Michael Johnson Pyle (July 18, 1939 - July 29, 2015) is an American football hub that played nine seasons between 1961 and 1969 for the Chicago Bears.
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Pyle was born in 1939 to William Palmer Pyle, an executive with Kraft Foods and Cathryn Johnson Pyle in Keokuk, Iowa. He has two brothers: William Palmer Pyle Jr. (who plays an offensive guard at Michigan State University and with the Baltimore Colts, Minnesota Vikings and Oakland Raiders) and Harlen Pyle.
Pyle attended New Trier High School in Winnetka, Illinois, where she wrestled and threw the discus and shot instead of playing soccer. He was the Illinois state wrestling champion in 1957 in the heavyweight division. He also won the state championship in 1957 for his efforts with the discus and set a country record on his way to winning the title shots, as well.
He graduated in 1957 from New Trier and proceeded to Yale University, where he was a member of the Skull and Bones and Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternities. He is the offensive midfielder for the Bulldogs and captains the unbeaten 1960 World Cup winning team. The 1960s were ranked 14th in the AP final polls and the 18th in UPI's last university poll.
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Chicago Bears
Pyle played nine seasons with the Chicago Bears from 1961 to 1969 where he played for George Halas. In 1963, he earned a place in the Pro Bowl and served as captain of the offensive Bears team from 1963 until his retirement. He was named to Sports News First Team - All Second UPI Conference and Teams - All NFLs in 1963 and to New York Daily News All NFL teams in 1965.
Broadcast career
After retiring in 1969, Pyle was a WGN radio broadcaster, where he hosted pre and post Bears games, as well as a sports talk show host on Sunday. He later hosted the "Mike Ditka Show" when Ditka trained the Bear.
In 1974, he served as a color commentator on the WFL Chicago Fire broadcast on WJJD.
Post-career health issues
A few years after his retirement from the NFL, Pyle began to experience symptoms of dementia. His condition eventually deteriorated, and his family was forced to put him in a life-assisted living facility full time. Pyle went to Silverado, a national chain that has arrangements with the NFL to treat all former players with at least three years of service - and dementia - for free.
"We have treated about 20 NFL players - we have about a dozen now," Loren Shook, president and CEO of Silverado Senior Living, said. '' It's under '88 Plan 'with NFL.' '
Plan 88 is a brain trauma program named for Hall of Fame tight end John Mackey, whose number 88. Mackey are in a near vegetative state of chronic traumatic encephalopathy when he died in 2011. Pyle died on July 29, 2015 from a brain hemorrhage.
References
External links
- Pro Football Reference
- Illinois High School Athletics Association
- New Trier HS Roll
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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