1951 NFL Draft: Oral history – Eddie Kotal, pro football's pioneer scout

Packers team historian Cliff Christl has assembled an oral history series on the NFL Draft, highlighting significant and noteworthy years as a prelude to Green Bay hosting the 2025 draft in late April. New installments will be posted most weekdays. For access to the full series thus far, click here.

1951

The 16th NFL Draft was held over two days at the Blackstone Hotel in Chicago during the league's annual meeting. Those sessions ran from Jan. 17-22. The selection process started at 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 18 and adjourned at 2 a.m. Jan. 19. Drafting resumed at 10:40 that morning and ended at 1:45 p.m. after 30 rounds.

The start of the draft was delayed when Abe Watner, owner of the Baltimore Colts, withdrew his franchise from the league. In 1950, in their first season in the NFL, the Colts had finished 1-11 and would have owned the No. 1 pick.

Watner reached his decision after meeting with other owners in a closed session in advance of the official agenda. A Baltimore cemetery owner and court-appointed president of the financially struggling Wisconsin Central Railway Co., Watner requested that each NFL team give him one player so the Colts could become more competitive and profitable.

After being turned down, Watner was given $50,000 for the more than 50 players on his active and reserve lists.

Those players, experienced veterans included, were then made available in the college draft, prompting NFL Commissioner Bert Bell to give the league's 12 remaining teams five hours to revise their draft preparations.

Four Baltimore veterans were among the 12 first-round choices: quarterback Y.A. Tittle, taken third by San Francisco; and backs Chet Mutryn, eighth by Philadelphia; Billy Stone, 10th by the Chicago Bears; and Jim Spavital, 13th by the New York Giants.

Eddie Kotal was scouting's trailblazer

When Dan Reeves moved his Cleveland Rams to Los Angeles in 1946, eyeballing dollar signs with the city's 103,000-seat Memorial Coliseum, he created pro football's first sophisticated scouting system.

At the time, NFL teams were still relying on reports from alumni and college coaches, plus what they could glean from reading the sports pages of daily newspapers and college football preview magazines to make their picks.

But Reeves brought change when he hired Eddie Kotal as head scout of the Rams in October 1946. Together, they created the model for today's personnel departments.

Of the two, Reeves was the visionary and the one who bankrolled the venture.

NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle, who started with the Rams as a PR intern in 1946 and later served as their publicity director and general manager in the 1950s (Christl & Don Langenkamp interview, Oct. 8, 1978): "Dan Reeves was the first owner to get a strong awareness to the importance of scouting. Dan realized it was the lifeblood of a franchise. So he had Eddie set up the system and supervise it. He and the Rams were the forerunners of your present scouting systems."

Future Pro Football Hall of Fame coach Sid Gillman, who headed the Rams from 1955-59 (Christl interview, March 6, 1979): "The guiding genius of the draft was Dan Reeves. Dan came up with the idea of getting full reports on everybody, putting them in books. When you walked into Eddie Kotal's office it looked like a library. … When the Rams went into a draft, they had seen everybody. They had compared all the players. They knew who they wanted to take first, second, third, fourth, fifth and right on down the line."

When hired by the Rams, Kotal was scouting for the Green Bay Packers while employed as a "field man" for the government-run Office of Price Administration in Green Bay. Kotal had been retained by the Packers as a part-time scout in 1944 after serving as Curly Lambeau's backfield coach the previous two seasons. A product of what was then Lawrence College, Kotal also played halfback for Lambeau from 1925-29.

With the Rams, Kotal performed the groundbreaking legwork that produced some of the most fruitful drafts in league history. He became scouting's first nomad, spending all spring and fall on the road visiting college campuses.

Tex Schramm, who spent 10 years with the Rams and served as GM from 1952-57 (Christl & Langenkamp interview, circa late 1970s): "Eddie was the first fulltime scout in the National Football League. In those days it was unique to even have a one-man operation in scouting and he was both (head of personnel & the lone scout). … Eddie would go out and really travel. He was probably the first guy who was well known on all of the college campuses from actually having visited them representing a pro football team."

Red Hickey, assistant coach with the Rams from 1949-54 (Christl interview, Jan. 10, 1979): "(Kotal) had been in football all his life. He had played and coached. He loved it. He was a great detail man. He liked traveling. He'd leave LA at the beginning of the football season and wouldn't come back until football season was over."

