John Yonakor

John Joseph "Jumbo" Yonakor (August 4, 1921 – April 18, 2001) was an American professional football defensive and offensive end in the All-America Football Conference (AAFC) and National Football League (NFL) for the Cleveland Browns, New York Yanks, and Washington Redskins.

Yonakor grew up in Boston, Massachusetts and played college football at the University of Notre Dame, where he was named an All-American on a team that won the national championship in 1943. After two years in the military during World War II, Yonakor was selected in the first round of the 1945 NFL draft by the Philadelphia Eagles. He instead signed with the Browns of the upstart AAFC. Yonakor spent four seasons playing primarily as a defensive end for the Browns as the team won four league championships between 1946 and 1949. The Browns then sold Yonakor to the NFL's New York Yanks, where he played for a year. He then spent a season with the Montreal Alouettes in the Canadian Football League. Returning to the NFL in 1952, he played a final season for the Redskins before retiring.

Yonakor worked in Cleveland's steel industry for several years after leaving pro football. He settled in Euclid, Ohio in the early 1960s and was an assembly-line worker making diesel engines for White Motor Company. His son Rich was a star athlete in Euclid and went on to play one season for the National Basketball Association's San Antonio Spurs. Yonakor died in 2001.

Early life Yonakor grew up in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, the youngest son of immigrants from Lithuania. At the age of 10, he came down with a leg infection after cutting himself while ice skating. He was too embarrassed to tell his mother about the injury and hoped it would go away, but it worsened to the point where he could no longer walk. He was a starter at right end in 1943, when the Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team won the national championship under Leahy. He started out as primarily a pass-rushing defensive end in 1946, but was also used as an offensive end when receiver Dante Lavelli was injured in 1947. After watching one of the Browns' early games, Leahy said that the Browns were good, but "I don't understand why they don't throw more passes to Yonakor". Yonakor completed coursework at Notre Dame between seasons with the Browns and got his degree in 1948. He played a season for the Yanks before signing with the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League in the summer of 1951. he played a final season for the NFL's Washington Redskins in 1952 before retiring.

Later life Yonakor went back home to Boston after ending his football career and worked in several sales jobs he found unsatisfying. He planned to go to California to find work, but stopped off in Cleveland on the way to make some money for the journey onward. He worked briefly in the structural iron business before getting a job in 1956 at Republic Steel, then one of the country's largest producers of the metal. He made diesel engines on an assembly line in a White Motors plant there. His son, Rich Yonakor, was a star athlete in Euclid who played basketball in Italy and one season for the San Antonio Spurs in the early 1980s. Yonakor died in Euclid in 2001.