John Yonakor John Joseph " Jumbo " Yonakor ( August 4 , 1921 – April 18 , 2001 ) was an American football defensive and offensive end in the All - America Football Conference ( AAFC ) and National Football League ( NFL ) for the Cleveland Browns , New York Yanks , and the Washington Redskins . Yonakor grew up in Boston , Massachusetts and played college football at the University of Notre Dame , where he was named an All - America n on a team that won the national championship in 1943 . After two years in the military during World War II , Yonakor was selected in the first round of the 1945 NFL Draft by the Philadelphia Eagles . He instead signed with the Browns of the upstart AAFC . Yonakor spent four seasons playing primarily as a defensive end for the Browns as the team won four league championships between 1946 and 1949 . The Browns then sold Yonakor to the NFL ' s New York Yanks , where he played for a year . He then spent a season with the Montreal Allouettes in the Canadian Football League . Returning to the NFL in 1952 , he played a final season for the Redskins before retiring . Yonakor worked in Cleveland ' s steel industry for several years after leaving pro football . He settled in Euclid , Ohio in the early 1960s and was an assembly - line worker making diesel engines for White Motor Company . His son Rich was a star athlete in Euclid and went on to play one season for the National Basketball Association ' s San Antonio Spurs . Yonakor died in 2001 . Early life and high school . Yonakor grew up in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston , Massachusetts , the youngest son of immigrants from Russia . At the age of 10 , he came down with a leg infection after cutting himself while ice skating . He was too embarrassed to tell his mother about the injury and hoped it would go away , but it worsened to the point where he could no longer walk . Doctors drained fluid from his body by puncturing his toe , and Yonakor spent a year as an invalid ; doctors told him he may never walk again . Starting out by crawling , however , Yonakor gradually regained his strength and his health . He went on to play three seasons of football in high school , and spent one year at Marianapolis Preparatory School in Thompson , Connecticut at the prompting of Frank Leahy , then the head football coach at Boston College . Yonakor was set to go to Boston College , but chose the University of Notre Dame instead when Leahy became head football coach there in 1941 . College and military career . At Notre Dame in South Bend , Indiana , Yonakor played on the football team as an end beginning in 1942 , when he was a sophomore . He was a starter at right end in 1943 , when the Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team won the national championship under Leahy . The highlight of his college career was catching two touchdown passes from quarterback Angelo Bertelli in a game against Army . Yonakor was known for his strength and large size . While watching track athletes practice at Notre Dame in 1943 , he picked up a 16 - pound shot put ter ' s weight and returned it to the thrower . Impressed by the distance of the throw , the track coach got Yonakor to compete in the event , and two weeks later Yonakor won the Amateur Athletic Union indoor shot put national competition at Madison Square Garden in New York City . He was named an All - America n by news outlets that year . Following the 1943 season , Yonakor spent two years in the U . S . Marines during World War II and played on military football teams . In 1944 , he was selected to play in the College All - Star Game , a now - defunct matchup between the National Football League ( NFL ) champion and a selection of the best college players in the country . Professional career . Creighton Miller , a teammate of Yonakor ' s at Notre Dame , took an assistant coaching position after the war with the Cleveland Browns , a team under formation in the new All - America Football Conference ( AAFC ) . While Yonakor selected by the Philadelphia Eagles in the first round of the 1945 NFL Draft , Miller convinced him to sign with the Browns instead . The Browns won the AAFC championship in each of the four years Yonakor played for the team between 1946 and 1949 . He started out as primarily a pass - rushing defensive end in 1946 , but was also used as an offensive end when receiver Dante Lavelli was injured in 1947 . After watching one of the Browns ' early games , Leahy said that the Browns were good , but " I don ' t understand why they don ' t throw more passes to Yonakor " . He had just six receptions for 95 yards and two touchdowns in 1947 , however , and was shifted back to working mostly on defense in 1948 . Yonakor completed coursework at Notre Dame between seasons with the Browns and got his degree in 1948 . Yonakor got into contractual disputes three times with Paul Brown , the Browns ' head coach and general manager , and frequently held out for raises . His highest salary with the Browns was $ 9 , 500 in 1949 . The AAFC dissolved after the 1949 season and the Browns were absorbed by the National Football League ( NFL ) . Yonakor , however , was sold before the 1950 season to the NFL ' s New York Yanks . He played a season for the Yanks before signing with the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League in the summer of 1951 . he played a final season for the NFL ' s Washington Redskins in 1952 before retiring . He was used by the Redskins as an end and a tackle . Later life . Yonakor went back home to Boston after ending his football career and worked in several sales jobs he found unsatisfying . He planned to go to California to find work , but stopped off in Cleveland on the way to make some money for the journey onward . He worked briefly in the structural iron business before getting a job in 1956 at Republic Steel , then one of the country ' s largest producers of the metal . He was promoted in 1959 to superintendent of Republic ' s general labor department and oversaw more than 500 workers . He got married and settled down in Cleveland , attending Browns games as he worked at Republic . " I learned teamwork and got used to being around men and learning to get along with them , " he said in 1960 . " Out here at Republic we operate on the same theory as the Browns – all for one and one for all . " In 1961 , Yonakor began working for the White Motor Company in Euclid , Ohio , a suburb of Cleveland where he lived . He made diesel engines on an assembly line in a White Motors plant there . His son , Rich Yonakor , was a star athlete in Euclid who played basketball in Italy and one season for the San Antonio Spurs in the early 1980s . Yonakor died in Euclid in 2001 .