Playing as a tackle for the Cleveland Browns in the AAFC and NFL in the late 1940s and early 1950s, Rymkus provided pass protection for quarterback Otto Graham as the team won five league championships.
Rymkus was drafted by the NFL's Washington Redskins in 1943 and played one season for the team before joining the U.S. Marines during World War II.
Rymkus was born in Royalton, Illinois, the son of a Lithuanian immigrant coal miner who owned a small grocery store.
[3] After his father was shot and killed outside the grocery store, Rymkus and his family moved to the Back of the Yards neighborhood on Chicago's South Side.
[3] With family finances tight, he took a number of odd jobs, including working as a laborer and delivering newspapers and groceries.
[7] During his junior year in 1942, Rymkus earned All-America honors, and in his final season at Notre Dame he was named the team's Most Valuable Player.
[6] Rymkus was drafted by the National Football League's Washington Redskins in 1943, signing a contract giving him a $2,000 annual salary ($36,342 in 2024 dollars).
[4] As the war wound down with Germany's surrender in mid-1945, Rymkus decided to join the new Cleveland Browns of the fledgling All-America Football Conference.
[4] George Preston Marshall, the owner of the Redskins, declined to match the offer and questioned the wisdom of joining a league that he thought had little chance of success competing against the more established NFL.
[8] Rymkus left his wife Betty in Nappanee, Indiana and hitchhiked to the Browns' training camp in Bowling Green, Ohio.
He solidified his reputation for toughness by playing more than 50 minutes per game that year despite a knee injury for which he needed surgery immediately after the season.
[11] The Browns advanced to the AAFC championship in 1946, but a week before the game, Rymkus and teammates Jim Daniell and Mac Speedie were arrested and held for several hours after a confrontation with Cleveland police.
Rymkus had been mentioned as a possible candidate to replace Lisle Blackbourn as the head coach of the Packers, but was passed over for the job in favor of fellow assistant Ray McLean.
The new American Football League's (AFL) Los Angeles Chargers considered him for the top spot in 1959; Leahy, Rymkus's former Notre Dame coach, served as the team's general manager.
[4] Rymkus hired a stable of assistant coaches including Wally Lemm, Walt Schlinkman, Fred Wallner and former Browns teammate Speedie.
[4] The team was led by quarterback George Blanda, running back Billy Cannon and wide receiver Charlie Hennigan.
[31] Rymkus left football after his firing and accepted a regional public relations position with the Los Angeles-based Global Marine Exploration Company.
He got a job as an assistant for the Akron Vulcans of the Continental Football League and was appointed the team's head coach and general manager in 1967.
[38] The job, in rural west-central Louisiana, paid him only $9,200 a year ($83,187 in 2024) to coach football, teach three history classes and run the school's summer recreation program.
The team failed to win a game in 1968, but Rymkus stayed connected to professional football as a scout with the Kansas City Chiefs on weekends.
[42] After the Rufneks lost an exhibition game 31–0 to the visiting Omaha Mustangs, the board of directors of Professional Sports Inc. voted unanimously to remove him as head coach.
Ted Dawson, who had been head coach and general manager of the Rufneks when the team was part of the Texas Football League in 1968, retook the position and completed the season in a tie with the Western Conference champion San Antonio Toros.