He was invited to eight Pro Bowls in nine seasons, named a first-team All-Pro five times, and was twice recognized by his peers as the NFL's Defensive Player of the Year.

He was a twice consensus All-American, and he led the Illini to a Rose Bowl victory in 1963 and was deemed the most valuable player in the Big Ten Conference.

[4] His father John, a Lithuanian immigrant to Ellis Island who spoke broken English, was an electrician and worked for the Pullman-Standard railroad car manufacturing company.

[11] He was a unanimous choice as a center for the 1963 College Football All-America Team, earning first-team honors from all seven major selectors.

In a cover story for Sports Illustrated that season, sportswriter Dan Jenkins remarked, "If every college football team had a linebacker like Dick Butkus of Illinois, all fullbacks soon would be three feet tall and sing soprano.

[22] Along with fellow future Hall of Famer Gale Sayers (fourth overall), Butkus was one of three first-round picks for the Bears that NFL draft.

[25] Against the New York Giants on November 28, he intercepted a pass and recovered a fumble, and was named the NFL Defensive Player of the Week by the AP for the first of four times in his career.

[19] In 1966, Butkus was named the second-team middle linebacker on the All-Pro teams of the AP, UPI, Newspaper Enterprise Association (NEA), and New York Daily News, with each selector placing him behind Ray Nitschke of the Green Bay Packers.

[19] Butkus scored the first points of his career in 1969, when he tackled Steelers' quarterback Dick Shiner in the end zone for a safety on November 9.

A number of Bears players, including Butkus, expressed interest in being traded or cut by the team,[30] but he signed a multi-year contract extension prior to the 1970 season to remain in Chicago.

[34] A panel of NFL coaches that year named Butkus the player they would most prefer to start a team with if they were building one from the ground up.

[35] Prior to the 1971 season, Butkus underwent preventive surgery on his right knee; he had torn ligaments in high school, but was able to continue playing due to strong muscles compensating for the injury.

Butkus, who was playing as a blocking back, ran into the end zone and leapt to receive the pass for the winning score.

[35] Despite the statistical output, for the first time since 1966 Butkus was not named to a major All-Pro first-team, instead earning second-team honors from the NEA and Pro Football Writers Association.

[43] The season as a whole was another productive one for Butkus, who reclaimed the first-team middle linebacker spot on the major All-Pro teams and was invited to his final Pro Bowl.

"[44] His season was cut short after nine games by a lingering right knee injury, which he had been playing through for years, but was further aggravated after it gave out in Week 5 against the Atlanta Falcons.

The contract also promised necessary medical and hospital care which, according to Butkus, the Bears neglected to provide him, causing irreparable damage to his knee.

[2]Standing 6 feet 3 inches (1.91 m) tall and weighing 245 pounds (111 kg), Butkus was a large linebacker for the era in which he played football.

In high school he would push a car up and down a street to strengthen his legs,[51] and in college he developed a routine of running at trees and dodging them to emulate avoiding blockers.

"[54] Consistently cited as one of football's meanest, toughest, and most feared players, Butkus was renowned for his intimidating profile and style of play.

[72] Butkus was named to the Walter Camp Football Foundation's All-Century Team in 1999, compiled to honor the best college players of the 20th century.

[79] In 2017, NFL senior analyst Gil Brandt ranked Butkus as the third greatest linebacker of all time, behind Derrick Thomas and Lawrence Taylor.

[87] In 1985, the Downtown Athletic Club of Orlando, Florida, created the Butkus Award, which is given annually to the most outstanding linebacker at the high school, college, and professional levels as chosen by a nationwide panel of 51 coaches and sportswriters.

[89] As an homage, actor Sylvester Stallone named his pet Bullmastiff Butkus after the dog ate a security blanket.

(1975),[94] Mother, Jugs & Speed (1976),[95] Gus (1976),[96] Superdome (1978),[96] Cracking Up (1983),[95] Johnny Dangerously (1984),[95] Hamburger: The Motion Picture (1986),[95] The Stepford Children (1987),[96] Spontaneous Combustion (1990),[96] Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990),[91][97] Necessary Roughness (1991),[91] and Any Given Sunday (1999),[91] and as a regular character on TV shows such as Blue Thunder,[91] My Two Dads,[91] MacGyver,[91] and Hang Time,[91] as well as in a guest roles on Murder, She Wrote and Matlock.

[91] Butkus portrayed Officer Alvin Dimsky in Cass Malloy,[100] the 1982 CBS pilot for what later became the syndicated situation comedy She's the Sheriff, and also made cameo appearances in episodes of several television shows.

[101] Throughout the late 1970s and early 1980s, Butkus appeared alongside fellow former NFL star (and later Blue Thunder co-star) Bubba Smith in a series of ads for Miller Lite, which were released to high acclaim.

[104] Butkus returned to the Bears as a color analyst on radio broadcasts in 1985, teaming with first-year play-by-play man Wayne Larrivee and former St. Louis Cardinals quarterback Jim Hart.

[106] In 2005, as part of the ESPN reality series Bound for Glory, Butkus served as head football coach of Montour High School in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania.

After the surgery, he co-authored a book titled The OC Cure For Heart Disease with Lawrence J. Santora, the doctor who performed the procedure.