View source for George Ratterman

{{Short description|American football player (1926–2007)}}
{{Distinguish|Georgie Ratterman}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=June 2024}}
{{Infobox NFL biography
| name        = George Ratterman
| image       = GeorgeRatterman1952Bowman.jpg 
| caption     = Ratterman, {{circa}} 1952
| number      = 61, 25, 71, 16
| position    = [[Quarterback]]
| birth_date  = {{Birth date|1926|11|12}}
| birth_place = [[Cincinnati, Ohio]], U.S.
| death_date  = {{Death date and age|2007|11|03|1926|11|12}}
| death_place = [[Centennial, Colorado]], U.S.
| height_ft   = 6
| height_in   = 0
| weight_lb   = 182
| high_school = [[St. Xavier High School (Cincinnati)|St. Xavier]] <br> (Cincinnati, Ohio)
| college     = [[Notre Dame Fighting Irish football|Notre Dame]]
| draftyear   = 1948
| draftround  = 16
| draftpick   = 139
| pastteams   =
* [[Buffalo Bills (AAFC)|Buffalo Bills]] (1947-1949)
* [[New York Yanks]] ({{NFL Year|1950|1951}})
* [[Montreal Alouettes]] ([[1951 in Canadian football|1951]])
* [[Cleveland Browns]] ({{NFL Year|1952|1956}})
| highlights  =
* 2× [[List of NFL champions (1920–1969)|NFL champion]] ([[1954 NFL Championship Game|1954]], [[1955 NFL Championship Game|1955]])
* [[List of AAFC annual statistics leaders#Pass completion percentage|AAFC completion percentage leader]] (1949)
* [[College football national championships in NCAA Division I FBS|National champion]] ([[1946 Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team|1946]])
| statleague  = AAFC/NFL
| statlabel1  = Passing attempts
| statvalue1  = 1,396
| statlabel2  = Passing completions
| statvalue2  = 737
| statlabel3  = Completion percentage
| statvalue3  = 52.8%
| statlabel4  = [[Touchdown|TD]]–[[Interception|INT]]
| statvalue4  = 91–96
| statlabel5  = Passing yards
| statvalue5  = 10,473
| statlabel6  = [[Passer rating]]
| statvalue6  = 70.4
| statlabel7  = Rushing yards
| statvalue7  = 49
| statlabel8  = Rushing touchdowns
| statvalue8  = 14
| pfr         = RattGe00 
}}

'''George William Ratterman''' (November 12, 1926 – November 3, 2007) was an American professional [[American football|football]] [[quarterback]] who played in the [[All-America Football Conference]] (AAFC) and the [[National Football League]] (NFL).

==Early life==
He was born in [[Cincinnati]], Ohio, where he graduated from [[St. Xavier High School (Cincinnati)|St. Xavier High School]] in 1944.<ref name="HOF">{{cite web|title=Welcome to the St. Xavier Athletic Hall of Fame |publisher=St. Xavier High School |access-date=2007-02-08 |url=http://www.stxavier.org/s/106/stxavier.aspx?pgid=764 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071028154245/http://www.stxavier.org/s/106/stxavier.aspx?pgid=764 |archive-date=October 28, 2007 }}</ref> He played [[college football]] at the [[University of Notre Dame]] from 1944 through 1946, primarily as a backup to [[quarterbacks]] [[Frank Dancewicz]] and [[Johnny Lujack]].  He was the last of only four students in Notre Dame history to earn letters in four different sports (football, basketball, baseball, tennis).  Legendary football coach [[Frank Leahy]] called him "the greatest all-around athlete in the history of Notre Dame."

==Professional football career==
He played professional football with the [[Buffalo Bills (AAFC)|Buffalo Bills]] of the AAFC from 1947 to 1949, when the league merged with the NFL.  In his first year, 1947, at the age of 20, Ratterman threw 22 touchdown passes, setting a professional football rookie record that stood for more than fifty years until broken by [[Peyton Manning]] in 1998.  He continued his career with the [[New York Yanks]] of the NFL in 1950 and 1951, the [[Montreal Alouettes]] of the [[Canadian Football League]] in 1951 and finished with the [[Cleveland Browns]] of the NFL from [[1952 NFL season|1952]] through [[1956 NFL season|1956]].  He led the NFL in TD passes in 1950 while playing for New York.  In [[1956 NFL season|1956]], he became the Browns' starting quarterback, succeeding [[Otto Graham]], and was first player in the history of football to wear a radio receiver in his helmet, which allowed Cleveland Coach [[Paul Brown]] to call plays using a microphone instead of sending in messenger players for each play.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.espn.com/espn/feature/story/_/id/27177977/11-weird-wonderful-treasures-pro-football-hall-fame|title=Treasures Of Football's Past}}</ref> Ratterman was [[Sports Illustrated cover jinx|featured on the cover]] of ''[[Sports Illustrated]]'', October 8, 1956.  A leg injury on October 21, 1956, ended his football career.

==Post-playing career activities==

===General counsel for the American Football League Players Association===
He earned his law degree in 1956 and was admitted to practice in Ohio and Kentucky.  He acted as general counsel for the American Football League Players Association in the mid-1960s, when [[Jack Kemp]] was the president of the union.

===Sheriff of Campbell County===
Ratterman was elected sheriff of [[Campbell County, Kentucky]], in 1961 after an irregular campaign season during which Ratterman was drugged with [[chloral hydrate]] and put in bed with a [[stripper]] as part of a failed blackmail attempt. The publicity from the botched frame-up attempt catapulted him and his party to victory in the election.

