He was the first Miami Hurricane inducted into the NFL HOF. Played C and LB on some bad and mediocre teams in Miami.
>>In his 15 years with the team he never missed a game because of injuries, playing in 210 consecutive regular-season games and 308 in a row overall despite undergoing nine operations on his knees during his career. He embodied the warrior aspect of making a living doing this.
It is said Otto underwent more than 50 surgeries after he finished playing related to football injuries. Joint replacements, arthritis, back and neck problems. His right leg was amputated in 2007. Otto also had prostate cancer.
“I can take any type of surgery in the world except for when it comes to something that’s internal,” he once said. “When it’s cosmetic, fixing your nose, fixing your knee, fixing your elbows or whatever, that’s nothing.” He was a native of Wausau, Wisconsin, born near the end of the Great Depression to a family fighting poverty. His family lived for a time in a chicken coop.
It was a whole new world for him when he came to the University of Miami, and for him a whole new world and future would open up there. He went undrafted by the NFL in 1959 but signing with the Raiders of the new AFL the following next year, perhaps the first great find for Al Davis. Otto was one only 20 players to play all 10 years of the AFL’s existence prior to the merger. Otto leaves behind his wife, a son and daughter-in-law and 14 grandchildren. “Throughout my career, I worked hard to stay a level above everyone else,” Otto said once. “Every day I walked on to the field, I was the best center. That’s the way I wanted to be. Those were always my expectations.<<
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