George Ratterman
George William Ratterman was an American professional football quarterback who played in the All-America Football Conference and the National Football League.
Early life
He was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he graduated from St. Xavier High School in 1944. He played college football at the University of Notre Dame from 1944 through 1946, primarily as a backup to quarterbacks Frank Dancewicz and Johnny Lujack. He was the last of only four students in Notre Dame history to earn letters in four different sports. Legendary football coach Frank Leahy called him "the greatest all-around athlete in the history of Notre Dame."Professional football career
He played professional football with the Buffalo Bills of the AAFC from 1947 to 1949, when the league merged with the NFL. In his first year, 1947, at the age of 20, Ratterman threw 22 touchdown passes, setting a professional football rookie record that stood for more than fifty years until broken by Peyton Manning in 1998. He continued his career with the New York Yanks of the NFL in 1950 and 1951, the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League in 1951 and finished with the Cleveland Browns of the NFL from 1952 through 1956. He led the NFL in TD passes in 1950 while playing for New York. In 1956, he became the Browns' starting quarterback, succeeding Otto Graham, and was first player in the history of football to wear a radio receiver in his helmet, which allowed Cleveland Coach Paul Brown to call plays using a microphone instead of sending in messenger players for each play. Ratterman was featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated, October 8, 1956. A leg injury on October 21, 1956, ended his football career.Post-playing career activities
General counsel for the American Football League Players Association
He earned his law degree in 1956 and was admitted to practice in Ohio and Kentucky. He acted as general counsel for the American Football League Players Association in the mid-1960s, when Jack Kemp was the president of the union.Sheriff of Campbell County
Ratterman was elected sheriff of Campbell County, Kentucky, in 1961 after an irregular campaign season during which Ratterman was drugged with chloral hydrate and put in bed with a stripper as part of a failed blackmail attempt. The publicity from the botched frame-up attempt catapulted him and his party to victory in the election.Ratterman's tenure as sheriff was marked by a dramatic diminishment of gambling, prostitution and vice businesses that had dominated Newport since the Civil War. Ratterman's co-ordination with federal agents and his personal relationship with Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy have been credited.
He was an unsuccessful candidate for county judge and United States Congress in the 1960s. He finished third in the Republican primary for Kentucky's 4th congressional district behind Gene Snyder.