 Pyle in 1964 | |||||||||
| No. 50 | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Position | Center | ||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||
| Born | (1939-07-18)July 18, 1939 Keokuk, Iowa, U.S. | ||||||||
| Died | July 29, 2015(2015-07-29) (aged 76) Highland Park, Illinois, U.S. | ||||||||
| Height | 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m) | ||||||||
| Weight | 250 lb (113 kg) | ||||||||
| Career information | |||||||||
| High school | New Trier(Winnetka, Illinois) | ||||||||
| College | Yale | ||||||||
| NFL draft | 1961: 7th round, 89th overall pick | ||||||||
| AFL draft | 1961: 17th round, 134th overall pick | ||||||||
| Career history | |||||||||
| Awards and highlights | |||||||||
| Career NFL statistics | |||||||||
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Michael Johnson Pyle (July 18, 1939 – July 29, 2015) was an American professionalfootball player who was acenter for nine seasons between1961 and1969 in theNational Football League (NFL) for theChicago Bears. In 2019 he was selected as one of the100 greatest Bears of All-Time.
Pyle was born in 1939 to William Palmer Pyle, an executive withKraft Foods, and Cathryn Johnson Pyle in Keokuk, Iowa. He has two brothers:William Palmer Pyle Jr. (who playedoffensive guard atMichigan State University and with theBaltimore Colts, theMinnesota Vikings and theOakland Raiders) and Harlen Pyle. From Palmer's family, his nephew isEric Kumerow, and his grand-nephews areJoey andNick Bosa, as well asJake Kumerow.[1]
Pyle attendedNew Trier High School inWinnetka, Illinois, where hewrestled and threw thediscus andshot put in addition to playingfootball. He was an Illinois state wrestling champion in1957 in theheavyweight division. He also won a state championship in 1957 for his efforts with the discus and set a state record on his way to winning the shot put title, as well.
He graduated in 1957 from New Trier and went on toYale University, where he was a member ofSkull and Bones andDelta Kappa Epsilon fraternity. He was an offensive lineman for theBulldogs andcaptained the undefeated, co-Lambert Trophy winner1960 Yale Bulldogs football team.[2] The 1960 team was ranked 14th in the finalAP college football poll and 18th in the finalUPI college football poll.[3] He was selected in both the1961 NFL draft and1961 AFL draft to theChicago Bears in the NFL and theNew York Titans of the AFL. He ultimately chose to play for the Bears.[4][5]
Pyle played nine seasons with the Chicago Bears from1961 through1969 where he played forGeorge Halas. In 1963, he earned aPro Bowl berth and served as the Bears offensive team captain from 1963, their championship season, through his retirement. He was named to theSporting News First-team - All Conference and theUPI Second-team - All NFL in 1963 and to theNew York Daily News All NFL team in 1965.
After his retirement in 1969, Pyle was a broadcaster forWGN radio, where he was the Bears pre and post game program host, as well as the host of a Sunday sports talk show. He later co-hosted the "Mike Ditka Show" when Ditka coached the Bears.
In 1974, he served as color commentator on the broadcasts of theWFL'sChicago Fire onWJJD.[6]
Several years after retiring from the NFL, Pyle began to experience symptoms of dementia. His condition eventually worsened, and his family was forced to put him into a full-time assisted living facility. Pyle went to Silverado, a national chain that has an arrangement with the NFL to treat all former players with at least three years of service — and dementia — free of charge.
‘‘We have treated about 20 NFL players — we have about a dozen right now,’’ Loren Shook, the president and CEO of Silverado Senior Living, says. ‘‘This is under the ‘88 Plan’ with the NFL.’’
The 88 Plan is a brain trauma program named for Hall of Fame tight endJohn Mackey, whose number was 88. Mackey was in a near vegetative state fromchronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) by the time he died in 2011.[7] Pyle died on July 29, 2015, from a brain hemorrhage.[8][9] He is one of at least 345NFL players to be diagnosed after death (CTE) with this disease, which is caused by repeated hits to the head.[10][11]