BELOIT — Memories always meant more than memorabilia to Beloiter Gene Knutson, a multi-sport star who played for both the University of Michigan and the Green Bay Packers.
If he was still alive, he would have already earmarked the plaque he will receive for being a member of the inaugural Beloit Memorial High School Athletic Hall of Fame for a family member.
Knutson accumulated all sorts of plaques and trophies over the course of his exemplary sports career. Back in 1998, he told me he decided it was time to do something with all of it.
“One day I gathered everything – trophies, awards, plaques, press clippings, sweaters and jackets,” Knutson said. “I had the clothes cleaned and polished up the trophies and put all that stuff in the trunk of my car. I’d see a grandkid, I’d explain what an item was, what it meant to me and that I was giving it to them.
“I just thought, when I kick the bucket this stuff may end up going to Goodwill. At least I had the pleasure to explain to each child what each item meant to me. I have them in my memory now and I don’t care where they are. I don’t need them on the wall anywhere.”
One of the few things Knutson kept in his possession was a small letter “L.” He produced it when he was inducted into the Beloit Historical Society’s Sports Hall of Fame in 1990.
“The school (Lincoln Junior High) is no longer here, but my career began on that field,” Knutson said.
It almost didn’t. He confessed he failed his first football physical test due to high blood pressure and a heart murmur.
“I remember being so crushed walking home from the doctor’s office that I thought I can’t face that and I threw the card away,” he said. “My coach came around with a clipboard that had a lot of physical slips attached to it. I knew what he was looking for and I told him I’d already given it to him. He hesitated, but walked away. Something like that you do remember.”
Knutson was born in Beloit on Nov. 10, 1932, the son of Florence and Peter Knutson. He was an outstanding athlete, playing football, basketball, track and field and in the summer, baseball. He was a pitcher on the Beloit American Legion baseball team that won the 1947 state title.
“I like to play all sports, but I really did like football the best,” he said. “My dreams as I remember were all of football and that’s where I thought my best chance to get a college scholarship was.”
Knutson passed the physical required for high school sports and won three letters in football, earning All-Big Eight honors in 1948 and 1949 and All-State honors in 1949. He also earned two letters and was co-captain of the 1950 basketball team, earning All-State honors as a forward. For good measure, he earned two letters in track.
Knutson said competing for Coach Carl “Pill” Nelson was instrumental in his overall success.
“Whatever Coach Nelson said was gospel,” Knutson said. “He was a great influence on me as far as my work ethic and training. I remember my dad (Peter) asking me to move dirt in the backyard and I balked. I told him they have equipment that can do this. And he said, ‘If Carl Nelson told you to move it, would you move it?’ I said yeah, so I moved it.”
Knutson said he planned on playing tennis in the spring of his sophomore year.
“I ran into Coach Nelson on the way to tryouts,” Knutson said. “When I told him I was trying out for tennis he said, ‘No, you’re going to be a track man.’”
Knutson competed as a hurdler mostly and Beloit won a state title in track his junior year, Nelson’s last before he headed off to Beloit College to take over the football program there.
Some Beloit folks weren’t all that thrilled when the 17-year-old Knutson announced on July 6, 1950 that he was opting to play at Michigan and not for his home state Wisconsin Badgers.
After Knutson’s freshman season, Michigan head coach Bennie Oosterbaan said he was “unquestionably Michigan’s outstanding freshman prospect.”
If he had any question about whether he’d made the right decision, it disappeared the first time he left the tunnel in Ann Arbor and entered Michigan’s stadium on game day.
“In high school, we’d play before a couple thousand at Strong Stadium,” he said. “My first game at Michigan was against Michigan State and we had 102,000 on hand. That was such a thrill to me, so exciting. How could I ever explain that to someone? Unless you experience sitting in that locker room, getting dressed, warming up and then going out to that crowd and playing in that ballgame, you’ll never know. It was exhilarating.”
As a Wolverine, he says catching the winning 29-yard touchdown pass on a fourth-down play in the fourth quarter of a 14-13 October victory over Iowa as a senior in 1953 ranked as the ultimate highlight.
Listed at 6-foot-4 by Michigan, Knutson had jumped from his playing weight of 200 pounds in high school, up to about 230 by his senior year.
The Wolverines never met the Badgers in his three seasons on the varsity.
