Donald Bitterlich (born January 5, 1954) is a former professional

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 in the

National Football League 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 ...

(NFL) for the

Seattle Seahawks The Seattle Seahawks are a professional American football team based in Seattle. The Seahawks compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) West, which they rejoined in 2002 as ...

. Bitterlich kicked the first field goal in the expansion Seahawks history, also the first points ever scored by a Seahawks player.

College career

A graduate of

William Tennent High School William Tennent High School is a public high school serving grades 9 through 12, located in Warminster, Pennsylvania, US. The school is the only public high school serving Warminster and Upper Southampton townships and Ivyland borough in the Cen ...

, Bitterlich was scouted by

Temple Owls football The Temple Owls football team represents Temple University in the sport of college football. The Temple Owls compete in the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision as a member of the American Athletic Conference (The American). They play thei ...

head coach

Wayne Hardin Irving Wayne Hardin (March 23, 1926 – April 12, 2017) was an American football player and coach. He served as the head football coach at the United States Naval Academy from 1959 to 1964 and at Temple University from 1970 to 1982, compiling a c ...

during his junior year. During his first tryout with the team, Bitterlich left early as he was scheduled to play accordion in a musical performance at Vitale's Restaurant in

Bustleton, Philadelphia The Bustleton section of Northeast Philadelphia is located in the Far Northeast, north of Rhawnhurst and Fox Chase and south of Somerton; sitting between Roosevelt Boulevard to the east, the city boundary to the west, Red Lion Road to the nor ...

. He attended the school with a soccer scholarship, and wanted to major in music, but as athletes were prohibited from doing so, he majored in civil engineering. With the Owls, Bitterlich set six NCAA records. In 1974, Bitterlich was second in the nation for points scored on kicks. The next year, Bitterlich set the record for the longest field goal in Temple history, with a 56-yard field goal. During the year, against

Drake Drake may refer to: Animals * A male duck People and fictional characters * Drake (surname), a list of people and fictional characters with the family name * Drake (given name), a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * ...

, he also broke the NCAA record for the most consecutive conversions with 82, along with tying the NCAA record of for total kicking points with 84. He was inducted into the Temple Sports Hall of Fame in 2007.

Professional career

Bitterlich was selected with in the third round of the

1976 NFL Draft The 1976 National Football League draft was an annual player selection meeting held April 8–9, 1976, at the Roosevelt Hotel in New York City, New York. The draft lasted 17 rounds, with the expansion Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Seattle Seahawks m ...

by the Seahawks with the 92nd overall pick, the final selection of the round. In the team's first game against the

St. Louis Cardinals The St. Louis Cardinals are an American professional baseball team based in St. Louis. The Cardinals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Since the 2006 season, the Cardinals hav ...

, Bitterlich scored the first points in Seahawks history with a 27-yard field goal. However, he would miss three kicks later in the season against the

San Francisco 49ers The San Francisco 49ers (also written as the San Francisco Forty-Niners) are a professional American football team based in the San Francisco Bay Area. The 49ers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the league's National ...

, and was released after three games. After being released by the Seahawks, Bitterlich tried out with the

Philadelphia Eagles The Philadelphia Eagles are a professional American football team based in Philadelphia. The Eagles compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East division. The team plays ...

and two other teams, but was not signed.

Personal life

Bitterlich has a German ancestry. Bitterlich is currently a project manager for the Daniel J. Keating Company. Bitterlich is also an accordionist, an instrument he had been playing since he was 7. A Christian, Bitterlich was a

Sunday school A Sunday school is an educational institution, usually (but not always) Christian in character. Other religions including Buddhism, Islam, and Judaism have also organised Sunday schools in their temples and mosques, particularly in the West. Su ...

teacher for 27 years. He and his wife, Ellen, have two daughters: Lisa, a

Fellowship of Christian Athletes The Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) is an international non-profit Christian sports ministry founded in 1954 and based in Kansas City, Missouri. It has staff offices located throughout the United States and abroad. History FCA was found ...

missionary, and Elizabeth, a

J.Crew J.Crew Group, Inc., is an American multi-brand, multi-channel, specialty retailer. The company offers an assortment of women's, men's, and children's apparel and accessories, including swimwear, outerwear, lounge-wear, bags, sweaters, denim, dr ...

Boston store manager.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bitterlich, Don 1954 births American football placekickers Living people People from Warminster, Pennsylvania Players of American football from Bucks County, Pennsylvania Seattle Seahawks players Temple Owls football players