Alex Karras
Karras as an ABC broadcaster.
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| No. 71 | |||||||||
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| Position: | Defensive tackle | ||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||
| Date of birth: | July 15, 1935 | ||||||||
| Place of birth: | Gary, Indiana | ||||||||
| Date of death: | October 10, 2012 (aged 77) | ||||||||
| Place of death: | Los Angeles, California | ||||||||
| Height: | 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m) | ||||||||
| Weight: | 248 lb (112 kg) | ||||||||
| Career information | |||||||||
| High school: | Gary (IN) Emerson | ||||||||
| College: | Iowa | ||||||||
| NFL Draft: | 1958 / Round: 1 / Pick: 10 | ||||||||
| Career history | |||||||||
| Career highlights and awards | |||||||||
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| Career NFL statistics | |||||||||
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| Games Played: | 161 |
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| Fumble Recoveries: | 16 |
| Interceptions: | 4 |
| Player stats at NFL.com | |
Alexander George Karras (July 15, 1935 – October 10, 2012) was an American football player, professional wrestler, and actor. He was a four-time Pro Bowl player with the Detroit Lions of the National Football League (NFL), where he played from 1958 to 1962 and 1964 to 1970. As an actor, Karras is noted for his role as Mongo in the 1974 comedy film Blazing Saddles, and for starring in the ABC sitcom Webster (1983–1989) alongside his wife Susan Clark, as the title character's adoptive father. He was also featured prominently in Victor Victoria, starring Julie Andrews and James Garner. He is a member of the College Football Hall of Fame
Karras was born in Gary, Indiana, the son of Dr. George Karras, a Greek immigrant (from Chios) who graduated from the University of Chicago and got his medical degree in Canada. There, George Karras met and married a Canadian woman, Alex's mother, Emmeline (née Wilson), a registered nurse. George Karras opened a medical practice in Gary, but he died when Alex was thirteen years old. By that time, Alex Karras had learned to play football in a parking lot near his home, and he blossomed into a four-time Indiana all-state selection at Gary Emerson High School.
His older brothers, Lou (a future member of the Redskins) and Ted (who later played with the Bears and Lions), had played at Purdue but later Ted transferred to Indiana. Because of this, Alex said, "Indiana had the inside track" on recruiting him. Shortly after he graduated from high school, three coaches from the Iowa Hawkeyes met Karras at his brother Louie's house with an airplane and flew him to Spencer, Iowa, where he remained incommunicado through the summer. Writing in the Detroit Free-Press in 1971 (as reprinted in the Iowa City Press-Citizen), Karras said that "nobody knew where I was, not even my mom, although Louie told her not to worry. . . . Obviously, Iowa came up with something, I have no intention of stirring up any mess. I'll only say that, as Louie explained it, some accommodations were made by the people at Iowa that would make things easier for the family, and so away I went. It was the beginning of some awful years."
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