Joseph Charles Osmanski (December 26, 1917 – July 24, 1993) 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 ...

fullback 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 Chicago Bears and

New York Bulldogs The New York Yanks were an American football team that played in the National Football League under that name in the 1950 and 1951 seasons. Season by season overview 1949 The team began in 1944 as the Boston Yanks, owned by Kate Smith's manage ...

. He played college football at the College of the Holy Cross and was drafted in the 18th round of the

1941 NFL Draft The 1941 National Football League Draft was held on December 10, 1940, at the Willard Hotel in Washington D.C. With the first overall pick of the draft, the Chicago Bears selected halfback Tom Harmon. Player selections Round 1 Round 2 R ...

by the

Washington Redskins The Washington Commanders are a professional American football team based in the Washington metropolitan area. The Commanders compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) N ...

. Osmanski was the younger brother of Bears player

Bill Osmanski William Thomas Osmanski (December 29, 1915 – December 25, 1996), nicknamed "Bullet" Bill, was an American football player and coach. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1973 and in 1977 he was inducted into the National Po ...

. The two became teammates in Chicago in 1946 when Bill returned from

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 ...

and Joe was traded to the team.

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* 1917 births 1993 deaths American football fullbacks Chicago Bears players Holy Cross Crusaders football players New York Bulldogs players DePaul University alumni Players of American football from Providence, Rhode Island American people of Polish descent {{runningback-1910s-stub