Joseph William Patterson Jr. (August 20, 1918 – July 10, 1998) 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 with ...
player who played two seasons in the
NFL
The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the major ...
with 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 ca ...
and
Pittsburgh Steelers
The Pittsburgh Steelers are a professional American football team based in Pittsburgh. The Steelers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) North division. Founded in , the Steel ...
.
Early life
Patterson was born in
Hillsboro, Texas
Hillsboro is a city in and the county seat of Hill County, Texas, Hill County, Texas, United States. The population was 8,221 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census.
History
Hillsboro was named for Hill County.
At one point during Bon ...
and attended
Hillsboro High School.
He was inducted into the Texas High School Football Hall of Fame in 1988.
He matriculated at
Baylor University
Baylor University is a private Baptist Christian research university in Waco, Texas. Baylor was chartered in 1845 by the last Congress of the Republic of Texas. Baylor is the oldest continuously operating university in Texas and one of the fir ...
.
He was named to Baylor's 1930s All-Decade Team and was the 1939
East–West Shrine Game
East West (or East and West) may refer to:
*East–West dichotomy, the contrast between Eastern and Western society or culture
Arts and entertainment
Books, journals and magazines
*'' East, West'', an anthology of short stories written by Salm ...
MVP. He was inducted into the Baylor Hall of Fame in 1963.
Football career
Patterson was drafted by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the third round of the
1939 NFL Draft
The 1939 National Football League Draft was held on December 9, 1938, at the New Yorker Hotel in New York City, New York. With the first overall pick of the draft, the Chicago Cardinals selected center Ki Aldrich.
Player selections
Round one
...
.
He played for the Chicago Cardinals in 1939 and returned to the Steelers in 1940.
He played
quarterback
The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...
,
halfback and
punted.
Personal
See also
*
List of college football yearly passing leaders
The list of college football yearly passing and total offense leaders identifies the major college passing leaders for each season from 1937 to the present. It includes yearly leaders in three statistical categories: (1) passing yards, passing yar ...
References
1918 births
1998 deaths
People from Hillsboro, Texas
Players of American football from Texas
American football quarterbacks
American football running backs
Baylor Bears football players
Chicago Cardinals players
Pittsburgh Steelers players
Georgia Pre-Flight Skycrackers football players
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