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Johnny Unitas Dead

Posted on 09/11/2002 2:52:04 PM PDT by newsperson999

Football great Johnny Unitas has died...


TOPICS: Breaking News
KEYWORDS: sports
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1 posted on 09/11/2002 2:52:04 PM PDT by newsperson999
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To: newsperson999
Oh no....the best I've saw play his position.What a shame.

Godspeed Johnny U
2 posted on 09/11/2002 2:54:19 PM PDT by habs4ever
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To: newsperson999
Heart attack, age 69. - PMSNBC

(my childhood football idol)
3 posted on 09/11/2002 2:54:21 PM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
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To: Oldeconomybuyer
My childhood hero. Why today? I didn't need this right now. :(
4 posted on 09/11/2002 2:56:02 PM PDT by subterfuge
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To: Oldeconomybuyer
I was a Browns and Rams fan during his day, so I have many reasons to hate him. But he clearly was The Man.
5 posted on 09/11/2002 2:56:14 PM PDT by breakem
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To: breakem
BALTIMORE -- Johnny Unitas, the Hall of Fame quarterback who broke nearly every passing NFL record and won three championships with the Baltimore Colts in an 18-year career, died Wednesday. He was 69.

Unitas was named NFL Player of the Year three times. Unitas died of a heart attack, according to Baltimore Ravens spokesman Chad Steele.

Steele had no other details of Unitas' death.

Unitas, underwent emergency triple-bypass surgery in March 1993 after suffering a heart attack.

He was the first to throw for 40,000 yards in his career and now ranks seventh, surpassed by a group of quarterbacks who played in an era when the rules made passing easier. Unitas retired after the 1973 season holding 22 NFL records, among them marks for most passes attempted and completed, most yards gained passing, most touchdown passes and most seasons leading the league in TD passes.

He completed 2,830 of 5,186 passes for 40,239 yards and 290 touchdowns. He completed at least one touchdown pass in 47 straight games, a record that no one has come close to matching since it was set from 1956-60.

Unitas was Most Valuable Player three times and played in 10 Pro Bowls. He led Baltimore to the NFL championship in 1958 and 1959 and the Super Bowl in 1970. He was inducted into the football Hall of Fame in 1979.

On the NFL's 50th anniversary, Unitas was voted the greatest quarterback of all time.

6 posted on 09/11/2002 2:58:00 PM PDT by newsperson999
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To: newsperson999
My hero! What a bummer!
7 posted on 09/11/2002 2:58:31 PM PDT by VadeRetro
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To: subterfuge

8 posted on 09/11/2002 2:59:30 PM PDT by Dog
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To: newsperson999
What a class act Unitas was. He would never have started celebrating on the field before a play was over. In fact, I never saw him celebrate a play at all. His statement was his play, which was the best. Wish more players today would carry themselves like Unitas, like men not boys.
9 posted on 09/11/2002 2:59:59 PM PDT by colorado tanker
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To: newsperson999
Johnny Unitas at the Pro Football Hall of Fame

God Bless Johnny and his family.
10 posted on 09/11/2002 3:00:44 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
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To: newsperson999
My favorite player growing up in the late 50s and early 60s. He was a great great player! We will miss you Johnny O.
11 posted on 09/11/2002 3:00:51 PM PDT by RetiredArmy
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To: NormsRevenge

12 posted on 09/11/2002 3:02:37 PM PDT by VadeRetro
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To: newsperson999
Johnny Unitas biography:

http://espn.go.com/classic/biography/s/Unitas_Johnny.html

13 posted on 09/11/2002 3:03:41 PM PDT by caa26
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To: newsperson999
Now there's a haircut you could set your watch to.
14 posted on 09/11/2002 3:06:17 PM PDT by El Sordo
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To: VadeRetro
Bummer....

I remember waiting for an elevator in Florida one day in the late '70s.
The door opens.... I get in and there's Johnny U.!
We rode to the lobby without saying a word....
Dammit!

15 posted on 09/11/2002 3:07:44 PM PDT by eddie willers
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To: VadeRetro
Bummer....