Gillman, former college coach in the 1940s and early '50s (Christl interview, March 6, 1979): "(Kotal) was the first of those scouts who was on the road like a hound-dog, chasing people down. Everybody in the world knew Eddie Kotal. He'd stop into Cincinnati, and we didn't have any pro players. Our people were not that big. But he'd stop just to say hello and make damn sure we didn't have anybody."

In 1951, when the Rams won their first NFL championship in Los Angeles and second in franchise history, Kotal's handprint was all over their roster, which even more impressively, included mostly players unearthed in the hinterlands of college football.

Included were five rookie starters on the offensive line.

Dick Simensen, the left tackle, was signed as a free agent after playing at what was then the College of St. Thomas in Minnesota. Dick Daugherty, an 18th-round draft pick from Oregon, was the left guard. UCLA's Leon McLaughlin, who was drafted in the 19th round in 1947 as a future – the result of eligibility rules covering war-time servicemen – was the center. Bill Lange, the right guard, was drafted out of Dayton in the 30th round in 1950 and had his pro career delayed a year by an injury. Tom Dahms, a free agent rookie from San Diego State, was the right tackle.

In fact, there were 13 rookies in all on the Rams' 33-man roster and there would have been 14 if their No. 1 draft pick and the MVP of the 1951 College All-Stars, tackle Bud McFadin, hadn't been drafted into the Army.

Three other rookies started on the Rams' defensive line, including future Hall of Fame end Andy Robustelli, a 19th-round pick from tiny Arnold College in Milford, Conn. The two rookie tackles were Jim Winkler of Texas A&M, a third-round selection in 1949 who had his pro career delayed two years by Army duty and illness; and Jack Halliday, who had been drafted by the Baltimore Colts in 1950 and signed by the Rams when the Colts folded.

Robustelli (Christl interview, June 5, 1979): "I think I was drafted because of the punts I blocked. I think I had like 14 in my career. Lou DeFilipo (an assistant coach at Fordham) was living in New Haven and watching me constantly. I think he was supplying Kotal with the information."

Bert Rose, publicity director of the Rams in the 1950s (Christl interview, Jan. 18, 1979): "I think Andy was drafted in the 20th round and a lot of people didn't even know where Arnold College was much less who played for them."

Actually, the best of the Rams' rookie tackles was Charlie Toogood, their third-round choice in 1951. But he was limited by a knee injury for much of the season. Bobby Collier, yet another rookie drafted in the 18th round in 1950 as a future, served as a swing tackle on both offense and defense.

Two other rookies were key contributors in the secondary: Norb Hecker, a sixth-round selection from Baldwin-Wallace, and Marv Johnson, a free agent from San Jose State. In addition, safety Herb Rich was drafted by the Rams in the second round in '51 after playing with the Colts as a rookie and being placed back in the draft pool after they folded.

Three of the Rams' biggest offensive stars were future Hall of Famers – quarterback Bob Waterfield and receivers Elroy Hirsch and Tom Fears – who had been drafted while the team was still in Cleveland.

But close to 10 other starters or sometime starters were also uncovered by Kotal.

Among them was another future Hall of Fame quarterback, Norm Van Brocklin, a fourth-round pick in 1949 who shared duties with Waterfield. During the regular season, they had finished first and second in league passing and were voted the top two quarterbacks for the National Conference in the Pro Bowl.

In the NFL Championship Game, Waterfield played more snaps, but Van Brocklin threw the game-winning pass, a 73-yarder to Fears in the fourth quarter. Fears caught the ball 33 yards downfield and said after the game, "That pass was the most perfectly thrown ball I have ever caught."

Two other starters in the Rams' backfield and then for the National Conference in the Pro Bowl were 6-foot-2, 225-pound left halfback "Deacon Dan" Towler and 6-3, 225-pound right halfback Paul "Tank" Younger. Along with 6-2, 220-pound veteran fullback Dick Hoerner, they were known as the "Bull Elephant Backfield."

Kotal signed Younger as a free agent out of Grambling in 1949, while Towler played at Washington & Jefferson College and was the Rams' 25th-round choice in 1950. Indeed, Younger played both ways in 1951 and made the first-ever Associated Press two-platoon all-pro team as a linebacker.

Verda "Vitamin T" Smith, an alternate starter at right halfback and explosive kick returner, played at what was then Abilene Christian College and was signed as a free agent in 1949. Bob Boyd, who doubled as a safety and receiver, also signed as a free agent out of Loyola of Los Angeles in 1950.

