Joe Schmidt (American football)

Joseph Paul Schmidt (born January 18, 1932) is an American former professional football player and coach.

Schmidt was born in Pittsburgh in 1932 and grew up in the borough of Brentwood.

Schmidt was the youngest of four brothers.

Two of his brothers died while Schmidt was still a boy, one after falling from a tree and the other while serving in the military in June 1944.

His father died in February 1945.

Another brother played football at Carnegie Tech and recruited Joe to play semipro football at age 14.

He later enrolled at Brentwood High School and played football.

A native of Pittsburgh, he played college football for the University of Pittsburgh Panthers team from 1950 to 1952.

Schmidt attended the University of Pittsburgh, playing on the school's football team for three years, from 1950 to 1952.

During his first two years as a Pittsburgh football player, the team compiled losing records of 1–8 in 1950 and 3–7 in 1951.

He was selected by the International News Service as a first-team All-American in 1952 and was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2000.

As a senior, Schmidt was the captain of the 1952 Pittsburgh team that compiled a 6–3 record, including victories over Ohio State, Notre Dame, and Army.

Prior to the Notre Dame game, Schmidt gave a speech that was credited with motivating the team to defeat the heavily favored Notre Dame team.

In the Notre Dame game, Schmidt sustained a concussion and hemorrhage that required him to be hospitalized for ten days.

At the end of the 1952 season, Schmidt was selected as a first-team All-American by the International News Service.

He was also selected to play in the Senior Bowl.

He joined a team that had won the 1952 NFL Championship and led the NFL in scoring defense.

The Lions and Schmidt both had doubts as to whether a seventh round pick would be able to make the lineup of the best defense in the NFL.

However, Schmidt impressed in the pre-season and was included in the regular season roster.

He played as a linebacker in the National Football League (NFL) for the Detroit Lions for 13 years from 1953 to 1965.

He won two NFL championships with the Lions (1953 and 1957), and, between 1954 and 1963, he played in ten consecutive Pro Bowl games and was selected each year as a first-team All-Pro player.

Schmidt was drafted by the Detroit Lions in the seventh round (85th overall pick) of the 1953 NFL draft.

In the first game of the 1953 season, he helped the Lions to a 38–21 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers; the Detroit Free Press wrote that Schmidt was "making tackles all over the field" and was a key in holding the Steelers to 96 rushing yards.

Schmidt appeared in all 12 regular season games, intercepted two passes, and helped the Lions to the 1953 NFL Championship with the league's second best scoring defense.

Schmidt again appeared in all 12 regular season games for the 1954 Detroit Lions team that compiled a 9–2–1 record and won the NFC Western Division but lost to the Browns in the 1954 NFL Championship Game despite Schmidt's interception of an Otto Graham pass.

At the end of the 1954 season, Schmidt was selected by the Associated Press (AP) as a first-team All-Pro player and by the United Press (UP) as a second-team All-Pro.

He was also invited to play in the Pro Bowl, the first of ten consecutive Pro Bowls in Schmidt's career.

In 1955, following an injury to Bobby Layne and the retirement of Les Bingaman, the Lions dropped to 3–9, and the team fell to ninth of 12 NFL teams in scoring defense, but Schmidt continued to impress.

He appeared in all 12 games for the Lions, tied an NFL record with eight fumble recoveries, and won the Lions' President's Trophy as the team's most valuable player.

He was selected by both the AP and the Newspaper Enterprise Association (NEA) as a first-team All-Pro and by the UP as a second-team All-Pro.

In August 1956, Schmidt was elected as the team captain, a designation he would hold for the next nine years.

When the NFL Players Association was formed in 1956, Schmidt was chosen by his teammates as their first player representative.

He was also the signal caller for the defense and quickly developed a reputation as being "without peer" at the task.

The 1956 Lions improved to 9–3, finishing in second place in the West Division with the third best scoring defense in the NFL.

At the end of the 1956 season, Schmidt was selected as a first-team All-Pro by the AP, UP, NEA, and The Sporting News (TSN).

Schmidt had perhaps his best season in 1957.

He was also voted by his fellow NFL players as the NFL's most valuable defensive player in 1960 and 1963, named to the NFL 1950s All-Decade Team, and inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1973.

From 1967 to 1972, Schmidt was the head coach of the Detroit Lions.

In six years under Schmidt, the Lions compiled a 43–34–7 record and finished in second place each year from 1969 to 1972.

After retiring from the Lions, Schmidt worked as a manufacturer's representative in the automobile industry in Detroit.