Johnny Unitas: The Quarterback Who Revolutionized the NFL

[00:00:00] On September 18, 1966.

[00:00:04] Johnny Unitas throws four touchdown passes in a 38-23 win over the Minnesota Vikings to pass

[00:00:12] Y-8 Tittle for the career touchdown passes record, which is just one of the many records he held

[00:00:21] upon his retirement from the league and got him known as one of the greatest quarterbacks

[00:00:26] to ever play football. Today, we're going to dive into his background and how he broke

[00:00:32] this record on Daily Sports History. Welcome to Daily Sports History. I'm Ethan Reese,

[00:00:43] your guide as you daily learn about more sports history and you become even more of a sports

[00:00:50] historian. And today's trivia question is what his torque college program did Johnny Unitas try out

[00:00:58] but was told he was too skinny and would get killed. Now, Johnny was born in Pittsburgh in 1933

[00:01:07] and his father passed away when he was just five years old leaving his mom to really support the family

[00:01:13] and work two jobs and Johnny grew up loving football and played half back in quarterback in high school

[00:01:19] and had a dream of playing for the legendary school Notre Dame and actually tried out for the team

[00:01:25] but the coach said he was too skinny and would get murdered on the field. But that doesn't

[00:01:30] mean he wasn't good enough to play college football as he attended the University of Louisville where

[00:01:35] he played quarterback and had over 27 touchdowns in his career where his first start was in the 1951 season

[00:01:43] against St. Bonafinter where he threw 11 consecutive passes and had three touchdowns leading

[00:01:50] Louisville to the lead leading Louisville to a 21 to 19 lead although they would end up losing

[00:01:56] by a field goal he became Louisville's new starting quarterback. But the following season the

[00:02:02] University actually de-emphasized the sport and cut scholarships and tightened the academic

[00:02:07] standards for athletes. Now luckily Johnny was able to keep his scholarship but 15 other players

[00:02:13] did not return to the team which required the team to actually uh to have many players play two ways

[00:02:19] and Johnny would play either safety or linebacker on defense and then come back and quarterback

[00:02:24] the offense as well as return kicks and punts on special teams and obviously this made a struggle

[00:02:30] for the Cardinals and they went three and five that year where he threw 12 touchdowns and the

[00:02:36] following year did not fare any better as they went one and seven and his senior year, Johnny

[00:02:42] United's got hurt and barely played and the Cardinals went three and six so because of this

[00:02:47] he wasn't a highly drafted player it wasn't until the ninth round in the NFL draft in 1954

[00:02:53] when the Pittsburgh Steelers selected him. However he was released by them before the season as they

[00:02:59] already had four other quarterbacks and they only had three spots on the roster and they didn't even

[00:03:04] give him a real chance as he didn't take any snaps and practice and they just thought he wasn't

[00:03:08] smart enough to be a quarterback in the NFL. So Johnny went home and worked construction to help

[00:03:14] support his family and on weekends he would play quarterback and a semi-pro League for the blooming

[00:03:19] field Rams where he would receive six dollars a game then in 1956 the Colts held a try out

[00:03:25] where him and a few other of his semi-proteemates went to go try out and they made the trip all the way

[00:03:32] to Baltimore and Johnny showed everything he had and the Colts liked it and he was signed by the Colts

[00:03:39] and make his debut in the 1950 seven season. Now he wasn't the starter right away it wasn't till

[00:03:46] week two that year when starting quarterback George Shaw broke his leg where Johnny got in

[00:03:51] and through his first touchdown pass which was an interception to the other team then he fumbled

[00:03:56] a handoff which was recovered by the bears and they lost that first game but in the next game

[00:04:01] was his first start against Green Bay and we actually won and he finished that year with nine

[00:04:07] touchdown passes including in the final game which started his 47 game streak of throwing a

[00:04:15] touchdown pass and his rookie year he had a completion percentage of 55.6 so nothing he did jumped

[00:04:23] off the page that he was going to be this great quarterback but the following season showed a lot more

[00:04:28] promise as he passed for over 2500 yards and 24 touchdowns leaving the Colts to a seven and five

[00:04:35] the first winning season in franchise history and he received the Jim Thorpe Award for the

[00:04:42] NFL's most valuable player. Then he continued his success next season throwing 19 touchdowns

[00:04:48] and lead to the lead the Colts to the NFL championship and defeated the New York Giants 23 17

[00:04:55] and a sudden death overtime game that has been come known as the greatest game ever played.

