Alex Karras

Detroit Lions (1958-1970)

4 × Pro Bowl selection ( 1959-1961, 1965)
9 × All-Pro selection ( 1960-1962, 1964-1969 ) 1 2 team
NFL 1960s All- Decade Team
College Football Hall of Fame (1991 )
Iowa Sports Hall of Fame (1977 )
Michigan Sports Hall of Fame (1980 )
Indiana Football Hall of Fame (1976 )
Outland Trophy (1957 )

Alexander George "Alex" Karras ( born July 15, 1935 in Gary, Indiana; † 10 October 2012 in Los Angeles, California; Nickname: The Mad Duck) was an US- American football player and actor. He played as a defensive tackle in the National Football League ( NFL) with the Detroit Lions.

2.1 television
2.2 Cinema

Life

Youth

Alex Karras was born in 1935 as the son of a housewife and a doctor in Gary. His father was of Greek descent, his mother came from Canada. His father died in 1948 when Alex was 13 years old. Alex Karras had five siblings, two of his brothers were later football professionals. Lou Karras played for the Washington Redskins, Ted Karras was active among others, the Chicago Bears and played with Alex in 1965 the Detroit Lions. He won in 1963 with the Bears, the NFL championship. Alex Karras attended high school in his hometown. He played on the school, but also in his spare time in a parking lot football. During his school years, he was elected twice to the total selection of Indiana and once to the All- American.

Playing career

College career

After finishing school in 1954, Alex Karras received a scholarship to the University of Iowa. He played there from 1955 to 1957 for the Iowa Hawkeyes as Tackle College Football. In 1957 he won with his team the Rose Bowl against the team from Oregon State University with 35:19. Karras was elected in 1956 and 1957 All-American and won the Outland Trophy in 1957, the award for the best defensive line or offensive line players in the country. His College awarded him for his sporting achievements twice.

Professional career

Alex Karras was drafted in 1958 by the Detroit Lions in the first round to tenth place. The Lions were a few years ago one of the top teams in the NFL and still had many future members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame as Bobby Layne, Yale Lary, or Lou Creekmur in their ranks. Even with Alex Karras, the team was unable to build on his earlier successes. Only in the last game of the year Karras succeeded the Lions under coach Joe Schmidt to move into the play-offs, where you had to give but an early defeat the Dallas Cowboys 5-0. During the 1970 season Karras had suffered a knee injury. He made after the preparation of the Lions for the 1971 season with yet, but his performances were unconvincing. Karras was subsequently dismissed and decided to end his playing career.

Karras playing career was not without scandals and contradictions. In 1957, immediately after his college graduation, he signed a contract as a pro-wrestler. As a wrestler, he spent six months working, earning a salary of $ 25,000. As a wrestler he came into existence in the year 1963. Together with Paul Hornung locked him the NFL for a game year after it was revealed that he had completed on the outcome of NFL games betting, which was already prohibited by the statutes of the League. During his season in Detroit, he was several times just before a change of club, which was never completed.

Career as a presenter and actor

During his time as an active football player Alex Karras appeared as an actor in appearance. In the film Paper Lion, he played himself From 1969 he regularly performed in television series and films. When filming, he met his second wife, actress Susan Clark know. Parallel to his activities as an actor Karras worked from 1974 to 1976 for the U.S. television network American Broadcasting Company (ABC ) as a sports presenter for the transfer of the Monday -night football games. In 1998, Karras also retired from the film business. He later lived in South Carolina and operate in Surfside Beach ice cream parlor. He was the father of five children from his first marriage and a child with Susan Clark. Alex Karras fell ill in his last years of life dementia.

Filmography

TV

Cinema

Honors

Alex Karras played four times in the Pro Bowl, was nine times elected to the All-Pro and is a member of the NFL 1960s All- Decade Team in the College Football Hall of Fame, the Iowa Sports Hall of Fame and in the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame, and in the Indiana Football Hall of Fame.

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