ATLANTA — Pro and College Football Hall of Famer Charley Trippi, a runner-up for the Heisman Trophy at Georgia who went on to lead the Cardinals to their most recent NFL championship in 1947, died Wednesday. He was 100.
The University of Georgia announced that Trippi died peacefully at his Athens home.
Trippi was one of football’s most versatile players, lining up at multiple positions on offense, defense and special teams. He is the only member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame to have 1,000 yards rushing, receiving and passing in his career.
The son of a Pennsylvania coal miner, Trippi had a simple explanation for his dazzling array of skills.
“In those days, the more things a player did, the more pay he could demand,” Trippi said, according to his bio at the Pro Football Hall of Fame. “I could run, kick, pass and catch, and that made me a valuable property.”
Trippi played his college football at Georgia in the 1940s, his career interrupted by a stint in the military during World War II.
Trippi led the Bulldogs to a Rose Bowl victory, finished second to Glenn Davis for the 1946 Heisman Trophy, and was a No. 1 overall draft pick by the Cardinals, who then called Chicago home.
He went on to star in the “Dream Backfield” for the Cardinals, leading the franchise to the 1947 NFL championship. The team, which moved to St. Louis in 1960 and then to its current home in Arizona in 1988, has yet to win another title.
“Charley Trippi was one of the greatest Bulldogs of all time!” Georgia athletic director Josh Brooks wrote on Twitter. “It was an honor to get to know him! God Bless the Trippi family.”
On Dec. 14, 2021, Trippi celebrated perhaps the crowning achievement of a remarkable life.
He turned 100 years old, becoming just the second member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame to reach the century mark. Clarence “Ace” Parker died on Nov. 6, 2013, at the age of 101.
Georgia coach Kirby Smart was among those who stopped by Trippi’s home to help celebrate with a cake topped by 100 candles.
Despite his feeble health, Trippi managed to blow them all out.
“If you know anything about his legend at Georgia, you know he was, perhaps, the greatest all-around football player on our campus,” Smart said that day.
Charles Louis Trippi was born in Pittston, Pennsylvania, just as America was embarking on a golden era of sports in the 1920s.
According to an often-repeated story, Trippi’s family could not afford to buy him football cleats but he punted so well in his regular shoes that his high school coach, Paul Shebby, stepped in to make the purchase. One day in punt formation, after the snapper sailed the ball over Trippi’s head, he ran back to pick it up and weaved his way to a touchdown that showed he was far more than a one-dimensional player.
Trippi received a scholarship to play for the Bulldogs through his connections to a Coke bottler — who also happened to be a Georgia alum — in nearby Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.
As a sophomore in 1942, he starred on a Georgia team led by Heisman Trophy winner Frank Sinkwich. In a 75-0 rout of rival Florida, Trippi ran for two touchdowns, threw for another, and scored a fourth on an interception return. Georgia finished 11-1 and was picked as national champion in several polls, though the Bulldogs were No. 2 in The Associated Press rankings behind Ohio State.
Georgia capped the season with a 9-0 victory over UCLA in the Rose Bowl. Trippi carried 27 times for 115 yards, also handled passing and punting duties, and was retroactively named the game’s most valuable player when the award was created in 1953.
Trippi missed the entire 1944 season and part of 1945 serving in the military. He returned to Georgia to finish his college career in 1946.
Also a stellar baseball player, Trippi played one season with the Atlanta Crackers, a powerhouse minor league franchise at the time. He batted .334 in 106 games while drawing large crowds to Ponce de Leon Park. Even though several big league teams attempted to sign him, Trippi decided that football provided his best chance for success.
Baseball did play a role in Trippi’s pro football career. In 1946, he was at the center of a huge bidding war between the NFL Cardinals and the New York Yankees of the fledgling AII-America Football Conference.
The football Yankees were so sure he would agree to a joint contract to play both for them as well as the storied baseball team of the same name that they called a news conference to announce the deal.
But Trippi wound up signing a then-unprecedented four-year, $100,000 contract with the Cardinals to complete the “Dream Backfield” that also included Elmer Angsman, Paul Christman and Pat Harder.
In Trippi’s rookie season, Chicago won what remains its only undisputed NFL crown.