[00:05:01] Following that season he again won the MVP throwing for 32 touchdowns and lead the Colts

[00:05:09] to another championship again beating the New York Giants but then 1960s came and the Colts started

[00:05:17] to decline with injuries to key players such as Raymond Barry and Lenny Moore and in 1960 he

[00:05:23] ended his streak of consecutive games with at least one touchdown at 47 a record that would stand

[00:05:29] for over 50 years until Drew Breeze would break it later in his career. So after the tumultuous

[00:05:35] time the coach Webb U-Banks was replaced by Don Shula, the youngest coach in an NFL history

[00:05:42] at the time at 33 years old and he would change the fortune and notice the greatness in his

[00:05:49] quarterback and lead them to an eight and six record their first year in the Johnny United's to

[00:05:55] highest yard total in his career at 3481 and he would change the fortune and the team continued to

[00:06:04] do better in 1964 he would win the MVP again and lead the team to the NFL championship where they

[00:06:11] eventually lost to the Cleveland Browns and he would continue his success with Don Shula as again in

[00:06:17] 1967 he would win the MVP throwing for over 3,400 yards and 20 touchdowns despite having tennis

[00:06:25] above that year and in 1968 Johnny actually tore a muscle in the preseason in his arm and spent

[00:06:32] most of the season rehabbing but the Colts had a lot of success and his backup Earl Moral went on to win

[00:06:40] the MVP that season and led the team to the third Super Bowl in NFL history and despite Earl

[00:06:48] being the MVP Johnny United came off the bench and it wasn't enough as Joe Nameth had guaranteed

[00:06:55] the win in the judge's won 16 to 10 and 1970 he led them to Super Bowl 5 where he got injured

[00:07:03] in the second quarter of the game luckily they had MVP backing up in Murrell who led the team

[00:07:10] to a last second victory 16 to 13 which proved to be the only Super Bowl victory Johnny United

[00:07:17] would have as he was declining with age and Earl Moral was his backup he would go on to split

[00:07:23] time with him for his remainder of his career with the Baltimore Colts but in 1973 he would actually

[00:07:29] be traded to the San Diego Charters but he struggled in his first four games with the team

[00:07:36] throwing more in exceptions than touchdowns and with later be replaced by rookie quarterback

[00:07:41] and in fellow hallfamer in Dan Feltz he would come back the following year in 1974

[00:07:46] as preseason started he retired and at the time he held the NFL record for the most

[00:07:51] completions the most tips the most yards the most touchdowns all while playing 12 or 14 games

[00:07:57] in his NFL career and why was he having the success at the time when he was passing

[00:08:02] for more touchdowns than anyone or every year and the answer was who was around him

[00:08:08] his tied in John Mackey and his receiver Raymond Barry really gave him a one two punch that

[00:08:15] no other team had his best players were his receivers not his running back as everyone else

[00:08:21] focused on running and he was so accurate at completing to these two players that it was almost as

[00:08:27] good as running the ball and that's why he threw for so many yards and so many touchdowns

[00:08:31] because he had great supporting cast he was a great player as well as Vince the Barney even said

[00:08:38] without Johnny Unitis they are bad team but with Johnny they are a great team and another reason

[00:08:44] is Johnny actually called most of his own plays and as most teams at the time were so focused

[00:08:50] on stopping the run and all their games as scouting was very limited at the time because video

[00:08:56] wasn't around as much he could pick apart defenses as they did not plan to stop the past as

[00:09:03] much as they planned to stop the run and it's led to so many more touchdowns this led to him being

[00:09:08] a unique player in the pantheon of NFL quarterbacks and let him into the pro football hall of

[00:09:15] fame in 1979 after his career he would go on to be the color commentator for CBS in the 1970s

[00:09:22] and unfortunately in October of 2002 he would actually pass away and this led to the people

[00:09:28] of Baltimore actually signing a petition that the ravens so renamed their home stadium after

[00:09:33] Johnny Unitis and they had over 56,000 signatures and as the NFL does they went with the money

[00:09:39] taking naming rights from empty bank instead. As many of Johnny's records stood until the 2000s

[00:09:46] he would go on to have his number retired by the Colts and currently sits at number 17

[00:09:51] on the most touchdown passes of all time a 200 and 9 and is always mentioned in the discussion

[00:09:59] of greatest quarterbacks in NFL history. I want to thank you for listening to today daily

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[00:10:22] and come back tomorrow for more daily sports history and today's trivia question is

[00:10:30] what historic college in the answer today's trivia question is what historic college program

[00:10:36] did Johnny Unitis try out for but was told he was too skinny and would get killed on the

[00:10:42] noted name fighting Irish