Johnny Unitas

1933-2002

American football player

Ignored and overlooked in his early years, Johnny Unitas went on to become one of the greatest quarterbacks in football history. Unitas, whose passing ability earned him the nickname "the Golden Arm," led the winning team in what is widely regarded as the greatest game in the annals of professional football. His was in some ways a Horatio Alger story, but his heroism never stopped him from being human, and thus his career served as a reminder that even the greatest of gridiron giants is still just a man. On the day he died, September 11, 2002, America was busy commemorating the terrorist attacks that had occurred exactly a year earlier, and thus Unitas, always known for his stoicism, passed quietly from the scene. Yet football had been changed forever because of him.

Humble Beginnings

The third of Leon and Helen Unitas's fourth children was born John Constantine Unitas, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on May 7, 1933. The family was of Lithuanian descent, and strongly Catholic. Leon, who operated a small coal-delivery business, died when his son was just five years old. Helen took over the business, and with that and odd jobs, she supported the family.

Unitas decided he wanted to become a professional football player when he was just 12 years old. As quarterback for St. Justin's High School, a position he won after the original quarterback broke his ankle, he made enough of a name for himself that as a senior he earned a spot on Pittsburgh's All-Catholic High School team. This was to be his greatest success for half a decade.

Laboring in Obscurity

As a high-school senior, Unitas already sported the crewcut that would be his trademark. He stood six feet tall, but weighed only 138 pounds, making him light even by the standards of a high-school player in 1951. He dreamed of playing for Notre Dame, but the Fighting Irish rejected him because he did not appear likely to gain any weight. The University of Pittsburgh offered

Unitas a scholarship, yet he failed the entrance exam, and this left only the University of Louisville, which gave him a scholarship. In his years at Louisville (1951-55), he remained in the shadows, but he did manage to gain 56 pounds and grow two inches.

In 1954, at the beginning of his senior year, Unitas married long-time girlfriend Dorothy Jean Hoelle, with whom he would eventually have five children. After graduation, his hometown Steelers picked him on the ninth round of the college draft, only to drop him before he even played in an exhibition game.

Disappointed but far from ready to give up, Unitas moved his family to Bloomfield, New Jersey, where he worked on a construction crew and played quarterback for the Bloomfield Rams. The Rams played on fields that were often strewn with litter, and for his troubles, Unitas earned just six dollars per game. Still, his efforts were not in vain: an admiring fan noticed his talents, and mentioned him to a scout for the Baltimore Colts.

First Years with the Colts

The Colts gave Unitas a tryout, and were impressed enough to sign him as a backup to quarterback George Shaw. Then, in a virtual repeat of the circumstances that had put him in the quarterback position for his high-school team, Shaw broke his leg in the fourth game of the 1956-57 season, and suddenly Unitas was moved front and center.

Even then, it was not immediately apparent that one of the most legendary careers in the history of the NFL (National Football League) had just been launched: Unitas's first pass as Baltimore quarterback was intercepted. However, he managed to finish the season with an impressive pass completion percentage of 55.6. In 1957, he led the NFL in touchdown passes and passing yardage, and by 1958, Baltimore's No. 19 was recognized as the best quarterback in the NFL.

A History-Making Game

On December 28, 1958, the Colts faced the New York Giants in the NFL championship game at Yankee Stadium. This was the first football game in history to go into overtime, and—of perhaps even greater importance—the first football game broadcast to a national audience. The mythical quality of that event can be glimpsed in the fact that on the field that day were 12 future NFL Hall of Fame players, including Unitas and Frank Gifford, with three more Hall of Famers on the sidelines coaching.

Though suffering from three broken ribs, Unitas took to the field to lead his team. Near the end of the fourth quarter, the Giants were leading 17-14, with five of their points scored by another figure destined for national prominence, Pat Summerall. Then Unitas did something almost inconceivable: in the space of less than 90 seconds, he managed to complete seven passes, moving the Colts forward and setting up Steve Myhra for a game-tying field goal with just seven seconds remaining.

According to old league rules, the game would have ended with a tie, but as the fans discovered on that day in 1958, overtime—with its promise of a single victor, no longer how much struggle it took—added a great deal more excitement to the game. In the course of 13 plays, Unitas led his team forward by 80 yards, putting Alan Ameche in place for the touchdown that won the game 23-17. Not surprisingly, Unitas was named the championship's most valuable player (MVP).

Chronology

Awards and Accomplishments

A national audience estimated as high as 50 million watched this thrilling game, and thereafter the marriage of television and football was sealed. It is easy to see the importance of the game in retrospect, but at least one person recognized it on that day: bursting out of his box at the sidelines, football commissioner Bert Bell shouted, "This is the greatest day in the history of professional football!"

