1955 NFL Draft: Oral history – End of around-the-clock, marathon drafts

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.

1955

The 20th NFL Draft was held at the Warwick Hotel in New York City. It started on Jan. 27, 1955, and ran into the early morning hours of Jan. 28. The selection process, which started at 10:10 a.m. on the 27th, was adjourned at 6:30 p.m. and resumed at 8 p.m. The last pick was made at 2:15 a.m. on the 28th. Not counting the break for dinner, the selections took 14 hours, 35 minutes to complete.

The league's 12 teams drafted a total of 360 players over 30 rounds.

Four days prior to the draft, NFL Commissioner Bert Bell had met with representatives of the Canadian Football League, hoping to make peace and end the bidding wars for players that had escalated over the previous four years. NFL teams had lost more than a handful of first-round picks to the CFL during that period, including tackle Bob Gain, who was selected by Green Bay in 1951.

Held in a technical age when black-and-white television sets and long-distance phone calls that no longer required an operator's assistance were still a novelty, the marathon drafts of the early 1950s left a lasting afterglow with the participants.

They were conducted by Bell in hotel ballrooms where team representatives sat within earshot of each other; and where laughter and camaraderie were welcome as some teams continued to take a slapdash approach to the draft. Even the sportswriters covering the draft were allowed to sit in the ballroom starting in 1954.

But what some would come to remember as the draft's good old days were about to become extinct.

Starting in 1956 and for the following three years, the draft would be conducted over two different time frames. The early rounds were held late in the regular season and the remaining ones at the league's annual meeting in late January.

In 1960, the NFL Draft would be reduced to 20 rounds – it had covered 30 rounds since 1943 – and share the spotlight with the upstart American Football League's draft.

Then starting with the 1964 draft, five of the NFL's 14 teams made their picks from their home bases and called them into the draft-day headquarters.

As a result, 1955 marked the last of the around-the-clock, 30-round drafts.

New York Giants owner Wellington Mara on those early 1950s drafts (Christl interview, Jan. 10, 1979): "It was very informal and a very colorful setting. You'd be in a big ballroom and everyone would have their own table. Bert Bell used to really enjoy the draft. Late at night around 11 or 12 o'clock, Bert would have his tie off, his shirt unbuttoned and his false teeth out, and he would just get a big kick when someone would name a player from a small school. He'd say, 'That's my kind. I used to have them for $125 a game.' He would laugh and have a lot of fun."

Pittsburgh owner Art Rooney Sr. (Christl & Don Langenkamp interview, Nov. 3, 1978): "I think I used to visit every table in the place while they were drafting. You were there all day and all night. (Fellow owners) were happy to see some new face, and they knew I didn't pay any attention to the draft. And I wasn't the only one. Everybody would get up and walk around and talk."

Ray Geraci, who coordinated the Chicago Cardinals' drafts in the 1950s (Christl & Langenkamp interview, circa early 1980s): "Oh, it was fabulous. You had all the owners and general managers in one room, along with personnel people and coaches. Everybody had their own table. You had all your information spread over it. You rarely spoke to anyone from another table. It was very secretive, and you kept your information covered up."

Herman Ball, longtime coach and scout with Washington on team owner George Preston Marshall (Christl interview, circa late 1970s): "Except when his choice was coming up, he was fluttering around like a darn kitten after a mouse. He always wanted to run around and talk to somebody. … Bert Bell used to holler at him, 'George, would you please sit down.' He'd say, 'Commissioner, I just wanted to say something to' so-and-so. Then he'd go and sit down for a while. But he had ants in his pants."

Bill Bidwill, son of Cardinals owner Charles Bidwill, who had purchased the team in 1932, on Marshall: (Christl interview, Aug. 19, 1978): "George never walked into a room. He entered, like going onto a stage. He was a very dramatic person."

Cleveland Browns coach Paul Brown (Christl interview, May 10, 1979): "It was a pretty smoked-filled room."

Ed Kiely, Steelers public relations director from 1946-89 (Christl & Langenkamp interview, Nov. 3, 1978): "The thing was to get it over. They didn't make you race to get it over. There was no time limit (on the picks). But there was no way to get these people together again. People forget, you had to watch your budget. You couldn't just say we'll call this off and next week come back to the same hotel. Many times, you'd rent the hotel room for a certain length of time, and the manager would come down and say, 'You better move along now.' We need to get this room back. We have it for somebody else. There were practical things involved."

