Richard Jose Casares (July 4, 1931 – September 13, 2013) was an American professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

player who was a fullback in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...

(NFL) and

American Football League The American Football League (AFL) was a major professional American football league that operated for ten seasons from 1960 until 1970, AFL–NFL merger, when it merged with the older National Football League (NFL), and became the American Foot ...

(AFL) for twelve seasons during the 1950s and 1960s. Casares played

college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...

for the

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida, United States. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida and a preem ...

, where he was standout fullback and kicker. Casares played professionally for the

Chicago Bears The Chicago Bears are a professional American football team based in Chicago. The Bears compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC North, North division. They are one of two remaining ...

and

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 of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC East, East ...

of the NFL, and was a member of the expansion

Miami Dolphins The Miami Dolphins are a professional American football team based in the Miami metropolitan area. The Dolphins compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC East, East division. The team ...

of the AFL.

Early life

Rick Casares was born in

Tampa, Florida Tampa ( ) is a city on the Gulf Coast of the United States, Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. Tampa's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and t ...

, in 1931.Pro-Football-Reference.com, Players
Rick Casares
Retrieved July 1, 2010. When he was 7 years old, his father was killed in a gang shooting; his mother sent him to live with an aunt and uncle in

Paterson, New Jersey Paterson ( ) is the largest City (New Jersey), city in and the county seat of Passaic County, New Jersey, Passaic County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Tampa's NFL Hero: Rick Casares
" ''Cigar City Magazine'', pp. 22–23, 25–27 (January–February 2011). Retrieved October 7, 2014. At 15, Casares became a

Golden Gloves The Golden Gloves of America is an organization that promotes annual competitions of amateur boxing in the United States, in which winners are awarded a belt and a ring, and the title of national champion. The organization currently owns 30 fr ...

boxing Boxing is a combat sport and martial art. Taking place in a boxing ring, it involves two people – usually wearing protective equipment, such as boxing glove, protective gloves, hand wraps, and mouthguards – throwing Punch (combat), punch ...

champion in the 160-pound division.Rozell A. Lee,
Tampa Bay's All-Century Team: No. 12 Rick Casares
," ''Tampa Tribune'' (December 21, 1999). Retrieved May 4, 2010. When he was offered a professional boxing contract, his mother refused to permit it, and he returned to Tampa. From the age of 15, Casares lived in West Tampa with his mother, and he attended Thomas Jefferson High School in Tampa,databaseFootball.com, Players, . Retrieved June 2, 2010. where his teachers introduced him to high school sports as a way to keep him in school. The Jefferson coaches discovered the 190-pound, six-foot-one-inch freshman when he picked up a

javelin A javelin is a light spear designed primarily to be thrown, historically as a ranged weapon. Today, the javelin is predominantly used for sporting purposes such as the javelin throw. The javelin is nearly always thrown by hand, unlike the sling ...

for the first time and threw it. Casares played high school football,

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

, and

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

for the Jefferson Dragons, and he was also a

track and field Track and field (or athletics in British English) is a sport that includes Competition#Sports, athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name used in North America is derived from where the sport takes place, a ru ...

athlete. He was an all-state football and basketball player, and the Dragons won the city football championship in 1948 and 1949. ''

The Tampa Tribune ''The Tampa Tribune'' was a daily newspaper published in Tampa, Florida. Along with the competing ''Tampa Bay Times'', the ''Tampa Tribune'' was one of two major newspapers published in the Tampa Bay area. The newspaper also published a ''St. P ...

'' recognized Casares as one of the Tampa Bay area's 100 greatest athletes of the previous century in 1999. In 2007, fifty-seven years after he graduated from high school, the

Florida High School Athletic Association The Florida High School Athletic Association (FHSAA) is a not-for-profit organization designated by the Florida Legislature as the governing organization to regulate all interscholastic activities of high schools in Florida. It is a member of ...

(FHSAA) recognized him as one of the thirty-three all-time greatest Florida high school football players of the last 100 years by naming him to its " All-Century Team." FHSAA announces 33-member All-Century football team
," Florida High School Athletic Association (December 12, 2007). Retrieved May 26, 2011.

College career

After graduating from high school, Casares received an athletic scholarship to attend the

in Gainesville, Florida, where he played fullback for coach

Bob Woodruff Robert Warren Woodruff (born August 18, 1961) is an American television journalist. Since 1996, he has served as a reporter for ABC News (United States), ABC News. Woodruff co-anchored ''ABC World News Tonight'' in 2006 with journalist Elizabeth ...

Florida Gators football The Florida Gators football program represents the University of Florida (UF) in American football, American college football. Florida competes in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and the ...

team from

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 ...

1953 Events January * January 6 – The Asian Socialist Conference opens in Rangoon, Burma. * January 12 – Estonian émigrés found a Estonian government-in-exile, government-in-exile in Oslo. * January 14 ** Marshal Josip Broz Tito ...

