Alex Karras, Hall of Fame--April 3, 1977

Ex-Iowa grid star Karras named to Register 'Hall'

By RON MALY
Register Staff Writer
04/03/1977

First of all, keep in mind that Alex Karras is not a phony. He did not come into the world with a sugar coating.

Alex is 41 now, an age when maybe he could start mellowing a bit. Surely he could go around softening some of those barbs he enjoys hurling.

But, if anything, the newest member of The Register's Iowa Sports Hall of Fame is zinging 'em in even harder these days. Let's tune in on him for a while out there in Hollywood Hills, Calif.:

"I hated going to school. I liked some of the people at the University of Iowa, but I didn't go to class very often. I guess I'm about 25 years away from getting my degree. Not 25 semester hours -- 25 years. I don't regret not having a degree. I think it's silly to push people to go to college."

"There is nothing I liked about Forest Evashevski (his football coach at Iowa). How could I begin talking about a man I totally disliked?"

"I didn't like the 1957 Rose Bowl game we won from Oregon State. Oh, I played all right in it, but we didn't have any fun. I had eight tickets and planned to sell them so I could buy a suit. Don Dobrino (a teammate) supposedly had a guy who was going to buy all our tickets. Don gave 'em to somebody in a bowling alley, but he turned out to be a thief and we lost everything."

"I don't like Pete Rozelle (commissioner of the National Football League). I don't talk to him. I don't know if he likes that or not. I don't think he cares. He suspended me for one season (1963) for betting on games, and that was a bullshit rap."

"I like pro football, but it's not as much fun as when I played. It's stereotyped. It's a television project. That passing game -- the kind where you could throw a 65-yard touchdown bomb -- has been killed. I get tired of watching a halfback run for two yards."

"It's ridiculous for Iowa to try to compete with Ohio State and Michigan in the Big Ten. Those schools have alumni groups that can get them anything they want. Bob Commings, who was my roommate at Iowa, is the best coach Iowa can get, but he's bucking a very big dynasty in the conference."

THAT'S LOVEABLE old, tell-it-like-it-is Alex. The big guy who was an all-American at Iowa has gone a bit Hollywood on us now. He acts, he writes, he produces, he has an agent, he has a manager, he wears a mustache, he wears his hair in an afro.

Generally, Alex George Karras likes life in 1977.

"I'm getting ready to appear in a television special," he said. "It's called Mad Bull Korkus, the story of a greek pro wrestler's life. He falls in love. It's a wonderful story."

Now that's progress. Karras has gone from decking a horse with a right cross in "Blazing Saddles" to playing himself on the screen.

"Yep, I was a pro wrestler in real life from 1958 through '62," he commented. "Pinkie George of Des Moines signed me to my contract.

The reason Karras qualifies to be in the Iowa Sports Hall of Fame is because he came out of the polluted air of Gary, Ind., to play football for Iowa in the 1950s.

And, yes, they were generally unhappy years for the tackle who always seemed to have a personality clash with Evashevski, his coach.

"Evashevski was good for college football at the time," Karras said, "and he had some good assistants -- guys like Bump Elliott, Jerry Burns and Archie Kodros.

"But I would have enjoyed football more if it hadn't been for Evy. He recruited me personally. He came into my brother's home in Gary and flew me to Spencer, Ia., where I stayed for 1 1/2 months."

Why Spencer?

"They figured nobody would know where the hell Spencer was," Karras explained. "A lot of other schools -- Notre Dame, Indiana, Michigan, Michigan State and others -- were trying to recruit me, and I guess that's why Evashevski took me to Spencer. I did a lot of fishing up there and nobody found me."

Asked if he felt his recruitment was handled legally, Karras says now: "Legal? I don't know anything that's legal anymore."

Finally, Karras got to Iowa City as a freshman in 1954. But he couldn't adjust to life in college and recalls going back to Gary many times.

"I've been going home to Gary all my life," he says. "I spent many hours on the road to Gary when I was at Iowa.

"It was hard for me to adjust to a world outside of Gary for a long time. My mother urged me to go to school, and so did others."

KARRAS WAS not exactly the Robert Redford of the Iowa campus. He didn't have many girl friends.

