John J. Karras (January 29, 1928 – November 6, 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 ...

halfback who played one season with the

Chicago Cardinals The professional American football team now known as the Arizona Cardinals previously played in Chicago, Illinois, as the Chicago Cardinals from 1898 to 1959 before relocating to St. Louis, Missouri, for the 1960 through 1987 seasons. Roots ...

of 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 ...

. He was drafted by the Chicago Cardinals in the second round of the

1952 NFL Draft The 1952 National Football League Draft was held on January 17, 1952, at Hotel Statler in New York. Selections made by New York Yanks were assigned to the new Dallas Texans. This was the sixth year that the first overall pick was a bonus pick ...

. Karras had previously played college football at the

University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Unive ...

and attended Argo Community High School in

Summit, Illinois Summit is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States. The population was 11,161 at the 2020 census. The name Summit, in use since 1836, refers to the highest point on the Chicago Portage between the northeast-flowing Chicago River and the ...

. He was a Consensus All-American in

1951 Events January * January 4 – Korean War: Third Battle of Seoul – Chinese and North Korean forces capture Seoul for the second time (having lost the Second Battle of Seoul in September 1950). * January 9 – The Government of the Uni ...

College career

Karras first enrolled at the University of Illinois as a freshman in 1946 and then spent 18 months in the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...

holding the rank of private first class. He returned to Illinois in 1949, accumulating seven rushing touchdowns and 826 yards rushing. He led the

Illinois Fighting Illini football The Illinois Fighting Illini football program represents the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in college football at the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (formerly Division I-A) level. The Fighting Illini are a founding member o ...

team in rushing yards in 1950 and 1951. Karras was a Consensus All-American in 1951 after gaining 716 yards rushing and scoring 13 touchdowns. Illinois went 16-3-1 and won the

1952 Rose Bowl The 1952 Rose Bowl was the 38th edition of the college football bowl game, played at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. Held on Tuesday, January 1, at the end of the 1951 college football season, it was the first nationally televised college ...

against

Stanford Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

. In 1990, he was named to Illinois' All-Century team.

Professional career

Karras was drafted by the Chicago Cardinals with the sixteenth pick in the 1952 NFL Draft. He played in ten games and scored one receiving touchdown in .

References

External links

Just Sports Stats
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Karras, Johnny 1928 births 2008 deaths Players of American football from Chicago American football halfbacks Illinois Fighting Illini football players Chicago Cardinals players All-American college football players United States Army soldiers