In this case, the headline says it all. You don’t need a first name, or anything other than “Butkus passes at 80.”
Dick Butkus, the legendary linebacker for the Chicago Bears whose name became synonymous with “tough” for many NFL fans in the 1960s and ‘70s, who went on to become an actor and, in his latter days, one of the elder statesmen of the league, died on Thursday at 80 years old.
A statement from his family, then released through the NFL, said Butkus died peacefully in his sleep at home in Malibu, Calif.
Ironically, the Bears – who had been winless so far this season through four games – also captured their first victory of the year on Thursday night, a 40-20 win at Washington.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell released this statement: “Dick Butkus was a fierce and passionate competitor who helped define the linebacker position as one of the NFL’s all-time greats,” Goodell said. “Dick’s intuition, toughness and athleticism made him the model linebacker whose name will forever be linked to the position and the Chicago Bears.”
Butkus was selected by the Bears in the 1965 NFL Draft, the third overall pick. He didn’t disappoint, playing for nine seasons and retiring in 1974, his retirement perhaps brought on by a knee injury. During Butkus’s career, the sack was not an official statistic, but he was credited with 22 interceptions and 27 fumble recoveries. His Bears teams didn’t win a Super Bowl – that would come later, about 11 years after his retirement in the 1985 season – but Butkus became known at the time as the most feared defender in the history of the league, his reputation bolstered by tape and then subsequently, by NFL Films.
“I want to just let (players) know that they’ve been hit, and when they get up they don’t have to look to see who (it) was that hit them,” Butkus said in 1969, a quote from this USA TODAY story (Dick Butkus dies at 80, leaving legacy as Bears legend and NFL icon).
After his retirement, he began acting, and did so quite successfully, not just in movies, but in commercials, as well. And since the mid-80s, the top linebacker in college football receives the Butkus Award, after the former Illinois great.
“Dick was the ultimate Bear, and one of the greatest players in NFL history,” Bears chairman George H. McCaskey said in a statement. “He was Chicago’s son. He exuded what our great city is about and, not coincidently, what (longtime Bears owner and coach) George Halas looked for in a player: toughness, smarts, instincts, passion and leadership. He refused to accept anything less than the best from himself, or from his teammates.”
