Menu
All
All
Titles
TV Episodes
Celebs
Companies
Keywords
Advanced Search
Watchlist
Sign In
Sign In
New Customer?
Create account
EN
Fully supported
English (United States)
Partially supported
Français (Canada)
Français (France)
Deutsch (Deutschland)
हिंदी (भारत)
Italiano (Italia)
Português (Brasil)
Español (España)
Español (México)
Use app
Back
Biography
Trivia
FAQ
IMDbPro
All topics
Trivia
Dick Butkus
Edit
Considered to be the meanest linebacker ever to play football.
Uniform number 51 retired by the Bears.
Elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1979.
Inducted into the ESPN Chicago Hall of Fame in 2011 (inaugural class) with
Michael Jordan
,
Walter Payton
,
Ernie Banks
, and
Mike Ditka
.
Was of Lithuanian descent.
Was a first-round draft pick of the Chicago Bears, with whom he spent nine years as a linebacker (1965-1973) and appeared in eight straight Pro Bowls (1965-1972).
Father of
Richard M. Butkus Jr.
.
Since 1985 the Downtown Athletic Club of Orlando, Florida has presented the annual Dick Butkus Award to the top linebacker in college football.
Was frequently paired up with
Bubba Smith
in Miller Lite commercials. Also worked with Smith in the
Blue Thunder (1984)
TV series.
Inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1983.
Has two sons and a daughter
Appeared in a commercial for "FedEx Express". (2009)
Mentioned in the Sublime song "Same in the End".
Inducted into the Lithuanian American Hall of Fame in 2013.
Center/linebacker for the University of Illinois football team, 1962-1964.
Survived by his three children: Matt, Nikki, and Richard Jr., and grandchildren.
His interment was at Saint Casimir Catholic Cemetery in Chicago, Illinois.
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content
Learn more about contributing
Edit page
More from this person
More to explore
Photos
Trending Actors in Their Early Roles
See the gallery
List
New and Upcoming Sci-Fi & Fantasy
See the list
List
What We're Watching: Time Travel and Anime
See the full list
Recently viewed
Please enable browser cookies to use this feature.
Learn more.
Back to top