Cardinals owner Michael Bidwill, whose family has owned the franchise since 1933, said Trippi “will always enjoy a special place in the history of the National Football League, the Cardinals franchise and especially in the hearts of our family.”
“He was a key part of the Cardinals NFL championship team of 1947, my grandmother’s first as owner and on which my dad was a ballboy,” Bidwill said in a statement. “I had the pleasure of getting to know Charley in more recent years and hearing his stories from such an important time for the Cardinals and the NFL.”
The 1947 title game was played at Comiskey Park, where the Cardinals hosted the Philadelphia Eagles on a baseball-turned-football field coated with a thin sheet of ice on a bitterly cold day.
Unable to get much traction is his cleats, Trippi switched to a pair of sneakers. He led Chicago to a 28-21 victory, scoring a pair of touchdowns on a 44-yard run and a 75-yard punt return.
“The only time I played an NFL game in tennis shoes was in Chicago for our championship team,” Trippi said in a 2014 interview. “We got better footing in tennis shoes. You couldn’t stand up in cleats.”
The weather again played a huge role the following year when the Cardinals returned to the title game for a rematch against the Eagles at Shibe Park. A blizzard struck Philadelphia, dumping so much snow on the field the players couldn’t even see the yard lines.
The Cardinals, who had averaged nearly 33 points a game during an 11-1 regular season, were shut out 7-0 by the Eagles in a thoroughly dismal affair.
“It was more of a pushing game,” Trippi recalled. “The ballplayers just couldn’t react like they wanted. I think the fans got cheated out of seeing a real championship game.”
When the Cardinals — now in Arizona — made their first Super Bowl appearance in 2009, Trippi was thrilled by their success and pulling hard for another championship.
“Well, I never lost hope,” he quipped before the big game, “but I was a little apprehensive there for a long time.”
Alas, the Pittsburgh Steelers knocked off the Cardinals 27-23, so that Trippi-led championship remains the franchise’s most recent.
He played nine seasons with the Cardinals, lining up pretty much anywhere he was needed.
Trippi started out as a halfback, switched to quarterback for two seasons and closed out his career playing mostly defensive back. He also was the punter, in addition to excelling as a kickoff and punt returner.
In 1968, Trippi was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
He was responsible for 53 regular-season touchdowns over his career: 23 rushing, 16 passing, 11 receiving, two on punt returns, and one with an interception return. For good measure, Trippi averaged 40.3 yards as a punter, had four career interceptions, and recovered 13 fumbles.
Coming from a brutal sport where far too many have died young, Trippi beat the odds by living into a second century. He was a vibrant figure for much of his life, raking leaves and cutting grass well into his 90s at his home not far from Georgia’s Sanford Stadium.
Trippi is survived by his wife, Peggy, and two children, daughter Brenda and son Charles, according to longtime friend Loran Smith. He was preceded in death by his first wife and oldest daughter.
Trippi was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1959.
Nine years later, during a brief speech marking his induction into Canton, he thanked those who helped him along the way, including his high school, college and NFL coaches.
Cairo, 51, joined the Nationals in 2024 after spending the previous season as the minor league infield coordinator for the New York Mets. He also served as bench coach for the Chicago White Sox during the 2021 and 2022 seasons, being named active manager after Tony La Russa stepped aside in 2022 because of an undisclosed medical condition. The White Sox went 18-16 down the stretch under Cairo but failed to reach the playoffs.
“Miguel is well-respected in our organization and around baseball,” Nationals interim general manager Mike DeBartolo said in a statement. “A diligent worker and student of the game, he has a proven track record of showing strong leadership in a variety of situations, and I believe that his voice and energy will serve as a catalyst to our team and our fan base in the second half of the season.”
Cairo played all positions except catcher, center fielder and pitcher during his playing career. He was a career .264 hitter with 41 home runs and 394 RBIs in 1,490 games.
DeBartolo, the club’s senior vice president and assistant general manager, was named interim GM on Sunday night and will oversee all aspects of baseball operations, including the MLB draft.
The Nationals are 37-53, last in the National League East standings after getting swept by the Boston Red Sox this weekend at home. Washington hasn’t finished higher than fourth in the division since winning the 2019 World Series.
Washington has a 325-473 record since the start of the 2020 season, only better than the Colorado Rockies.
