Richard Marvin "Dick" Butkus is an American former football player for the Chicago Bears.
He was drafted in 1965 and he is also widely regarded as one of the best and most durable
linebackers of all time. Butkus started as a football player for the University of Illinois
and the Chicago Bears. He became a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1979.
He played nine seasons in the NFL for the Chicago Bears. Billed at 6 ft 3 in, 245 lb,
he was one of the most feared and intimidating linebackers of his time, being named the most
feared tackler of all time by NFL.com in 2009.
Early life Richard Marvin "Dick" Butkus was the youngest
of eight children of Lithuanian immigrants Don, an electrician, and Emma, who worked
in a laundry. He grew up in the Roseland neighborhood on Chicago's South Side. He played high school
football for coach Bernie O'Brien at Chicago Vocational High School.
Although he eventually played for the Bears, Butkus being a South-sider grew up a fan of
the Chicago Cardinals, attending their games at Comiskey Park and watching Thanksgiving
game between the Detroit Lions and Green Bay Packers.
College career Butkus played center and linebacker from 1962
through 1964 at the University of Illinois. He was twice a unanimous All-American, in
1963 and 1964. He won the Chicago Tribune Silver Football in 1963 as the Big Ten's Most
Valuable Player, and was named the American Football Coaches Association Player of the
Year in 1964. Butkus finished sixth in Heisman Trophy balloting in 1963 and third in 1964,
a rare accomplishment for both linemen and defensive players.
He finished his college career with 374 tackles. Butkus is a member of The Pigskin Club of
Washington, D.C., which recognizes National Intercollegiate All-American football players.
After his university years, Butkus continued to receive recognition. He was inducted into
the College Football Hall of Fame in 1983, and is one of only two players to have a uniform
number retired by the University of Illinois football program. Butkus was named to the
Walter Camp All-Century team in 1990, and was named the sixth-best ever college football
player by College Football News in 2000. In 2007, Butkus ranked #19 on ESPN's Top 25 Players
In College Football History list. In 1985, the Downtown Athletic Club of Orlando,
Florida created an award in his name. The Dick Butkus Award is given annually to the
most outstanding linebacker at the high school, college, and professional levels as chosen
by a nationwide panel of 51 coaches and sportswriters. In 2008, control of the award was relinquished
to the Butkus Foundation, based in Chicago, Illinois.
NFL Butkus was drafted in the first round by both
the Denver Broncos of the American Football League and his hometown team, the Chicago
Bears of the NFL. He signed with the Bears and did not play professionally with any other
team. Along with fellow Hall of Famer Gale Sayers, Butkus was one of three first round
picks for the Bears in 1965 NFL Draft, having used the pick they acquired in a trade with
the Pittsburgh Steelers on Butkus and their own pick on Sayers. The team also drafted
defensive end Steve DeLong, however he chose to play for the AFL's San Diego Chargers for
the first seven years of his professional career.
Butkus was selected to eight Pro Bowls and was all-league six times. In his rookie season,
Butkus led the Bears in tackles, interceptions, forced fumbles, and fumble recoveries, and
regularly led the team in these categories throughout his career. Butkus recovered 27
fumbles in his career, an NFL record at the time of his retirement. He was one of the
most feared players of his era and even appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated in 1970
with the caption "The Most Feared Man in the Game." He had one of his most productive seasons
in 1970 with 132 tackles, 84 assists, 3 interceptions and 2 fumble recoveries. He was forced to
retire after multiple knee injuries in 1973. One of Butkus' greatest strengths was his
ability to rip the ball from a ball carrier's hands. Although back then the statistic was
not kept, it has been noted that Butkus would certainly be one of the all-time leaders in
the forced fumbles category. At one point, Butkus gained a reputation as
one of the meanest players on an otherwise bad Bears team in the late 1960s, and during
his tenure, the Bears won 48 games, lost 74 and tied 4.
Butkus filed a lawsuit against the Bears in 1975, claiming the Bears knowingly kept him
on the field when he should have had surgery on his knees. The Bears denied Butkus and
their other players the right to seek second opinions with doctors other than the Bears
team doctor. The team would also distribute painkillers so that Butkus, a major gate attraction,
would be active. Because of the lawsuit, Butkus' relationship
with owner George Halas became icy. Butkus did return to the Bears as a color analyst
on radio broadcasts in 1985, teaming with first-year play-by-play man Wayne Larrivee
and former St. Louis Cardinals quarterback Jim Hart.
