RIP Dick Butkus

Crazy that my dad is the same age Butkus was. When I was a 2nd grader in like 1977 or 1978 I'd sit in the school library and read the nonfiction picture books about NFL superstars and past Super Bowls, etc. Butkus, who was featured prominently, had only been retired for about 4 or 5 years by that point, but he retired before I was conscious of football or, really, anything. So it may as well have been 50 years since he played - he may as have been Red Grange or the Four Horsemen from my standpoint. Yet he was only in his mid-30s at the time. For that matter, I remember putting on a football game on NBC around that time and seeing that Hank Stram was an announcer and being shocked that he was still alive give that he coached in Super Bowl I, which may as well have been in the leather helmet era for the amount of perspective I had back then.

 

Yeah, I used to read those books too around 1980 or so. Kinda crazy to imagine a kid today reading a book about a big game or a star athlete from 2015.

 

For all the talk about Butkus and his toughness, one thing that hasn’t been brought up was he was right next to Chuck Hughes when Hughes died on the field. His foundation also worked on encouraging people on getting heart screenings.

‘I Couldn't Believe It:' Dick Butkus Recalls Chuck Hughes' Death After Damar Hamlin Collapses During NFL Game

 

I'm a few years younger than you (and my Dad a few years younger than Butkus) but man, is this ever a perfect summation of how warped time is as a kid. Everyone in their 80s now seemed like they were in their 80s when it *was* the '80s. I couldn't believe Butkus was only 43 when the Bears won the Super Bowl. Tom Brady was 43 when he won his last Super Bowl!!! Jim Marshall is 85. You mean he wasn't 85 when I was reading about him running the wrong way for a safety? And as @Baron Scicluna puts it, there's no way kids are reading books about anything that happened this century. Sort of a bummer. We definitely had it better.

 

Well, those of us who came of age had the demarcation line of TV. Johnny Unitas and the Lombardi Packers seeemed like real people because we had seen them on TV, quite frequently.
Guys who weren't on TV seemed more "legendary."
In some ways Butkus was part of that legendary grouping because, while he was very famous, he really wasn't on national TV very much. During most of his career the Bears were rarely on national TV -- it was usually the Packers, Colts or Giants (CBS' home team)

 

I knew Bradshaw was old, but I didn't realize he is the only national media person to actually play against Butkus.

 

And yet b/c I'm old enough to remember Bradshaw as a player, I never would have guessed he not only played against Butkus but is only a few years younger than Dick.

 

I remember Butkus and Bradshaw as players. In the sixties my father sold group insurance. At that time insurance brokers hired retired jocks for their name value so got to meet some famous ex-athletes. I met Choo-Choo Justice and a college teammate of Red Grange. This thread makes me feel really old.

 

It's mind-blowing to think of the oldest players when you were young.

My first-ever baseball game was Hank Aaron's last game in 1976, but I really don't properly remember that. My first year where I paid attention and retained fandom in everything was 1978. Fran Tarkenton, John Havlicek and Willie McCovey were all active still, among others. (Tarkenton still important enough that he was the first player I ever "hated" as the Vikings and Packers battled for the NFC Central in '78.)

These were players my Dad would have watched when he was a kid, or at least, a pre-teen. In McCovey's case, the oldest players when he came up were guys who started their careers before World War II in the late 1930s. As for the last guys from 1978? They played against guys who only retired a few years ago. Sand in the hourglass and all that.

 

When I was young, Roberto Clemente was "old." But he was alive, too.

 

The oldest player I remember watching is Yaz only because I was at one of the last games he played.

 

My introduction to Butkus, as a child of the '80s and '90s, the esteemed Saturday morning NBC show Hang Time, sandwiches between Saved by the Bell: the New Class and Inside Stuff.

Butkus was the second coach of the high school basketball team, after Reggie Theus.