After serving in the U.S. Army paratroops, he returned to Ketterlinus to finish his remaining high school diploma requirements.

[4] He initially played for the Gators as a freshman walk-on in 1949, after convincing the coaches to permit him to try out for the squad, and later earned an athletic scholarship.

He was a third-team All-Southeastern Conference (SEC) selection as a sophomore in 1950, and a second-team All-SEC pick following his junior season in 1951.

[3] He was married and had an infant son during his senior year, and was a member of Pi Kappa Phi Fraternity (Alpha Epsilon chapter).

[10] The Green Bay Packers selected LaPradd in the 1952 NFL draft, but he injured his legs in a car accident on the day he graduated from college and never had the opportunity to play in the National Football League.

He later served as the president of the three-campus St. Johns River Community College in Orange Park, Palatka and St. Augustine from 1966 to 1972.

[14][15] In 2006, The Gainesville Sun ranked LaPradd twenty-first on its all-time list of the 100 greatest Florida Gators football players from the team's first 100 years of play.