Butkus was also selected the 70th Greatest Athlete of the 20th Century by ESPN, the ninth-best
player in NFL history by The Sporting News, and the fifth-best by the Associated Press.
The National Football League named him to their All-Time team in 2000. He was elected
to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1979. He was named as head coach of the XFL's Chicago
Enforcers franchise but was replaced with coach Ron Meyer for the league's only season
in 2001. Instead, Butkus served as the league's Director of Competition.
After football Since his career as a player, Butkus has become
a well known celebrity endorser, broadcaster, and actor. He has appeared in films such as
The Longest Yard, Gus, Cracking Up, Necessary Roughness, Any Given Sunday, Mother, Jugs
& Speed, Hamburger... The Motion Picture and Johnny Dangerously, and as a regular character
on TV shows such as Blue Thunder, My Two Dads, and Hang Time. In the critically acclaimed
TV movie Brian's Song, he portrayed himself. He also, made one television appearance on
the first episode of the 1976 ABC hit Rich Man, Poor Man, where he played 'Al Fanducci',
a World War II army soldier who gets into a street brawl with 'Tom Jordache'. In 1980,
Butkus portrayed Brom Bones in the television movie production of "The Legend of Sleepy
Hollow." Butkus also appeared in episodes of Coach, Growing Pains, The Rockford Files,
MacGyver, Murder, She Wrote, Emergency!, The Six Million Dollar Man, McMillan & Wife and
Magnum, P.I.. Butkus was hired as the replacement for Jimmy
"The Greek" Snyder on CBS' pregame show The NFL Today in 1988, serving as an analyst through
1989. Butkus promoted the "Qwik-Cook Grill," a grill
utilizing newspaper as its main fuel, on TV infomercials in the '90s. Butkus starred in
a 2009 FedEx commercial entitled "I'm Sorry Dick Butkus," developed by BBDO New York.
In this commercial, Butkus is brought in to help a small business go global.
Butkus' son, Matthew, played college football at USC as a defensive lineman, and joins his
father in philanthropic activities such as the "I Play Clean" campaign. Butkus' nephew,
Luke Butkus, was hired on February 19, 2007, as the Bears' offensive line coach, and in
2010 joined the Seattle Seahawks staff in a similar position. He joined the Jacksonville
Jaguars as assistant offensive line coach on January 28, 2013.
In 2006, Butkus was brought into McKees Rocks, Pa., to be the head coach for the Montour
Spartans at Montour High School to bring back their glory days. The year 2006 the Montour
Spartans made it to ESPN's reality show Bound For Glory during when Dick Butkus was the
head coach for the Spartans, along with former Kansas City Chiefs coach Ray Crockett and
the current head coach for the Spartans, Lou Cerro.
In 2014, Butkus made a guest appearance on the Disney Channel series I Didn't Do It.
The plot of the episode he appeared in revolved around a football signed by Butkus.
Philanthropy Through The Butkus Foundation, Butkus has
supported many charitable causes following his NFL career. The Butkus Foundation, Inc.
was formed to manage the receipt and disbursement of funds for his charitable causes. These
causes include: The I Play Clean Campaign addresses the issue
of steroids among high school athletes. The campaign educates and encourages high school
to train and eat well, without resorting to illegal steroids and performance enhancing
products. The Butkus Award, instituted in 1985, is one
of the elite individual honors in college football. The Butkus Foundation takes stewardship
of the award recognizing athletic achievement and service to the community while honoring
the nation’s best high school, college, and professional linebackers. An independent
Butkus Award Selection Committee, headed by Pro Football Weekly’s Hub Arkush, is composed
of 51 people, including professional, college, and high school scouts, and sports journalists.
This committee conducts the selection process. The Dick Butkus Center for Cardiovascular
Wellness is a nonprofit organization in Orange County, California with a cardiac screening
program that uses specialized testing to help identify those at risk of heart disease and
sudden cardiac death. Personal life
Butkus married Helen Essenberg in 1963. Together they have three children: Ricky, Matt, and
Nikki. References
External links Official website of Dick Butkus – www.dickbutkus.com
ESPN SportsCentury article on Butkus Dick Butkus at the Internet Movie Database