To be drafted into the National Football League is an once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Thousands of players have experienced that joyful moment since the college draft was instituted by the NFL in 1936. However, only a select number of these drafted players excelled on the NFL gridiron to the point that earned them a bust in Canton. Over the years, Profootballhof.com has sat down and asked some Hall of Famers to relive their draft day.
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Yale Lary -- because of his versatility as a defensive back, punter, and kick return man -- was a highly touted prospect for the National Football League in the early 1950s. But, because he played college football in his native state at Texas A&M, Yale barely knew about the league and certainly less about the annual draft.
"We didn't get much pro ball down here at all," Lary recently recounted for profootballhof.com. "We didn't know much about the draft - didn't really know there was one."
Lary does recall how the pro teams would send brochures and questionnaires to the players. He also remembered, with a laugh, how the seniors would have some fun filling out those questions. It seems that the college players would write down exaggerated heights and weights with extremely fast times in the 100-yard dash!
Yale became a bit more serious when Detroit Lions coach Buddy Parker visited and took him to lunch. The two discussed the possibility of Lary playing with the Lions.
That opportunity came to fruition when the Lions selected Lary in the third round (34th player overall) of the 1952 NFL Draft. The move paid off as Yale starred as a triple threat for the Lions through 1964. Lary was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1979.
