Charley Trippi, Oldest Member of Pro Football Hall of Fame, Dead at 100

Sporting News via Getty Images Charley Trippi

Charley Trippi, one of the most versatile players in the history of football has died at the age of 100.

The University of Georgia announced in a statement that Trippi died "peacefully" at his home in Athens, Ga. on Wednesday.

A runner-up for the Heisman Trophy while at Georgia, Trippi was the No. 1 NFL draft pick in 1945, when he still had two years of college eligibility left, according to The New York Times.

After signing a record four-year, $100,000 contract with the team in January 1947, he led the Cardinals to a championship in his first year and went on to play for the team for nine seasons.

"In those days, the more things a player did, the more pay he could demand," Trippi said, according to his bio at the Pro Football Hall of Fame. "I could run, kick, pass and catch, and that made me a valuable property."

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John Bazemore/AP/Shutterstock

Selected to the National College Football Hall of Fame (1959), National Pro Football Hall of Fame, Rose Bowl Hall of Fame, and State of Georgia Sports Hall of Fame (1965), the star athlete is also one of only four Georgia players to ever have his jersey retired, the school said.

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The son of a coal miner, Trippi was born in rural Pennsylvania in 1921. He found his way to Georgia after taking a job at a Coca-Cola bottling factory as a driver during one summer, according to The Times, which helped to facilitate a try-out with the Bulldogs.

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AP/Shutterstock Charles Trippi

"I wanted to get out of the area," Trippi told The Athens Banner-Herald, per The Times. "I couldn't visualize mining coal eight hours a day for the rest of my life."

Last December, on his 100th birthday, Georgia head coach Kirby Smart surprised the legendary athlete with a cake – featuring 100 candles, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

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"Being such a great second-effort athlete, he wouldn't stop until he blew them all out," Smart said in a release sent by the school. "I was really overwhelmed. He was perhaps the greatest all-around football player on our campus. Many historians and observers have said that. And from reading about him, I understand why."

Trippi was also an All-America baseball player in 1946 and played with the Atlanta Crackers in 1947, according to the University of Georgia. He later served as an assistant coach at Georgia (1958-62) and with the St. Louis Cardinals.

Trippi later returned to Athens as a businessman and lived in the city until his death.