Leo William "Ducky" Elter (October 21, 1929 – August 23, 2008) 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 ...

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 American football plays#Offensive terminology, handoffs from the quarterback to Rush (American football)#Offen ...

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

Pittsburgh Steelers The Pittsburgh Steelers are a professional American football team based in Pittsburgh. The Steelers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) North division. Founded in , the Steel ...

and

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 ...

Early life

Elter was born in

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

. He attended

Shaler Area High School Shaler Area High School is a high school in Shaler Township, Pennsylvania (with a Pittsburgh mailing address). The school employed 124 teachers yielding a student teacher ratio of 1:14. The students' Race/Ethnicity breakdown was: 1,750 Caucasian, ...

, where he played

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

and

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

College career

Elter started his

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

career at Duquesne University, but then transferred to

Villanova University Villanova University is a Private university, private Catholic church, Roman Catholic research university in Villanova, Pennsylvania. It was founded by the Order of Saint Augustine, Augustinians in 1842 and named after Thomas of Villanova, Sa ...

after the Duquesne team disbanded for a short time.

Military

After graduating from college, Elter joined the

United States Marine Corps The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through combi ...

and was recruited to play for the football team at

Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island (often abbreviated as MCRD PI) is an military installation located within Port Royal, South Carolina, approximately south of Beaufort, the community that is typically associated with the installation. ...

Professional career

After being discharged by the Marines, he was signed by Art Rooney, founder of the

. During his seven-year career in the NFL, he played four seasons with the Steelers (1953–1954 and 1958–1959) and three with the

(1955–1957), rushing for a total of 1,380 yards and catching passes for a total of 556 yards. He was named to the

Pro Bowl The National Football League All-Star Game (1939–1942), Pro Bowl (1951–2022), or Pro Bowl Games (starting in 2023) is an annual event held by the National Football League (NFL) featuring the league's star players. The format has changed thro ...

in 1956.

After football

After retiring from football, Elter worked at the

Allegheny County Workhouse The Allegheny County Workhouse was a prison that was located adjacent to the town of Blawnox, Pennsylvania. Its full name was "Allegheny County Workhouse and Inebriate Asylum". The first inmates were received in 1869, and the facility closed in 197 ...

Blawnox, Pennsylvania Blawnox is a borough in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 1,454 at the 2020 census. Name The name, Blawnox, is derived from the Blaw-Knox Company, which had a manufacturing plant there providing much of the town ...

and coached the inmates' football team. He was elected to the Duquesne University Sports Hall of Fame in 1984 and the Western Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame in 1994. In 2000, he was inducted into the American Football Association Hall of Fame.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Elter, Leo 1929 births 2008 deaths American football running backs Players of American football from Pennsylvania Pittsburgh Steelers players Washington Redskins players Eastern Conference Pro Bowl players Duquesne Dukes football players Villanova Wildcats football players United States Marines