George Donald Young ( – ) 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 ...

defensive end Defensive end (DE) is a defensive position in the sport of gridiron football. This position has designated the players at each end of the defensive line, but changes in formation (American football), formations over the years have substantially ...

who played eight seasons in the

All-America Football Conference The All-America Football Conference (AAFC) was a professional American football league that challenged the established National Football League (NFL) from 1946 to 1949. One of the NFL's most formidable challengers, the AAFC attracted many of the ...

(AAFC) and 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 ...

with the

Cleveland Browns The Cleveland Browns are a professional American football team based in Cleveland. Named after original coach and co-founder Paul Brown, they compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference ( ...

. He later was an umpire officiating in the

American Football League The American Football League (AFL) was a major professional American football league that operated for ten seasons from 1960 until 1970, when it merged with the older National Football League (NFL), and became the American Football Conference. ...

(AFL) for its entire existence, from

1960 It is also known as the "Year of Africa" because of major events—particularly the independence of seventeen African nations—that focused global attention on the continent and intensified feelings of Pan-Africanism. Events January * Ja ...

through

1969 This year is notable for Apollo 11's first landing on the moon. Events January * January 4 – The Government of Spain hands over Ifni to Morocco. * January 5 **Ariana Afghan Airlines Flight 701 crashes into a house on its approach to ...

. He officiated in the first AFL championship in 1960 and the first

Super Bowl The Super Bowl is the annual final playoff game of the National Football League (NFL) to determine the league champion. It has served as the final game of every NFL season since 1966, replacing the NFL Championship Game. Since 2022, the game ...

after the 1966 season. Young grew up in a poor family outside of

Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania Wilkes-Barre ( or ) is a city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, Luzerne County. Located at the center of the Wyoming Valley in Northeastern Pennsylvania, it had a population of 44,328 in th ...

. He was a star athlete in high school, playing on his football team and winning a state heavyweight title in wrestling as a senior. Young attended the

University of Georgia , mottoeng = "To teach, to serve, and to inquire into the nature of things.""To serve" was later added to the motto without changing the seal; the Latin motto directly translates as "To teach and to inquire into the nature of things." , establ ...

and was on the Bulldogs football team in 1941 and 1942, when the school won the Rose Bowl. He then spent three years in the military during World War II and played service football as he trained in the

U.S. Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage of ...

. He played in 1944 for

Paul Brown Paul Eugene Brown (September 7, 1908 – August 5, 1991) was an American football coach and executive in the All-America Football Conference (AAFC) and National Football League (NFL). Brown was both the co-founder and first coach of the Clevela ...

, then the head football coach at a Naval facility outside

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

. After the war, Brown became head coach of the

in the AAFC and signed Young. He played on the defensive line for the Browns until his retirement in 1953, a span during which the team won five league championships. After his playing career, Young worked as an executive at a utility in

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

and officiated in the AFL. He died of a brain tumor in 1969.

Early life and college career

Young grew up poor in

Forty Fort, Pennsylvania Forty Fort is a borough in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 4,233 at the 2020 census. Its neighbors are Wyoming (to the north), Plains Township (to the east), Kingston (to the south), and Swoyersville (to the west ...

, a suburb of

Wilkes-Barre Wilkes-Barre ( or ) is a city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Luzerne County. Located at the center of the Wyoming Valley in Northeastern Pennsylvania, it had a population of 44,328 in the 2020 census. It is the secon ...

. His mother died when he was 10 years old, and dinner often consisted of canned beans or soup. Despite a bad diet, Young grew to six feet, three inches and more than 200 pounds. He played three years as an

end End, END, Ending, or variation, may refer to: End *In mathematics: ** End (category theory) ** End (topology) **End (graph theory) ** End (group theory) (a subcase of the previous) **End (endomorphism) *In sports and games **End (gridiron footbal ...

on his Forty Fort High School football team and was also a wrestler, winning the state heavyweight title as a senior. The head of a soft drink bottling company in Wilkes-Barre helped Young get into the

, where he played football on the varsity team starting as a freshman. He was on a

Georgia Bulldogs football The Georgia Bulldogs football program represents the University of Georgia in the sport of American football. The Bulldogs compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and the Eastern Div ...

team that won the Rose Bowl after the 1942 season. Soon after the game, Young entered the

U.S. military The United States Armed Forces are the military forces of the United States. The armed forces consists of six service branches: the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, and Coast Guard. The president of the United States is the ...

as America's involvement in World War II intensified. He was sent as a

Navy A navy, naval force, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval warfare, naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral zone, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations and ...

cadet to Great Lakes Naval Station near

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

and played on a service football team there coached by

in 1944. The following year, he was transferred to Fleet City, a complex of Naval bases in

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

, and played on a Fleet City Bluejackets team that won the service national championship. At Fleet City, doctors discovered Young had a large growth of calcium on his right thigh bone. They wanted to operate and thought it would grow larger, but told Young he would lose significant use of his leg after surgery. He elected not to have the operation and hope for the best. The deposit grew to 9 1/2 inches before it stopped; it did not affect his ability to run.

