William Pritula (March 10, 1922 – January 24, 2006) was an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...

player. He played college football as the starting right tackle for

Fritz Crisler Herbert Orin "Fritz" Crisler (; January 12, 1899 – August 19, 1982) was an American college football coach who is best known as "the father of two-platoon football," an innovation in which separate units of players were used for offense and ...

's Michigan Wolverines football teams in 1942, 1946, and 1947. He was one of Michigan's "Seven Oak Posts" line in 1942, made famous for their durability and two-way playing, and was also a key blocker for the 1947 offensive unit known as the "Mad Magicians." Pritula was born in 1922 at

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Western Pennsylvania, the second-most populous city in Pennsylva ...

, but moved with his parents to

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...

as a child. His father, Ivan Prytula, immigrated from Austrian-Hungarian Empire in 1911. Pritula attended

Chadsey High School Chadsey Senior High School was a public secondary school in Detroit, Michigan. History Chadsey Senior High School was named in honor of Charles E. Chadsey - Superintendent of the Detroit Public Schools, 1912–1919; Chadsey High was constructed ...

in Detroit. He enrolled at the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

and played at the

right tackle Tackle is a playing position in gridiron football. Historically, in the one-platoon system prevalent in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, a tackle played on both offense and defense. In the modern system of specialized units, ...

position for the Michigan Wolverines football team from 1941–1942 and 1946–1947. After serving as a backup center in 1941, Pritula started all ten games at right tackle for the 1942 team. With the roster depleted due to the war, Pritula was one of several 60-minute men on the 1942 team who played all ten games with little or no substitution. Michigan's 1942 line, which included Pritula,

Julius Franks Julius Franks, Jr. (September 5, 1922 – November 26, 2008) was a civil rights leader and an All-American guard who played football at the University of Michigan from 1941 to 1942. Franks wore #62 as a varsity letterman in 1941 and #63 in 1942 ...

, Elmer Madar,

Merv Pregulman Mervin Pregulman (October 10, 1922 – November 30, 2012) was an All-American football player, businessman, and philanthropist. He played football as a tackle and center for the University of Michigan Wolverines from 1941 to 1943 and was se ...

, Albert Wistert, and

Robert Kolesar Robert C. "Bob" Kolesar (April 5, 1921 – January 13, 2004) was an American football player and medical doctor. He played at the guard position for the University of Michigan from 1940 to 1942 and for the Cleveland Browns in 1946 after a sti ...

, became known as the "Seven Oak Posts. Pritula was the last of the "Seven Oak Posts" to play at Michigan. Pritula missed three years at Michigan while serving in the U.S. Army Air Corps engineers during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. His service included 18 months in New Guinea and the Philippines. He returned to Michigan in 1946 and resumed his position as the Wolverines starting right tackle. As a senior, he started nine of ten games at right tackle for the undefeated

1947 Michigan Wolverines football team The 1947 Michigan Wolverines football team represented the University of Michigan in the 1947 Big Nine Conference football season. In its tenth year under head coach Fritz Crisler, Michigan compiled a perfect 10–0 record, won the Big Ten C ...

. His final game for Michigan was the

1948 Rose Bowl The 1948 Rose Bowl was the 34th edition of the college football bowl game, played at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California on Thursday, January 1. The second-ranked and undefeated Michigan Wolverines of the Big Nine Conference routed the #8 ...

in which Michigan defeated the USC Trojans, 49-0. During his three years as a starter at Michigan, the team compiled a record of 23-5-1 and were ranked No. 9, No. 6 and No. 1 in the

AP Poll The Associated Press poll (AP poll) provides weekly rankings of the top 25 NCAA teams in one of three Division I college sports: football, men's basketball and women's basketball. The rankings are compiled by polling 62 sportswriters and broad ...

s. He was selected by the Associated Press as a second-team All-Big Nine Conference player in 1947. He was also invited to play in the 1948

Chicago College All-Star Game The Chicago Charities College All-Star Game was a preseason American football game played from 1934 to 1976 between the National Football League (NFL) champions and a team of star college seniors from the previous year. It was also known as the ...

against the

Chicago Cardinals The professional American football team now known as the Arizona Cardinals previously played in Chicago, Illinois, as the Chicago Cardinals from 1898 to 1959 before relocating to St. Louis, Missouri, for the 1960 through 1987 seasons. Roots ...

. Pritula was a member of the

Kappa Sigma Kappa Sigma (), commonly known as Kappa Sig, is an American collegiate social fraternity founded at the University of Virginia in 1869. Kappa Sigma is one of the five largest international fraternities with currently 318 active chapters and col ...

fraternity and the Tau Beta Pi national engineering society at Michigan. In June 1948, Pritula was hired as the line coach at

Morningside College Morningside University is a private university affiliated with the United Methodist Church and located in Sioux City, Iowa. Founded in 1894 by the Methodist Episcopal Church, Morningside University has 21 buildings on a campus in Sioux City (ar ...

Sioux City, Iowa Sioux City () is a city in Woodbury and Plymouth counties in the northwestern part of the U.S. state of Iowa. The population was 85,797 in the 2020 census, making it the fourth-largest city in Iowa. The bulk of the city is in Woodbury County ...

. After three years at Morningside, he was hired in 1951 as the line coach on

Dutch Clark Earl Harry "Dutch" Clark (October 11, 1906 – August 5, 1978), sometimes also known as the "Flying Dutchman" and the "Old Master", was an American football player and coach, basketball player and coach, and university athletic director. He gaine ...

's staff at the

University of Detroit The University of Detroit Mercy is a private Roman Catholic university in Detroit, Michigan. It is sponsored by both the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) and the Sisters of Mercy. The university was founded in 1877 and is the largest Catholic univers ...

. Pritula was married in 1942 to Irene Szabla. They had five children: Joyce, Karen, William, Carrie, and Michael. In 1952, Pritula joined General Motors as an engineer. He worked for GM's Hydra-Matic Division at

Willow Run Willow Run, also known as Air Force Plant 31, was a manufacturing complex in Michigan, United States, located between Ypsilanti Township and Belleville, built by the Ford Motor Company to manufacture aircraft, especially the B-24 Liberator hea ...

for 27 years. He received a master of arts degree from Michigan in 1967. He died in January 2006 in Ann Arbor.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pritula, Bill 1922 births 2006 deaths Players of American football from Detroit American football offensive tackles Michigan Wolverines football players Players of American football from Pittsburgh United States Army Air Forces personnel of World War II