Tom Wittum (January 11, 1950 – January 22, 2010) was an

American football American football, referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada and also known as gridiron football, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular American football field, field with goalposts at e ...

player. He had a 5-year career in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...

(NFL) from 1973 to 1977 as a punter. He played in two

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

as a member of the

San Francisco 49ers The San Francisco 49ers (also written as the San Francisco Forty-Niners and nicknamed the Niners) are a professional American football team based in the San Francisco Bay Area. The 49ers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member ...

. A native of Berwyn, Wittum grew up in Round Lake. A fifth-round pick of the Chicago White Sox in 1968, Wittum instead chose to attend

Northern Illinois University Northern Illinois University (NIU) is a public research university in DeKalb, Illinois, United States. It was founded as "Northern Illinois State Normal School" in 1895 by Illinois Governor John P. Altgeld, initially to provide the state with c ...

."Ex-San Francisco Pro Bowl punter Tom Wittum dies," ''The Associated Press'', Wednesday, January 27, 2010.
/ref> He was a three-year letter-winner in football for the Huskies from 1969 to 1971, and lettered four years (1969–72) as a third baseman for the NIU baseball team. He was inducted as an individual into the NIU Hall of Fame in 1987 and was a member of the Huskies' 1972 NCAA baseball team enshrined in 2008. Wittum left Northern Illinois with 10 kicking records, including the school's career, single-season and single-game records for punts, punting yards and punting average. For his career, he averaged 40.39 yards on 228 punts for 9,210 total yards, numbers which as of January 2010 rank third, fourth and third, respectively, in the Huskie record book. As of January 2010 he still holds the top three single season totals for punts and punting yards with 78 for 3,129. Wittum ranks eighth all-time at NIU in points by a kicker with 113 on 21 field goals and 50 PATs, all NIU records at the time. His career field-goal totals of 21 made on 37 attempts, also school records at the time, are the eighth and seventh-most in school history. He made 50 of 55 extra-point attempts from 1969 to 1971 and is eighth in the Huskie record book in those categories. He shares the Pro Bowl record for longest punt with Darren Bennett (64 yards). He also currently holds the #2 spot for most punts in a Pro Bowl game, with 9. He retired from the NFL after a serious car accident left him with several broken bones in 1978. After he retired, Wittum was headcoach of the Grayslake Rams - Central High School team in Illinois and taught in addition driver's education. He died of cancer on January 22, 2010.

NFL career statistics

References

External links

Crumpacker, John. "Beat: Ex-Punter Wittum dies of cancer," ''San Francisco Chronicle'', Wednesday, January 27, 2010.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wittum, Tom 1950 births 2010 deaths Sportspeople from Berwyn, Illinois Players of American football from Cook County, Illinois American football punters Northern Illinois Huskies football players San Francisco 49ers players National Conference Pro Bowl players