John Samuel "Chooch" Tsoutsouvas (October 8, 1917 – March 27, 1989) 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 ...

player. Tsoutsouvas was born in 1917 at

Madera, California Madera (Spanish language, Spanish for "Wood") is a city and county seat of Madera County, California, Madera County, California. As of the 2020 United States census, the city's population was 66,224. Located in the San Joaquin Valley, Madera i ...

. He attended

Santa Barbara High School Santa Barbara Senior High School, "Home of the Dons," is situated on a sprawling campus in Santa Barbara, California in the Santa Barbara Unified School District. Among the oldest high schools in California and one of five high schools in the Dis ...

and then

Ventura College Ventura College is a public community college in Ventura, California. Established in 1925, the college has a campus with an enrollment of 13,763 students. It is part of the Ventura County Community College District. History Ventura College ...

. He then played college football at

Oregon State University Oregon State University (OSU) is a public land-grant, research university in Corvallis, Oregon. OSU offers more than 200 undergraduate-degree programs along with a variety of graduate and doctoral degrees. It has the 10th largest engineering co ...

in 1938 and 1939. He then played professional football 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) as a center and linebacker for the

Detroit Lions The Detroit Lions are a professional American football team based in Detroit. The Lions compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) North Division. The team play their home games at Ford ...

. He appeared in three games for the Lions during the 1940 season. He also played for the Seattle Shipbuilders of the NWIFL in 1940, the Seattle Bombers of the American Football League in 1944, and the Tacoma Indians of the Pacific Coast Football League in 1946. Tsoutsouvas died in 1989 at

Santa Barbara, California Santa Barbara ( es, Santa Bárbara, meaning "Saint Barbara") is a coastal city in Santa Barbara County, California, of which it is also the county seat. Situated on a south-facing section of coastline, the longest such section on the West Coas ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tsoutsouvas, Sam 1917 births 1989 deaths American football centers American football linebackers Oregon State Beavers football players Detroit Lions players Players of American football from California Sportspeople from Madera, California Santa Barbara High School alumni