Jack Butler, NFL Hall of Famer, dies at 85

PITTSBURGH -- Jack Butler, who helped revolutionize the way cornerbacks played in the NFL during his Hall of Fame career with the Pittsburgh Steelers, died Saturday after a lengthy battle with a staph infection. He was 85.

Butler's son John said his father's heart stopped Saturday morning. The elder Butler had spent the last several months in the hospital dealing with a staph infection that plagued him since his career ended in 1959.

"It had been a long road," John Butler said. "It wasn't completely out of the blue."

Unlike Butler's professional career. The Pittsburgh native played wide receiver at St. Bonaventure and was planning on returning to school to get his master's degree when he received a phone call from Steelers business manager Fran Fogarty in the summer of 1951. Butler assumed Fogarty had the wrong number. "I didn't know anything about professional football," Butler said.

It didn't matter. Over the next nine years, Butler became one of the NFL's top defensive backs, a 6-foot-1, 200-pound wrecking ball known for his physical play and uncanny knack for getting to the ball. Butler intercepted 52 passes during his career, including a league-high 10 in 1957. He made the Pro Bowl four times and was chosen first-team All-NFL three times before a knee injury in 1959 ended his career.

Butler remained close to the game after his retirement, becoming a prominent scout who worked closely with the Steelers for more than 40 years.

During one stretch from 1969-74, Butler's insight helped Pittsburgh draft nine players who would all precede him in the Hall of Fame, including Terry Bradshaw and Joe Greene. The group became the core of a franchise for most of a decade, helping Pittsburgh win four Super Bowls in a six-year span.

"He was an excellent person both on and off the field, and he played an integral role in the BLESTO scouting program and our entire draft process before his retirement," Steelers chairman Dan Rooney said. "His family was very close to the entire Rooney family, and he will be missed."

Butler served as the backbone of a string of mediocre to middling teams in the 1950s and his bruising style became a precursor to the "Steel Curtain" defense that has been the team's hallmark.

He was in his prime in 1959 when a collision with Philadelphia Eagles tight end Pete Retzlaff put an end to his playing days. He endured 10 surgeries and eventually had both of his knees replaced, procedures that limited his mobility later in life.

Still, he managed to make it to Canton, Ohio, last summer to be inducted into the Hall of Fame.

It was an honor Butler had given up on long ago even as a campaign to get him into the Hall built steam. He was second in NFL history in career interceptions when he retired and still ranks 26th all-time, tied with Champ Bailey among others.