On defense, end Larry Brink, a 17th-round draft choice in 1948 from Northern Illinois, was both an AP All-Pro and a Pro Bowl starter in 1951.

Other key starters for the Rams on defense included middle guard Stan West, who played at Oklahoma and was drafted in the first round in 1950; Don Paul, a Pro Bowl linebacker in '51 who had played at UCLA and was drafted in the third round in 1947; and defensive halfback Woodley Lewis, an eighth-round choice in 1950 from Oregon, who intercepted 12 passes as a rookie and three more in '51. Tom Keane, who played at West Virginia and was a third-round selection in 1948, doubled as a sometime starter at defensive back and end.

Bucko Kilroy, NFL lineman from 1943-55 and then longtime NFL scout and executive (Christl interview, Jan. 11, 1979): "(The Rams) had more personnel in 1950-51 than the rest of the league put together. They had so many guys they let go who wound up on all-star teams. Everybody uses Robustelli as an example; you could use lots more than Robustelli."

Bears coach George Halas (Los Angeles Times, July 16, 1951): "The Rams have the finest personnel of any football team in the country."

Jack Butler, rookie defensive back for Pittsburgh in 1951 and future head of the BLESTO scouting combine (Christl interview, Jan. 10, 1979): "At Washington & Jefferson, which was only 30 miles outside of Pittsburgh, they got 'Deacon Dan' Towler. I don't even know if Pittsburgh knew he existed. (Kotal) scouted Grambling College. Whoever heard of Grambling College in the '50s? They came up with Tank Younger. They did this in the '50s. Nobody else did it."

Younger (Christl interview, Jan. 10, 1979): "I talked to Eddie (Kotal) at one of our games late in the fall of 1947, I guess it was. Then I talked to him again when we played in Birmingham, Ala., at a Black bowl game called the Vulcan Bowl on the first of January 1948."

Eddie Robinson, winner of 408 games in 55 seasons as Grambling's coach, on Kotal's impact on the Historical Black College football programs (Christl interview, March 19, 1979): "He kind of bird-dogged us at the end of the season and the Vulcan Bowl. He signed Tank, and guys came back and started looking at other players. The problem in the early years was that the pros felt players from Black schools were not well versed in fundamentals."

Rose (Christl interview, Jan. 18, 1979): "(The Rams) were so confident nobody knew about Tank Younger, they just signed him as a free agent."

Kotal tapped into talent everywhere

So thorough was the Rams' scouting operation that in the years ahead, they continued to find players not only at the previously ignored Black colleges and other small schools but also on service teams and in other sports.

Their free agent signings included defensive halfback Dick Lane in 1952; defensive tackle Gene Lipscomb in 1953; and fullback Tom Wilson in 1956. None of them had gone to a four-year college.

Lane played for what was then Scottsbluff Junior College in Nebraska in 1947 followed by three years of service ball for Fort Ord in California. Lipscomb, a product of Miller High School in Detroit, played two years for the Camp Pendleton Marines, including 1953 before signing with the Rams for the final two games.

After playing in the same backfield as future Milwaukee Brave Wes Covington at Hillsdale High in Durham, N.C., Wilson played a combined three seasons at both Pope Air Force Base in North Carolina and Shaw Air Force Base in South Carolina.

Lane, who was given the nickname "Night Train" with the Rams, intercepted 14 passes as a rookie and finished his Hall of Fame career with 68.

Lipscomb, who was christened "Big Daddy" while with the Rams, stood 6-foot-6, 280 pounds. Fast and agile enough to have been given a look at offensive end his first season, Lipscomb soon found a home at defensive tackle, where he was an AP All-Pro pick and Pro Bowl choice with the Baltimore Colts when they won back-to-back NFL titles in 1958 and '59.

"Touchdown Tommy" Wilson, who got his nickname in service ball, broke the NFL's single-game rushing record as a rookie with 223 yards on 23 carries. In all, Wilson played eight seasons, six with the Rams.

Before the Dallas Cowboys were even born and hailed for signing track star Bob Hayes and former Utah State basketball standout Cornell Green, the Rams were the first to look for prospects in other sports.

Boyd, a starting safety for the 1951 Rams and later a Pro Bowl offensive end, won the 100-yard dash in the 1950 NCAA Track & Field championships with a time of 9.8 seconds.

