Before Johnny U.’s black hightops and crewcut and hunched shoulders, there were only rumors of pro football legends.
Sammy Baugh and Sid Luckman and Otto Graham were captured mostly on grainy newsreel. By the magic of television, Unitas was the first to bring the magic of his arm into the nation’s living rooms.
The quarterbacks who followed, from the Joe Namaths to the Joe Montanas to the Dan Marinos to the Jim Kellys–all from western Pennsylvania like Unitas–were in many ways imitations, tough kids avoiding the coal mines and the steel mills to play a game their parents didn’t always understand but could appreciate.
Unitas’ mother was a Lithuanian immigrant who raised him after the death of his father before Unitas started grade school. Unitas later said he learned more about courage from his mother than from anybody else.
Unitas was the No. 1 football card from 1959-63 when football cards were about the only way to see these guys when they weren’t wearing a helmet.
The Bears were on Unitas’ long list of teams he embarrassed. In 1964, only three games after the Bears had won the 1963 title, Unitas and the Colts welcomed the defending champs to Baltimore by thrashing them 52-0.
A stunned Bears coach George Halas listened to defensive end Doug Atkins explain in the locker room how the Bears had discovered togetherness that day. Until Unitas, the Bears had been so proud of their defense that teammates made fun of their own offense.
“Today,” Atkins announced with impeccable logic, “we found out our defense is as [bad] as our offense.”
In 1969, Unitas came off the bench to lead a comeback that beat the Bears in Wrigley Field. It was the game the Bears had dedicated to teammate Brian Piccolo after finding out he had cancer. Piccolo joked that ordinarily such a dedication includes a presentation of the winning game ball. Unitas played with the sentiment of a hangman.
Unitas became the prototype who never looked the part–only 6 feet 1 inches, bowlegged, dangling arms, slow afoot, but absolutely fearless. There was an essence about him that superseded the talent. Teammate John Mackey said he was “like having God in the huddle.”
New York Giants general manager Ernie Accorsi, who worked for the Colts when Unitas played, said: “I’ve always said the purest definition of leadership was watching Johnny Unitas get off the team bus.”
Although he might have been mistaken for the driver, Unitas also remains the model for quarterback presence and mechanics in dropping back and stepping up in a pocket.
“I was always told he was the most fundamentally sound quarterback of all time,” said former Packers general manager Ron Wolf. “Everything about him was perfect.”
Fellow Hall of Fame quarterback Len Dawson said Unitas would have fit in any era.
“He was unafraid to try something. Third-and-1, he’d go deep. Fourth down–throw that thing too, because he had so much confidence in his ability and the ability of his teammates,” Dawson said. “Bear in mind the quarterbacks in those days called the plays, unlike today.”
Unitas thought it unfortunate quarterbacks no longer call their own plays.
“They don’t get a chance to put their own personality in the game,” Unitas said. “You have to have confidence in yourself, and the people you’re guiding up and down the field have to have confidence you know what the game is about. I don’t think that’s transferred anymore from the quarterback to his players.”
Bitter that his Colts abandoned Baltimore for Indianapolis in 1984, Unitas resisted overtures of reconciliation. When the Cleveland Browns moved to Baltimore in 1996, they invited Unitas to be part of the new tradition and he could be seen at times standing on the sideline or behind the end zone, often alone. After one game, he stood outside the locker room all by himself. It was difficult to tell whether nobody recognized him or everybody was just respectfully keeping their distance.
In later years, Unitas underwent two knee-replacement surgeries and became afflicted by nerve damage in his right arm, the result of an elbow injury. He complained about being turned down for permanent disability benefits by the league.
In the end, fellow Hall of Famers said Unitas’ right hand–the one that once had held all that magic–had been distorted to the point that he could no longer grip a football.
That is not how anybody will remember him.
Unitas’ career
Born: May 7, 1933, Pittsburgh.
Position: Quarterback, Baltimore Colts (1956-72), San Diego Chargers (1973).
Drafted: Ninth round (102nd overall) by Pittsburgh Steelers (1955). Cut before start of 1955 and signed as free agent with Baltimore Colts in 1956.
Regular-season statistics
YR, TEAM COM ATT YDS TD INT
1956 Balt. 110 198 1,498 9 10
1957 Balt. 172 301 2,550 24 17
1958 Balt. 136 263 2,007 19 7
1959 Balt. 193 367 2,899 32 14
1960 Balt. 190 378 3,099 25 24
1961 Balt. 229 420 2,990 16 24
1962 Balt. 222 389 2,967 23 23
1963 Balt. 237 410 3,481 20 12
1964 Balt. 158 305 2,824 19 6
1965 Balt. 164 282 2,530 23 12
1966 Balt. 195 348 2,748 22 24
1967 Balt. 255 436 3,428 20 16
1968 Balt. 11 32 139 2 4
1969 Balt. 178 327 2,342 12 20
1970 Balt. 166 321 2,213 14 18
1971 Balt. 92 176 942 3 9
1972 Balt. 88 157 1,111 4 6
1973 S.D. 34 76 471 3 7
TOTALS 2,830 5,186 40,239 290 253
Postseason statistics
YR, OPP COM ATT YDS TD INT
1958 N.Y.G.-x 26 40 349 1 1
1959 N.Y.G.-x 18 29 264 2 0
1964 Cle.-x 12 20 95 0 2
1969 N.Y.J.-* 11 24 110 0 1
1970 Cin.-y 6 17 145 2 0
1971 Oak.-z 11 30 245 1 0
1971 Dal.-* 3 9 88 1 2
1971 Cle.-y 13 21 143 0 1
1972 Mia.-z 20 36 224 0 3
TOTALS 120 226 1,663 7 10
%%
%%
x-NFL championship game; *-Super Bowl; y-AFC divisional playoff game; z-AFC championship game.
Career milestones
– Completed 2,830 passes for 40,239 yards and a record 290 touchdowns.
– Threw TD passes in record 47 consecutive games.
– First NFL quarterback to pass for 40,000 yards.
– Three seasons of 3,000 yards or more.
– Two-time NFL MVP.
– Ten Pro Bowl selections.
– Led league in TD passes in ’57, ’58, ’59 and ’60.
– Led league in passing yards in ’57, ’59, ’60 and ’63.
– Inducted into Pro Football Hall of Fame in ’79.
– On NFL’s 75th anniversary team.
Sources: Associated Press; Pro Football Hall of Fame; Johnny Unitas Web site.