“Teams weren’t playing a full schedule against conference opponents,” Knutson said. “I did help Wisconsin go to the Rose Bowl in 1953. Purdue tied Wisconsin that year and the Badgers got to go by virtue of a vote. The reason they tied is because we upset Purdue in one of the last games that year. So in my own little way, I helped Wisconsin.”
Knutson started at right inside linebacker his sophomore year at Michigan. His final two years, he played both defensive end and offensive end, earning all-Midwest honors and All-America honorable mention. After graduation he played in the Hula Bowl College All-Star game.
His parents rarely missed a home game.
“They rode the train to get there,” he said. “My mother was a real scrapper. She was a German gal from a family of 17 children. I got a little of that scrapper attitude in me. Maybe I got my calmness from my dad, who was a Norwegian.”
After graduation, Knutson was drafted in the 10th round (111th overall) in the 1954 NFL draft by the Packers, a team he had followed since childhood.
“I remember listening to the radio and hearing Cecil Isbell throw to Don Hutson,” Knutson said.
Knutson played 18 games over two seasons with the Packers, in 1954 and 1956. He missed 1955 due to a knee injury incurred during an exhibition game with the Washington Redskins. In his two seasons, Green Bay finished 4-8 twice under head coach Lisle Blackbourn.
“We were having some lean years, but we had some very fine football players,” said Knutson, who played at about 250 pounds with the Pack. “We always had the Thanksgiving game in Detroit and at the time they were world champs with Bobby Layne at quarterback. I remember beating them (24-20 in 1956) with a team that was actually the nucleus for Vince Lombardi’s first good teams. We had players like Jim Ringo, Forrest Gregg, Bob Skoronski, Max McGee and Hawg Hanner. My last year was Bart Starr’s first year.
“After I left, they had two more mediocre years and then Lombardi came. Many of these guys were standing around waiting to be led.”
There weren’t any title games in Knutson’s tenure in Green Bay, but some big wins, like a 37-14 victory at Philadelphia in 1954.
“It was one of the first games they were televising at night,” he said. “We had a decent game and I was amazed when we arrived in Green Bay how many people showed up at the airport. I think they estimated the crowd at 10,000. That was certainly something that stuck in my mind. It was a case of a small town of Green Bay beating a big town like Philadelphia.”
Knutson said the Packers came calling in the off-season after the 1956 season and offered a contract. But he was ready to move on.
“I would say basically injuries were the problem,” Knutson said. “I had a lot of knee troubles like most guys. I’d hurt my knees pretty bad in college and continued to play. I had a hard time doing any activity without both knees heavily taped.”
He said the injuries hurt his attitude toward the game.
“I was guarding against injuries when I played and you can’t do that and expect to be anything but an average defensive lineman,” he said. “My contract was for about $11,000 and that gave me a start. I was able to buy a home, furnish it and start a family. But I didn’t play the way I’d hoped and I was ready to move on.”
He had a degree in education and taught at St. Joseph’s High School in South Bend before going into private business. He eventually became executive vice president for Ara Parsegian Enterprises for 13 years.
He also became active with NFL Alumni, which was formed to seek pension plans and assistance for former pro players in dire need. He became a director of the Alumni and served as a vice-chairman of the board.
Knutson said he had over a dozen surgeries directly related to football. Back surgery in 1997 finally gave him a great deal of pain relief.
“When I go to football meetings I can always tell the old players,” he said. “They’re the ones who are bow-legged and waddle when they walk.”
Yet he said he wouldn’t change a thing.
“Hell, I’d do it all again,” he said. “I had a great time. My four years in college, because of football, were tremendous years. I wouldn’t trade it.
“Pro football was a different story. It was more of a business. Dog eat dog. When I played there were only 12 teams and the limit was 33. It was a lot harder to get on a pro roster than it is now. I would love to be coming out of college now.”
Knutson had married the former Carol Buschbaum of South Bend, Ind., in 1953. She died in 1982 and in 1995, he married Vicki Futterknect of Cassopolis. On Feb. 9, 2008, Knutson died in Cassopolis, Mich., after a struggle with cancer.
• EDITOR’S NOTE: There will be two celebrations for the 2025 Hall of Fame inductees. The first will be Dec. 19 prior to a boys varsity basketball game. The second will be Feb. 13 as the varsity basketball girls and boys teams play a twinbill with the celebration between games. More exact details will be released close to those dates.
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