In the 30th round in 1955, the Rams drafted K.C. Jones, a future Naismith Basketball Hall of Famer and teammate of Bill Russell at the University of San Francisco and with the Boston Celtics; and in the 28th round in 1959, they selected UCLA's Rafer Johnson, Olympic gold medalist in the decathlon in the 1960.

Jack Faulkner, defensive backs coach for the Rams from 1955-59 and future head coach with Denver (Christl interview, March 6, 1979): "(Jones) was the first guy to do bump-and-run as they talk about today. He did it on his own. He walked out of camp and I went and got him back. He walked out a second time and Sid (Gillman) never brought him back. But I'll tell you he could have been a great defensive back."

Faulkner on Dallas' Gil Brandt taking credit in the 1960s for being the first to scout and sign players from other sports (Christl interview, March 6, 1979): "He's full of sh--."

The wellspring never dried up on Kotal's watch

When Reeves regained control of the Rams in 1963 following a bitter ownership battle, he reduced Kotal's role in scouting. But until then, Kotal not only stockpiled his own team but others across the league.

Among his finds were defensive lineman John Baker of North Carolina Central, a fifth-round pick in 1958; and six-time Pro Bowl defensive back Eddie Meador of Arkansas Tech, a seventh-round choice in 1959.

Future Pro Football Hall of Fame defensive end Deacon Jones, who had played one season at what was then Mississippi Vocational College after an earlier one-year stay at South Carolina State, was chosen in the 14th round in 1961.

Two 15-year starters in the offensive line, Charlie Cowan of New Mexico Highlands and Joe Scibelli of American International in Springfield, Mass., were selected in the fourth and 10th rounds, respectively, in 1961.

Hamp Pool, backfield coach of the Rams from 1950-51 and head coach from 1952-54 (Christl interview, May 19, 1979): "Kotal was very high on Deacon Jones. I don't think we had any other information on Deacon Jones other than what Eddie brought back."

While Kotal and the Rams made mistakes on players like everyone else, it was usually offset by the volume of their draft-day hits.

Guard Duane Putnam of the College of Pacific, a sixth-round pick in 1952, represented them in five Pro Bowls. Offensive end Red Phillips, their first-round choice in 1958, played in three Pro Bowls during his seven seasons in LA. College of Pacific fullback Dick Bass, drafted with the second overall selection as a future in 1959, played 10 years and made three Pro Bowls.

The Rams' selections in 1957 included halfback Jon Arnett, their first-round choice and a five-time Pro Bowl pick in his seven seasons in LA; second-round choice Jack Pardee, a starter at linebacker for most of his 13 seasons with the Rams; and defensive end Lamar Lundy, a fourth-round selection and another 13-year starter.

As late as 1962, the Rams owned two No. 1 picks and hit the jackpot twice with future Hall of Fame defensive tackle Merlin Olsen who was taken third; and quarterback Roman Gabriel, who was drafted one choice earlier. Gabriel played 16 seasons, 11 with the Rams, including 1969 when he was named the NFL's MVP by the AP.

The thoroughness of the Rams' draft preparation inspired awe across the league.

Herman Ball, NFL coach and scout from the mid-1940s until the late 1960s (Christl interview, Nov. 5, 1978): "The first year (the Rams) came to the draft with a trunk full of books everybody was astounded. Everybody else had maybe a notebook or two."

Vic Lindskog, assistant coach with Philadelphia, 1952-54, and the Rams, 1960-62 (Christl & Langenkamp interview, circa late 1970s): "When I was coaching for the Eagles, we had one or two books on players, newspapers, all that jazz. The Rams came in there with carloads of books and stuff."

Ray Geraci, who worked on the Chicago Cardinals' draft for much of the 1950s (Christl & Langenkamp interview, circa early 1980s): "The Rams made all of us look like we came from the boonies. They were the manual computers of their day. The books they brought out of those trunks was overwhelming. And the data and statistics. We had a sheet on every kid we knew about that was playing college football … but no way did we resemble the data that was compiled by the Rams."

So why didn't the Rams win more championships?

If there ever was a case of a team having too much talent, the Rams of that era would be the prime example, maybe the only example ever.

They were usually contenders from 1952-58, losing a playoff game in '52 and the NFL title game in 1955, but their divided ownership and frequent coaching changes finally caught up with them by 1959. However, the primary reason for them not having more success was the constant turnover on their roster. In short, a high percentage of their choices and rookie free agents enjoyed their best seasons elsewhere.

