As noted at Answers.com, "Quarterback Johnny Unitas was one of the greatest professional football players in history, his storybook career coinciding with the rise of football as television entertainment." He threw for over 40,000 yards and was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame (HOF) in 1979.
A number of us grew up watching the great Lithuanian-American athlete from Pittsburgh playing on black & white TV for the then-Baltimore Colts. Unitas was a hero to many, including a young kid from Pennsylvania named Joe Montana. As noted in the book Johnny U: The Life and Times of John Unitas by Tom Callahan, Montana later said: "Talking to Johnny U, listening to his experiences, almost made me wish I had played in the fifties. You had to love him... didn't you?"
Raymond Berry said the following at Unitas' funeral in Baltimore:
For all of us who were fortunate to be a part of the Colts - whether as team members or fans - by now we all realize it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. And all of us know the main reason was John Unitas, a once-in-a-lifetime quarterback. I think I can safely speak for all of us in saying, "Thank you, John. You elevated us to unreachable levels - both on the field and in the stands. You made the impossible possible. You filled our memory banks full. Those images of your performances are still there and will never fade."
And HOF quarterback Dan Fouts was later to say:
He was real. There was nothing phony about John Unitas. In this day and age in sports - in anything, in life - knowing exactly what you're getting is almost impossible. That's what he was. He was almost impossible.
