Brad Ecklund
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| Date of birth | May 9, 1922 |
|---|---|
| Place of birth | Los Angeles, California |
| Date of death | February 6, 2010 (aged 87) |
| Place of death | Mount Holly Township, New Jersey |
| Career information | |
| Position(s) | Center |
| College | Oregon |
| NFL draft |
1947 / Round: 20 / Pick 181 (By the Green Bay Packers) |
| Career history | |
| As player | |
| 1949 | New York Yankees (AAFC) |
| 1950–1951 | New York Yanks |
| 1952 | Dallas Texans |
| 1953 | Baltimore Colts |
| Career highlights and awards | |
| Pro Bowls | 1950, 1951 |
| Career stats | |
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Bradford Sterling Ecklund (May 9, 1922 – February 6, 2010 ) was a center in the AAFC and in the National Football League. He was chosen twice (1950, 1951) to play in the Pro Bowl. He was born in Los Angeles and died in Mount Holly Township, New Jersey.
As a senior in high school at Milwaukie, Oregon, Ecklund was named to the Metro all-star team at fullback. He was a four-sport star—in baseball, track, basketball, and football—and was drafted by the Philadelphia Athletics, but turned down baseball for a scholarship at Oregon.
He never played for a team—frosh, varsity, military or Oregon—that he wasn't named captain of. And he never played in a league where he wasn't named on the all-conference team—at fullback in high school, in college or as a professional.
Ecklund matriculated at Oregon in 1941, expecting to play fullback. But the Webfoots were loaded in the backfield, and weak up front. Coach Tex Oliver moved the massive Ecklund to center during fall camp. By the first game, at Stanford, he was first string. He started every game, but flunked out of school.
When World War II erupted, Ecklund joined the Marine Corps, and took up boxing for fun. He became the Marine Corps Golden Gloves champion. He played for the Naval Air Station football team in Jacksonville, Florida for two years, before being dispatched for overseas duty at Okinawa.
He learned what it meant to be a member of team in the South Pacific, fighting in interminable battles from island to island. "I was in the second wave," he said in 1993. "It was the guys in the first wave who got their butts shot up."
The man one sportswriter called "the indestructible giant" returned to Oregon in '46, and picked up where he left off. "By being four years in the service, they forgave me" for flunking out, he said. "When I came back, I never made less than a B average. I'd matured and realized what I almost lost."
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