An Unlikely Hero

By then, Unitas's reputation as "the Golden Arm" was sealed, and along the way he gained other epithets, including "Mr. Quarterback" and "Johnny U." Still, he seemed an unlikely hero. Teammate Alex Hawkins, who many years later recalled his first encounter with the new quarterback, described him thus in Sports Ilustrated : "Here was a total mystery. [Unitas] was from Pennsylvania, but he looked so much like a Mississippi farmhand that I looked around for a mule. He had stooped shoulders, a chicken breast, thin bowed legs, and long dangling arms with crooked, mangled fingers." And though today the name Johnny Unitas could not sound more perfect for a star quarterback, at the time it seemed embarrassingly ethnic in a sport that had theretofore been dominated by western Europeans.

True to his hardworking immigrant heritage, Unitas developed a reputation for his ability to withstand pain, as exemplified by the injured quarterback's performance in the 1958 championship game. Speaking to Sports Illustrated, Merlin Olsen later said of Unitas, against whom he played for the Los Angeles Rams, "I often heard that sometimes he'd hold the ball one count longer than he had to just so he could take the hit and laugh in your face." When Unitas retired, he wore the crooked index finger on his passing hand as a badge of honor.

Soldiering on Through the Pain

During the 1958-59 season, Unitas led the NFL in passing yardage and completions and won the Bert Bell Award. His team again trounced the Giants in the championship game, this time by a larger margin of 31-16, and Unitas once again became the championship MVP. During the next few years, the team's performance slumped, but Unitas' did not, and he continued to lead the league in yardage and completions.

The Colts returned to the championships to face the Cleveland Browns in 1964 and lost, but Unitas remained as strong a performer as ever. During the 1965-66 season, he broke season records for passes thrown for touchdowns and yards gained, but in 1967-68 he tore a muscle in his right elbow. This time, even "the Golden Arm" could not simply swallow the pain and soldier on, and he had to sit out for most of the season.

Another Historic Game

The Colts won the 1968 NFL Championship without Unitas, but he returned in the following season, and helped lead the team into Superbowl III against Joe Namath and the New York Jets. Torn ligaments in his throwing arm kept Unitas out of the game until the fourth quarter, and though the injured veteran performed heroically, with 11 of 24 passes completed for 110 yards, this was not enough to save the Colts from a 16-7 loss to the Jets.

Marking the emergence of the American Football League (AFL) as a rival of the NFL, Superbowl III was a match of almost as great historic importance as the championship game 11 years earlier, and indeed, many fans called this "the greatest game ever." Later, Unitas—never known to mince words when it came to talking about coaches—said that the blame for that loss fell on Baltimore coach Don Shula . According to Sports Illustrated, it was Unitas' contention that Shula should have sent him in during the second quarter instead of the fourth.

In any case, it was Unitas and not Namath who gained recognition as the Greatest Quarterback in History at the NFL's 50th Anniversary in 1969. A quarter century later, he would be among just four quarterbacks (the others were Otto Graham, Sammy Baugh , and Joe Montana ) on the NFL 75th Anniversary Team.

Declining Years

Though he would continue to play until 1973, Unitas had his last great season in 1969-70. During that time, he completed 166 of 221 pass attempts, gaining 2,213 yards and 14 touchdowns, and he finished out the season by earning the NFL Man of the Year Award. The Colts even went to Super Bowl V against the Dallas Cowboys, but a bruised rib in the middle of the second quarter took Unitas out of the game.

Related Biography: Football Player George Shaw

Though Johnny Unitas went on to become a legend, and George Shaw is hardly remembered today, things looked very different in 1955. From the University of Oregon, Shaw was that year's number-one NFL draft pick. Unitas, on the other hand, came in on the ninth round, and became 102nd overall when the Steelers finally picked him up.

The Steelers dropped Unitas before his first exhibition game, claiming that he was not intelligent enough to be a quarterback. Shaw, on the other hand, was a golden boy, and even had a good Anglo-Saxon name. Chosen by the Colts on January 27, 1955, he seemed destined for immortality even as Unitas was destined for obscurity.

Even when the Colts signed Unitas in 1956, it was only as a backup to Shaw. Then, just four games into the 1956-57 season, Shaw broke his leg, and Unitas came in to replace him. Thereafter, the course was set, with Unitas bound for superstardom, and Shaw for the status of a footnote to football history.

After his recovery, Shaw went back to the Colts, only now he was the backup quarterback, and with Unitas' stoicism in the face of injury, he had few opportunities to play. He stayed with the Colts until 1958, when they traded him to the New York Giants. By this point, Shaw's career was already half over, and after two years with the Giants, he spent a year apiece with the Minnesota Vikings and the Detroit Lions before leaving the NFL in 1962. In his eight-year career, he gained 5,829 passing yards—just over a fifth of Unitas's record for 18 years.

