Bears' Hall Of Fame QB Dead At 81
Hall of Fame quarterback Sid Luckman, who led the Chicago Bears to four NFL championships in the 1940s, died Sunday at a Florida hospital. He was 81.
In his 12 seasons with the Bears, Luckman became the team's career leader in touchdowns with 137, and yards gained - 14,686.
Luckman once said he wanted three sentences on his tombstone: "He had it all. He did it all. He loved it all."
Luckman died at Aventura Hospital in North Miami Beach, Fla., where he was a patient, according to the nursing supervisor, who would not give her name. The cause of death was not given.
Born in New York in 1917 , Luckman attended Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn. He went to Columbia University where he earned All-America status as a senior 1938.
Luckman made the cover of Life Magazine in his senior year, with the headline, "Best Passer," printed under his picture.
Bears owner George Halas traded two players and a draft choice to the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1939 to acquire the 5-foot-11 inch, 190-pound Luckman. Halas offered Luckman the highest salary ever paid by the team at the time, $5,000 a year.
Luckman played his first game against the New York Giants in 1939, a 16-14 loss.
"You'll never know the emotion, stress," Luckman once said of that game. "That had to be the most emotional time in my football history. My family, my friends from college, the Columbia coaches, the dean of the college... they were all at the game."
In 1940, Lukman led the team to a 73-0 victory over the Washington Redskins for the NFL championship.
Luckman was named NFL MVP three times during his 12 seasons as a pro, and was selected All-Pro seven times.
When he stopped playing football in 1950, Luckman's salary was $23,000, matched only by Redskins quarterback Sammy Baugh.
He then began a 14-year part-time coaching career for the Bears and other teams Halas wanted to teach about the T-formation. Luckman never accepted a coaching salary from the Bears.
"I can never repay the Bears for making my life a more enchanting life," he said.
Luckman left football in 1950 and went to work for Cellu-Craft Inc.
In 1946, he bought a half interest in the company, which manufactured wrapping materials for companies including Kraft Foods, Quaker Oats, Sara Lee, Superior Coffee and Morton International. He later sold his interest in the company.
"George Halas told us that football was a means to an end," Luckman said of activities after retiring from the game. "All of us had to seek a way to keep up our income, because you never really know in professional football what could happen on any given Sunday."
Luckman is survived by a son. His wife, Estelle, died in 1981.
No details were available about funeral services.
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