Johnny Unitas

Football Player

• Born: May 7, 1933
• Birthplace: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
• Died: September 11, 2002
• Place of death: Lutherville-Timonium, Maryland

Sport: Football

Early Life

John Constantine Unitas was born May 7, 1933, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He was the third of four children and was born into a poor family. Johnny’s father Leon died in 1938. He had operated a small coal-delivery business, which his wife Helen took over after his death. She also worked at an office-cleaning job to support the family and eventually became a bookkeeper after going to night school to learn accounting.

Legend has it that Johnny, at the age of twelve, vowed that he would become a professional football player. His determined, often cocky attitude saw him through a difficult childhood.

The Road to Excellence

Johnny played high school football at St. Justin’s High School and in his senior year was named as the quarterback on Pittsburgh’s all-Catholic high school team. Johnny’s high school coach saw potential in the young quarterback and contacted various colleges in hopes of persuading them to recruit Johnny.

Johnny was not yet the ideal size for college football. In his last year in high school, he was 5 feet 11 inches tall and weighed 140 pounds. The universities of Notre Dame, Indiana, and Pittsburgh all showed some interest in Johnny, but eventually decided he was too small and not good enough. Finally, the University of Louisville gave him a scholarship. He enrolled in 1951. Louisville was not the place for big-time college football; the team was not even in a league. When Johnny graduated in 1955, he had grown to 6 feet 1 inch and nearly 200 pounds.

Johnny was drafted in the ninth round of the NFL draft by the Pittsburgh Steelers, even though the Steelers had three other quarterbacks at the time. Unitas was cut from the team. A still-determined Johnny tried to persuade the Cleveland Browns to give him a tryout, but they turned him away. Johnny ended up playing on a semiprofessional sandlot team called the Bloomfield Rams, in Pittsburgh. He was making six dollars per game when Don Kellett, the general manager of the Baltimore Colts, began hearing reports indicating how good Johnny was. Kellett made a now-famous eighty-five-cent phone call to Pittsburgh and offered Johnny a seven-thousand-dollar contract with the Colts as a backup to quarterback George Shaw.

The Emerging Champion

Johnny did not play much with the Colts until the fourth game of the 1956 season, against the Chicago Bears. George Shaw had been injured and had to be carried off the field. Johnny came in and on his first pass attempt threw an interception. The slow start did not discourage Johnny. He eventually earned the starting quarterback job and in the last game of the season threw a 53-yard scoring pass to beat the Washington Redskins.

The following year, Johnny led the NFL in passing yardage, with 2,550 yards, and in touchdown passes, with 24. The Colts had an up-and-down year and eventually finished in third place.

The next season, 1958, Johnny led the Colts to the NFL Championship in a sudden-death victory over the New York Giants. Sportswriters have called it the greatest game ever played. The Colts had jumped out to a 14-3 lead by halftime. On the Colts’ first drive of the second half, Johnny came out passing. The Colts offense marched all the way to the Giants’ one-yard line but was stopped there. The Giants took over and charged down the field for a touchdown. The Colts offense could not score on its next possession. The Giants got the ball back, found the end zone, and took a 17-14 lead.

When Johnny and the Colts got the ball back deep in their own territory with only two minutes to play, Johnny came onto the field and did what made him famous. Keeping his poise under pressure, he led the Colts down the field to set up a 20-yard Steve Myhra field goal to tie the game. The game went into overtime. Johnny brought the Colts 80 yards to score a touchdown and a 23-17 victory.

The following year, the Colts repeated as NFL champions, beating the Giants again, 31-16. Johnny passed for 265 yards and 2 touchdowns in the game.

Continuing the Story

Johnny continued to set records as a quarterback. From 1956 to 1960, he set a record by throwing at least one touchdown pass in forty-seven consecutive games.

In the 1960 season, Johnny suffered a fractured vertebra that kept him from running with the ball. Opposing teams were able to contain him more easily. He suffered numerous injuries throughout his career, including broken ribs, punctured lungs, and torn knee cartilage. Johnny played through the pain, but it looked like his career was winding down. He had to sit out much of the 1968 season with injuries, but he came back and led the Colts to victory in Super Bowl V over the Dallas Cowboys in 1970.

In 1973, Johnny was traded to the San Diego Chargers, and he played with the team for one season. He was nearing the end of his eighteen-year career, and his playing time in San Diego was limited. By the time he retired at the end of the season, he held NFL records for the most pass attempts, most completions, most yardage, most 300-yard games, and most touchdown passes.

Johnny won NFL most valuable player awards in 1959, 1964, and 1967. He also won the Jim Thorpe Award, as the most valuable player as voted by NFL players, in 1957 and 1967. He was named all-pro in 1957, 1958, 1964, 1965, 1966, and 1967. In 1970, the Associated Press named him the NFL player of the decade for the 1960’s, and in 1979, he was named to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. In 1994, Johnny was selected to the NFL’s seventy-fifth anniversary all-time team.

Aside from the awards, the records, and the statistics, Johnny was known for his ability to keep cool under pressure. He led last-minute drives, calling about 70 percent of the plays himself, to set up game-winning opportunities.

In the late twentieth century, Johnny became active as a corporate representative. He was an important supporter of civic and charitable organizations. He founded the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Educational Foundation, which, along with the Unitas Management Corporation in Riderwood, Maryland, was headed by Johnny’s son, John C. Unitas, Jr. In 1987, the foundation began awarding the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award to each year’s best senior college quarterback in the country. The foundation promotes football on all levels and gives financial assistance to underprivileged and deserving young scholar-athletes.

Summary

Johnny Unitas never gave up even when it seemed no team wanted him. Always determined and rarely losing his composure, he proved himself to be one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time. He died in 2002.

Bibliography

Callahan, Tom. Johnny U: The Life and Times of John Unitas. New York: Crown, 2006.

Lazenby, Roland. Johnny Unitas: The Best There Ever Was. Chicago: Triumph Books, 2002.

Sahadi, Lou. Johnny Unitas: America’s Quarterback. Chicago: Triumph Books, 2004.

Towle, Mike. Johnny Unitas: Mister Quarterback. Nashville, Tenn.: Cumberland House, 2003.