Edward Charles "Ed" Sharockman (November 4, 1939 – August 19, 2017) was a professional

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 ...

defensive back In gridiron football, defensive backs (DBs), also called the secondary, are the players on the defensive side of the ball who play farthest back from the line of scrimmage. They are distinguished from the other two sets of defensive players, the ...

. Sharockman graduated from the

University of Pittsburgh The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a public state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The university is composed of 17 undergraduate and graduate schools and colleges at its urban Pittsburgh campus, home to the universit ...

, where he starred as a

cornerback A cornerback (CB) is a member of the defensive backfield or secondary in gridiron football. Cornerbacks cover receivers most of the time, but also blitz and defend against such offensive running plays as sweeps and reverses. They create tur ...

. He was drafted in the fifth round by the

Minnesota Vikings The Minnesota Vikings are a professional American football team based in Minneapolis. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the National Football Conference (NFC) North division. Founded in 1960 as an expansion ...

in the National Football League's 1961 draft, and in the 22nd round by the Kansas City Chiefs, Dallas Texans of the

American Football League The American Football League (AFL) was a major professional American football league that operated for ten seasons from 1960 until 1970, when it merged with the older National Football League (NFL), and became the American Football Conference. ...

. He chose to play with the Vikings, where he spent his entire 12 season career (1961–1972). He started in

Super Bowl IV Super Bowl IV was an American football game played on January 11, 1970 at Tulane Stadium in New Orleans, Louisiana. It was the fourth and final AFL–NFL World Championship Game in professional football prior to the AFL–NFL merger taking eff ...

. In

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity scale, Mercalli intensity of X (''Extrem ...

, Sharockman enjoyed a banner day against the

Dallas Cowboys The Dallas Cowboys are a professional American football team based in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. The Cowboys compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East divisi ...

, blocking a punt and recovering it for a touchdown, also returning an intercepted

Craig Morton Larry Craig Morton (born February 5, 1943) is a former American football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 18 seasons, primarily with the Dallas Cowboys and Denver Broncos. He played college football at California, ...

pass for another touchdown in the Vikings' 54-13 annihilation of the eventual National Football Conference champions. During his career, Sharockman was named second-team All-Pro in 1965 and 1969. In his 12 seasons with the Vikings, he intercepted 40 passes, returned for 804 yards with three touchdowns and recovered nine fumbles, returned for 113 yards with one touchdown.

References

1939 births 2017 deaths People from St. Clair, Pennsylvania Players of American football from Pennsylvania American football cornerbacks Pittsburgh Panthers football players Minnesota Vikings players {{defensiveback-1930s-stub