By Jim Gehman, Engagement Insider
Your rookie year with Green Bay concluded with the 1962 NFL championship title. Following the next season’s final exhibition game, the Packers traded you to the Philadelphia Eagles, who were coming off of a 3-10-1 campaign. Surprised by the deal?
“Well, I was very disappointed. We looked like we were scheduled to be repeat champions. I had lots of friends on the team and had just gotten married. My wife and I had brought all of the things that we had and gotten a permanent apartment. That’s how confident I was that I was going to remain in Green Bay.
“It turned out we were in need of a placekicker. [Running back] Paul Hornung and [guard] Jerry Kramer were kicking, and this guard from Colorado had come to camp and he was a placekicker. They only carried three guards on the roster, so [coach Vince] Lombardi said, ‘Ed, sorry, but we’re going to ship you off to Philadelphia.’”
A backup guard for the Packers, you became an instant starter for Philadelphia. In 1966, your fourth season with the Eagles, you helped earn their first winning record in five years. And then you surprisingly retired. Why?
“This is actually a true story though very few people believe it. I didn’t expect to get drafted. I played in college [Missouri] at 215 pounds. We were all that size in those days, but we had a great team. I did get All-America honors, but the coaches took me aside and said, ‘Ed, don’t be disappointed if you don’t get drafted. You’re just not quite big enough.’ So I wasn’t expecting (it, but) I got drafted in the second round.
“One of my professors, my mentor as an undergraduate, didn’t like athletics; but he recognized that this was something that not everyone got a chance at. He said, ‘Here’s what I’ll do. If you promise to quit after five years, I will give you a place in my laboratory that you can come back to every offseason and work on your master’s degree. And then at the end of those five semesters, you’ll get your degree and you have to agree to stop playing football and finish your Ph.D.
“At that time, I didn’t think I would make it in the NFL, so that was the easy thing. ‘Sure Doc [Clint Conaway], I agree.’ And so it turns out that I did make it. I played the five years and I honored my promise. A lot of people say, ‘You wouldn’t quit professional football because you promised somebody you would.’ And I did.
“So I came back and did my graduate degree in physiology and went on to another world. I treasure my athletic years, particularly those five years (in the NFL), but I couldn’t play forever.”
Now in your 41st year as a professor of Medical Pharmacology and Physiology – at the University of Missouri School of Medicine since 1992 – your second career seems to have worked out just fine. What do you enjoy about what you’re doing?
“I may be well past my standard retirement age, but I really enjoy my interaction with the medical students and it keeps me on my toes.
“My great passion in life is discovery. There’s nothing that excites me more than finding out something that nobody knows. In my particular world, medical research, at least I can say mine has relevance to the human health and medicine.
“I love being in the laboratory. I love to read scientific literature, about other people discovering new things and trying to integrate their discoveries into my thinking. This has always been the thing that I ultimately wanted to do and it just worked out well for me. I’m a very, very fortunate person because I got the best of both worlds. I did have another beacon in my life and it really has turned out to be fulfilling.”
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The NFLPE "Where Are They Now?" series honors and celebrates our NFL Legends in their post-football success. Check back every two weeks for a new Q&A and learn more about our players in life after football.