I remember waiting for an elevator in Florida one day in the late '70s.
The door opens.... I get in and there's Johnny U.!
We rode to the lobby without saying a word....
Dammit!

16 posted on 09/11/2002 3:08:10 PM PDT by eddie willers
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To: newsperson999
That's sad. When I was a little kid growing up in Baltimore I _had_ to have a crew cut because I wanted to be like Johnny U. He was probably my first sports idol, him and Brooks Robinson.
17 posted on 09/11/2002 3:09:02 PM PDT by RedneckCityBoy
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To: habs4ever
Terrible news. Wish I was a little older (too young to have seen him play).
18 posted on 09/11/2002 3:09:50 PM PDT by PetroniDE
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To: newsperson999
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=551&ncid=755&e=1&u=/ap/20020911/ap_on_sp_fo_ne/fbn_obit_unitas

Hall of Famer Johnny Unitas Dies
Wed Sep 11, 5:56 PM ET

BALTIMORE (AP) - Johnny Unitas, the Hall of Fame quarterback who broke nearly every passing NFL record and won three championships with the Baltimore Colts in an 18-year career, died Wednesday. He was 69.

Unitas died of a heart attack, according to Baltimore Ravens spokesman Chad Steele.

Steele had no other details of Unitas' death.

Unitas underwent emergency triple-bypass surgery in March 1993 after suffering a heart attack.

He was the first to throw for 40,000 yards in his career and now ranks seventh, surpassed by a group of quarterbacks who played in an era when the rules made passing easier. Unitas retired after the 1973 season holding 22 NFL records, among them marks for most passes attempted and completed, most yards gained passing, most touchdown passes and most seasons leading the league in TD passes.

He completed 2,830 of 5,186 passes for 40,239 yards and 290 touchdowns. He completed at least one touchdown pass in 47 straight games, a record that no one has come close to matching since it was set from 1956-60.

Unitas was Most Valuable Player three times and played in 10 Pro Bowls. He led Baltimore to the NFL championship in 1958 and 1959 and the Super Bowl in 1970. He was inducted into the football Hall of Fame in 1979.

On the NFL's 50th anniversary, Unitas was voted the greatest quarterback of all time.

"Johnny Unitas is the greatest quarterback ever to play the game, better than I was, better than Sammy Baugh, better than anyone," Sid Luckman, the great Chicago Bears quarterback of the 1940s, once said.

Unitas was one of the few quarterbacks who called his own plays, an ability traced to his knack for reading an opponent's defense and spotting a weakness, then calling a play to take advantage.

John Mackey, the Colts' tight end during the Unitas years, once said of his teammate, "It's like being in a huddle with God."

The long list of accomplishments was quite a reversal of fortune for a player who hitchhiked home from his first NFL training camp after the Pittsburgh Steelers cut him in 1955. He spent that season playing semi-pro football on rock- and glass-covered fields in Pittsburgh for $6 a game and working as a pile-driver at a construction site.

The Colts signed him the following season after getting tipped to his ability in a most unusual way.

"Unitas was signed after we received a letter from a fan telling us there was a player in Bloomington deserving a chance," former Colts coach Weeb Ewbank recalled a few years later. "I always accused Johnny of writing it."

Unitas became a backup quarterback and made his debut in the fourth game of the 1956 season. His first pass was intercepted and returned for a touchdown. It got worse as Unitas fumbled on his next two possessions.

Fortunately, however, the Colts' other backup had opted for law school and Unitas was able to start the next game, and Baltimore beat the Green Bay Packers 28-21. A week later, the Colts upset the Cleveland Browns, and Unitas had earned himself a job.

Unitas didn't really look like a football player. At 6-foot-1, just under 200 pounds, his body was that of an everyday person — except for the scars, bumps and bruises.



19 posted on 09/11/2002 3:09:57 PM PDT by deport
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To: Dog
Bump for the greatest, toughest QB ever
20 posted on 09/11/2002 3:11:31 PM PDT by StockAyatollah
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