He played 15 years as a center for the Green Bay Packers and the Philadelphia Eagles, earning 10 Pro Bowl selections.

Ringo played college football for the Syracuse Orangemen (now Orange) and was selected in the seventh round of the 1953 NFL draft.

Ringo certainly knew individual success before the Lombardi era—attending his first of seven straight Pro Bowls in 1957—but he flourished under the coaching legend, earning consensus All-Pro honors from 1959 to 1963.

Ringo, who played 126 consecutive games for the Packers from 1954–63, finished out his career with the Eagles, attending three more Pro Bowls and retiring after the 1967 season.

He went on to work on the coaching staffs of the Los Angeles Rams, Buffalo Bills (two separate engagements), Chicago Bears, New England Patriots, and New York Jets, and he served as Bills head coach after the resignation of Lou Saban in 1976, posting a 3–20 record.

He is best known as a coach for creating the dominant Bills offensive line of the early- to mid-1970s called the Electric Company, which supported running back O. J. Simpson.