Joe Stydahar

Player

Chicago Bears (1936-1942, 1945, 1946)

Coach

Los Angeles Rams (1950-1952)
Chicago Cardinals (1953, 1954)

Assistant coach

Chicago Bears (1963, 1964)

4 × Pro Bowl selection ( 1938-1941 )
6 × All-Pro selection ( 1936-1940, 1942)
3 × NFL Champion as a player (1940, 1941, 1946)
NFL champions as a coach (1951 )
NFL champions as assistant coach (1963 )
College Football Hall of Fame (1972 )
Pro Football Hall of Fame (1967 )
NFL 1930s All- Decade Team
Chicago Bears Hall of Fame

Joseph Lee Stydahar ( born March 17, 1912 in Kaylor, Pennsylvania, USA, † March 23, 1977 in Beckley, West Virginia, born as Joseph Lee Stajduhar ), nicknamed " Jumbo Joe" was an US- American football player and coach in the National Football League ( NFL). He was the first football player who was signed in an NFL Draft and selected by end of his career in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Playing career

College Players

Stydahar grew up in a mining region and visited in his home town high school, where he played American football and basketball. After his graduation, he joined the University of Pittsburgh, but broke off his studies because of homesickness from. Finally, he studied from 1933 to 1935 at West Virginia University, where he played American football for the Mountaineers. Stydahar has won several awards because of his athletic achievements and played in the 1935 East -West All- Star game, where he was a teammate of Jay Berwanger, who described him as the best tackle of the time. Stydahar was elected as a college football player for the All-American.

Professional players

Stydahar was drafted in 1936 in the first round in sixth place by the Chicago Bears. Coach of the team at this time was George Halas. When the Bears played in these years numerous choices players like the running back Beattie Feathers, the Guard Dan Fortmann, or fullback Bronko Nagurski. 1937 moved Stydahar with the Bears for the first time in the NFL playoff one. This went against the New York Giants at 28:21 lost. 1940 once again made the move into the final. With 73:0 the Washington Redskins were outclassed. The following year, the title could be won again. In the final game, the Giants with 37:9 were defeated. Stydaher, however, was not used in this game as a starter. 1942 remained the Bears in the regular season undefeated, but lost in the final against the Redskins with 14:6.

1943 and 1944 served as a lieutenant Stydahar with the U.S. Navy along with Gerald Ford on the USS Monterey as an artillery officer. In 1945 he returned to the Bears and retired in 1946 with the team from Chicago again in the final one. Stydahar was not used again in the final game as a starter, the game could be won against the Redskins with 24:14. Stydahar ended after his career.

Coaching career

Stydahar was 1950-1952 coach of the Los Angeles Rams. The Rams possessed with Norm Van Brocklin and Bob Waterfield two excellent quarterbacks and had with Elroy Hirsch a wide receiver in its ranks, which was later incorporated into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. In his first year he led his team into the championship game. The Rams had, however, a close defeat the Cleveland Browns at 30:28. The following year it made the Rams better of Stydahar and beat the Browns with 24:17. As the season progresses Stydahar left the Rams and trained 1953 and 1954 unsuccessfully the Chicago Cardinals. 1963 and 1964, he returned as an assistant coach for the Bears. 1963 won Stydaher then his fifth NFL Championship. The Bears won against the Giants with 14:10.

Honors

Stydahar played four times in the Pro Bowl, the final game of the best players of the season. He was six times elected to the All- Pro. He is a member of the College Football Hall of Fame, the Pro Football Hall of Fame, in the NFL 1930s All- Decade Team and the Chicago Bears Hall of Fame.

After the NFL

Stydahar worked as an employee of a container company and died unexpectedly at the age of 65 years. He is on the Shinnston Masonic Cemetery, Shinnston, West Virginia, buried.

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