When the Steelers' future was in the hands of an undertaker

As the 1950s unfolded and other teams were investing more money and time on the draft, Pittsburgh remained one of the laggards.

The Steelers' bottom line was the proof. Over the first 20 drafts from 1936-55, they traded their first-round pick twice; eight of their No. 1s never played for them; and five others played two seasons or less.

Prior to hiring Jock Sutherland as their head coach in 1946, the Steelers' previous coaches would meet with owner Art Rooney the day before they departed for the draft, according to a 1947 Pittsburgh Press story, and compile a list of up to 30 college players they remembered reading about during the past season.

That was basically the extent of Pittsburgh's draft preparation.

Sutherland, who had registered a 111-20-12 record as coach at the University of Pittsburgh from 1924-38, was hired too late to do much of any preparation for the 1946 draft.

But in the summer before Sutherland's second and final season – he died of a malignant brain tumor in April 1948 at age 59 – he assigned the task of gathering information on a list of draft prospects to Pat Livingston, the team's public relations director.

Their teamwork lasted one draft. Livingston quit over a disagreement between the two, four months before Sutherland's death. Soon thereafter, Livingston began a 35-year career as a sportswriter with the Pittsburgh Press.

Livingston (Pittsburgh Press, April 23, 1989): "The Steelers had absolutely no players and no idea what players looked like. Jock Sutherland came in, the first real coach they ever had, and he was so totally fed up with the players in camp, he said, 'Pat, how would you like to be a scout?' I said, 'I never coached or played. I can't be a scout.' He said, 'You've seen a lot of football. If they look like players, make a report. I'm not going through another year like this.'"

Sutherland on the day before his second draft (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Dec. 14, 1946): "The other teams in our league are so far advanced in their draft and farm systems, that it's going to take some time for us to catch up with them. We've had to build from the ground up, and our prospects of drawing anyone worthwhile from the draft this year are not even as good as last when we selected (Doc) Blanchard (who never played pro ball)."

In short, following Livingston's departure and a little more than two months before his death, Sutherland hired Ray Byrne for the same job. In breaking the news to his readers, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette sports columnist Al Abrams wrote: "Ray Byrne … is an undertaker when he isn't digging up grid records more than a hundred years old."

From 1949-55, Byrne, who stood 5-foot-7 and weighed 120 pounds, gathered the information on prospects that the Steelers coaches used to make their picks. At the same time, he was making his living as a mortician at his family's Byrne Funeral Home in the Pittsburgh neighborhood of Highland Park.

Kiely on Byrne (Christl & Langenkamp interview, Nov. 3, 1978): "He was a statistician and historian, who this was kind of an avocation to. He was an undertaker by vocation. But he was good. He collected all the information and got it to the coaches."

Byrne on how he gathered his information on players without scouting games (Christl & Langenkamp interview, Jan. 18, 1979): "I found in those days, your best check was not so much coaches for recommendations – opposing coaches, yes; but not coaches of their own players – but rather the bars and local newsstands because people in town knew who the good players were. I'd go in buy a drink, introduce myself: 'I'm Ray Byrne from the Steelers and I'd like to ask a few questions about ballplayers.' Just start gabbing. They'd say, 'nothing here' (pointing to the heart), 'forget it.' As I would say, 'You get more information on the sawdust circuit than you'll ever get in the plaza.'"

In 1955, the Steelers drafted tackle Frank Varrichione (6-1, 234) of Notre Dame with the sixth overall pick, and he made the Pro Bowl four times in his six seasons with them and once with the Rams in his final five seasons.

But the plum of their draft was a quarterback taken in the ninth round who like so many other Steelers selections back then never played a down for them. His name: Johnny Unitas (6-1, 195) of Louisville.

Byrne claimed he was the one who learned of Unitas through a tip and pushed Steelers coach Walt Kiesling to draft him. Dan Rooney, who would later replace his dad as team president, wrote that he and Byrne were managing the draft together and both agreed to place Unitas' name on the team's priority list.

