Legendary Detroit Lions linebacker Joe Schmidt has died at the age of 92
Joe Schmidt, Hall of Fame linebacker and key figure in the Detroit Lions’ last championship title in 1957, has died at the age of 92.
Joe Schmidt, the Hall of Fame linebacker who led the Detroit Lions to their last championship in 1957, died Wednesday, his family told the Free Press Thursday. He was 92.
Schmidt spent two decades as a player and coach with the Lions and is one of the most revered figures in franchise history. He was selected to the All-Pro first team eight times, was a member of the NFL’s 100th Anniversary Team and helped revolutionize defense by introducing the modern middle linebacker position.
“He was like a coach on the field,” Schmidt’s teammate Roger Zatkoff told the Free Press in June 2020. “I can remember situations where he would come to us and say, ‘Hey, cheat over here, a guy to your left,’ because something else was going on and we needed to make an adjustment. And the reality is, like Bobby Layne, he was making adjustments without the coaches knowing about it.”
Of the 36 players on the Lions’ 1957 championship squad, three are still alive: Gene Cronin (starting defensive end), Jerry Reichow (starting receiver) and Bob Long (starting linebacker).
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Selected in the seventh round by Pittsburgh in 1953, Schmidt helped the Lions win the championship as a rookie after replacing LaVern Torgeson as the starter earlier in the season.
In December of that year, the Lions beat the Cleveland Browns 17-16 to win their third ever championship. Schmidt, who forced a fumble from Otto Graham in the championship game to set up the Lions’ first touchdown, made the Pro Bowl every year for the next ten years.
“He was the best,” said Cronin, a teammate of Schmidt’s from 1956 to 1959. “Years ago, the story went around that they were making a movie called ‘The Violent World of Sam Huff.’ And (Huff) was a good middle linebacker, no question about it. And they asked Gino Marchetti, ‘What do you think about making a movie called ‘The Violent World of Sam Huff?’ And he said, ‘Well, if they’re making a movie, they better get Joe Schmidt in the role.’ You can’t get a better compliment than that.”
Before Schmidt’s arrival, most NFL teams, including the Lions, played a five-man defense with an oversized guard in the middle of their line.
Schmidt, who played fullback and guard early in his college career, switched to linebacker during his sophomore season at Pitt, where he made a name for himself as a run stopper without the ball thanks to his speed and athleticism.
With the Lions, he played outside linebacker for the first two seasons and moved to middle linebacker in 1955 when coach Buddy Parker switched to a 4-3 defense following the retirement of guard Les Bingaman.
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With Schmidt as their leader, the Lions had some of the most fearsome defenses in the NFL.
“Almost everyone soon switched to the 4-3 formation, with the middle linebacker being the key to the defense,” Parker once told the Free Press. “Schmidt’s mobility took the pressure off the defensive backs in pass defense.
“In fact, his style of play led to the zone defense, the rotation defense and the modern defensive style of professional football.”
Born in 1932 at the height of the Depression, Schmidt spent his early years in Pittsburgh. His father died when he was 12, one of his older brothers was killed in World War II, and he grew up idolizing his other older brother, John, who played football at Carnegie Tech and coached a semi-pro team, the St. Clair Veterans.
Schmidt played clay court ball with the team as a teenager and, according to the Saturday Evening Post, even joined the team at age 14 for a game against a team of convicts at Western State Penitentiary.
At Pitt, Schmidt suffered a number of injuries, including two broken ribs, a broken wrist, a dislocated acromioclavicular joint, and a severe concussion.
Because of these injuries, he fell short in the 1953 draft, when the Lions selected him fifth overall, behind guard Harley Sewell, halfback Gene Gedman and tackles Charlie Ane and Ollie Spencer. Sewell, Gedman and Ane also played on the Lions’ championship teams of 1953 and 1957.
“Statistically, I’d say he was borderline. He was 6’1″ and 220 pounds,” then-Lions owner William Clay Ford said when he nominated Schmidt for Hall of Fame induction in 1973. “Joe likes to say he was 6’3″ at one point in his career, but he tackled so many fullbacks that his neck got pushed into his shoulders, and now he’s 6’1.”
“However, there are qualities that scouts or anyone drafting a ballplayer certainly cannot measure. … Desire, leadership and courage. Nobody knew how much of those elements Joe had, and Joe had tremendous qualities in those elements.”
Schmidt, the Lions’ MVP in 1955, 1957/58 and 1961, helped organize what is now the NFL Players Association in the 1950s and was a driving force in pushing for training camp salaries and pensions for players.
He retired after the 1965 season, spent a year as an assistant coach under Harry Gilmer, and took over as head coach a year later, compiling a record of 43-35-7 in seven seasons.
“I loved football and I came here as the seventh overall draft pick on a championship team. I really didn’t think I had a chance to make the team and I was lucky to make it,” Schmidt told the Free Press in 2017. “I enjoyed it so much, the camaraderie, winning a championship, a chance in the business after I quit playing sports. So everything I have is really thanks to playing football here in Detroit.”
“When you stay here and work, people in the industry are very nice to you. They love sports in Detroit, they follow the Detroit Lions so much that they became huge fans. And during that time, we were winning, and that obviously helps. But I can’t say enough about my opportunities here in Detroit and the opportunities that the Detroit Lions have given me, and I’m forever grateful for that opportunity.”
Schmidt, who founded his own auto service company during his playing days and sold rubber and plastic to the “Big Three,” leaves behind his wife Marilynn and five children.
No public memorial service is planned; the family will hold a private ceremony.
Contact Dave Birkett at [email protected]. Follow him on X @davebirkett.
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