George Young (American football)

George Young

Young while playing for the Cleveland Browns
No. 52, 82
Position:	Defensive end
Personal information
Born:	(1924-05-10)May 10, 1924 Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania
Died:	September 21, 1969(1969-09-21) (aged 45) Chicago
Height:	6 ft 3 in (1.91 m)
Weight:	214 lb (97 kg)
Career information
High school:	Forty Fort High School
College:	Baldwin–Wallace, Georgia
Career history
Cleveland Browns (1946–1953)
Career highlights and awards
NFL champion (1950) 4× AAFC champion (1946, 1947, 1948, 1949)
Career NFL statistics as of 1953
Games: 97 Player stats at NFL.com
Player stats at PFR

George Donald Young (May 10, 1924 – September 21, 1969) was an American football defensive end who played eight seasons in the All-America Football Conference (AAFC) and in the National Football League with the Cleveland Browns. He later was an umpire officiating in the American Football League (AFL) for its entire existence, from 1960 through 1969. He officiated in the first AFL championship in 1960 and the first Super Bowl after the 1966 season.

Young grew up in a poor family outside of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. He was a star athlete in high school, playing on his football team and winning a state heavyweight title in wrestling as a senior. Young attended the University of Georgia and was on the Bulldogs football team in 1941 and 1942, when the school won the Rose Bowl. He then spent three years in the military during World War II and played service football as he trained in the U.S. Navy. He played in 1944 for Paul Brown, then the head football coach at a Naval facility outside Chicago. After the war, Brown became head coach of the Cleveland Browns in the AAFC and signed Young. He played on the defensive line for the Browns until his retirement in 1953, a span during which the team won five league championships. After his playing career, Young worked as an executive at a utility in Illinois and officiated in the AFL. He died of a brain tumor in 1969.

Young grew up poor in Forty Fort, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Wilkes-Barre. His mother died when he was 10 years old, and dinner often consisted of canned beans or soup. Despite a bad diet, Young grew to six feet, three inches and more than 200 pounds. He played three years as an end on his Forty Fort High School football team and was also a wrestler, winning the state heavyweight title as a senior.