Paul Hornung, 1935-2020

Can't blame 2020 for this one, but, now, to use a football term, this Year of Hell is just piling on.

Paul Vernon Hornung was born on December 23, 1935 in Louisville, Kentucky. As the scouting report that the Green Bay Packers would later write on him said, he came from a poor family, where his parents separated when he was 2 years old.

He lettered in football, basketball and baseball all 4 years he attended Bishop Benedict Joseph Flaget High School in Louisville.

That school opened in 1942 and was closed in 1974. Other notable alumni included Howard Schnellenberger, who coached the University of Miami to the 1983 National Championship; and Gus Bell, All-Star 3rd baseman and starter of a family that has now seen 3 generations reach Major League Baseball: His son Buddy, and Buddy's son David. (All 3 were born David.)

The University of Louisville was not interested in him, although they would have a good quarterback soon enough: Johnny Unitas. Paul "Bear" Bryant was then the head coach at the University of Kentucky, and had already coached future Pro Football Hall-of-Famer George Blanda there. The Bear was very much interested in Hornung. That Packer scouting report's writer said, "Kentucky offered him the moon but INSISTED THAT HE GO TO" and the rest is illegible, due to a hole-punch and the reflection of the flash bulb used to photograph the report. A prep school, to get his grades up, maybe?

(Moving on to his alma mater, the University of Alabama, Bryant would later have his share of notable quarterbacks, 2 of whom would lead teams to Super Bowl wins: , Joe Namath of the New York Jets, and Ken Stabler of the Oakland Raiders. Hornung's eventual Packer teammate Bart Starr was at Alabama before Bryant got there.)

Hornung's mother, described by the scouting report as a devout Catholic, wanted him to have a good Catholic education, so it was off to South Bend, Indiana, and the University of Notre Dame. The Fighting Irish also offered him the chance to play basketball, but after his sophomore year there, football coach Terry Brennan asked him to give it up, saying sticking to one sport would give him time to focus on his grades.

It worked: He remained academically eligible, and in 1955, playing both halfback on offense and safety on defense, he became a star. In an upset over Number 4 Navy, he ran for 2 touchdowns and intercepted 2 passes. Although Notre Dame lost their big rivalry game to the University of Southern California (USC), Hornung had a combined 354 yards rushing and passing in that game, the highest of any game in the country that season.

In his 1st 2 years at Notre Dame, Hornung helped them go 9-1 and 8-2. But 1956 would be one of the worst years in the school's history. They went just 2-8, their only wins coming at home to Indiana and North Carolina.

They had close losses to USC in Los Angeles, Southern Methodist (SMU) in Dallas, the University of Pittsburgh away, and home to Purdue. But they got clobbered at home by Michigan State (then ranked Number 2), at home by Oklahoma (who had risen to Number 2 and would end the season at Number 1), away to Iowa (then Number 3), and by Navy in Baltimore (essentially a home game for Navy.)

And yet, Hornung, nicknamed "The Golden Boy" while playing at "The Golden Dome," and moved to quarterback, was awarded the Heisman Trophy. He remains the only player from a team with a losing record to ever win it.

It was a close vote, in one of the most loaded senior classes in college football history. Tennessee running back Johnny Majors and Oklahoma running back Tommy McDonald both finished within 100 points of him. Oklahoma center and linebacker Jerry Tubbs was 4th, one of the few offensive linemen ever to get that close to the Trophy, and one of the few defensive players. Syracuse running back Jim Brown finished 5th, Michigan end Ron Kramer 6th, Stanford quarterback John Brodie 7th, Ohio State guard Jim Parker 8th.

Hornung, McDonald, Brown and Parker would all end up in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Brodie should be. Tubbs and Kramer both made the 1962 Pro Bowl. (Kramer would later become a Packer teammate, but was not related to another, Jerry Kramer.) The only one who didn't go on to have at least a good pro football career was Majors, and he became one of the top college coaches of his generation, leading Pittsburgh to the 1976 National Championship, then returning to Tennessee and leading them to 3 Southeastern Conference titles.

Years later, in his role as a broadcaster, Hornung interviewed Majors, and asked him who he thought should have won the 1956 Heisman Trophy. Without hesitation, Majors said, "Jimmy Brown." Hornung could only say, "If I didn't want the truth, I shouldn't have asked."

