Gene Brito
Brito on a 1955 Bowman football card
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| Position: | Defensive end End |
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| Date of birth: | November 23, 1925 | ||||||||
| Place of birth: | Huntington Park, California | ||||||||
| Date of death: | Script error: The function "death_date_and_age" does not exist. | ||||||||
| Place of death: | Duarte, California | ||||||||
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| College: | Loyola Marymount | ||||||||
| NFL draft: | 1951 / Round: 17 / Pick: 196 | ||||||||
| Career history | |||||||||
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Gene Herman Brito (November 23, 1925 – June 8, 1965) was an American football Defensive end in the National Football League who played nine seasons for the Washington Redskins and the Los Angeles Rams from 1951 to 1960.
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Early career
Brito, born to a Spanish-American father and Mexican-American mother, grew up in Lincoln Heights, a then mostly Italian American neighborhood, located in Los Angeles, California. His father was a boxer, and had two younger sisters.[1] Brito attended Lincoln High School where he was a standout athlete.[1]
College career
Brito graduated from Loyola Marymount University (then Loyola University) as a multi-sport athlete, starring in football, baseball, basketball, and track.
Professional career
Brito began his career as an offensive end, catching 45 passes in his first two seasons before being moved to defensive end in 1953. He was named the NFL Player of the Year by the Washington D.C. Touchdown Club after the 1955 season. Brito played in the Canadian Football League for the Calgary Stampeders in 1954 where he was an All-conference selection in the CFL's Western Conference. In the NFL he was a five-time Pro Bowler in 1953 and from 1955 to 1958. He was selected as one of the 70 Greatest Redskins, a list compiled by the Redskins in 2002 to commemorate the 70-year anniversary of the team. He is one of four defensive ends on the team, along with Dexter Manley, Ron McDole and Charles Mann.
Personal
Brito was a staff sergeant in the U. S. Army and an Army paratrooper with U.S. forces in the Pacific during World War II.
Brito was elected posthumously to the National Italian American Sports Hall of Fame in 1989.[2] He hosted "The Gene Brito Show" which aired prior to Redskins games in the 1950s making him one of the first NFL athletes to host a show and making him the most popular Redskins of his era.[3] He was then-President John F. Kennedy's favorite player. Brito died on June 8, 1965 of ALS at the age of 39.[4]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ http://www.niashf.org/
- ↑ http://www.redskins.com/news/newsDetail.jsp?id=24851
- ↑ http://www.profootballresearchers.org/Coffin_Corner/21-03-803.pdf
External links
- NFL player using deprecated currentteam parameter
- NFL player with pastcoaching parameter
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- Infobox NFL player article missing alt text
- Infobox NFL player articles with small text
- Infobox NFL player with debut/final parameters
- 1925 births
- 1965 deaths
- American football defensive ends
- Calgary Stampeders players
- Eastern Conference Pro Bowl players
- Los Angeles Rams players
- Loyola Marymount University alumni
- Washington Redskins players
- American people of Spanish descent
