Madison Monroe "Buzz" Nutter (February 16, 1931 – April 12, 2008) was an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wit ...

center in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ma ...

(NFL) for the

Baltimore Colts The Baltimore Colts were a professional American football team that played in Baltimore from its founding in 1953 to 1984. The team now plays in Indianapolis, as the Indianapolis Colts. The team was named for Baltimore's history of horse breed ...

and

Pittsburgh Steelers The Pittsburgh Steelers are a professional American football team based in Pittsburgh. The Steelers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) North division. Founded in , the Stee ...

. He played college football at

Virginia Tech Virginia Tech (formally the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and informally VT, or VPI) is a Public university, public Land-grant college, land-grant research university with its main campus in Blacksburg, Virginia. It also ...

Early life

Nutter was born in

Summersville, West Virginia Summersville is a city in Nicholas County, West Virginia, United States. The population was 3,459 at the 2020 census. It is the county seat of Nicholas County. History Summersville was laid out in 1824. The city was named for Lewis Summers, a lo ...

, and grew up in Huntington, West Virginia, where he acquired the nickname "Buzz" as a young man. He attended and played

high school football High school football (french: football au lycée) is gridiron football played by high school teams in the United States and Canada. It ranks among the most popular interscholastic sports in both countries, but its popularity is declining, partl ...

at Vinson High School.

College career

Nutter attended and played college football at

. After his senior season, he became the first player from Virginia Tech drafted into the NFL, despite the team going 0-10, 2-8 and 5-6 the final three seasons of his career. Nutter was inducted into the Virginia Tech Sports Hall of Fame in 1985.

Professional career

Nutter was drafted in the 12th round of the

1953 NFL Draft The 1953 National Football League Draft was held on January 22, 1953, at Bellevue-Stratford Hotel in Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the ...

by the

Washington Redskins The Washington Commanders are a professional American football team based in the Washington metropolitan area. The Commanders compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) ...

. He failed to make the team in the offseason and moved back to

West Virginia West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the ...

to work in a

steel mill A steel mill or steelworks is an industrial plant for the manufacture of steel. It may be an integrated steel works carrying out all steps of steelmaking from smelting iron ore to rolled product, but may also be a plant where steel semi-fi ...

. He returned to the NFL in 1954 with the

, where he played for seven seasons and won consecutive NFL Championship titles (1958–1959). Nutter was traded to the

, along with Eugene Lipscomb, in 1961 for wide receiver

Jimmy Orr Jimmy Orr (October 4, 1935 – October 27, 2020) was an American professional football player who was a wide receiver for the Pittsburgh Steelers and Baltimore Colts for 13 seasons from 1958 to 1970 in the National Football League (NFL). Orr w ...

. Nutter played in Pittsburgh for four seasons and was selected for the

Pro Bowl The National Football League All-Star Game (1939–1942), Pro Bowl (1951–2022), or Pro Bowl Games (starting in 2023) is an annual event held by the National Football League (NFL) featuring the league's star players. The format has changed thro ...

in 1962. In 1965, he returned to the Colts and played for one more season.

After football

After retiring from football, Nutter moved to

La Plata, Maryland La Plata is a town in Charles County, Maryland, United States. The population was 10,159 at the 2020 census. It is the county seat of Charles County. History According to an unconfirmed local story, the town was named by one Colonel Samuel Chapm ...

, and started a beverage distribution company in

Waldorf, Maryland Waldorf is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Charles County, Maryland, United States. Located south-southeast of Washington, D.C., Waldorf is part of the Southern Maryland region. It is an urban area, with a popu ...

, that he ran for more than 40 years. The company was named Center Distributors after his football position. Nutter's wife of 44 years, Carole, a devout

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwide . It is am ...

, died in 1997. Two days before her death, in a service that took place in his wife's hospital room, Nutter converted to

Catholicism The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

after being a lifelong

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related Christian denomination, denominations of Protestantism, Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John W ...

. They had four children and ten grandchildren. Nutter died on April 12, 2008, of

heart failure Heart failure (HF), also known as congestive heart failure (CHF), is a syndrome, a group of signs and symptoms caused by an impairment of the heart's blood pumping function. Symptoms typically include shortness of breath, excessive fatigue, ...

at Civista Medical Center in La Plata.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Nutter, Buzz 1931 births 2008 deaths American football offensive linemen Baltimore Colts players Eastern Conference Pro Bowl players People from Summersville, West Virginia Sportspeople from Huntington, West Virginia Players of American football from West Virginia Pittsburgh Steelers players People from La Plata, Maryland Converts to Roman Catholicism from Methodism Methodists from West Virginia 20th-century Methodists 20th-century Roman Catholics 21st-century Roman Catholics Catholics from West Virginia Catholics from Maryland Virginia Tech Hokies football players Methodists from Maryland