Joe Stydahar

Joseph Lee Stydahar (March 17, 1912 – March 23, 1977), nicknamed "Jumbo Joe", the son of Peter P. Stydahar (1877–1970) and Lucille M. Stydahar (1884–1941). At age eight, he moved with his family to Shinnston, West Virginia,

College career Stydahar was recruited by both the University of Pittsburgh and West Virginia University. He initially went to Pittsburgh in the fall of 1931 and participated in the football team's preliminary practices, but then showed up at West Virginia seeking to enroll.

At West Virginia, Stydahar was six feet, four inches, weighed 220 pounds, possessed "one of the largest pairs of hands in the business", and played both basketball and football. He played at the tackle position for the football team from 1933 to 1935 and developed a reputation as a "vicious tackler" and "bruising blocker". As a junior in 1934, he blocked five punts and returned one of the blocks 17 yards for a touchdown. As a senior in 1935, he was responsible for stopping Pittsburgh's running game, holding the Panthers to one first down in the second half.

Those who saw Stydahar play in college rated him among the best and was selected to play in both the East–West Shrine Game and the Chicago College All-Star Game in 1936.

In basketball, Stydahar was a three-year letterman at the center position. He set a single-game scoring record with 24 points against West Virginia Wesleyan in 1933.

As a rookie, Stydahar started all 12 games at left tackle for a 1936 Chicago Bears team that compiled a 9–3 record. He was selected as a first-team All-Pro by Collyer's Eye magazine and a second-team All-Pro by the NFL and UPI.

Stydahar played nine years as a tackle for the Bears from 1936 to 1942 and from 1945 to 1946, appearing in 84 NFL games. He was also ranked third among all NFL players in points received in the AP's 1939 All-Pro voting, trailing only Don Hutson and Dan Fortmann. In all, he was selected as a first-team All-Pro five consecutive years from 1936 to 1940. He served three years as the Rams' line coach from 1947 to 1949.

In February 1950, Sydahar took over as the Rams' head coach. In the 1950 NFL Championship Game, the Rams lost, 30–28, to the Cleveland Browns on a field goal by Lou Groza with 27 seconds remaining in the game.

In his second season with the Rams, Stydahar led the 1951 Rams to the NFL championship with a victory over the Cleveland Browns in the 1951 NFL Championship Game.

Stydahar began the 1952 season as the Rams' head coach. After losing to the Cleveland Browns in the season opener, dissension between Stydahar and his backfield coach Hamp Pool became public. On September 30, Stydahar reached an agreement with Rams owner Dan Reeves under which Stydahar resigned and was paid him $11,900 to buy out his contract, and Pool was promoted as the new head coach.

Green Bay Packers In mid-November 1952, Stydahar was hired by the Green Bay Packers. He served as a scout and part-time assistant coach for the balance of the 1952 season. His Cardinals teams compiled records of 1–10–1 in 1953 and 2–10 in 1954. In June 1955, Stydahar and the Cardinals reached an agreement buying out the remainder of his three-year contract with the club.

Chicago Bears In February 1963, George Halas hired Stydahar as defensive line coach for the Chicago Bears. Stydahar was credited with overhauling the Bears defensive line, helping to lead the 1963 Bears to the best scoring defense in the NFL and an NFL championship. The Bears dropped to sixth place in the Western Division in 1964, and Stydahar resigned from his position with the club at the end of the 1964 season in order devote his efforts to his work for a corrugated carton company.

Head coaching record

Honors and awards Stydahar received numerous honors for his football career, including the following:

In 1950, he was one of the 25 charter inductees into the Helms Athletic Foundation's Professional Football Hall of Fame. In 1960, he was named to Sports Illustrated's Silver Anniversary All-America team. In 1967, he was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. In 1969, Stydahar was named to the NFL 1930s All-Decade Team. In 1972, he was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame. In 1991, he was elected into the West Virginia University Sports Hall of Fame. In October 2022, he was inaugurated in the Croatian-American Sports Hall of Fame.

Family and later years Stydahar married Yolanda Monet Margowski in 1947. They were later divorced, but they had three sons, David (born 1948), Joseph (born 1952), and George,

After being released by the Cardinals, Stydahar remained in the Chicago area where he had formed a cardboard box business with a partner. He continued in that business into the 1960s. In his later years, Stydahar lived in Highland Park, Illinois, where he was the eastern regional manager for a container company. He died of heart failure in 1977 at age 65 while on a business trip in Beckley, West Virginia. He was buried at the Shinnston Memorial Cemetery, adjacent to Stydahar Field, a sports complex named in his honor.

Legacy In 2015 the West Virginia Sports Writers Association named the top West Virginia high school football lineman award the Joe Stydahar award.

Notes and references