Gerry Ellis (born November 12, 1957) is a former

professional A professional is a member of a profession or any person who works in a specified professional activity. The term also describes the standards of education and training that prepare members of the profession with the particular knowledge and ski ...

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 who played

running back A running back (RB) is a member of the offensive backfield in gridiron football. The primary roles of a running back are to receive handoffs from the quarterback to rush the ball, to line up as a receiver to catch the ball, and block. Ther ...

for seven seasons for the Green Bay Packers. He played college football at

Missouri Missouri is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee): Iowa to the north, Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee to the east, Arkansas t ...

and was drafted by the Los Angeles Rams in the

1980 NFL Draft The 1980 NFL draft was the procedure by which National Football League teams selected amateur college football players. It is officially known as the NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting. The draft was held April 29–30, 1980, at the New York Sh ...

. He was inducted into the

Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by a combin ...

in 1994.

College career

After playing high school football at

Hickman High School David Henry Hickman High School (commonly Hickman or HHS) is a public secondary school in Columbia, Missouri, United States, serving students in grades 9– 12. Built in 1927, it is the oldest of four high schools in the Columbia Public School ...

in Columbia, Missouri, Ellis spent his first year post-high school at

Fort Scott Junior College Fort Scott Community College is a community college in Fort Scott, Kansas, United States. It has satellite buildings in other cities in Crawford County, Kansas, Crawford County, including Pittsburg, Kansas, Pittsburg and Frontenac, Kansas, Front ...

. He later played at

, where he started at fullback but was injured midway through his senior year. He returned in time for the 1979 Hall of Fame Bowl against

South Carolina )'' Animis opibusque parati'' ( for, , Latin, Prepared in mind and resources, links=no) , anthem = " Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind" , Former = Province of South Carolina , seat = Columbia , LargestCity = Charleston , LargestMetro = ...

, where he scored a touchdown.

Professional career

Ellis was drafted by the Los Angeles Rams in the seventh round

, but was cut by the team in his first preseason and was claimed by the Green Bay Packers in free agency during the opening stages of the 1980 season. After rising to starting fullback in the middle of September 1980, Ellis scored his first career NFL touchdown against the Rams. He set Packers single-season team records for total offense by a running back and receiving yards by a running back in 1981, accumulating more than a quarter of Green Bay's total offensive yards. On September 30, 1984, Ellis caught a lateral from

James Lofton James David Lofton (born July 5, 1956) is an American former professional football player and coach. He is a former coach for the San Diego Chargers but is best known for his years in the National Football League as a wide receiver for the G ...

as time expired against the

Tampa Bay Buccaneers The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are a professional American football team based in Tampa, Florida. The Buccaneers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) South division. The cl ...

, scoring a touchdown and sending the game into overtime. The Packers unfortunately lost the game in overtime. After playing at fullback from 1980 to 1983, Ellis moved to running back before 1984. He led the Packers in rushing in both 1983 and 1984, and returned kicks for the Packers in 1985. Before the 1987 season, Ellis was volunteering at a football camp for underserved youth and tore his Achilles tendon while working out, never to step on an NFL field again. Ellis was inducted into the

in 1994.

Personal life

Ellis grew up in Columbia, Missouri with eight siblings, where he competed in track and field and set Central Missouri Conference records in discus and shot put. While attending college at the

University of Missouri The University of Missouri (Mizzou, MU, or Missouri) is a public land-grant research university in Columbia, Missouri. It is Missouri's largest university and the flagship of the four-campus University of Missouri System. MU was founded in ...

, Ellis majored in education. He invested in real estate as a side job during his football career.

References

1957 births Living people Sportspeople from Columbia, Missouri Players of American football from Missouri American football fullbacks Hickman High School alumni Missouri Tigers football players Green Bay Packers players {{Runningback-1950s-stub