Chick Jagade

Harry Charles "Chick" Jagade Jr. (December 9, 1926 – November 24, 1968) was an American professional football player who was a fullback in the All-America Football Conference (AAFC) and National Football League (NFL). He played college football as a fullback and linebacker for the Indiana Hoosiers. Jagade broke into professional football in the AAFC in 1949 playing for the Baltimore Colts before embarking on a five year career in the NFL as a member of the Cleveland Browns and Chicago Bears.

Early life Harry Jagade Jr. — commonly known by the nickname "Chick" — was born December 9, 1926, in Chicago, Illinois. He attended Leyden High School in Franklin Park, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago.

Jagade was a four sport athlete in high school, earning athletic letters for four years in football, four years in baseball, and two each in basketball and track and field. An infielder on the baseball diamond, Jagade served as a team captain and helped lead his squad to conference championships in 1942 and 1943. He would earn two athletic letters as a member of the Indiana Hoosiers baseball team. He was extremely proficient on both sides of the ball.

Jagade did not play college football in 1945. His college career was interrupted with Jagade's March 1945 induction into the military associated with America's ongoing engagement in World War II, still in its final months.

He returned to Indiana in 1946, playing out his sophomore year after a one year delay. He nevertheless retained a reputation as a particularly tough runner, called by one observer a runner "with few peers for head-on destructive power."

Jagade capped his college career by being named a participant in the 1949 College All-Star Game in Chicago.

Professional career

Chick Jagade featured as a team star on the cover of a 1949 Baltimore Colts program. Chick Jagade was selected in the fourteenth round of the 1948 NFL draft, held in December 1947 (one year ahead of his eventual graduation), by the Washington Redskins. He never played with the Redskins, however, instead returning to Indiana for 1948 before signing with the Baltimore Colts of the rival All-America Football Conference (AAFC) ahead of the 1949 season.

He had the honor of scoring the first points of the year against the San Francisco Forty Niners, running a trap play over the left guard to break a 45-yard touchdown run. In his first season under the legendary head coach Paul Brown, Jagade was confined to a reserve role, seeing action in 11 games without a single start. He was named a member of the 1953 Pro Bowl team for his performance.

NFL/AAFC career statistics Legend Led the league Bold Career high

Regular season Year Team Games Rushing Receiving GP GS Att Yds Avg Lng TD Rec Yds Avg Lng TD 1949 BCL 10 3 33 174 5.3 - 2 8 44 5.5 - 0 1951 CLE 11 0 7 30 4.3 22 0 0 0 0.0 - 0 1952 CLE 12 3 57 373 6.5 30 2 9 203 22.6 47 1 1953 CLE 12 12 86 344 4.0 23 4 20 193 9.7 37 0 1954 CHI 11 10 157 498 3.2 46 3 24 172 7.2 26 0 1955 CHI 12 11 72 309 4.3 51 2 7 16 2.3 15 0 68 39 412 1,728 4.2 51 13 68 628 9.2 47 1

Playoffs Year Team Games Rushing Receiving GP GS Att Yds Avg Lng TD Rec Yds Avg Lng TD 1951 CLE 1 0 0 0 0.0 0 0 0 0 0.0 0 0 1952 CLE 1 1 15 104 6.9 29 1 0 0 0.0 0 0 1953 CLE 1 1 15 102 6.8 30 1 1 18 18.0 18 0 3 2 30 206 6.9 30 2 1 18 18.0 18 0

Life after football

After retirement from football, Jagade lived in Glenview, Illinois with his wife, the former Ada Lee Bozarth, whom he married in 1949,

Even during his career as a professional football player, Jagade worked in the off-season as superintendent of a tool and die factory on the northwest side of Chicago.

Death and legacy

On November 24, 1968, Jagade was hunting with friends on Washington Island, located in Wisconsin just off the peninsula at the northern tip of Green Bay. Jagade successfully shot a deer and was dragging it out from where it had fallen when he was stricken with a fatal heart attack. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Chick Jagade was 41 years old at the time of his death.

Deadly heart attacks seem to have run in the Jagade family, with Chick's father, Harry C. Jagade Sr., suddenly dying of the same ailment almost exactly twenty years earlier when he was visiting the University of Indiana campus in Bloomington in May 1948 for a "Cream and Crimson Day" athletics celebration.