Dan Rooney (Dan Rooney: My 75 Years With the Pittsburgh Steelers and the NFL, as told to Andrew Masich & David Halaas, 2007): "By the ninth round, Johnny still hadn't been selected, so I told Ray Byrne, 'We gotta get this guy now 'cause we don't want him playing against us.' Kiesling thought we were nuts."

Byrne (Jan. 18, 1979 interview): "I drafted Unitas. He comes into training camp and Kiesling comes to me and says, 'Cut Unitas.' 'Kies, please, please, do me a favor, you've got the greatest throwing arm that ever came into a Steeler camp.' He said, 'He's dumb.'"

One of four quarterbacks at the start of camp, including veterans Jim Finks and Ted Marchibroda, Unitas was cut by the Steelers after the fourth of six exhibition games.

Whereas Unitas didn't see action in any of the four games, including a 60-14 drubbing at the hands of San Francisco, fellow rookie quarterback Vic Eaton played in three of them. Drafted in the 11th round, after Unitas, Eaton made a favorable appearance in the opener but then was 2-of-7 with three interceptions against the 49ers and 0-for-1 with another interception against Green Bay.

After being released, Unitas played that year for the semipro Bloomfield Rams. In February 1956, he signed with the Baltimore Colts as a free agent and replaced an injured George Shaw as the starter in the sixth game. Shaw, the No. 1 overall pick in the 1955 draft, never got his job back as Unitas led the Colts to back-to-back NFL championships in 1958 and '59.

Washington's fascination with QBs

If the Steelers had a companion in futility in terms of the draft in the 1950s, it would have been Washington.

Washington's No. 1 draft pick and the fourth overall in 1955 was Ralph Guglielmi of Notre Dame. It marked the third time in four years that it selected a quarterback in the first round. Previously, they took Larry Isbell (6-2, 180) of Baylor in 1952 and Jack Scarbath (6-2, 200) of Maryland in 1953.

Whether quarterback was even a need for Washington was debatable.

On one hand, the great Sammy Baugh had retired after the 1952 season. On the other hand, it had drafted Eddie LeBaron, a 5-9, 168-pound quarterback from the College of Pacific, in the 10th round in 1950; and two years later, in his first pro season, he finished sixth in the NFL in passing.

LeBaron missed the 1950 and '51 seasons while serving with the Marines during the Korean War. But after receiving most of the playing time in Baugh's final season, he appeared to be Washington's answer at quarterback.

LeBaron replaced Baugh in 1953, but then jumped to Calgary of the CFL for a season. He returned to Washington in 1955 and was the starting quarterback for most of the next five seasons, earning Pro Bowl honors after three of them.

Isbell, younger brother of former Green Bay Packers star Cecil Isbell, signed with the Boston Red Sox after being drafted by Washington and played two years of baseball at the Triple-A level. When he decided to switch to football in 1954, he signed with Saskatchewan of the CFL and played five years. Scarbath lasted only three years in the NFL, two in Washington.

Guglielmi (6-0, 185) had been a three-year starter at Notre Dame, leading the Irish to a 25-3-2 record and finishing fourth in Heisman Trophy voting as a senior. With Washington, he played four years – missing the 1956 and '57 seasons while in the Air Force – and was 5-13-3 in his 21 starts before bouncing around with three other teams in his final three seasons.

Tim Temerario, an NFL assistant coach at the end of Baugh's career and later Washington's longtime director of pro personnel (Christl interview, circa early 1980s): "(Marshall) drafted Sammy Baugh. So he thought he knew more about the quarterback position than any other position on the team. And he was always thinking, the next quarterback he took was going to be the big guy who was going to get the job done."

George Dickson, assistant coach at Notre Dame when Guglielmi was a junior and an assistant in Washington under Vince Lombardi in 1969 (Christl interview, circa early 1980s): "(Guglielmi) was one of the best ever split-T (triple option) quarterbacks. He was a hell of a leader, tough, competitive as hell. He had it all as a college quarterback. Maybe under a guy like Lombardi he would have blossomed."

Washington head coach Bill McPeak, when Guglielmi was traded at the end of camp in 1961 (Christl interview, circa early 1980s): "On a scale of 1-to-10, I'd say (Guglielmi) was a 6 passer."

Ball, Washington's head coach when LeBaron was drafted, top scout when Isbell was drafted and assistant coach to Curly Lambeau when Scarbath was drafted (Christl interview, circa late 1970s): "Lambeau wanted Scarbath. Eddie LeBaron was coming along, but Eddie was not big enough to suit Curly. He wanted Scarbath. (Scarbath) was a sort of happy-go-lucky guy."

