01/29/2024
In 1957, our Detroit Lions won the NFL Championship, which would be equivalent to the Super Bowl. The leader of that Lions' team was a linebacker by the name of Joe Schmidt.
Below is an excerpt from my interview with Joe 50 years later.
Chapter 5 JOE SCHMIDT
Joe Schmidt was selected All-Pro nine consecutive times during his thirteen-year tenure with the Detroit Lions. He was voted Lions MVP four times and NFL MVP in 1960. Joe played an important defensive role on the 1957 NFL Championship team. Following his playing career, he was named the Lions head coach for seven seasons. Joe Schmidt was inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame in 1973.
As the youngest of four children, Joe Schmidt faced some of life’s toughest lessons early on. He was raised by his mother in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania following the death of his father and two older siblings. Joe channeled these tough times into a fiercely competitive attitude that was larger than his own physical stature. By the time he reached fifteen years of age he was already making his presence known in an adult football league coached by his oldest brother, John Schmidt. “Most of these guys were twenty-four, twenty-five, (and) twenty-six-year-olds,” he said. “I was physically able to do it, and it was a good experience for me because I had to compete against older people and when you do that, you learn a lot and learn to compete,” he added. “Every little town had teams and there was a lot of competition.” During his days at Brentwood High School not only did Joe excel at football but at basketball as well. “It was good for me from the standpoint of developing physical skills,” he mentioned. “It teaches you quickness and defense and so forth, so it was a good addition to what I was doing in football.”
Following high school Joe received football offers from the University of Maryland, University of Cincinnati, and the University of Pittsburgh. “Being my father died when I was about twelve years old and my mother was by herself I elected to stay in Pittsburgh at the university,” he stated. “I commuted back and forth to school.” As a second-string offensive fullback and first-string defensive linebacker, Joe found immediate success on defense, mostly because he naturally fell into the 4-3 defense that was evolving into the college game at the time. “All the time I was in high school I played middle linebacker so when the evolution came to the new defense it was easy for me because I had previously played it for a long time,” he exclaimed. “A lot of guys who never played that position were sort of struggling with it because of the fact that they were starting to throw the ball more and the whole middle was open so we had to do something about the guy in the middle, (and created) an even man line, and one thing led to another, and that’s where I ended up,” he added.
As a middle linebacker, Joe made All Big-East Conference as well as All-America before departing from the University of Pittsburgh. Faced with a series of injuries that left him temporarily sidelined during his senior year of college Joe was tagged as injury prone leading into the NFL draft. Having played high school and college football in Pittsburgh, he was hoping to continue a professional football career with the local Pittsburgh Steelers. “I actually wanted to play for the Pittsburgh Steelers and they had indicated they were going to draft me,” he stated. During the sixth round of the 1953 NFL draft, Pittsburgh attempted to pick Joe after selecting what they discovered was an ineligible player. Fortunately for the Detroit Lions, Pittsburgh quickly discovered that their pick was used with that initial choice. “So the next round, which was the seventh round, the Detroit Lions drafted me,” he said. “At that particular time I was very disappointed because I wanted to stay in Pittsburgh and stay closer to home. So I was drafted by the Lions who were champions that year and I didn’t figure I had a chance to make the team, but everything turned out for the best,” he added. Despite his concern of simply making the team, Joe became one of the best players in the NFL during his thirteen seasons in Detroit. From the opening day, he was a starting linebacker and would call the team’s defensive signals as captain by mid-season. Joe’s fierce, competitive style helped secure a NFL Championship in 1957. It also got him selected for nine consecutive Pro-Bowls, four Lion MVP’s, and a NFL MVP award in 1960. Joe Schmidt became one of the best middle linebackers in the history of the game and the standard by which all others were judged. He remained humble throughout the countless accolades and continued to give credit to his teammates. “We had a great football team and a great defensive line,” he exclaimed. “Which, incidentally, anybody who has a good middle linebacker has a great defensive line. I’m not trying to be humble about this, it’s just a fact that we did have defensive football players that were exceptionally good (including) Alex Karras, Sam Williams, and Roger Brown,” he added.
