jay berwanger was the first person ever drafted in the nfl.
who was the first person ever drafted in the nfl?
jay berwanger
this was the only draft to have nine rounds; the number increased to ten for the 1937 draft. the first player ever drafted, jay berwanger, who had previously been awarded the initial heisman trophy, never played in the nfl. his rights were traded by the philadelphia eagles to the chicago bears, as the eagles felt they would be unable to meet berwanger's reported demand of $1000 per game. the eagles received tackle art buss from the bears in exchange for berwanger's rights. george halas was unable to convince berwanger to sign with the bears. riley smith, the second pick, was the first player drafted to play in the nfl.
1936 nfl draft
in the eighth round, the golden state warriors used the 171st pick to selected yasutaka okayama, a japanese basketball player who was measured at and . okayama, who attended and played junior varsity basketball at the university of portland for one and a half years in 1976 as an exchange student, declined to try out for the warriors and never played in the nba. he is the tallest person ever drafted and would have been the tallest player in the nba had he played in the league. the san diego clippers used their last pick in the draft, the 210th pick, to draft tony gwynn, who starred at both baseball and basketball at san diego state university. gwynn was also selected in the 1981 mlb draft by the san diego padres. he opted to play baseball and ended up playing 20 seasons with the padres. he received multiple awards and honors during his playing career, is one of only 28 players in mlb history with 3,000 career hits, and was inducted to the baseball hall of fame at his first opportunity in . kenny easley, a college football star from the university of california, los angeles, was selected by the chicago bulls with the 216th pick in the 10th round. easley, who was selected fourth in the 1981 national football league (nfl) draft by the seattle seahawks, played seven seasons with the seahawks and received several awards and honors before retiring in 1988 due to kidney problems that eventually led to a transplant.
1981 nba draft