Sonny Jurgensen
Sonny Jurgensen was born in Wilmington, North Carolina, United States on August 23rd, 1934 and is the Football Player. At the age of 89, Sonny Jurgensen biography, profession, age, height, weight, eye color, hair color, build, measurements, education, career, dating/affair, family, news updates, and networth are available.
At 89 years old, Sonny Jurgensen has this physical status:
Christian Adolph Jurgensen III (born August 23, 1934), also known as Sonny Jurgensen, is a retired American football quarterback in the National Football League (NFL) for the Philadelphia Eagles and Washington Redskins.
In 1983, he was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Early life
In Wilmington, North Carolina, Jurgensen was born on August 23, 1934. He began playing baseball and basketball in elementary school when he led his class to the city grammar school championships in baseball and basketball. He later won Wilmington's youth tennis championship and played for his hometown Civitan club, which also won the city baseball championship.
College career
Jurgensen played college football at Duke University. He joined the varsity team in 1954 as a back-up quarterback behind Jerry Barger, and he completed 12 of 28 passes for 212 yards, with one touchdown and three interceptions.
But Jurgensen made the biggest difference in the season as a defensive back, when he tied a team record for interceptions in four straight games. With five interceptions, the season came to an end. Duke ended the season with a 7–2–1 regular-season record and a first-place trophy. In the 1955 Orange Bowl, Duke defeated the Nebraska Cornhuskers 34–7.
In 1955, Jurgensen took over as starting quarterback. He also started in the defensive secondary, but he kept his starting position.
Duke finished the season with a 7-2-1 record and an ACC co-championship, but did not make it to a bowl because Maryland received the league's automatic bid to the Orange Bowl. Jurgensen completed 37 of 69 passes for 536 yards, three touchdowns, and seven interceptions in the 2007 season. He rushed 48 times for 48 yards and two touchdowns. He punched for a 33.7 average and intercepted four passes for 17 yards, four of which were intercepted.
When Duke lost 7-0 to South Carolina in the season opener, Jurgensen's senior season in 1956 did not get off to a promising start. This game marked Duke's first ACC loss, the first in the conference's fourth year. Duke ended the season with a 5–4–1 record, and Jurgensen went 28-59 for 371 yards.
He had six interceptions and two touchdown passes, as well as rushing 25 times for 51 yards with three touchdowns. Jurgensen's last career statistics showed 1,119 passes for 1,119 yards, 16 interceptions, and six touchdowns. He also ran for 109 yards and intercepted ten passes.
Jurgensen played baseball briefly at Duke, but eventually declined an invitation to try out for the basketball team.
Jurgensen served as a Sunday school bus driver in Herndon, Virginia, before being drafted by the NFL.
Professional career
The Philadelphia Eagles selected Jurgensen in the fourth round of the 1957 NFL Draft. He was Philadelphia's back-up quarterback, behind Bobby Thomason in 1957 and Norm Van Brocklin from 1958 to 1960, and Norm Van Brocklin in 1957 and 1960. Jurgensen was a member of a championship team for the first time in his professional career, but Jurgensen did not appear in any playoff games.
Jurgensen took over as Philadelphia's starter after Van Brocklin retired in 1961, passing for a NFL record 3,723 yards, tied for the NFL record of 32 touchdown passes, and was named All-Pro. Following an injury-plagued 1963 season, Jurgensen was sent to the Washington Redskins on April 1, 1964, in exchange for quarterback Norm Snead and cornerback Claude Crabb.
During the 1964 season, Jurgensen took over play-calling for the Redskins. Following the season, he was then selected to play in the Pro Bowl and was also named second team All-Pro.
When the Cowboys took a 21–0 lead at DC Stadium, one of Jurgensen's most memorable games was during the 1965 season. Jurgensen then threw for 411 yards, bringing the team back to victory 34-31. He scrambled for a touchdown on a quarterback sneak and gave Bobby Mitchell a game-winning 35 yards pass.
Jurgensen set new NFL single-season records for attempts (508) and completions (288), breaking his own record by passing for 3,747 yards in 1967. Because of broken ribs and elbow surgery, he missed a significant portion of the 1968 season. He did, however, tie a record for the longest pass play in NFL history early in the 1968 season. During Jerry Allen's game against the Chicago Bears on September 15, 1968, he passed for 98 yards. Coincidentally, the Redskins' quarterbacks were three of the first four plays of a 99-yard pass play (Frank Filchock to Andy Farkas in 1939 and George Izo to Bobby Mitchell in 1963 were the other two occurrences of the game). No other Redskins quarterback has made a 99-yard pass since Jurgensen's game.
Vince Lombardi was fired as the Redskins' head coach in 1969. Jurgensen led the NFL in completions (442), completion percentage (62%), and passing yards (3,102) last season. The Redskins went 7-5-2 for their best season since 1955 (which kept Lombardi's record of never having coached a losing NFL team intact). Lombardi died of cancer about a month before the 1970 season began. Lombardi was his favorite out of the nine head coaches he played for during his NFL career, according to Jurgensen later.
Under coach George Allen's guidance, the Redskins enjoyed a revival in the early 1970s, but they didn't make it to Super Bowl VII, losing to the Miami Dolphins. However, Billy Kilmer took over Jurgensen's place in his place, having been bothered by injuries in 1971 and 1972.
A quarterback controversy emerged between the two teams during this period, with fans sporting "I Love Billy" or "I Love Sonny" bumper stickers on their vehicles. Allen, a defensive thinker, favored Kilmer's more conservative, ball-control style of play over Jurgensen's more challenging option. Despite the scandal, Jurgensen was kind to his rival. And on this day, Kilmer will still stay at Jurgensen's house when he is in town.
Even though Jurgensen was still splitting time with Kilmer in 1974, he won his third NFL passing crown in his final season. Jurgensen's first and only appearance in an NFL postseason game against the Los Angeles Rams in the first round of the 1974 NFC playoffs was his first game of his NFL career. He came off the bench in relief of Kilmer and completed six of the 12 passes in a row, but also threw three interceptions.
Jurgensen is regarded as the best pure passer of his time. He has three NFL individual passing titles and was voted a five-time Pro Bowl pick. He was more than 400 yards passing in a single game five times in a single game, and he threw five touchdown passes in a game twice. With a career rank of 82.6, he has completed 2,433 passes for 32,224 yards and 255 touchdowns. He also ran for 493 yards and 15 touchdowns.
Jurgensen's 82.62 career passer rating is the highest for any player in the "Dead Ball Era" (pre-1978).
"We may never have lost a game if we had Sonny Jurgensen in Green Bay," Lombardi later told Pat Peppler of the Green Bay Packers head office.