Rich Kreitling
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Cannon Falls, Minnesota, U.S.
 Kreitling with the Cleveland Browns in 1959 | |||||||||
| No. 83, 88, 82 | |||||||||
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| Position | End | ||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||
| Born | March 13, 1936 Chicago, Illinois, U.S. | ||||||||
| Died | May 9, 2020 (aged 84) Cannon Falls, Minnesota, U.S. | ||||||||
| Listed height | 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m) | ||||||||
| Listed weight | 208 lb (94 kg) | ||||||||
| Career information | |||||||||
| High school | Fenger Academy (Chicago) | ||||||||
| College | |||||||||
| NFL draft | 1959: 1st round, 11th overall pick | ||||||||
| Career history | |||||||||
| Awards and highlights | |||||||||
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| Career NFL statistics | |||||||||
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Richard Allen Kreitling (March 13, 1936 – May 9, 2020) was an American professional football player who was a wide receiver in the National Football League (NFL), primarily with the Cleveland Browns.
Rich Kreitling was born March 13, 1936, in Chicago, Illinois. He attended Fenger High School on the city's South side.[1] Under the limited-substitution rules of the day, players generally played both offensively and defensively, with the 6'2" Kreitling lining up at end on offense and as a safety on the defensive side of the ball.[2]
He was a star on the Fenger football team, catching 10 touchdown passes as a senior[3] in helping to lead the 1954 Titans squad to South-Central City League title with an 8–1 record.[2] The Titans overwhelmed their opponents throughout the season, racking up 336 points to their opponents' 27, and Kreitling was one of four Fenger starters selected to the City League All-Star team by its 37 coaches in December.[2] He was also one of eleven players tapped by the Southtown Economist newspaper for the South Chicago All-Star first team, which included members of public, private, and Catholic high schools.[4]
After graduating from high school, Kreitling enlisted in the US Army National Guard, in which he served for five years before gaining his honorable discharge.[1]
College career
Kreitling was regarded as one of the top prospects at his position and he was courted by multiple schools to play collegiately.[3] Among these were the Auburn University Tigers, an Alabama school concentrating on Chicagoland as a rich area for potential recruits.[3] In January 1955, Kreitling accepted an athletic scholarship offer from Auburn, becoming the fourth Chicago-area player so signed for the Fall 1955 season.[3]
Due to NCAA regulations, freshman were prohibited from playing varsity football during this era so Kreitling spent 1955 on the Auburn freshman team. He acquitted himself well and as a future sophomore in 1956 spring practice, he was regarded by coaches as a promising candidate to make an impact on the Tigers varsity squad that coming fall.[5]
Kreitling's Auburn career proved short-lived. In 1956 he transferred back home to his native state to attend the University of Illinois, where he spent 1956 on that school's freshman team.[6] For a second straight year, this time in 1957, Kreitling would see the approach of football season as a highly touted sophomore. "Kreitling was considered best prospect on the freshman team last year and he looks like a sure bet for stardom," one reporter opined.[6] Kreitling would make the fourth member of his Fenger High School team to play for head coach Ray Eliot and the Fighting Illini in 1957.[6]
By the time the 1957 season kicked off, the "fleet sophomore" Kreitling had managed to win a starting place at wide receiver on the Illinois team.[7] Kreitling got off to a hot start, leading the Illinois squad in pass receiving, but would sustain a back injury that caused him to lose more than a week of practice and miss the team's game against Michigan State, a 19–14 loss.[8]
Illinois would finish the 1957 on a strong note, winning two of three games, including a one-point win over Michigan and a 27–0 shellacking of Northwestern, but the team's overall record of 4 wins and 5 losses was disappointing.[9] Despite a painful rib injury, Kreitling would finish the season with 12 catches for 203 yards and two touchdowns.[10]
The 1958 season began poorly for Illinois, with the Illini dropping three games in a row to start the year. An October 17 game against the Minnesota Golden Gophers helped right the ship, however. Against Minnesota junior quarterback Bob Hickey connected on two massive touchdown strikes to Kreitling — good for 83 and 66 yards respectively[11]
This performance was topped three weeks later against Michigan, in which Kreitling pulled down touchdown passes of 83, 60, and 14 yards, earning him Midwest Lineman of the Week honors from United Press International and vaulting him into the All-America hunt.[12] Head coach Eliot, a veteran of 17 college football seasons at the helm at Illinois, was impressed enough of his junior receiver to proclaim him "the best offensive end I've had — he's got great hands."[12] Opposing coach Bennie Oosterbaan of Michigan was similarly laudatory, characterizing Kreitling in three words as "excellent, dangerous, deceptive" and noting that his three touchdown catches had come despite having "worked on pass defense all week" and having "had two men assigned to him."[12]
In the middle of November, Kreitling found himself in the unusual position of leading the entire nation in pass receiving, with 616 yards gained — topping the second best showing by Dave Hibbert of Arizona by 142 yards — but being ineligible for listing by the NCAA's statistical bureau by virtue of having caught only 18 passes on the year instead of the required 21 catches or more.[13]
Kreitling would be named a third team All-American by the Associated Press, joined by future NFLers Joe Kapp of Cal, Alex Hawkins of South Carolina, and Nick Pietrosante of Notre Dame.[14]
Despite Illinois again finishing with a pedestrian 4–5 record,[15] Kreitling would finish the year with 19 catches for 570 yards and 5 touchdowns in Big Ten Conference action and would shatter the NCAA record by averaging 31.8 yards per reception on the year.[10] Kreitling had begun to attract national notice and it was already assumed he would forgo his final year of college eligibility in favor of the NFL.[12]
