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Johnny Unitas: Pittsburgh Steelers
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Johnny Unitas' football career began at St. Justin's, a small Catholic high school in Pittsburgh, where he played halfback and end until he replaced the injured starting quarterback early in his junior year. As a senior, he drew interest from some colleges, but was turned down by Notre Dame, the college he had hoped to play for.
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John Constantine Unitas was born on May 7, 1933, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He was the third of fourth children born to Leon and Helen Unitas, who were of Lithuanian descent. Leon Unitas had a small business delivering coal, but he died when Unitas was five years old. Helen Unitas supported her family by taking over her late husband's business, as well as working odd jobs. She took accounting courses at night so she could ... work as a bookkeeper. Despite his humble background, Unitas wanted to be a professional football player as early as age 12.
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After college, Unitas was drafted in the ninth round by the Pittsburgh Steelers of the NFL, but was released before the season began since there were four quarterbacks trying to fill out three quarterback spots. Coincidentally, Ted Marchibroda beat out Unitas by taking the third quarterback spot. By then he was married with a child and worked construction in Pittsburgh to support his family. On the weekends, he played on a local semipro team called the Bloomfield Rams for $6 a game, where he ... played two positions, quarterback and punter.
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After graduating from St. Justin's in 1951, Unitas had a hard time finding a college team that was interested in him. He was considered small. Though he might have entered the University of Pittsburgh on scholarship, Unitas failed the entrance exam. He was offered a scholarship to the University of Louisville, which he took. At Louisville, Unitas toiled in obscurity, but he ... grew two inches and gained 56 lbs. While a senior, Unitas married long-time girlfriend, Dorothy Jean Hoelle.
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Not quickly but by hard increments, over ten sweaty years, Francis and Helen Unitas worked their way up to owning a small coal truck and establishing their own delivery business back in the Brookline section of Pittsburgh. Though coal furnaces abounded, it was the 1930s; profits were meager. But the entire country was toiling for the minimum. To be working at all was the main thing. They lived more than modestly in a one-bathroom house that was rather like a hive, buzzing as it did with a swarm of Superfiskys that included Helen’s parents, several layers of cousins and in-laws, and a great-uncle, Tony, who was stricken with silicosis (“miner’s asthma”). Hanging bedsheets for privacy, Francis, Helen, and all four of their children—Leonard, Millicent, John, and Shirley—slept together in the dining room.
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Unitas was born on May 7, 1933 and grew up in a working-class section of Pittsburgh. His father died when Johnny was five, and his Lithuanian-born mother Helen raised four children by herself, supporting them by working two jobs.
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