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Legendary Boilermaker DT dies at the age of 72
By Scott Green
Published:
Dave Butz, former Purdue defensive tackle and Super Bowl champion, has passed at the age of 72. Tom Dienhart of On3 Sports reported on the news.
Butz began his career at Purdue in 1969, where he began an All-Big Ten and All-American campaign that earned him the 5th overall pick with the St. Louis Cardinals in the 1973 NFL draft.
The Cardinals were in St. Louis, Missouri from 1960-1987.
He would play his first two seasons for St.Louis before joining Washington. He stood at 6-foot-8 and weighed 300 lbs which even by today’s metrics is massive.
He played for the Washington Commanders between 1975-1988 where he earned numerous accolades. Butz even earned a spot on the Commanders Ring of Fame, reserved for the franchises’ 90 greatest players.
Very few players display Butz’s level of toughness in football today. In 1987, Butz left the hospital without permission to play against the Jets and despite being recently ill, he would record a critical sack again Ken O’Brien.
Butz recorded 64 sacks during his career. He would end up winning two Super Bowls in 1982 and 1987.
Butz eventually was named to Purdue’s All Time Football team, and in 2015 was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame.
Scott Green has been covering and following college football since 2017. After primarily covering the Georgia Bulldogs, Scott began to branch out and build relationships with other national media members. He played football and graduated from the LaGrange College in 2014. He currently is enlisted in the Georgia Army National Guard after deploying with them in 2019 to Afghanistan.