*

Today, someone on Twitter posted a picture of the Green Bay Packers' scouting report on Hornung. It cited (and I am quoting directly here, including ALL CAPS where it was used:

* GREAT NATURAL ATHLETE

* GREAT SPEED

* TREMENDOUS competitor

* WILL STAND PUNISHMENT (Yes, this was written in red ink)

* CAN RUN with BALL

* GOOD Punter

* Very Intelligent - Accounting Major - 90 AVE. ("Average" is usually abbreviated "Avg.")

* KICKOFF MAN - Not Consistent - Can put it into end zone

* WONDERFUL POISE

* Has Been Outstanding as Defensive player

* Can throw Long Pass well

* EASY to HANDLE (That would turn out to be wrong.)

* HE WILL NOT GO TO CANADA (His refusal to play in the colder and lesser-paying Canadian Football League was written in red and double-underscored.)

* Weakness: LIKES GIRLS (Double-underscored. Liking girls was not the issue. How much effort he put into pursuing them was the issue.)

Not having won, or even appeared in, an NFL Championship Game since 1944, and coming off a 4-8 season, the Packers had the 1st overall selection in the 1957 NFL Draft. They chose Hornung. It didn't do them much good at first, going 3-9 in 1957 and bottoming out at 1-10-1 in 1958. As the great New York Herald Tribune sports columnist Red Smith put it, "The Packers overwhelmed one opponent, underwhelmed ten, and whelmed one."

For the 1959 season, the Packers brought in a new head coach and general manager, who had played on the 1937 Fordham University line known as "The Seven Blocks of Granite," had coached under Red Blaik at Army, and was what we would now call the offensive coordinator for the New York Giants team that won the NFL Championship Game in 1956 and lost it in 1958: Vince Lombardi.

Lombardi was, to put it bluntly, blunt. He told the Packer players, "We may not win, but we won't be losing with the same people." But he also told them, "Those who stay will be champions." To prove his point, he cut the team's most established player, All-Pro end Billy Howton, for not taking practice seriously enough.

Lombardi and Hornung wouldn't seem to have been a good mix. Although a registered Democrat who contributed to John F. Kennedy's Presidential campaign in 1960, Lombardi was a personal conservative. He liked short hair, sharp suits, and people who were committed to their family, their faith, and their job, and resolved to do well with all three. Hornung was a carouser -- not an easy thing to be in the NFL's smallest city, so he took advantage of roadtrips.

Lombardi saw something in Hornung. What they had in common was that they were Catholics who started out poor. Lombardi knew Hornung was the most talented player he had ever coached, even more than a very similar player he had on the Giants, Frank Gifford. He was able to reach Gifford, so maybe he could reach Hornung.

Left to right: Paul Hornung, Bart Starr, Vince Lombardi

And it did turn out to be a relationship similar to the one that Yankee manager Casey Stengel had with Mickey Mantle: He could never keep the superstar under control off the field, but he got absolute commitment from him in practice and in games.

This is what happened over the next 3 seasons, Lombardi's 1st 3 in Green Bay: They went from 1-10-1 to 7-5 in 1959; went 8-4 to win the Eastern Division title in 1960, but lost the NFL Championship Game to the Philadelphia Eagles; and went 11-3, demolishing the Giants 37-0 in a snowy Championship Game at the stadium later known as Lambeau Field on New Year's Eve 1961, the Packers' 1st title in 17 years. In each of those 3 seasons, Hornung led the NFL in scoring. 

In 1960, he led the NFL in rushing touchdowns with 13, and scored 2 more touchdowns receiving, for 15 touchdowns, meaning 90 points. In placekicking, he was a perfect 41-for-41 on extra points. His field goal kicking wasn't nearly as good, making just 15 out of 28. But that was another 45 points.

That made for a total of 176 points, a new NFL single-season record, in 12 games. Despite the NFL moving to a 14-game schedule the next season, and a 16-game schedule in 1978, that record stood until 2006, when LaDainian Tomlinson of the San Diego Chargers scored 31 touchdowns (doing no kicking) for 186 points, although he didn't surpass Hornung's 176 until the 14th game of the season. And he remains the only man to surpass it.

