John Richard Bauer (March 11, 1932 – December 26, 2010) 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 ...

guard Guard or guards may refer to: Professional occupations * Bodyguard, who protects an individual from personal assault * Crossing guard, who stops traffic so pedestrians can cross the street * Lifeguard, who rescues people from drowning * Prison ...

and tackle who played for 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 ...

's (NFL) New York Giants. Born in Benton, Illinois, Bauer attended the

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Univer ...

, where he played for the school's

football team A football team is a group of players selected to play together in the various team sports known as football. Such teams could be selected to play in a match against an opposing team, to represent a football club, group, state or nation, an all-s ...

from 1951 to 1953. In the first round of the

1954 NFL Draft The 1954 National Football League Draft was held on January 28, 1954, at The Bellevue-Stratford Hotel in Philadelphia. This was the eighth year that the first overall pick was a bonus pick determined by lottery. With the previous seven winners i ...

, 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 (A ...

chose him with the 12th overall pick. In August 1954, Bauer was traded to the Green Bay Packers as part of a six-player transaction. A month later, the Giants acquired Bauer from the Packers in another trade. Bauer played in two games for the Giants during the

1954 NFL season The 1954 NFL season was the 35th regular season of the National Football League. The season ended when the Cleveland Browns defeated the Detroit Lions in the NFL Championship Game. Draft The 1954 NFL Draft was held on January 28, 1954 at Phil ...

as a backup. He went into the

Army An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...

and returned to the Giants in 1957, but left the team before the start of the season.

References

External links

NFL.com profile
1932 births 2010 deaths American football offensive guards American football offensive tackles Illinois Fighting Illini football players New York Giants players People from Benton, Illinois Players of American football from Illinois {{Offensive-lineman-1930s-stub