This question always come to me, when all starters have their names and alma mater mentioned at the beginning of a game.
Is there any American Pro football starter player that did not attend college? Or who could be the last one?
Eric Swann didn’t play college football, but ESPN listed his alma mater as “Wake Technical College”.
Otis Sistrunk, who played for the Raiders, didn’t attend college, but often had his alma mater listed as “University of Mars”.
Thanks Bobt!
I guess the next question is: how they got in the draft? Or how did they skip it and got in.
Swann Mentioned above was actually a first round pick(1991 Arizona cards). He was a beast of a defensive lineman until his knees took him out of the game.
Otis Sistrunk I am not so sure where he went in the draft.
Actually all football players don’t have to be drafted. You can be a walk-on for a team if you are good enough to make the cut.
Eric Swann was going to play at NC State but his grades were not good enough. He did not want to go to a junior college or prep school to improve his grades. Swann played some semi-pro ball up North for a year or 2.
I’m pretty sure Otis Sistrunk who played for the Raiders about 20 years ago never played in college. They listed “University of Mars” for him sometimes.
Two other Players in the NFL now never went to college:
Darren Bennett, Punter, San Diego Chargers
Michael Lewis, Wide Receiver, New Orleans Saints
Darren Bennett is a former professional AFL (Aussie Rules) player who won a punting contest, the prize of which was a trip to the US to meet some professional scouts.
I hear that he occaisionally makes tackles after punting, which apparently is rare for a punter.
-Bubba.
I had to look up Lewis’ bio. He played in high school, but didn’t go to college and then got back into football playing a minor indoor league.
As for the punter making a tackle, that’s not always a good thing because they are supposed to be the last line of defense.
Haha. Yeah. Generally, if the returner gets to where your punter is you’re defense has collapsed and you just screwed up. Being on San Diego, it may be that Bennett has just had more opportunities for tackling than the average punter. 
Maybe I’m remembering badly, But…There’s another one out there.
Seems to me he found his talent his talent whilst doing a stint in the US Marines (Huzzah) I vaguely remember him mentioing the name of the High School on Monday Night Football.
[hyjack] Kudos galore for ABC or having the brains to allow the players to mention thier school during the starting line up. It really helps when I’m tring to decide who to root for. I’ll root for the Niners always but when two teams I’m indifferent to line up, I like to root for the team with the most MAC/Big 10 players.[/hyjack]
Well, back in the late 60s and early 70s, when soccer-style kickers were still something of a novelty, a lot of foreign-born soccer players were imported and turned into NFL palce kickers. MANY of those guys had never played American football and had never attended any college.
Garo Yepremian, for instance, never went to college. Neither did Horst Muhlmann or Toni Fritsch.
After a while, of course, soccer-style kicking became the norm, and virtually ALL college place kickers use the soccer approach. So, nowadays practically all of the NFL’s kickers are American college graduates. It hasn’t been necessary to import European kickers in a looong time.
Yepremian may have gone to college but not for sports.
The story I heard was he knew nothing about FB so he said “I want to kick a touchdown” when he first was signed by the Dolphins.
After his Super Bowl showing, he should have switched to QB anyway!