John Prchlik
John George Prchlik was a professional American football defensive lineman in the National Football League. The eldest of four, He was born into a Czech immigrant community and didn't learn English until he went to school, yet he excelled at academics and athletics at Cleveland West Technical High School. Evidence to his leadership skills and the wartime situation, he was nominated for an officers training program. He could have been placed in any university in the country, but randomly he was assigned to the ROTC program at Yale University, where among others his classmates included George Herbert Bush and William F. Buckley, a huge cultural shift from W. 44th St. in Cleveland. He served as an Ensign on the aircraft carrier, the USS White Plains in the Pacific Theater in the middle of his college career. He returned to New Haven, lettered in football, wrestling, and crew and married his wife, Patricia Hallihan, a local resident in 1949. As a college All American he played in both the 1948 East West Shrine game and the College All Star game. After playing college football at Yale, Prchlik was drafted by the Boston Yanks in the 30th round in the 1947 NFL Draft. He played five seasons for the Detroit Lions including their 1952 and 1953 Championship seasons and in the 1951 and 1952 seasons was defensive captain. In the off season, he worked towards his Law degree and graduated from Wayne State University in 1952. He was an executive at Ford Motor company for 30 years and had six children. Prchlik's nephew Andrew Perchlik, son of Prchlik's brother Richard, was elected to the Vermont Senate in 2018.
John Prchlik died December 31, 2003 of pancreatic cancer in Fairfield Glade, Tennessee at age 78.