.
2011 Florida Gators Football Media Guide
'', University Athletic Association, Gainesville, Florida, pp. 96, 123, 140, 163, 180 (2011). Retrieved August 28, 2011. Casares quickly became the star rusher of the Gators' backfield.Jack Hairston, ''Tales from the Gator Swamp'', Sports Publishing, LLC, Champaign, Illinois, pp. 95–101 (2002). As a 210-pound, six-foot-two-inch sophomore in

1952 Events January–February * January 26 – Cairo Fire, Black Saturday in Kingdom of Egypt, Egypt: Rioters burn Cairo's central business district, targeting British and upper-class Egyptian businesses. * February 6 ** Princess Elizabeth, ...

, he scored the first

touchdown A touchdown (abbreviated as TD) is a scoring play in gridiron football. Scoring a touchdown grants the team that scored it 6 points. Whether running, passing, returning a kickoff or punt, or recovering a turnover, a team scores a touchd ...

of the Gators' first bowl game, a 14–13 victory over the

Tulsa Golden Hurricane The Tulsa Golden Hurricane are the athletic teams that represent the University of Tulsa. These teams are referred to as the Tulsa Golden Hurricane (or variously as TU or Tulsa). Before adopting the name Golden Hurricane in 1922, the Universit ...

in the January 1, 1953 Gator Bowl, and was a second-team

All-Southeastern Conference The All-SEC football team is an annual Southeastern Conference (SEC) honor bestowed on the best players in the conference following every college football season. Seasons

Following is a list of all-conference teams in the history of the SEC: ...

(SEC) selection and an honorable mention

All-American The All-America designation is an annual honor bestowed on outstanding athletes in the United States who are considered to be among the best athletes in their respective sport. Individuals receiving this distinction are typically added to an Al ...

. In 1953, he was a team captain. Woodruff ranked Casares as the Gators' best back and one of their three best kickers of the 1950s. Casares was also a member of coach John Mauer's Florida Gators basketball team, and led the team in scoring and rebounding with 14.9 points and 11.3 rebounds as a sophomore in 1951–52, and 15.5 points and 11.5 rebounds as a junior in 1952–53. In basketball, he was a third-team All-SEC selection in 1952; as basketball team captain in 1953, he received second-team All-SEC honors. Casares' college career was cut short when he was drafted into the

U.S. Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of the United Stat ...

after his junior year. He was later inducted into the University of Florida Athletic Hall of Fame as a "Gator Great." As part of an article series for ''The Gainesville Sun'' in 2006, he was recognized as No. 37 among the top 100 players of the first 100 years of Florida Gators football.

Professional career

Casares was selected in the second round (eighteenth pick overall) of the

1954 NFL draft The 1954 NFL draft was held on January 28, 1954, at The Bellevue-Stratford Hotel in Philadelphia. This was the eighth year that the first overall pick was a bonus pick determined by lottery. With the previous seven winners ineligible from the ...

by the

, but was offered a $20,000 annual contract with

Canadian Football League The Canadian Football League (CFL; , LCF) is a Professional gridiron football, professional Canadian football league in Canada. It comprises nine teams divided into two divisions, with four teams in the East Division (CFL), East Division and f ...

Toronto Argonauts The Toronto Argonauts (officially the Toronto Argonaut Football Club and colloquially known as the Argos) are a professional Canadian football team based in Toronto, Ontario. The Argonauts compete in the East Division (CFL), East Division of t ...

. Instead, he accepted owner

George Halas George Stanley Halas Sr. (February 2, 1895 – October 31, 1983), nicknamed "Papa Bear", was an American professional football end, coach, and executive. He was the founder and owner of the Chicago Bears of the National Football League (NFL), ...

's $10,000 offer to become a member of the Chicago Bears, and after fulfilling his military service obligations, he played for the Bears from to .National Football League, Historical Players
Rick Casares
Retrieved May 4, 2010. In the fourth game of the 1955 season, against the Baltimore Colts, he ran for an 81-yard touchdown. He finished his rookie season with 672 yards in 12 games, and earned a spot in the

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

. Casares led Chicago in rushing from through . In , Casares led the NFL in rushing with 235 carries for 1,126 yards. At the time, this was the second most yards gained in a single season in the NFL, short of the NFL single-season record by only 20 yards. Behind Casares' hard-nosed rushing, the Bears advanced to the

1956 NFL Championship Game The 1956 NFL Championship Game was the league's 24th championship game, played at Yankee Stadium in The Bronx in New York City on December 30. The New York Giants (8–3–1) won the Eastern Conference title and hosted the Chicago Bears (9– ...

. However, the Bears' championship game opponents, the

New York Giants The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Giants compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC East, East division. The ...

, completely stifled Casares and crushed the Bears, 47–7. He would, however, win an NFL Championship as a member of the 1963 squad. During the following season, Casares again led the NFL with 204 rushing attempts, but his 700 yards was later eclipsed by

Jim Brown James Nathaniel Brown (February 17, 1936 – May 18, 2023) was an American professional American football, football player, civil rights activist, and actor. He played as a Fullback (gridiron football), fullback for the Cleveland Browns of the ...