Ratterman's tenure as sheriff was marked by a dramatic diminishment of gambling, prostitution and vice businesses that had dominated [[Newport, Kentucky|Newport]] since the [[U.S. Civil War|Civil War]]. Ratterman's co-ordination with federal agents and his personal relationship with Attorney General [[Robert F. Kennedy]] have been credited.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.si.com/vault/2004/08/30/8184327/george-ratterman-quarterback|title=George Ratterman, Quarterback|last=Woo|first=Andrea|work=SI.com|access-date=2017-08-11|archive-date=August 11, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170811222352/https://www.si.com/vault/2004/08/30/8184327/george-ratterman-quarterback|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.wcpo.com/news/local-news/campbell-county/newport/interactive-the-rise-and-fall-of-sin-city|title=Then and Now interactive: The rise and fall of Newport's 'Sin City'|last=Alter|first=Maxim|date=2015-01-02|website=WCPO|access-date=2017-08-11|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181210124610/https://www.wcpo.com/news/local-news/campbell-county/newport/interactive-the-rise-and-fall-of-sin-city|archive-date=2018-12-10|url-status=dead}}</ref>

He was an unsuccessful candidate for county judge{{cn|date=November 2024}} and [[United States Congress]] in the 1960s. He finished third in the [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] [[primary election|primary]] for [[Kentucky's 4th congressional district]] behind [[Gene Snyder]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Our Campaigns - KY District 4 - R Primary Race - May 24, 1966 |url=https://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=757525 |website=www.ourcampaigns.com |access-date=28 November 2024}}</ref>

===''Confessions of a Gypsy Quarterback''===
He is the author of a book, ''Confessions of a Gypsy Quarterback'', Coward-McCann, 1962, containing hilarious anecdotes of his experiences and hijinks in professional football.  In the foreword, [[Pro Football Hall of Fame]] quarterback [[Otto Graham]] says Ratterman was the "best natural clown and comic I ever saw in professional football." Once, while playing in a game for the Browns, Ratterman received a play call made by, then coach, [[Paul Brown]]'s messenger guard system. Ratterman told the guard to "go back and get another one" as he did not like the play. The guard, a rookie named [[Joe Skibinski]], obediently turned to run back to the bench and Coach Brown before Ratterman and other players stopped him.

===Broadcasting career===
He worked as a color commentator on TV and radio broadcasts of [[American Football League|AFL]] and NFL football games for [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC-TV]] (1960–1964) and [[NFL on NBC|NBC-TV]] (1965–1973).  He was frequently paired with [[Jack Buck]] and [[Charlie Jones (sportscaster)|Charlie Jones]] on broadcast teams.  He had the distinction of providing color analysis to Jim Simpson's play-by-play of Super Bowl I on Sunday, January 15, 1967, for the NBC Radio Network.  During half-time of the first NFL-AFL Championship Game at the Los Angeles Coliseum, Ratterman interviewed Dallas Cowboys quarterback Don Meredith and San Diego Chargers wide receiver Lance Alworth about their thoughts on the game's first half.

==Death==
Ratterman died in [[Centennial, Colorado|Centennial]], [[Colorado]], on November 3, 2007, from complications of [[Alzheimer's disease]].<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/10/sports/football/10ratterman.html?_r=0 | title=George Ratterman, Football Star and Sheriff, Dies at 80 | newspaper=[[The New York Times]] | date=November 10, 2007 | access-date=29 June 2014 | author=Goldstein, Richard}}</ref>  He and his wife of 59 years, Anne, had ten children.

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* ''databaseFootball:'' {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20070207105124/http://www.databasefootball.com/players/playerpage.htm?ilkid=RATTEGEO01 George Ratterman]}}
* ''Professional Football Researchers Association:'' [http://www.footballresearch.com/articles/frpage.cfm?topic=ratt-man Mini-Bio: George Ratterman] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060319232742/http://www.footballresearch.com/articles/frpage.cfm?topic=ratt-man |date=2006-03-19 }}

{{1946 Notre Dame Fighting Irish football navbox}}
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{{1954 Cleveland Browns}}
{{1955 Cleveland Browns}}
{{NFL passing touchdown leaders}}
{{NFL on NBC Radio}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Ratterman, George}}
[[Category:1926 births]]
[[Category:2007 deaths]]
[[Category:Players of American football from Cincinnati]]
[[Category:American Football League announcers]]
[[Category:College football announcers]]
[[Category:American football quarterbacks]]
[[Category:Buffalo Bills announcers]]
[[Category:Buffalo Bills (AAFC) players]]
[[Category:Cleveland Browns players]]
[[Category:Kentucky sheriffs]]
[[Category:Sportspeople from Campbell County, Kentucky]]
[[Category:NFL announcers]]
[[Category:New York Yanks players]]
[[Category:Notre Dame Fighting Irish football players]]
[[Category:Notre Dame Fighting Irish men's basketball players]]
[[Category:Notre Dame Fighting Irish baseball players]]
[[Category:Notre Dame Fighting Irish men's tennis players]]
[[Category:Basketball players from Cincinnati]]
[[Category:Tennis players from Cincinnati]]
[[Category:St. Xavier High School (Ohio) alumni]]
[[Category:Deaths from Alzheimer's disease in Colorado]]
[[Category:Canadian football quarterbacks]]
[[Category:Montreal Alouettes players]]
[[Category:Catholics from Kentucky]]
[[Category:American men's basketball players]]
[[Category:Players of Canadian football from Cincinnati]]
[[Category:American athlete-politicians]]
[[Category:20th-century Kentucky politicians]]