Pro Football Historian (PFH) is a blog page written by Flint Given. Pro Football Historian or PFH is a page to inform people on prior NFL events that people might not know about. Learning about teams from the 1920s or even the first few NFL World Championships in the 1930s fascinates me. It's these kinds of events that I want to discuss in this blog. Hopefully you are interested and will continue to check up on my blogs.
The Story And Significance Of Carl Eller - Six Straight All-Pro Selections At Defensive End
Carl Eller is an American former professional football player who played as a defensive end in the National Football League from 1964 through 1979. He was born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina and played college football for the Minnesota Golden Gophers. He was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2004.
In 1964, Eller was selected in the first round of the NFL draft by the Minnesota Vikings. He was also selected in the first round of the American Football League Draft by the Buffalo Bills, who could not sign him. As the left defensive end in the Vikings front four, he was a major factor in the unit known as the "Purple People Eaters".
Starting in 1968, Eller's fifth campaign, Minnesota won 10 Central Division titles in the next 11 seasons. The Vikings won the NFL Championship in 1969, losing to the AFL Champion Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl IV, and won the NFC Championships in 1973, 1974, and 1976. Eller was one of 11 Vikings to play in all four of their Super Bowls.
He was selected to play in six Pro Bowls (1968–1971, 1973, and 1974). After being traded with an eighth-round pick to Seattle Seahawks for defensive tackle Steve Niehaus, Eller played his final season in 1979 with the Seattle Seahawks, where he ran his career total to 225 games. In his career, "Moose" only missed three games and started 209 out of the 225 he played.
Eller is credited as the Vikings' all-time sack leader with 130.5. He also had 3 sacks with the Seahawks in 1979 for a career total of 133.5. He set a career high with 15 sacks in 1969 and matched that total in 1977; he also amassed 7 seasons with 10 or more sacks.
Eller was First-team All-NFL from 1968 to 1971, and again in 1973. He was also Second-team All-Pro in 1967 and 1972 and was All-NFC by AP and The Sporting News in 1975. Including his Pro Bowls, Eller had a nine-year consecutive streak of post-season honors which began in 1967 with his Second-team All-Pro selection and ended in 1975 with his All-NFC honors.
He was voted the winner of the George Halas Trophy in 1971 as the NFL's Defensive Player of the Year as awarded by the Newspaper Enterprise Association (NEA).
As a licensed drug and alcohol counselor, Eller founded a group of substance-abuse clinics in the Twin Cities called Triumph Life Centers in 1986. He obtained a college degree in Human Services from Metropolitan State University in 1994 and went on to work for the Minnesota Department of Human Services, addressing issues of health disparities between white people and people of color.
In 2000, Eller was named to the Vikings' 40th Anniversary Team and in 2010, he was named to the Vikings' 50th Anniversary team. In 2003, he was named to the Professional Football Researchers Association Hall of Very Good in the association's inaugural HOVG class. In 2004, Eller was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. In 2006, he was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.
Eller was arrested in 2006 for driving under the influence and pleaded guilty. Eller was arrested in 2008 for fourth-degree assault of a police officer and second-degree refusal to submit to chemical testing, both gross misdemeanors. He was sentenced and served 60 days in the county workhouse.
Eller later served as president of the NFL Retired Players Association. In 2020, he joined the Halberd Corporation, a research-based publicly traded company that helps discover and develop medical treatments for diseases, as a consultant.
"Carl Eller Stats, Height, Weight, Position, Draft, College". Pro-Football-Reference.com. Retrieved January 14, 2025.
"Carl Eller | Pro Football Hall of Fame". pfhof. Retrieved January 14, 2025.
Press, BOB SANSEVERE St Paul (Minn ) Pioneer (August 8, 2004). "PROUD PURPLE PEOPLE EATER FROM HUMBLE BEGINNINGS IN WINSTON-SALEM, CARL ELLER'S FOOTBALL CAREER TAKES HIM TO THE HALL OF FAME AS A ..." Greensboro News and Record. Retrieved January 14, 2025.
"Happy Hairston Stats, Height, Weight, Position, Draft Status and more". Basketball-Reference.com. Retrieved May 6, 2025.
Overbea, Luix (May 3, 1959). "Atkins Places Nine In State Track Event". Winston-Salem Journal. p. 21.
Garber, Mary (October 2, 1961). "Skirt-In' Sports, Something on Carl Eller". The Sentinel (Winston-Salem, North Carolina). p. 21.
Carl Eller at the College Football Hall of Fame
"Carl Eller - M Club Hall of Fame". University of Minnesota Athletics. Retrieved January 14, 2025.
de la Rosa, Poch (December 15, 2022). "The Life And Career Of Carl Eller (Story)". Pro Football History. Retrieved January 14, 2025.
