When the University of Louisville football team sprints onto the field from the north end zone of Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium at the beginning of each home game, the players are greeted by a sports legend. The sleek, elegant statue of Johnny Unitas reminds the players that they share a place in Cardinal football with one of the greatest players of all time.

Unitas died in September at age 69. Now his statue also may serve as a memorial to a man who never forgot his alma mater as he achieved unprecedented glory in professional football. While he left U of L almost 50 years ago, he remained an important part of the institution, both as a symbol of pride and as an active fund raiser and occasional recruiter.

Never flamboyant or boastful, Unitas played football with a confidence that always seemed to get the job done--thoroughly and quietly.

“There’s a big difference between confidence and conceit,” Unitas once said. “To me, conceit is bragging about yourself. Being confident means you believe you can get the job done, but you know you can’t get your job done unless you also have the confidence that the other guys are going to get their jobs done too. Without them I’m nothing.”

Some of that confidence was apparent at U of L, where he threw for more than 2,600 yards and 24 touchdowns in three seasons and quickly earned the nickname “Mr. Football” from local sportswriters.

But across the country and to football fans around the world, Unitas will be remembered as the record-breaking Hall of Fame quarterback who led the Baltimore Colts to three championships in an 18-year career. With his trademark black hightops and crew cut, “Johnny U” helped drive the popularity of professional football.

“It’s like being in a huddle with God,” John Mackey, the Colts’ tight end during the Unitas years, once said of his teammate.

A pure drop-back passer, Unitas was the first to throw for 40,000 yards and now ranks seventh on the all-time list, surpassed only by a group of quarterbacks who played several more games each season under rules that make passing easier.

Unitas retired after the 1973 season with 22 NFL records, among them marks for most passes attempted and completed, most passing yardage, most touchdown passes and most seasons leading the league in TD passes. He completed 2,830 of 5,186 passes for 40,239 yards and 290 touchdowns. He threw at least one TD pass in 47 straight games, a record not challenged since it was set from 1956 to 1960.

In 1987 Frank Gitschier, who recruited Unitas to U of L in 1950 when larger schools passed on him, persuaded Unitas to lend his name to the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award. The award annually honors the top senior quarterback in college football.

Unitas always was grateful for the start U of L gave him, says Gitschier, who presented Unitas at the quarterback’s induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1979.

“Johnny Unitas was a genuine person,” he says. “If you didn’t know who he was, you’d never have known by talking to him all that he accomplished in life.

Ô’He was a blue-collar guy from a Lithuanian background. You look at the great quarterbacks from Pennsylvania, and they all had steel mill or coal mine backgrounds. He knew the hardships. The way he looked at football was that he picked up his bucket and went to work every day.’’

Unitas is survived by his wife, Sandra; sons John Jr., Kenneth, Robert, Christopher, Joe and Chad; and daughters Janice Ann Unitas-DeNittis and Paige Unitas.