One of the most famous if not the most famous Illinois football players ever. Also Chicago Bear superstar.

RIP

Legend. May he RIP.

Bears will never have a player like him again.

(10-05-2023 06:57 PM)GoldenWarrior11 Wrote:  Legend. May he RIP.

Bears will never have a player like him again.

Growing up a Packers fan, greatness was watching Butkus and Nitschke! Butkus was truely in his own league!

RIP to a legend

RIP. All time great.

My outfit every Sunday is a throwback Dick Butkus Bears jersey.

RIP to a Bears and Illini legend.

He was a little before my time but a legend.

RiP.

RIP to one of the all-time greats

I was ten years old living in Great Lakes, Illinois in 1965, when the Bears drafted Gale Sayers and Dick Butkus. They were both great from the beginning. That 1965 season was a lot of fun. Butkus was the quintessential middle linebacker. RIP Dick Butkus.

It's funny for me, I remember him as the studio guy on NFL games who was kind of the grumpy old man. But I always kind of knew that he was a bad mofo in his day, and I'm glad he was inflicting his brand on punishment on the Packers more than on my Cowboys.

Edit: Bears are stomping the crap out of the Commanders tonight. It is a fitting tribute to their fallen Warrior.

I only remember him from bit parts in TV and commercials. He usually played some big lovable lunk.

But yes, I knew he was someone you didn’t want in your line of sight if you had the football.

RIP, way before my time but he always seemed like the ultimate tough guy football player to me. The Bears certainly channeled his spirit last night.

(10-05-2023 06:17 PM)schmolik Wrote:  One of the most famous if not the most famous Illinois football players ever. Also Chicago Bear superstar.

Second best linebacker out of Illinois after Ray Nitschke.

Among his many career distinctions, Dick Butkus supplied the name of Rocky Balboa's large dog.

As a Chicago kid, my very first sports memories are Dick Butkus, Gayle Sayers and the 1969 Cubs. For me Butkus, Ditka and Walter Payton are the Bears. RIP to a legend.

(10-05-2023 06:17 PM)schmolik Wrote:  One of the most famous if not the most famous Illinois football players ever. Also Chicago Bear superstar.

When you said that I immediately thought of Red Grange. And he was before my time. I remember Butkus in the NFL.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Grange
"Harold Edward "Red" Grange (June 13, 1903 – January 28, 1991), nicknamed "the Galloping Ghost" and "the Wheaton Iceman", was an American professional football player who was a halfback for the Chicago Bears and the short-lived New York Yankees. His signing with the Bears helped legitimize the National Football League (NFL).[1]

Playing college football for the Illinois Fighting Illini, Grange was a three-time consensus All-American and led his team to a national championship in 1923. He was the only unanimous All-American selection in 1924, making him the first player in college football history to receive that honor. The same year, Grange became the first recipient of the Chicago Tribune Silver Football award as the Big Ten Conference's most valuable player.[2] In 2008, Grange was named the best college football player of all time by ESPN, and in 2011, he was named the Greatest Big Ten Icon by the Big Ten Network...."