"Bobby Bell - M Club Hall of Fame". University of Minnesota Athletics. Retrieved January 14, 2025.
"Shelby to Immortalize Football Hall of Famer Bobby Bell. Here's How. | Pro Football Hall of Fame". pfhof. Retrieved January 14, 2025.
"Bobby Bell | Pro Football Hall of Fame". pfhof. Retrieved May 6, 2025.
"Rose Bowl - Minnesota at UCLA Box Score, January 1, 1962". College Football at Sports-Reference.com. Retrieved January 14, 2025.
"W-S's Eller Is Rose Bowl Star". Winston-Salem Journal. January 2, 1962. p. 16.
"Rose Bowl - Washington vs Minnesota Box Score, January 2, 1961". College Football at Sports-Reference.com. Retrieved May 6, 2025.
Johnson, Rick (December 8, 2020). "That Championship Season (Minnesota Alumni magazine)". Archived from the original on January 15, 2025. Retrieved May 6, 2025.
"Hutson Tops Rose Star Team". Detroit Free Press. January 1, 1972. p. 14.
Reusse, Patrick (January 7, 2023). "Carl Eller has had a good view for two of the strangest teams in Vikings franchise history". www.startribune.com. Retrieved January 14, 2025.
"Carl Eller College Stats, School, Draft, Gamelog, Splits". College Football at Sports-Reference.com. Retrieved January 14, 2025.
"Three Quarterbacks Are Named on AP's All-America Team". The Buffalo News. December 6, 1963. p. 1.
"Bell Heads List Of Opponents On Middies' Unit". The Mercury (Pottstown, Pennsylvania). December 7, 1962. p. 31.
"Honors and Awards". University of Minnesota Athletics. Retrieved January 14, 2025.
"1963 College Football Summary". College Football at Sports-Reference.com. Retrieved January 14, 2025.
"1960 National Champions". University of Minnesota Athletics. Retrieved January 14, 2025.
"Big Ten Conference Index". College Football at Sports-Reference.com. Retrieved January 14, 2025.
"Greeks in Football". Archived from the original on October 16, 2007.
"1964 AFL Draft Listing". Pro-Football-Reference.com. Retrieved January 14, 2025.
"Carl Eller, Defensive End, The Official Site of the Minnesota Vikings". www.vikings.com. Retrieved January 14, 2025.
"NFL's Purple People Eaters". NFL.com. Retrieved January 14, 2025.
Ragatz, Will (January 31, 2024). "A Documentary on the Purple People Eaters is On the Way". Minnesota Vikings On SI. Retrieved January 14, 2025.
"NFL Champions 1920-2015". Retrieved December 18, 2018.
"Super Bowl IV - Minnesota Vikings vs. Kansas City Chiefs - January 11th, 1970". Pro-Football-Reference.com. Retrieved January 14, 2025.
"NFC Champions: Complete list of winners by year". FOX Sports. Retrieved January 14, 2025.
Sansevere, Bob (February 1, 2018). "1970s Vikings remember four trips to Super Bowl as success … and failure". Twin Cities. Retrieved January 14, 2025.
"Vikings Trade Eller". The New York Times. July 31, 1979. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved January 14, 2025.
Henn, Donnie (September 23, 2016). "Eller: 'If you could make it back to the huddle you were okay'". Rochester Post Bulletin. Retrieved January 14, 2025.
"Vikings.com Ring of Honor". Archived from the original on February 5, 2009. Retrieved December 2, 2007.
"Vikings.com". Archived from the original on November 1, 2005.
"1967 NFL All-Pros". Pro-Football-Reference.com. Retrieved January 14, 2025.
"1972 NFL All-Pros". Pro-Football-Reference.com. Retrieved January 14, 2025.
"1975 NFL All-Pros". Pro-Football-Reference.com. Retrieved January 14, 2025.
"Pro Football Hall of Fame All-Decade Teams - 1970s". Pro-Football-Reference.com. Retrieved January 14, 2025.
"Carl Eller | Pro Football Hall of Fame Official Site". www.profootballhof.com.
"Hall of Very Good". Retrieved November 29, 2021.
Carl Eller Takes a Stand, University of Minnesota Alumni Association, July–August 2005
"Hall of Famer Eller faces misdemeanor DUI charge". ESPN.com. February 27, 2006.
"Ex-Viking Eller arrested after chase - USATODAY.com". usatoday30.usatoday.com.
"Ex-Vikings great Eller sentenced to workhouse". ESPN.com. February 23, 2009.
"Retired NFL Great Carl Eller Joins Halberd Corporation". Yahoo Finance. July 27, 2020. Archived from the original on September 24, 2023. Retrieved January 14, 2025.
No comments:
Post a Comment