Cleveland Browns

After the war, Paul Brown became the head coach of the

, a professional team under formation in the new

. He invited Young to try out for the squad. Young barely made the team and played sparingly in the Browns' first season in 1946, when the team won the first AAFC championship. Young almost failed make the roster again in 1947, but thereafter became a stalwart on the Browns' defensive line as a

whose job it was to disrupt opponents' running and passing attacks. The Browns won the following three AAFC championships, helped by a staunch defense and a high-scoring offense featuring quarterback

Otto Graham Otto Everett Graham Jr. (December 6, 1921 – December 17, 2003) was an American professional football player who was a quarterback for the Cleveland Browns in the All-America Football Conference (AAFC) and National Football League (NFL). Graha ...

and

fullback Fullback or Full back may refer to: Sports * A position in various kinds of football, including: ** Full-back (association football), in association football (soccer), a defender playing in a wide position ** Fullback (gridiron football), in Americ ...

Marion Motley Marion Motley (June 5, 1920 – June 27, 1999) was an American professional football player who was a halfback and linebacker for the Cleveland Browns in the All-America Football Conference (AAFC) and National Football League (NFL). He was a le ...

. Young continued his academic studies during the offseason – his career at Georgia was cut short by the war – and received a degree from

Baldwin–Wallace College Baldwin Wallace University (BW) is a private university in Berea, Ohio. It was founded in 1845 as Baldwin Institute by Methodist businessman John Baldwin. The school merged with nearby German Wallace College in 1913 to become Baldwin-Wallace C ...

in 1949. The AAFC disbanded after the 1949 season and the Browns were absorbed by the more established

(NFL). Young continued to play for the Browns as the team won the 1950 NFL championship and advanced to the championship but lost in each of the ensuing three years. Young announced his retirement after the 1953 season, when he shared playing time with rookie

Doug Atkins Douglas Leon Atkins (May 8, 1930 – December 30, 2015) was an American professional football player who was a defensive end for the Cleveland Browns, Chicago Bears, and New Orleans Saints in the National Football League (NFL). He played colleg ...

at left defensive end.

Later life and officiating career

Young worked during the off-season in his last two years with the Browns at the

Public Service Company of Northern Illinois In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichkei ...

in its personnel department. He took a full-time job with the utilities company after leaving football and settled in

Waukegan, Illinois ''(Fortress or Trading Post)'' , image_flag = , image_seal = , blank_emblem_size = 150 , blank_emblem_type = Logo , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_type1 = State , subdivisi ...

. "I liked the work from what I saw of it the last couple of years and I've decided to devote full time to it now", he said. Young came back to professional football in 1960, when he was hired as an

official An official is someone who holds an office (function or mandate, regardless whether it carries an actual working space with it) in an organization or government and participates in the exercise of authority, (either their own or that of their ...

in the new

(AFL). He continued his regular job as an area manager for the utility in Illinois while officiating games part-time. He served as the umpire in the AFL's first championship between the

Houston Oilers The Houston Oilers were a professional American football team that played in Houston from its founding in 1960 to 1996 before relocating to Memphis, and later Nashville, Tennessee becoming the Tennessee Titans. The Oilers began play in 1960 as ...

and the

Los Angeles Chargers The Los Angeles Chargers are a professional American football team based in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The Chargers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) West division, and ...

. In 1966, he was the umpire in

Super Bowl I The first AFL–NFL World Championship Game (known retroactively as Super BowlI and referred to in contemporaneous reports, including the game's radio broadcast, as the Super Bowl) was an American football game played on January 15, 1967, at the ...

, the first inter-league title game between the champions of the AFL and NFL. Young died suddenly in 1969 of a brain tumor at 45. He was an AFL official for the league's entire existence; the AFL and NFL formally merged starting in the 1970 season. He was survived by his wife, Norma Young, and daughters Sally and Diane.

References

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External links