Alan "The Horse" Ameche: The next Bronko Nagurski?

After winning the Heisman Trophy as a senior at Wisconsin, fullback Alan Ameche was the third overall pick in 1955. With his rare combination of size (6-0, 212) and speed, a 10.2 time in the 100-yard dash, Ameche appeared destined to become one of pro football's all-time greats.

UCLA coach Red Sanders (Collier's 65th All-America team, Dec. 10, 1954): "That Ameche is the strongest runner in football history, not excepting Bronko Nagurski."

Wisconsin coach Ivy Williamson (Associated Press, Dec. 11, 1954): "(Ameche's) a halfback-type fullback. He's got speed with that running power. His peculiar running style of swaying is what led to his nickname 'The Horse.' They used to have a saying at Madison: 'Swing and sway with Ah-mechay.'"

As a rookie, Ameche led the NFL in rushing with 961 yards, averaging 4.5 per carry, and was named the Associated Press All-Pro fullback. In fact, he finished among the top five rushers in each of his first five seasons and was named to the Pro Bowl after the first four.

He also scored the winning touchdown in the 1958 NFL Championship Game as the Colts beat the New York Giants, 23-17, in the first sudden-death overtime in league history and what was branded, "The Greatest Game Ever Played."

In 1960, Ameche tore his Achilles tendon in his right foot in the second-to-last regular-season game and it ended his career.

Draftniks of the day

Who was the first draftnik?

There's no for-sure answer.

Would Wellington Mara, then a 19-year-old college student who as the son of an NFL owner compiled the list of prospects for NFL teams in the first draft, count? What about Frank Korch, the sportswriter who based on his All-America selections assisted George Halas in the early days of the draft? Or Ray Byrne, the undertaker hired by the Steelers in the late 1940s to coordinate their drafts?

If not them, what about the Sullivan brothers, Jack and Joe, of Milwaukee?

They, at least, might have been the first to independently compile their own list of prospects, predict the order of the selections and have the information published in a major daily newspaper.

Starting in 1953, sports editor Lloyd Larson of the Milwaukee Sentinel wrote a pre-draft column on the Sullivans' hobby and their predictions for that year's draft. The Sullivans had started compiling their lists seven years earlier.

In 1953, the Sullivans predicted one of three players would be the bonus choice: Scarbath, fullback Johnny Olszewski of California or halfback Billy Vessels of Oklahoma.

They were wrong. San Francisco won the lottery and took Georgia end Harry Babcock, who turned out to be a bust. He played three seasons for the 49ers, never started a game and caught a total of 16 passes. But Vessels, Scarbath and Olszewski were drafted second, third and fourth, respectively.

Because the exact order of those drafts wasn't set until the draw for the bonus choice and the coin flips to break ties on draft day, the Sullivans simply predicted 12 players for each of the first three rounds.

In 1954, the Sullivans correctly tabbed Stanford quarterback Bobby Garrett as the bonus pick, and also seven of the 12 first-round choices that followed. Their prediction for 1955 was that Guglielmi or Ameche would be the bonus choice, depending on which team won the draw.

Joe Sullivan (Christl interview, April 2001): "At that time, there was Street & Smith and a few college magazines that had the players in them, and we'd look everywhere we could. I think what got us started was some of the players the Bears took from places like St. Anselm, that was Ray McLean, and Kalamazoo State, that was Ray Bray, and a first-round draft choice from Hardin-Simmons, Bulldog Turner. We wondered how in the world they found those players at colleges we never even heard of. So we decided we'd like to know before the draft who they were going to draft. And that was how we got started."

The Sullivans shared their lists and even offered occasional advice on the draft to both the Chicago Bears and Green Bay Packers in the 1950s and early 1960s.

Eventually, Joe landed a job in the NFL in 1966, working as a special assistant for newly hired Los Angeles Rams coach George Allen. When Allen took over in Washington in 1971, he took Sullivan with him. From 1973-79, Sullivan essentially functioned as general manager of the St. Louis Cardinals, although he wasn't given the title.

His brother, Jack, who was four years older, remained in the trucking business in Milwaukee.