No one's going to say anything? Let's try this.

http://www.sunspot.net/sports/football/bal-unitas0911.story?coll=bal%2Dhome%2Dheadlines ://http://www.sunspot.net/sports/footb...me%2Dheadlines ://http://www.sunspot.net/sports/footb...me%2Dheadlines

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Johnny Unitas 1933-2002
Colts great Johnny Unitas dies at 69
Hall of Famer won three championships with Baltimore team, was first to throw for 40,000 yards in his career
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By David Ginsburg
The Associated Press
Originally published September 11, 2002, 10:21 PM EDT

BALTIMORE - Johnny Unitas, the Hall of Fame quarterback who broke nearly every NFL passing record and won three championships with the Baltimore Colts in an 18-year career, died Wednesday at age 69.

Unitas had a heart attack while working out at a physical therapy center in the Baltimore suburb of Timonium, said Vivienne Stearns-Elliott, a spokeswoman for St. Joseph Medical Center in Towson.

Unitas underwent emergency triple-bypass surgery in March 1993 after a heart attack.

"Johnny U," with his trademark crewcut and black hightops, captured the public's imagination and helped drive the growing popularity of professional football.

He led the Colts to victory over the New York Giants in the 1958 NFL championship game, an overtime thriller that was essential in building the league's fan base.
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The long list of accomplishments was quite a reversal of fortune for a player who hitchhiked home from his first NFL training camp after the Pittsburgh Steelers cut him in 1955. He spent that season playing semipro football on rock- and glass-covered fields in Pittsburgh for $6 a game and working as a piledriver at a construction site.

The Colts signed him the following season after getting tipped to his ability in a most unusual way.

"Unitas was signed after we received a letter from a fan telling us there was a player in Bloomfield deserving a chance," former Colts coach Weeb Ewbank recalled a few years later. "I always accused Johnny of writing it."

Unitas became a backup quarterback and made his debut in the fourth game of the 1956 season. His first pass was intercepted and returned for a touchdown. It got worse as Unitas fumbled on his next two possessions.

Fortunately, however, the Colts' other backup had opted for law school and Unitas was able to start the next game, and Baltimore beat the Green Bay Packers 28-21. A week later, the Colts upset the Cleveland Browns, and Unitas had earned himself a job.
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[ September 11, 2002: Message edited by: twin58 ]

Classic old picture from 1960

http://www.sunspot.net/media/photo/2002-09/4566304.jpg

The 9/11 coverage got knocked out of the way a bit here in Baltimore...Unitas' death was the lead story on the 11 pm newscasts and got the largest headlines on the Sun's front page.

What a flashback for me. Growing up in a rural black community in Maryland during desegregation I thought Johnny "Unite us" was a plea for racial harmony or something.

All my older cousins spoke of him with what seemed like reverance to me.

I think his retirement left as big a hole as the Colts leaving Baltimore, maybe bigger.

Despite his obvious Hall of Fame credentials I always thought that Johnny U never truly got the credit he deserved, largely because he didn't carry himself off the field with the excessive bravado and overblown ego like so many of his contemporaries (and successors) did....as several teammates have said over the past 24 hours, after a "rah-rah pep talk" from one of the coaches in the locker room before a game, they would often then turn to Johnny and ask if he had anything to say and his typical reply would be "Talk is cheap - let's go play!"....and from his many unsurpassed accomplishments and statistics (including 47 consecutive games with a TD pass -- a record that STILL stands today) and, more importantly, the unanimous respect and accolades that he received from BOTH teammates and opponents alike, it was clear that Unitas let his actions on the field speak for themselves....one of the best columns I've read in tribute to Unitas is from Bill Curry (former NFL center, former head coach at Ga Tech and Alabama, and now ESPN color commentator), who played center for Johnny as well as for Bart Starr during Lombardi's glory years in Green Bay....(the ESPN.com column is linked below)....taking nothing away from the greatness of those Packer teams or the class of Bart Starr, the reverence with which Curry (along with many OPPOSING linemen including Hall of Famers Deacon Jones and Merlin Olson) speak about Unitas tells you more about the man than what statistics in any record book can recite.

Although I've been living primarily in Maryland and Virginia (DC-Baltimore area) since I was a young teen, I am not old enough to have seen Unitas play in his prime....I do remember watching Colts games during Unitas' last year in Baltimore when he was benched in favor of Marty Domres along his last game as a Colt when he came off the bench for an injured Domres to engineer a 4th quarter drive that rallied the Colts to victory....while Johnny U was undeniably past his prime (including the following season playing for the pitiful San Diego Chargers prior to his retirement) that drive reminded the Baltimore crowd at old Memorial Stadium of what a legend he was.

Having attended hundreds of Orioles and Ravens games in "charm city" during the last 20 years NO athlete (with the possible exception of Brooks Robinson) continually received as loud an ovation EVERY time his face even appeared on the jumbo-vision or was held in higher regard by the very knowledgable sports fans with long-lasting memories than was Johnny U....During every interview I have ever seen with him I never failed to be impressed with how genuinely humble and down to earth he was -- always wanting to give credit to his receivers on those great Baltimore teams (particularly Hall of Famers like Raymond Berry and Lenny Moore for catching TD's game after game), despite the fact that each and every one of em said it was Unitas who was the SOLE reason for THEIR success.

Present Baltimore Raven starting QB Chris Redman (a Louisville grad like Unitas) credits Johnny for helping tutor him on how to be an NFL quarterback and carrying himself with class on and off the field, which Unitas virtually wrote the book on....To quote Redman, "I believe he's one of the main reasons I'm an NFL starting quarterback. He had such an impact on me. I'll miss him so much"....In this day and age when so many professional athletes (young and old) want to receive all the accolades from the fans and the media and rarely, if ever, give credit to those who helped them on their journey to success it is great to see a young QB like Redman show such genuine appreciation for a legend like Unitas (who was NOT on the Ravens payroll) continually spending countless hours to enable him to achieve some level of success....those "small stories" tell as much about the type of man Unitas was as do his awesome accomplishments as one of the greatest players in the 75 year history of the league....he truly will be missed, especially amongst the loyal Baltimore fans, and I hope that Art Modell and company plan a special tribute for Johnny U, perhaps at this Sunday's home opener in Baltimore.

Bill Curry's tribute: Unitas, the teammate, was larger than life

[ September 12, 2002: Message edited by: gamecock ]

At the website of the Baltimore Sun you can find a lot of articles on Johnny Unitas. Also, I read earlier that HBO will rerun a 1999 documentary about him at 10 am tomorrow.