Roger Zatkoff obit

Roger Zatkoff, starter on Lions 1957 championship team, dies at age 90

 

He was not on the list.

Roger Zatkoff, a starter on the Detroit Lions’ 1957 championship team, has died at the age of 90.

The Detroit Lions last won a championship in 1957, when they defeated the Cleveland Browns to win the NFL Championship. Last week, according to Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press, one of the oldest living members of that team passed way. Roger Zatkoff was 90 years old.

A native of Hamtramck, Michigan, Zatkoff was a standout linebacker at the University of Michigan before being selected by the Green Bay Packers in the fifth round of the 1953 NFL Draft. He played his first four NFL seasons in Green Bay, earning three Pro Bowl nods before he was traded to the Lions.

Or, as Birkett wrote, Zatkoff “engineered” a trade to the Lions.

Roger Zatkoff went to the commissioner to make sure he got to play for the Lions

    Initially traded from the Packers to the Cleveland Browns after the 1956 season, Zatkoff balked at reporting to Cleveland. The Browns traded him to the Los Angeles Rams, but Zatkoff asked then-NFL commissioner Bert Bell to nix the deal and help him get to Detroit.

    I said I can’t play here in L.A.” Zatkoff recalled at a reunion of the 1957 team held by the Free Press four years ago. “I said I got a wife and three kids and she’s 8 1/2 months pregnant and I’m not putting her on an airplane. They said put her on a train. I said, no, I’m not even gonna call her.

    So anyway, it ended up that I got ahold of Burt Bell and talked and reviewed this whole thing with Burt Bell, and Burt told Paul Brown, who in turn told me to sit tight for 24 to 48 hours, he would see what he could do. Then he got with Detroit, apparently, and he canceled the trade from Cleveland to L.A., and then he arranged a trade — this is Burt Bell — he arranged a trade from Cleveland to Detroit, which I came in, in ’57, and we go on to beat Cleveland for the championship. It couldn’t have been better.”

Zatkoff played 24 games over two seasons with the Lions, then he retired after the 1958 season at 27 years old. He went on to have a successful business career, operating a manufacturing supply company based in the Detroit area.

Zatkoff enrolled at the University of Michigan in 1949 and played college football for Bennie Oosterbaan's Michigan Wolverines football teams from 1950 to 1952 As a freshman, he was awarded the Meyer Morton Award as the freshman player showing the most promise. He started nine games at linebacker for the 1950 Michigan Wolverines football team that defeated Ohio State in the famous Snow Bowl game, won the Big Ten championship, and defeated the University of California in the 1951 Rose Bowl. He started all nine games at linebacker for the 1951 Wolverines, and he was selected by the Associated Press as a first-team linebacker on the 1951 All-Big Ten Conference football team.[6] As a senior in 1952, he started all nine games for Michigan at the linebacker position and was selected as a first-team All-Big Ten player by both the Associated Press and United Press.

Zatkoff was inducted into the University of Michigan Athletic Hall of Honor in 1985.

Zatkoff was selected by the Green Bay Packers in the fifth round (55th overall pick) of the 1953 NFL Draft. He was drafted with Jim Ringo, Al Carmichael and Bill Forester. He played linebacker for the Packers and appeared in 48 games from 1953 to 1956 with teammates such as Max McGee, Art Hunter, Bob Mann, Tobin Rote and Deral Teteak. The Packers ranked in the NFL's lower tier while Zatkoff was with them, finishing 2–9–1 in 1953, 4–8 in 1954, 6–6 in 1955, and 4–8 in 1956. Despite the Packers' woes, Zatkoff earned a reputation as one of the best linebackers in the NFL in the mid-1950s and was selected as an All-Pro player in 1954 (UP first team, AP second team), 1955 (AP and TSN first team), 1956 (NEA second team).

In April 1957, the Packers traded Zatkoff and Bobby Garrett to the Cleveland Browns in exchange for six players, including Babe Parilli. Zatkoff announced that, for family and business reasons, he would retire rather than play for the Browns. The Browns tried to trade Zatkoff to the Los Angeles Rams, but Zatkoff refused to join the Rams, and the deal was called off. In September 1957, the Browns finally traded Zatkoff to the Detroit Lions, the team Zatkoff preferred, in exchange for Lew Carpenter, the Lions' leading rusher in 1954 and 1955, and a future draft pick.

He was a starting player on the 1957 Detroit Lions team that won the NFL championship. He also appeared in all 12 games for the Lions in 1958.

In March 1959, Zatkoff announced that he was retiring from football to focus on business