Hornung also passed for 2 touchdowns, so he accounted for 188 points. Although, if you go by that measure, the record would be a lot higher, 330 points, as Peyton Manning passed for a record 55 touchdowns for the Denver Broncos in 2013.

Hornung was named the NFL's Most Valuable Player in 1961, as his 146 points (10 touchdowns, and he matched his previous season with 41 out of 41 extra points and 15 field goals) remained 2nd-best in NFL history until the 1980s.

But the Berlin Crisis of the Summer of 1961 led to Hornung's U.S. Army Reserve unit being called up. The Army kept him in shape, but he was only able to play on Sundays due to receiving weekend passes. The NFL Championship Game required more than just a weekend off, so Lombardi called President Kennedy, and the Commander-in-Chief gave Hornung the necessary time off. In that Championship Game, Hornung scored the 1st Packer touchdown, and kicked 3 field goals and 4 extra points.

His 19 points remained a record for the NFL championship game, under any official name, for 55 seasons, until 2017, when James White scored 20 (3 touchdowns, including the overtime game-winner, and a 2-point conversion) for the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LI.

In 1962, the Packers went 13-1, still a franchise best, their only loss coming to the Detroit Lions at Tiger Stadium on Thanksgiving Day. Again, they beat the Giants in the Championship Game. Life was good for Paul Hornung.

He had even invented the touchdown celebration. Before him, players would just drop the ball on the ground (hence, the term "touchdown"), or hand or toss the ball to an official. Hornung threw the ball into the stands. In 1965, the NFL began fining players $500 for doing this. So Giants running back Homer Jones began slamming the ball on the ground, calling it a "spike."

In April 1963, NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle discovering that 2 of the League's biggest stars, Hornung and Lions defensive tackle Alex Karras, had been betting on NFL games, and, as was said at the time, "associating with undesirable persons." Both men confessed, and accepted their punishment: Suspension for the entire upcoming season.

Lombardi put his foot down, and told Hornung that he couldn't gamble anymore, not even on his hometown's signature sporting event: He could not go back to Louisville and so much as attend the Kentucky Derby. Lombardi also told him to stay away from Las Vegas. Hornung agreed.

"Rozelle should have suspended me," he said many years later. "He could have suspended a lot of others, too. A lot of guys bet like I did. I'd bet $100, and never more than $500. The Commissioner was making a point, and the older I got, the more I understood."

Given each man's cooperation, Rozelle reinstated both Hornung and Karras for the 1964 season. Lombardi defied the rumor that he would trade Hornung, and welcomed him back, asking only that he report to Packer camp 2 months early to get back into shape.

He told the media, "You have to know what Hornung means to this team. I have heard and read that he is not a great runner or a great passer or a great field-goal kicker, but he led the league in scoring for three seasons. In the middle of the field he may be only slightly better than an average ballplayer, but inside the twenty-yard line he is one of the greatest I have ever seen. He smells that goal line."

Hornung also did things off the field that Lombardi valued, such as reaching out to newly-acquired players. He would take them along to his speaking engagements, and split his fee with them.

But the suspensions did have a long-term effect on each player's reputation. Hornung was not elected to the College Football Hall of Fame until 1985, his 20th year of eligibility; and not to the Pro Football Hall of Fame until 1986, his 15th year. Karras wasn't elected to the College Football Hall until 1991, his 25th year; and to the Pro Football Hall until 2020, his 45th, and more than 7 years after his death. At least Hornung lived to receive both of the honors in question.

Hornung had no hard feelings toward Rozelle. When the Commissioner retired in 1989, after 29 seasons in charge, Hornung wrote him a letter calling him "the best commissioner of any sports league."

In Hornung's absence, the Packers went 11-2-1 in 1963, finishing 2nd to their arch-rivals, the Chicago Bears, in the Western Division. The 1964 season was something of a transition year, and they went just 8-5-1.

But in 1965, they went 10-3-1, helped by Hornung's last good season, gaining more yards receiving than rushing. They beat the Baltimore Colts in a Playoff for the Division title, and the Cleveland Browns in the NFL Championship Game, with Hornung gaining 105 yards and scoring a touchdown on a Lambeau Field surface that was rendered a muddy mess by a snowfall and the means of removing it.