The early 1970s were not a good time for Unitas. Long-term arm problems appeared in 1971, the same year in which he tore his Achilles tendon. In 1973, he divorced Dorothy after nearly two decades of marriage, and within a scandalously short time, he married Sandra Lemon. (He would remain with Sandra, by whom he fathered a child, until his death in 2002.) In 1973 he also saw the end of another long-term relationship, when the Colts traded him to the San Diego Chargers. Unitas

spent a year as backup quarterback for San Diego before retiring.

The Entrepreneur

With his thrifty, hardworking, immigrant background, Unitas had long had an interest in business, and after retirement, he launched a second career as an entrepreneur. First he opened a Baltimore restaurant called the Golden Arm, then he became involved in Florida real estate. He served as spokesman for several companies, including manufacturers, a trucker, and a mortgage firm called First Fidelity Financial Services. This last involvement would prove troublesome to Unitas in the mid-1980s, when the company's founder was convicted of fraud, and Unitas himself became the target of a lawsuit for his endorsement of the company.

Though retired from the NFL, Unitas remained active in the world of football. Beginning in 1974, he spent five seasons in the CBS broadcast booth as a commentator, during which time he gained a reputation—as he had long before on the field—for candor and plainspokenness. In 1979, Unitas was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

In the last decade of his life, Unitas was chairman of Unitas Management Corporation, a sports management firm, and worked as vice president of sales for National Circuits, a computer electronics firm. He was also heavily involved in providing opportunities for promising young talents through his Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Educational Foundation. Just 69 years old, Unitas died on a heart attack in Baltimore on September 11, 2002.

Calling His Own Plays

The sheer numbers Unitas achieved in his career are impressive, and in some cases even staggering. His lifetime completion percentage of over 55%, while extremely good, is not the greatest ever, but in light of the vast number of passes this represents—5,186, with 2,830 completions—this in itself is a stunning statistic. So, too, is the number of yards these passes gained for the Colts: 40,239, an NFL record at the time.

Unitas also achieved a number of other distinctions that were NFL records at the time of his retirement: most seasons passing for more than 3,000 yards (3); most games passing for 300 yards or more (27); most touchdowns thrown (290); highest post-season pass completion percentage (62.9%); and most yards gained passing during championship play (1,177).

Among the greatest of modern football's founding fathers, Unitas's career marked a high point between that of such early pioneers as Red Grange and the advent of the "hot shot," exemplified by Namath. In a world that has come to be characterized, all too often, by prima donnas, Unitas was as no-nonsense as his hairstyle, and he excelled at calling his own plays, something modern quarterbacks cannot do. The game has become too complicated today for any one quarterback to call all his own plays, and ironically, Unitas, by helping to inaugurate the modern era with that historic game in 1958, paved the way for the more complex game that came into being.

SELECTED WRITINGS BY UNITAS:

(With Ed Fitzgerald) Pro Quarterback, My Own Story, Simon and Schuster, 1965.

Career Statistics

(With Harold Rosenthal) Playing Pro Football to Win, Doubleday, 1968.

FURTHER INFORMATION

Books

Gildea, William. When the Colts Belonged to Baltimore: A Father and a Son, a Team and a Time. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins, 1996.

King, Peter. Greatest Quarterbacks. Des Moines, IA: Nelson, 1961.

Shapiro, Milton J. The Pro Quarterbacks. New York: J. Messner, 1971.

Unitas, Johnny and Ed Fitzgerald. Pro Quarterback, My Own Story. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1965.

Unitas, Johnny and Harold Rosenthal. Playing Pro Football to Win. New York: Doubleday, 1968.

Periodicals

Deford, Frank. "The Best There Ever Was: For the Author—a Baltimore Native and Future Sportswriter—the Colts' Quarterback Was More Than a Boyhood Hero. He Was an Inspiration for the Entire City." Sports Illustrated 97 (September 23, 2002): 58.

King, Peter. "Field General: Mass Substitutions, Sophisticated Defenses and the Pressure to Win Add up to One Conclusion—We'll Never See Another Johnny U." Sports Illustrated 97 (September 23, 2002): 71.

Zimmerman, Paul. "Revolutionaries." Sports Illustrated 89 (August 17, 1998): 78-85.

Zimmerman, Paul. "Talking Football: In an Interview More Than Two Decades After His Last Game, the Old Pro Showed the Passion of an All-Pro Still in His Prime." Sports Illustrated 97 (September 23, 2002): 66.

Other

"Al's NFL Football Videos." http://www.nfl-footballvideos.com/1958_nfl_championship.htm (November 20, 2002).

Johnny Unitas.com. http://www.johnnyunitas.com (November 20, 2002).

The Johnny Unitas Web Site. http://www.cmgww.com/football/unitas/index.html (November 20, 2002).

Levinson, Barry. "Baltimore Always Raven Mad for Pro Football." ESPN. http://espn.go.com/page2/s/levinson/010 (November 20, 2002).

Sketch by Judson Knight