's 942 yards on two fewer carries. After ten seasons with Chicago, Casares was the Bears' all-time leading rusher with 1,386 carries, 5,657 yards, and forty-nine rushing

s. His Chicago Bears career rushing records weren't broken until

Walter Payton Walter Jerry Payton (July 25, 1953Although most sources at the time of his death gave Payton's birth year as 1954, reliable sources subsequently state he was born in 1953. – November 1, 1999) was an American professional American football, ...

shattered them in the 1970s and 1980s, and he remains the fourth all-time rusher in franchise history, behind Payton (16,726 yards), Matt Forte (8,602) and

Neal Anderson Charles Neal Anderson (born August 14, 1964) is an American former professional football player who was a running back for eight seasons with the Chicago Bears of the National Football League (NFL) during the 1980s and 1990s. Anderson played ...

(6,166 yards), and ahead of

Gale Sayers Gale Eugene Sayers (May 30, 1943 – September 23, 2020) was an American professional football halfback and return specialist in the National Football League (NFL). Sayers played for the Chicago Bears from 1965 to 1971, though injuries effec ...

(4,956 yards). "He was the toughest guy I ever played with,"

Mike Ditka Michael Keller Ditka ( ; born Michael Dyczko; October 18, 1939) is an American former professional American football, football player, coach, and television commentator. During his playing career, he was UPI NFL-NFC Rookie of the Year, UPI NFL R ...

, a former Bears tight end and coach, told The Tampa Tribune. "I remember him playing on a broken ankle." Casares was questioned in 1962 by NFL investigators as part of a spreading inquiry that included the FBI into links between league players and organized crime. Casares, who had been seen with a bookie and was known to visit with other Bears players two nightclubs connected to the Chicago mob, said he had been questioned about point shaving for gamblers and had taken and passed two lie detector tests. The investigations eventually would lead to the one-season suspensions of

Alex Karras Alexander George Karras (July 15, 1935October 10, 2012) was an American professional American football, football player, professional wrestler, sportscaster, and actor. He was a four-time Pro Bowl selection playing defensive tackle for the Detro ...

, of the Detroit Lions, and

Paul Hornung Paul Vernon Hornung (December 23, 1935 – November 13, 2020), nicknamed "the Golden Boy", was an American professional football halfback and kicker who played for the Green Bay Packers of the National Football League (NFL) from 1957 to 1966 ...

, of the Green Bay Packers. Casares finished his professional career with the NFL's Washington Redskins in , and in with the AFL's

, receiving only limited carries in his final two seasons. In 2015, the

Professional Football Researchers Association The Professional Football Researchers Association (PFRA) is an organization of researchers whose mission is to preserve and, in some cases, reconstruct professional American football history. It was founded on June 22, 1979 in Canton, Ohio by w ...

named Casares to the PRFA Hall of Very Good Class of 2015.

NFL career statistics

Regular season

Postseason

Life after football

Casares retired to his hometown of Tampa, Florida following his professional football career and some business projects in Chicago. His last career venture was in the residential home improvement field, specializing in room additions. He died on September 13, 2013, at the age of 82, after a string of illnesses, including heart disease and shoulder problems stemming from his days in football. As a U.S. Army veteran, Casares was buried in the Sarasota National Cemetery.''Bradenton Herald''
/ref>

References

Bibliography

* Carlson, Norm, ''University of Florida Football Vault: The History of the Florida Gators'', Whitman Publishing, LLC, Atlanta, Georgia (2007). . * Douchant, Mike, ''Encyclopedia of College Basketball'', Gale Research, New York, New York (1995). . * Golenbock, Peter, ''Go Gators! An Oral History of Florida's Pursuit of Gridiron Glory'', Legends Publishing, LLC, St. Petersburg, Florida (2002). . * Hairston, Jack, ''Tales from the Gator Swamp: A Collection of the Greatest Gator Stories Ever Told'', Sports Publishing, LLC, Champaign, Illinois (2002). . * McCarthy, Kevin M.,
Fightin' Gators: A History of University of Florida Football
', Arcadia Publishing, Mount Pleasant, South Carolina (2000). . * McEwen, Tom, ''The Gators: A Story of Florida Football'', The Strode Publishers, Huntsville, Alabama (1974). . * Nash, Noel, ed., ''The Gainesville Sun Presents The Greatest Moments in Florida Gators Football'', Sports Publishing, Inc., Champaign, Illinois (1998). . {{DEFAULTSORT:Casares, Rick 1931 births 2013 deaths American football fullbacks Chicago Bears players Florida Gators football players Florida Gators men's basketball players Miami Dolphins players Basketball players from Tampa, Florida Players of American football from Tampa, Florida Thomas Jefferson High School (Tampa, Florida) alumni Washington Redskins players Western Conference Pro Bowl players American Football League players American men's basketball players Hispanic and Latino American players of American football