Heading that list would be Lane, who played two years with the Rams and then 12 with the Cardinals and Detroit; and Robustelli, who played five years with the Rams but then nine with the Giants.

In addition to Van Brocklin, who won a second NFL title with Philadelphia in 1960, the Rams drafted three other quarterbacks who led other teams to championships. Bill Wade, the Rams' bonus pick in 1952, and Rudy Bukich, their second-round choice in 1953, shared the duties when the Bears won it in 1963; and Frank Ryan, fifth-round choice in 1958, was Cleveland's quarterback when it won it all in 1964.

Here were others uncovered by the Rams who played significant roles on other championship teams.

Defensive halfback Jesse Whittenton (fifth round, 1956) played two years with the Rams before becoming a starter and two-time Pro Bowl pick with Green Bay when it won its first two NFL championships under Vince Lombardi; and offensive end Carroll Dale (eighth round, 1960), who played five seasons with the Rams before emerging as a big-play receiver for the Lombardi teams that won three straight titles from 1965-67.

Outside linebacker Larry Morris (first round, 1955) and fullback Joe Marconi (first round, 1956) started for the Bears when they won the 1963 crown after spending their first three and six years, respectively, with the Rams. Morris was AP second-team all-pro, and Marconi made the Pro Bowl that year.

Center John Morrow (second round, 1956) played three years with the Rams before becoming a two-time Pro Bowl center and starter on Cleveland's 1964 NFL champs. Don Burroughs, former star quarterback at what was then Colorado A&M, signed with the Rams as a rookie free agent in 1955, played five years at safety and was traded to Philadelphia, where in his first season he led the Eagles with nine interceptions when they won the 1960 NFL title.

Among receivers, Del Shofner (first round, 1957) played four years with Rams before being traded to the Giants, where he made AP All-Pro and was named to the Pro Bowl after each of his first four seasons. Jimmy Orr (25th round as a future, 1957) was traded by the Rams at the end of his first training camp in 1958 along with second-year defensive tackle Billy Ray Smith for a future draft choice. Both wound up playing 13 seasons. In fact, Orr, as a rookie with Pittsburgh, was named to AP's second all-pro team.

Two of the best kickers in the NFL from 1953-78, Sam Baker (11th-round as a future, 1952) and Jim Bakken (seventh round, 1962), were drafted by the Rams but never played for them. Baker was traded to Washington before his rookie season in 1953 and kicked in the NFL for 15 years, while Bakken was claimed on waivers by the St. Louis Cardinals as a rookie and kicked for 17 years.

The list doesn't end there. At least eight other players were drafted by the Rams in the 1950s and made a Pro Bowl with another NFL team.

Schramm ("A Conversation with Tex Schramm," Pro!, Oct. 26, 1975): "We had the best players in the league, and we should have won the world championship every year. But we didn't. We won it only once, and I never could understand why. … One of the things I learned was that we were getting so many good athletes we were almost totally ignoring the value of experience. … We were getting a lot of talent and we were continually upgrading it, but we were never letting it reach maturity."

Pool (Christl interview, May 19, 1979): "I have the feeling looking back on it that there were a lot of mistakes made assessing talent. And that's the most serious mistake that can be made in professional football. We were not assessing our talent as well as we should."

Gillman (Christl interview, March 6, 1979): "We had too many people. We had too many draft choices. We were looking at too many people and not spending enough time to settle down and start coaching them."

Los Angeles Times sports columnist Jim Murray (Dec. 16, 1961): "The first thing to understand about the Los Angeles Rams is that it is not so much a football team as a traveling schizophrenia ward."

Korean War draft influences NFL Draft

With the start of the Korean War in June 1950, yet another Selective Service Act led to mass numbers of men ages 18 to 35 being called into service for enlistment periods averaging two years.

Thus, in the early 1950s, NFL teams focused on selecting married players with children, those classified as 4-F for being unfit for service due to physical and other reasons, and servicemen discharged following World War II who weren't obligated to re-enlist.

In 1951, seven of the 12 first-round choices fell into one of those categories, including the New York Giants' bonus pick Kyle Rote, a halfback from Southern Methodist.

Cleveland coach Paul Brown (New York Daily News, Jan. 20, 1951): "This is probably the skimpiest draft in pro football history."