- George Blanda
- Quarterback
- Youngwood, Pennsylvania
- 9/17/1927 (82)
- Kentucky
- 1942
- 12
- Chicago Bears
Blanda was signed by the Chicago Bears for $600 in 1949, an amount owner George Halas demanded back when he made the team. While primarily used as a quarterback and placekicker, Blanda also saw time on the defensive side of the ball at linebacker. It would not be until 1953 that Blanda would emerge as the Bears' top signal caller, but an injury the following year effectively ended his first-string status. For the next four years, he was used mostly in a kicking capacity. Later commenting on his testy relationship with Halas, Blanda noted, "he was too cheap to even buy me a kicking shoe."
In an episode of the TV series Happy Days, set in the 1950s, Richie Cunningham (played by Ron Howard) and Ralph Malph (Donny Most) watch a televised game in which Blanda and the Bears struggle. Malph says that Blanda is finished in football. Richie says that Blanda has at least five more years left. The joke was that Blanda, 20 years later when the show was actually filmed, was still playing.