Johnny Unitas

Johnny Unitas was born on May 7, 1933. His nicknames were the Golden Arm and Johnny U. He was a professional football player for about twenty years. During that time, he mainly played for the Baltimore Colts. He was a quarterback who set many records and was the football league MVP several different years. Unitas is known for throwing a record number of touchdown passes for 47 games in a four year stretch. This record has not been beat yet.

In his early life, Unitas grew up in Mount Washington, but was born in Pittsburgh. His dad died while he was very young, which left him to be raised by his mom, who was an immigrant and worked two jobs. When he went to high school in Pittsburgh, he played as halfback and quarterback. Notre Dame and Indiana passed him up and he could not pass the entrance exam for the University of Pittsburgh. Later, the University of Louisiana gave him a scholarship and he played as a quarterback during his college days. Johnny completed 245 passes and had 27 touchdowns during his college career. In the first game he played, even though it was the end of the season, he had 11 consecutive passes and three touchdowns.

In 1955, Johnny was married and was drafted to the Steelers, but was cut because there were too many quarterbacks. The next year, the Cleveland Browns wanted to sign him, but the Baltimore Colts signed him first. He stayed with the Colts for 17 years. In 1973, he was traded to the San Diego Chargers and then retired the following year. The wife he married in 1955 was the mother of his first five kids. They were divorced in 1972 and he remarried exactly one hour later and had three more kids with her. He was with her until his death on September 11, 2002.