Johnny Unitas: The Quarterback Who Revolutionized the NFL

On September eighteenth, nineteen sixty six, Johnny Unitas throws four touchdown passes in a thirty eight twenty three win over the Minnesota Vikings to pass why a Tittle for the career touchdown passes record, which is just one of the mini records he held upon his retirement from the league and got him known as one of the greatest quarterbacks to ever play football. Today, we're going to dive into his background and how he broke this record on Daily Sports History. Welcome to Daily Sports History. I'm Ethan Reese, your guide as you daily learn about more sports history and you become even more of a sports historian. And today's trivia question is what historic college program did Johnny Uniteds try out for but was told he was too skinny and would get killed. Now, Johnny was born in Pittsburgh in nineteen thirty three, and his father passed away when he was just five years old, leaving his mom to really support the family and work two jobs. And Johnny grew up loving football and played halfback and quarterback in high school and had a dream of playing for the legendary school Notre Dame, and actually tried out for the team but the coach said he was too skinny and would get murdered on the field. But that doesn't mean he wasn't good enough to play college football, as he attended the University of Louisville, where he played quarterback and had over twenty seven touchdowns in his career. Where his first start was in the nineteen fifty one season against Saint Bonifainture, where he threw eleven consecutive passes and had three touchdowns, leading Louisville to the lead, leading Louisville to a twenty one to nineteen lead, although they would end up losing by a field goal. He became Louisville's new starting quarterback, but the following season, the university actually deemphasized the sport and cut scholarships and tightened the academic standards for athletes. Now luckily, Johnny was able to keep his scholarship, but fifteen other players did not return to the team, which required the team to actually to have many players play two ways, and Johnny would play either safety or linebacker on defense and then come back and quarterback the offense, as well as return kicks and punts on special teams, and obviously this made it a struggle for the Cardinals and they went three and five that year, where he threw twelve touchdowns, and the following year did not fare any better as they went one in seven. In his senior year, Johnny United got hurt and barely played and the Cardinals went three and six. So because of this, he wasn't a highly drafted player. It wasn't until the ninth round in the NFL draft in nineteen fifty four when the Pittsburgh Steelers selected him. However, he was released by them before the season as they already had four other quarterbacks and they only had three spots on their roster, and they didn't even give him a real chance as he didn't take any snaps in practice and they just thought he wasn't smart enough to be a quarterback in the NFL. So Johnny went home and worked construction to help support his family, and on weekends he would play quarterback in a semi pro league for the blooming Field Rams, where he would receive six dollars a game. Then, in nineteen fifty six, the Colts held a tryout where him and a few other of his semi pro teammates went to go try out and they made the trip all the way to Baltimore, and Johnny showed everything he had and the Colts liked it, and he was signed by the Colts and make his debut in the nineteen fifty seven season. Now, he wasn't the starter right away. It wasn't until week two that year when starting quarterback George Shaw broke his leg, where Johnny got in and threw his first touchdown pass, which was an interception to the other team. Then he fumbled a handoff which was recovered by the Bears and they lost the first game. But in the next game was his first start against Green Bay, where he actually won. And he finished that year with nine touchdown passes, including in the final game, which started his forty seven game streak of throwing a touchdown pass. And his rookie year, he had a completion percentage of fifty five point six, so nothing he did jumped off the page that he was going to be this great quarterback. But the following season showed a lot more promise as he passed for over twenty five hundred yards and twenty four touchdowns, leading the Colts to a seven to five record, the first winning season in franchise history, and he received the Jim Thorpe Award for the NFL's Most Valuable Player. Then he continued his success next season, throwing nineteen touchdowns and led the Colts to the NFL Championship and defeated the New York Giants twenty three to seventeen in a sudden death overtime game that has become known as the greatest this game ever played. Following that season, he again won the MVP, throwing for thirty two touchdowns and led the Colts to another championship, again beating the New York Giants. But then nineteen sixties came and the Colts started to decline with injuries to key players such as Raymond Barry and