A pinched nerve in his neck limited him to 9 games, starting just 5, in 1966. This led to him wearing the first neck-protecting rollbar in NFL history, now required equipment. The Packers went 12-2, and beat the Dallas Cowboys in a 34-27 New Year's Day thriller at the Cotton Bowl in the NFL Championship Game.

That turned out to be his last game: He was the only player on the Packer roster who did not play in the subsequent "AFL-NFL World Championship Game," later retroactively renamed "Super Bowl I." Lombardi offered him the chance to play in the 4th quarter, when the game was out of reach, figuring that Hornung would enjoy the distinction of having played in such a historic game. But he didn't feel up to it.

The New Orleans Saints began play in 1967, and selected him in the expansion draft. Given his love of the nightlife, the Crescent City must have seemed like an ideal place to go. He went to their training camp, but the neck injury was too bad. He was examined at the Scripps Clinic in California, and found to have a severing of 3 vertebrae, and damaged nerve roots in his spinal cord. "Another hit, and I could have been a paraplegic," he said.

He was 31, and he announced his retirement before ever playing a game for the Saints, even an exhibition. Without him, the Packers went 9-4-1, won their 5th NFL Championship in 7 seasons, and won Super Bowl II; while the Saints had a typical season for an expansion team, going just 3-11.

He finished his career with 3,711 rushing yards, 130 catches for 1,480 yards, 383 yards and 5 touchdowns passing, 62 total touchdowns scored, 190 extra points in 194 attempts, and 66 field goals in 140 attempts, for 760 points. He was a member of 4 NFL Championship teams.

*

Hornung returned to Louisville, and made a lot of money in real estate. He became a charity fundraiser, donating over $300,000 to Notre Dame, and another $300,000 to the Visiting Sisters Program, in which nuns provide food and clothing for the poor.

In spite of his efforts to be "a good Catholic," the stories of his womanizing became legend. He was quoted as saying, "Never get married in the morning. You never know who you might meet that night." Teammate Max McGee said, "Believe me, Paul was an impact player for the Green Bay Packers. He also was an impact player on half the females in the United States."

But, just as Yogi Berra liked to say, "I didn't really say everything I said," Hornung said, "If I had done half of what they say I did, I would be in a bottle at the Smithsonian Institution."

Formerly married to Patricia Roeder, he married a woman named Angela in 1979, and they remained married until his death. He had 4 children, and they all graduated from Notre Dame.

He went into broadcasting, working for the Minnesota Vikings from 1970 to 1974, TVS' broadcasts of the World Football League in 1974, CBS from 1975 to 1979, ABC on USFL games from 1983 to 1985, and TBS in the 1980s. He was also the 1st host of the syndicated TV series Greatest Sports Legends, and hosted a local cable TV show, The Paul Hornung Sports Showcase. He eventually gave up TV due to the increasing raspiness of his voice.

He was elected the College Football Hall of Fame in 1985, the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1986, and the Wisconsin Athletic Hall of Fame in 1990. There are 2 Paul Hornung Awards, one for the top high school football player in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, and another given to "the most versatile college football player in the nation."

The Packers elected him to their team Hall of Fame in 1975. Following his retirement as a player in 1967, Lombardi announced at the team's annual press party that no Packer would ever again wear Number 5. However, no official retirement of the number has ever occurred. Only 4 players have worn it since Hornung, the last being placekicker Curtis Burrow in 1988. Notre Dame has also not retired 5 for him, but they don't retire numbers anyway.

Despite his success and his fame, his career statistics do not stand out, partly due to his early retirement, and partly due to the fact that the 16-game season has blown career stats of great players well past his. He was not selected for The Sporting News' 100 Greatest Football Players in 1999, or the NFL Network's 100 Greatest Players in 2010. He was selected for the NFL's All-Decade Team for the 1960s, but not for its 50th Anniversary Team in 1969, its 75th Anniversary Team in 1994, or its 100th Anniversary Team in 2019.

In 1999, Sports Illustrated chose the 50 Greatest Athletes from each State. For Kentucky, they chose the following:

1. Muhammad Ali of Louisville. No surprised that they chose "The Greatest."

2. Mary T. Meagher of Louisville. 3 Gold Medals in swimming at the 1984 Olympics.

3. Wes Unseld of Louisville. 1969 NBA MVP with the Baltimore Bullets, 1978 NBA Champion with the Washington Bullets.

4. Harold "Pee Wee" Reese of Ekron. Shortstop and Captain of 7 Pennant winners with the Brooklyn Dodgers, including the 1955 World Series winners.