MILWAUKEE — Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw appreciates his 11th career All-Star Game selection while acknowledging this one’s a little different from the rest.
The three-time Cy Young Award winner has made only nine starts this season but still got selected to the National League team as a “Legend Pick” by MLB commissioner Rob Manfred, under a provision in the collective bargaining agreement.
“You never take for granted getting to go to an All-Star Game, regardless of the circumstances,” Kershaw said Monday before the Dodgers played the Milwaukee Brewers. “Obviously, I don’t deserve to get to go this season. I haven’t pitched very much.”
This marked the first time Manfred made a Legend Pick for the All-Star Game since 2022, when Miguel Cabrera and Albert Pujols both received that designation.
“I didn’t really actually know that was a thing,” Kershaw said. “At the end of the day, it’s weird, but it’s cool, so I’m just going to enjoy it.”
The honor comes less than a week after Kershaw recorded his 3,000th career strikeout, becoming just the 20th pitcher to reach that plateau. He’s in his 18th season with the Dodgers, tying Hall of Fame outfielder Zack Wheat and shortstop Bill Russell for the franchise record.
The 37-year-old left-hander didn’t make his season debut until May 17 as he worked his way back from toe and knee surgeries. He also had undergone shoulder surgery after the 2023 season. He owns a 4-0 record and 3.43 ERA with 32 strikeouts in 44⅔ innings.
“I think it’s mixed,” Kershaw said. “I think there’s some good and some bad. I think it’s helpful to be able to get the reps, go back out and be able to feel OK in between starts to work on some stuff and try to figure out some things mechanically and pitch-wise and stuff. I’d say overall, I wouldn’t say I’m happy, but I wouldn’t say I’m disappointed, either. Just kind of right in the middle.”
All these career milestones naturally lead to questions about Kershaw’s legacy and future. Kershaw says he’s just focusing on the here and now.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen in the future,” he said. “I really have no idea when it comes to the years beyond this one, so I’m just trying to enjoy it, trying to be part of a really good team this year. We’ve still got a lot to accomplish, and we still have October. It’s really hard to look at stuff individually when you’re trying to accomplish something as a team.”
But he still appreciates this latest honor, no matter how he was selected.
“I’ll never pass up that opportunity,” Kershaw said. “It’s a tremendous honor. Super thankful to get to go. Regardless of the situation or how I maybe snuck into the All-Star Game, it’s pretty cool to get to be able to go.”
BOSTON — Alex Bregman believes he could skip a minor-league rehab assignment and be back in the Boston Red Sox lineup before the All-Star break.
The two-time All-Star third baseman, who has been sidelined since May 24 with a strained right quad, said there’s even a chance his return could happen by the end of this week.
“Trending toward a return here pretty quickly,” Bregman said Monday night after Boston’s 9-3 win over the Rockies. “Whether it’s the end of this week or first game after the break. One of those two. But hoping it will be the end of this week.”
Boston finishes it’s three-game series with Colorado on Wednesday, then hosts Tampa Bay for a four-game series Thursday through Sunday to conclude its first-half schedule.
Boston had high hopes for Bregman, 31, entering the season after he signed as a free agent to a $120 million, three-year deal during the offseason. And he had had been on a torrid pace to start the season, hitting .299 with 11 homers and 35 RBIs before suffering his injury. But Monday marked the 40th game he’s been sidelined.
His injury is similar to the one he sustained to his left quad strain in 2021 with Houston, which cost him 58 games. But unlike that injury, Bregman said he is hopeful he can return to action without a stint in the minors.
Though, he said an ultimate decision will be made after a consultation with the medical and training staff.
“We’re still going to talk about it as a group,” Bregman said. “I think we’re going to have another discussion (Tuesday). But I feel like I can go play and get ready to go.”
The timing synchs up with Bregman being named to his third All-Star team on Sunday as a reserve. But, he said he doesn’t think there’s any chance he’d be able to participate.
While he said he may make an appearance and take his son to the Home Run Derby, he’ll spend the rest of the break maintaining his fitness in preparation for the second half of the season.
“What I need to do is hopefully be back playing by the end of this week,” he said, “and use the All-Star break to continue to build up, work on my leg and make sure that we continue the progression the right way.”