Lenny Moore, and in nineteen sixty he ended his streak of consecutive games with at least one touchdown at forty seven, a record that would stand for over fifty years until Drew Brees would break it later in his career. Sutter tumultuous time the coach, Webb U Banks was replaced by Don Shula, the youngest coach in NFL history at the time at thirty three years old, and he would change the fortune and notice the greatness in his quarterback and lead them to an eight and six record their first year and led Johnny Unitis to his highest yard total in his career at three thousand, four hundred in eighty one, and he would change the fortune and the team continue to do better and in nineteen sixty four he would win the MVP again and lead the team to the NFL Championship, where they eventually lost to the Cleveland Browns, and he would continue his success with Don Struda as again in nineteen sixty seven, he would win the MVP, throwing for over thirty four hundred yards and twenty touchdowns despite having Tennis Oubbo that year, and in nineteen sixty eight, Johnny actually tore a muscle in the preseason in his arm and spent most of the season rehabbing, but the Colts had a lot of success and his backup Earl Morrile, went on to win the MVP that season and led the team to the third Super Bowl in NFL history. And despite Earl being the MVP, Johnny Uniteds came off the bench and it wasn't enough as Joe Namath had guaranteed the win and the Jets won sixteen to ten In nineteen seventy, he led them to Super Bowl five, where he got injured in the second quarter of the game. Luckily, they had MVP backing him up in Merle Oral, who led the team to a last second victory sixteen to thirteen, which proved to be the only Super Bowl victory Johnny Unitis would have as he was declining with age and Earl Morle was his backup. He would go on to split time with him for his remainder of his career with the Baltimore Colts, but in nineteen seventy three he would actually be traded to the San Diego Chargers, but he struggled in his first four games with the team, throwing more interceptions than touchdowns, and would later be replaced by a rookie quarterback and an fellow Hall of Famer in Dan Fouts. He would come back the following year in nineteen seventy four, as preseason started, he retired, and at the time he held the NFL record for the most completions, the most attempts, the most yards, the most touchdowns all while playing twelve or fourteen games in his NFL career and why he having the success at the time when he was passing for more touchdowns than anyone for every year, and the answer was who was around him. His tied end John Mackie and his receiver Raymond Barry really gave him a one to two punch that no other team had. His best players were his receivers, not his running back, as everyone else focused on running, and he was so accurate at completing to these two players that it was almost as good as running the ball. And that's why he threw for so many yards in so many touchdowns. Because he had great supporting cast, he was a great player as well as Vince Lombardi even said without Johnny Uniteds they are a bad team, but with Johnny, they are a great team. And another reason is Johnny actually called most of his own plays and as most teams at the time were so focused on stopping the run and all their other games. As scouting was very limited at the time because video wasn't around as much, he could pick apart defenses as they did not plan to stop the pass as much as they planned to stop the run, and this led to so many more touchdowns. This led to him being a unique player in the pantheon of NFL quarterbacks and led him into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in nineteen seventy nine. After his career, he would go on to be the color commentator for CBS in the nineteen seventies, and unfortunately, in October of two thousand and two, he would actually pass away, and this led to the people of Baltimore actually signing a petition that the Ravens to rename their home stadium after Johnny Unitis, and they had over fifty six thousand signatures, and as the NFL does, they went with the money, taking naming rights from Mt Bank instead, as many of Johnny's records stood until the two thousands. He would go on to have his number retired by the Colts and currently sits at number seventeen on the most touchdown passes of all time at two hundred and nine and is always mentioned in the discussion of great his quarterbacks in NFL history. I want to thank you for listening to today's daily sports history. If you like this, please do us a favor. Follow us on all our socials. We're on Twitter, TikTok, Instagram, threads, YouTube, wherever you like to socialize. We're there for you to help gain some knowledge. Where we post videos and pictures about every episode, so come follow us there and come back tomorrow for more daily sports history and Today's trivia question is what historic college and the answer. Today's trivia question is what historic college program did Johnny Uniteds try out for but was told he was too skinny and would get killed The Notre Dame Fighting Irish