In 1986, when the Super Bowl champion Chicago Bears sold out Wembley Stadium, Britain’s favorite players were silky runner Walter “Sweetness” Payton and lovable lineman William “the Refrigerator.” Perry. But that belies the historic identity of the American football team, born in the 1930s when Bronko Nagurski led the feared “Midway Monsters.” And no bear was more of a monster than Dick Butkus, who died at the age of 80.
In 2009, the NFL proclaimed Butkus the most feared tackle of all time. “Tackling wasn’t enough…Dick liked to run over people,” teammate Ed O’Bradovich said. Los Angeles Rams Hall of Fame defensive end Deacon Jones called Butkus a “well-conditioned animal.” A stone maniac. Every time he hit you, he was trying to put you in the cemetery, not the hospital. Steve Sabol, with typical NFL Films hyperbole, described Butkus as his favorite player. “His career was the most sustained work of devastation ever committed anywhere…he mauled and tore apart ball carriers.”
His image, sullen behind the mask of his helmet, has become iconic; In the movie Rocky, Sylvester Stallone’s bull mastiff is named Butkus.
Butkus joined the Bears in 1965, selected with the third pick in the annual college player draft. George Halas was owner and coach of the team he founded in 1920, fiercely attached to physicality, but always more attuned to offensive innovations; During Butkus’ nine-year career, the Bears never qualified for the postseason Super Bowl playoffs.
However, he was a first-team All-Pro six times, a second-team All-Pro twice and made eight Pro Bowl All-Star appearances. He was twice named the league’s defensive player of the year, most notably after the 1969 season, when the Bears won just one game against 13 losses.
His play reflected the dark nature of Chicago, where he was born. His father, John, a Lithuanian immigrant, was an electrician in a Pullman wagon factory; his mother Emma (née Goodoff) worked in a laundry. Butkus was the youngest of eight children and weighed 13 lb 6 oz (6 kg) at birth. Raised on the city’s tough South Side, he was Chicago’s football player of the year as a junior in professional high school.
He stayed in state to play at the University of Illinois, where again his junior season was his best: Illinois won college football’s Big Ten Conference in 1963 and beat University of Washington in the Rose Bowl that followed. He played offensive center as well as linebacker, and in 1964 he was named college lineman of the year.
When he joined the Bears, their center fielder was Bill George (later elected to the Hall of Fame), with whom the Bears had created the position: moving a lineman usually aligned to the line of scrimmage opposite the offensive center towards a stand-up. role a meter or two behind the scrum. This made it harder for opposing blockers to reach him, and provided better vision of developing plays and easier routes to pursue them.
At 6ft 3ins and 17 and a half stone (87.5kg), Butkus was tall enough to plug gaps between linemen in front of him, but quick enough to move from line to line and also cover passing plays downfield. According to George, “The first time I saw Butkus, I started getting my gear ready. I knew my days were numbered.
In 1971, Butkus underwent knee surgery; he had been playing for years with partially torn knee ligaments. Before the 1973 season, he signed a fully guaranteed five-year contract for $115,000 per year, but although he scored the only touchdown of his career that year, recovering a Houston Oilers fumble in the zone goals, his knees gave way and he played only nine games. After the season he retired, but the Bears refused to pay him if he couldn’t play. He sued the team doctor for $1.6 million in compensation and punitive damages; Halas settled the matter out of court. They didn’t speak to each other for two years.
By this time, Butkus had begun a second acting career. It played out several times, notably in the classic TV movie Brian’s Song (1971), about the relationship between Sayers and his running back Brian Piccolo, who died of cancer mid-career, but also in The Last Boy Scout ( 1991). and Teddy Bears’ Picnic (2002).
He appeared in commercials, starting with one for antifreeze during the 1970 Super Bowl; then he and huge Baltimore Colts defensive end Bubba Smith became a popular double act in a series of beer commercials directed by hard-boiled writer Mickey Spillane. “I learned from those commercials,” he said. “Who cares if you blow up a line? I might play on Bubba and add something. It didn’t matter if I laughed.
He and Smith reprized their roles in the TV movie Superdome (1978), as a ground crew in the helicopter TV series Blue Thunder (1984), in the distressing Half Nelson (1985), working with Joe Pesci and Dean Martin, and in Gremlins. 2: The New Batch (1990).
Butkus was good in small roles in Peter Yates’s Mother, Jugs & Speed (1976) and Johnny Dangerously (1984), as well as in Hamburger (1986), as a hard-nosed professor at a college for restaurant franchise owners fast. He owned his own cafe in the TV series My Two Dads (1987-89) and was a basketball coach in Hang Time (1998-2000). He was one of the convicts on the football team in Necessary Roughness (1991) and the coach of the California Crusaders in Oliver Stone’s Any Given Sunday (1999). He has also produced numerous radio and television commentary shows.
He entered the Hall of Fame in 1979, the first year of his eligibility. He was named to the NFL All-Decade teams for the 1960s and 1970s, as well as the NFL 100th Anniversary All-Time Team in 2019, and he ranked as the 10th greatest player in all-time in a 2010 NFL Network poll. His charitable foundation presents a Dick Butkus Award to the nation’s top college linebacker.
Butkus is survived by his wife, Helen (née Essenberg), his high school sweetheart whom he married while they were both in college, and three children, Richard Jr., Matt and Nikki.