5. Cliff Hagan of Owensboro, 2-time basketball National Champion at the University of Kentucky.

6. Paul Hornung of Louisville.

Nevertheless, when I did my Top 10 Athletes from each State, and got to Kentucky on June 1, 2017 (the Anniversary of its achieving Statehood, June 1, 1795), I chose Hornung 2nd behind Ali.

And when Steve Sabol did interviews for NFL Films' coverage of the Hall of Fame's 1998 induction weekend, which had the largest gathering of Hall-of-Famers ever to that point, he asked every player who would be the 1st player they would pick for an all-time team. Many of the players selected a teammate: The old Colts chose Johnny Unitas, the recently-retired 49ers chose Joe Montana, and so on. Some coaches chose players they had coached, such as Don Shula taking Dan Marino.

Hornung said he would take himself. It could easily be said of him, "He's the greatest. Just ask him."

He could not be asked the last few years. He was one of so many players to fall victim to dementia, due to football-related head trauma and advancing age. He died today, November 13, 2020, shortly before what would have been his 85th birthday, in his hometown of Louisville, Kentucky.

With his death there are now:

* 8 surviving players from the 1961 NFL Champion Green Bay Packers: Jerry Kramer, John Roach, Tom Moore, Dale Hackbart, Nelson Toburen, Lee Folkins, Gary Knafelc and Boyd Dowler.

* 10 surviving players from the 1962 NFL Champion Packers: Kramer, Roach, Moore, Toburen, Knafelc, Dowler, Howie Williams, Ed Blaine, Ron Gassert and Gary Barnes.

* 12 surviving players from the 1965 NFL Champion Packers: Kramer, Moore, Dowler, Tom Brown, Junior Coffey, Bill Curry, Ken Bowman, Steve Wright, Bob Long, Marv Fleming, Carroll Dale and Dave Robinson.

* And 16 surviving players from the 1966 NFL Champion Packers, winners of Super Bowl I: Kramer, Dowler, Brown, Curry, Bowman, Wright, Long, Fleming, Dale, Robinson, Red Mack, Jim Grabowski, Phil Vandersea, Donny Anderson, Dave Hathcock and Jim Weatherwax.

* While Hornung was not a member of the 1967 NFL Champion Packers, winners of Super Bowl II, I want to point out that there are still 19 surviving players from that team: Kramer, Dowler, Brown, Bowman, Wright, Long, Fleming, Dale, Robinson, Grabowski, Anderson, Weatherwax, Don Horn, Chuck Mercein, Ben Wilson, John Rowser, Bob Hyland, Jim Flanigan and Dick Capp.

* There are 14 surviving players from the NFL's 1960s All-Decade Team: Packers Kramer, Dowler and Robinson; the Chicago Bears' Dick Butkus; the Cleveland Browns' Jim Brown and Leroy Kelly; the Washington Redskins' Sonny Jurgensen and Charley Taylor; the Detroit Lions' Lem Barney; the Los Angeles Rams' Eddie Meador; the Dallas Cowboys' Bob Lilly and Ralph Neely; the Philadelphia Eagles' Bob Brown; and the St. Louis Cardinals' Jim Bakken.

* There are only 2 living winners of the Heisman Trophy who won it before 1962: 1947 winner Johnny Lujack of Notre Dame, now 2 months short of his 96th birthday; and 1958 winner Pete Dawkins of Army, who is 82.

* And there are 3 living Heisman winners from Notre Dame: Lujack, 1964 winner John Huarte, and 1987 winner Tim Brown. Angelo Bertelli, who was the school's 1st Heisman winner, in 1943, died in 1999. Leon Hart, the 1949 winner, died in 2002. Johnny Lattner, the 1953 winner, died in 2016.

Joe Theismann finished 2nd to Jim Plunkett of Stanford in 1970. Joe Montana had a good college career, but never came close to winning it. In 1977, his junior year, he quaterbacked them to a National Championship, but Earl Campbell of Texas won the Trophy, and Notre Dame players Ken MacAfee finished 3rd and Ross Browner 5. In 1978, his senior year, neither he nor any other Fighting Irish player finished in the Top 10.