Norm Carlson Looks Back... - Jack Youngblood
Wednesday, November 5, 2003 | Football
Here is a fact which should encourage young football players, especially those who are about 6-4 and rawboned: When Jack Youngblood arrived at the University of Florida in l967, recruited out of Jefferson County High in Monticello by assistant coach Dave Fuller, many UF coaches thought he would never play a meaningful down of college football.
"Shoot, the University of Florida was the only school that would give me a chance,"Youngblood recalls today. "I lived about a stone's throw from FSU and they didn't recruit me. We had a state championship team and some colleges were interested in other players we had, but not interested in me. Bill Parcells was an assistant coach at FSU and he said I couldn't play at the college level. I thought I'd wind up going to a junior college up in Georgia."
Coach Fuller had a different opinion, and he sold Gator head coach Ray Graves on it. Graves then approved the offer of a scholarship.
"Jack was young. I think he was only 16 his senior season. He didn't turn 17 until the next January," said Fuller. "He was obviously a good athlete who could run, was quick and extremely agile. And he was 6-4 and skinny. There was a lot of room to put on weight as he got older."
Gators are thankful Fuller's opinion won out and Youngblood got a scholarship. Four years after the 17-year old, 6-4, 185-pound linebacker arrived at Florida, he left as a 6-5, 248-pound first team All-America defensive end. Six weeks after his college career ended he was named the Most Outstanding Player in the 1971 Senior Bowl. That spring the Los Angeles Rams made him the 20th player selected in the first round of the l971 NFL draft soon after he turned 21.
Youngblood played for 14 seasons at defensive end for the Rams, a total of 202 games. He missed only one game in his career, and played the entire game on defense in Super Bowl XIV on a broken left leg, an injury incurred in a playoff game. He also played with that injury in the NFL title game two weeks prior to the Super Bowl. He was fitted with a plastic brace and played every down of both contests.
He finished his career with 151 sacks, the second-highest figure in NFL history. The NFL considers sacks from that era "unofficial" because the league on an official basis didn't keep them. However, as former Gator head ball coach Steve Spurrier will attest, Youngblood did plant many a NFL quarterback on his backside.
"He was just a fierce competitor who came after you every play," said Spurrier. "He leveled me one time when the Rams and 49ers played, and he got up grinning. Jack loved playing the game of football. He is a guy you respected as a football player, and he certainly deserves to be in the NFL Hall of Fame."
Youngblood agrees with Spurrier's assessment.
"I had fun going out and playing the game," he said. "Having the talent to play is a special gift you are given, and I can't imagine not taking advantage of it by failing to play as hard as you can possibly play, and not enjoying the competition. Competition is addictive. I loved the game in high school, college and at the professional level. I especially loved the opportunity and time spent at the University of Florida.
"They made me a Gator not just for four years but for life."
With the Rams, Youngblood was named to the All-NFC team six times and was the twice named the National Football Conference's Defensive Player of the Year. He was the most dominant lineman in the NFL for years, but it took 12 years on the ballot to be voted into the NFL Hall of Fame, where he was inducted in August of 2001 in Canton, Ohio.
As unheralded as he was coming out of high school, Youngblood became a symbol of defensive excellence during his career at Florida. He started out his freshman season as an offensive lineman, but by his senior year in l970 he was the dominant defensive lineman in the SEC, if not the nation. He was named the SEC Most Outstanding Defensive player in l970. His play against Georgia that year was an example.
The Gators were 11-point underdogs and trailed 17-10 in the fourth quarter. Georgia had first-and-goal at the UF one-yard line. On first down Youngblood whipped his man and halted the Georgia runner at the line of scrimmage. On second down he hit the runner, forced a fumble and dug it out from under a pile of players for the recovery.
Florida's offense came to life after that recovery, scoring on a 32-yard pass from John Reaves to Carlos Alvarez to knot the game with 5:13 to play. Then the Youngblood-led defense stopped the Dawgs at the Gator 38-yard line, and the inspired offense drove 62 yards in the closing moments, scoring on a 48-yard pass from Reaves to Alvarez with 1:39 to play for a 24-17 victory.
Youngblood told the press after the game that he just stole the ball from Georgia for the game-turning recovery.
"I don't know who it was," he said,"but they had it in their hands and I just snatched it away from him. Heck, they do it all the time in the pros."
Georgia head coach Vince Dooley said Youngblood was the difference in the game.
"We couldn't block him," Dooley said. "The fumble was the turning point. I really don't know how he came up with the football. If we could have scored there I really believe we would have won the game."
Youngblood is still regarded as one of the premier defensive linemen in SEC history, and was selected on the conference's all-quarter century team for the period of l950-74. In l992 he joined Dale Van Sickel (l928) and Steve Spurrier (l966) as former Gator players to be named to the College Football Hall of Fame.
A fact, which might not be remembered by Gator fans, is that Youngblood was also an outstanding place-kicker. He finished second in scoring behind All-America tailback Larry Smith in l968 with 35 points, and was the team's kickoff man. Youngblood kicked six consecutive field goals that season and finished the year making 7x9, along with 14 of 16 extra point attempts.
Graves, the Gator head coach during Youngblood's first two years of l968-69, followed his career from the days at Jefferson County High School through the All-Pro days in Los Angeles. He has perhaps the best summation of how it all happened. Graves said:
"He put his heart and soul into what he did. He appreciated the game and loved to play it. He was a team player. He was tough as nails, and he was a very talented player who continually worked to get better. As a result he continued to get better and better from high school right on through the NFL."
Youngblood and his wife Barbara now live in Winter Park, and he spends times at his farm in his native Monticello. His many outside endeavors include starring in hunting and fishing shows on television , but he still looks like he could suit up and play football.
Norm Carlson recently retired from the University Athletic Association after 40 years of service. Carlson serves as historian for Gator athletics and will contribute a regular column to gatorzone.com.
