Huarte, John G.
Football
b. May 20, 1943, Anaheim, CA
He started at quarterback only in his senior season at Notre Dame, but it was a great season. He completed 114 of 205 pass attempts for 2,062 yards and 16 touchdowns, leading Notre Dame to a 9-1 season and a third-place finish in the 1964 national championship polls. Huarte was a consensus All-American and winner of the Heisman Trophy as the nation's best collegiate player.
However, the 6-foot-1, 200-pound Huarte was not highly regarded by professional scouts. He wasn't chosen until the sixth round of the NFL draft, by the Philadelphia Eagles, and he decided to play for the New York Jets of the American Football League, who drafted him in the second round and offered him a $200,000 contract.
The Jets paid twice that amount to another rookie quarterback, Joe Namath, who became the team's starter while Huarte spent most of the 1966 season on the taxi squad before being released and picked up by the Boston Patriots.
Huarte played for Boston through 1967, spent 1968 with the NFL's Philadelphia Eagles, was with the AFL's Kansas City Chiefs in 1970 and 1971, and finished his professional career with the Chicago Bears of the NFL in 1972. As a professional, he completed just 19 of 48 passes for 230 yards and 1 touchdown.