football history.īorn in Chicago, Illinois, Butkus played his entire football career in his home state, which began at Chicago Vocational High School.
Through those nine seasons he was invited to eight Pro Bowls, named a first-team All-Pro six times, and was twice recognized by his peers as the NFL's Defensive Player of the Year. He played football as a middle linebacker for the Chicago Bears of the National Football League (NFL) from 1965 to 1973.
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Richard Marvin Butkus (born December 9, 1942) is an American former professional football player, sports commentator, and actor.
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