"I was a backward guy, very shy," he said. "I couldn't handle the social aspects of a campus. I never hung around much. Bobby Commings was probably my best friend at Iowa."

Still, there were some eventful days in Iowa City for the 6-foot 2-inch, 235-pounder. Although he failed to letter as a sophomore, he was a major factor in Iowa's Big Ten championship season in 1956.

"I guess the day we won the conference title by beating Ohio State, 6-0, is my fondest memory," he commented. "I never thought we'd lost that game because we'd come a long way and were at a peak that afternoon.

"But my most satisfying game was the 48-8 win we had over Notre Dame the next week. The Karrases ahve always had a rivalry with Notre Dame. The school was just 60 miles down the road from our home and we wanted to beat 'em at anything."

Iowa climaxed that 9-1 season by ripping Oregon State, 35-19, in the Rose Bowl. Karras was an all-American that season and the following year.

"We didn't have to play very well in the Rose Bowl game because Oregon State wasn't very good," said Karras.

"The game was an extension of a long, long year. It was total football in Pasadena. We had no parties and were kept away from everything."

In 1957, Karras' final season, Iowa had a 7-1-1 record and Alex was given the Outland Award as the nation's outstanding linemen.

He began a 12-year pro career in 1958 with the Detroit Lions, who chose him in the first round of the college draft.

There are few fond memories about that stage of his life, either.

"I made a collect call to the Lions after they drafted me," Alex recalls, "and they wouldn't accept it."

Karras was many times an all-star as a pro. He is probably best remembered for the manner in which he would roar in like a mad bull and try to tear off the quarterback's head.

"I was a little different than most guys at my position," Alex said. "I wasn't as big (he played at 245). The guys now don't play the lateral game I did. I'd run around the opposition, not through them.

"Linemen today weigh 290 and can lift houses. They play a different game, but they're damn good."

Karras still has no admiration for the Detroit organization. "They don't seem to want to win very much," he said. "They should show the customers a winning team once in a while.

"But every year they come out stumbling. It'a a bad organization."

KARRAS SAID he wanted to be an actor as long as he can remember, and appeared in his first film -- "Paper Lion" -- in 1968.

"I've been in nine films so far," he commented. "But the one that was the turning point in my acting career was Babe, when I played George Zaharias. That put me into the heavy acting I like."

The reviews were good for Babe, but Karras is probably best known to television viewers for his role on Monday Night Football.

"I'm the bridge between Howard Cosell and Frank Gifford," he said. "I'm there to have a little fun. I'm going into my fourth year next fall."

Karras describes Cosell as being a "very sweet man ... an interesting guy I like to be around three hours a week."

There was a time, several years ago in a speech made in Des Moines, that Karras said Gifford reminded him of Lawrence Welk. "His straight style bores me," he said.

But that was before Karras replaced Don Meredith as part of the Monday night team. Alex now says of Gifford: "He's the best play-by-play announcer on TV today. He has to be if he's going to survive Cosell and me."

ALTHOUGH HE is certainly no pro football red-hot, Karras said he sees "nothing that's going to pass the game up in this country.

"I just wish they'd open up the game more," he added. Instead of being exciting, pro football has become a status symbol for people. It's a social function for people with money.

"I wish the guys carrying lunch buckets could go to the games, but they can't afford to."

Karras thinks college football is more interesting now than it was when he played. He likes platoon football because "more kids can go to school on scholarships and the game is wide open."

Alex, whose marriage to the former JoAnn Jurgenson of Clinton has broken up, has lived in Hollywood Hills for 1 1/2 years.

"I live in a little house," he said. "I have one car."

Alex works as much as he can. He produced a film last year for the ABC Children's Classic and likes doing that sort of thing -- children's films and producing.

He has a book coming out in November about his life. It's called "Big Boys Cry, Too."

"I'm planning a vacation next summer," he said, "when my kids come out to California from Michigan. My oldest is 17, my youngest 4.

"Four of the kids are boys. My oldest son plays football and basketball, and one of the other kids plays basketball."

Karras has cut his weight to 220 by eating more vegetables and less meat. "I didn't need the weight anymore," he said.

Alex doesn't know when he'll see the next Iowa football game coached by his old roomie.

"The last time I saw Iowa play was against Michigan a few years ago," he said.

"Iowa lost."