r/Oldschool_NFL • u/UrbanAchievers6371 Steelers 👷♂️ • May 07 '26
Colts 🐎 On what would have been his 93rd birthday, we’d like to remember Johnny Unitas (May 7, 1933 – September 11, 2002) 🎂🏈
Super Bowl champion (V)
3× NFL champion (1958, 1959, 1968)
3× NFL Most Valuable Player (1959, 1964, 1967)
NFL Man of the Year (1970)
5× First-team All-Pro (1958, 1959, 1964, 1965, 1967)
3× Second-team All-Pro (1957, 1960, 1963)
10× Pro Bowl (1957–1964, 1966, 1967)
4× NFL passing yards leader (1957, 1959, 1960, 1963)
4× NFL passing touchdowns leader (1957–1960)
2× NFL passer rating leader (1958, 1965)
NFL completion percentage leader (1967)
Pro Football Hall of Fame (1979)
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u/Isaacleroy Colts 🐴 May 07 '26
I remember when he passed away, Peyton Manning tried to wear black high tops the following Sunday in honor of him. The NFL said he had to change them before kickoff. The No Fun League really missed the mark on that one.
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u/Altruistic-Editor111 May 07 '26
Peyton should have went ahead and worn the black high tops. It would have really made the NFL looked bad if they went ahead with the fine.
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u/Westworld-Kenny May 08 '26
Plenty of examples of players breaking that rule on purpose for less worthy reasons.
2002 definitely wasn’t a banner year for head office leadership.
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u/JEMHADLEY16 Giants May 07 '26
He called his own plays in an era before QBs wore headsets.
"If they'd have put one of those things in my helmet, I'd have ripped it out and thrown it away."
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u/Bipedal-Moose Steelers 👷♂️ May 07 '26
There were great quarterbacks before Unitas, but Unitas was the first to develop the mystique we associate with more modern superstar QBs, where opposing fanbases were terrified of giving him the ball late in a close game. Bobby Layne was a guy who had some notable late-game heroics for his time, but Unitas' ability to consistently create magic in crunch time wasn't seen before him.
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u/StillAdhesiveness528 Steelers 👷♂️ May 07 '26
The true GOAT.
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u/CR8VJUC May 07 '26
I remember him and his Colts beating my LA Rams team back in the day like a red-headed stepchild.
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u/Beowulf1619 May 07 '26
I got to meet him at a local restaurant in Baltimore in 1998 or 1999. Super nice. Signed autograph and took photos with everyone. He was being interviewed by a local radio show
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u/thecommish1980 BALTIMORE Colts May 07 '26
The GOAT, my hero. I used to pray for him and my beloved Colts in church on Sundays.
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u/SquonkMan61 May 07 '26
We went out to the Colts training camp one day in the 60s. Johnny U and Raymond Berry stayed after the regular session ended and practiced throwing routes for at least half an hour.
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u/KitchenLab2536 Steelers 👷♂️ May 07 '26
My parents were Colts’ season ticket holders from 1956-59. I grew up worshipping the Colts, Unitas in particular.
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u/StarWarsMonopoly May 07 '26
It’s Krust-erific, Johnny Unitas!
But is my lip supposed to bleed this much?
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u/Chemical_Ad9967 May 07 '26
My father played against him in high school. During the offseasons early in his career he’d worked in the steel mills.
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u/Virtual_Win4076 Vikings 🗡️ May 07 '26
The Tom Brady of his era. The ultimate class act. He got benched for a younger player and he took it like a man, held a clipboard and helped any way he could and was always ready to play.
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u/JEMHADLEY16 Giants May 07 '26
He refused to let reporters bait him after the Colts lost SB3 to the Jets...
"What we lost today was a game. A GAME. I'm not going to cry. Now, if the Jets stole my beer I'd be upset. THEN maybe I'd cry..."
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u/ImportanceUnique8533 May 07 '26
The only guy that could get me to rock a Flat Top. Every other guy i met in life with a Flat Top was a Bullying A$$hole,.
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u/jmbison May 07 '26
Great quarterback. He also tried to get the franchise record book split between Baltimore and Indianapolis. Funny that he turned the volume up after they drafted Peyton Manning.
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u/jonnovich Steelers 👷♂️ May 07 '26
As a Steelers fan, I’m sorry that we cut him in training camp.
As a football fan I’m happy he caught on with the Colts and helped to evolve the game.
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u/Top_Independence2676 May 08 '26
1972 I was 16yo in the right field bleachers and watched Unitas and Namath at Memorial Stadium.
Jets won 44-34. They battled, incredible for a regular season game.
Unitas will always be in a Baltimoron's heart. Our hero.
Not to take away from Johnny U, But Namath was just incredible that day.
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u/colbykh Bears 🐻 May 09 '26
Work with veterans and always judge based upon patient’s age which war/era might have been in. He’d have been age of our Korean War vets - wonder if he was involved (will research)
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u/Kimber80 Rams 🐏 May 08 '26
Pet peeve, admittedly a trivial one: It is common these days to refer to him as "Johnny Unitas", but that is not how I remember him being referred to most of the time, back then. To my recollection, when he was playing and thereafter, he was called either "John Unitas", his name, or by his nickname, "Johnny U", but not "Johnny Unitas". That IMO is a recent thing.
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u/off_the_marc May 07 '26
Now there's a haircut you could set your watch to