John Karcis
American football player (1908-1973)
John Karcis (December 3, 1908 – September 4, 1973), sometimes known by the nicknames "Bull" and Johnny "Five Yards", was an American football player and coach. A native of Monaca, Pennsylvania, he played college football as a fullback at Carnegie Tech from 1927 to 1930. He later played professionally in the National Football League (NFL) for the Brooklyn Dodgers, Pittsburgh Pirates, and New York Giants. He ranked third in rushing yardage in the NFL during the 1937 season. He appeared in 89 games over nine years in the NFL, tallying 1,799 yards and 152 receiving yards. Karcis was also the head coach for the Detroit Lions in 1942, compiling a 0–8 record.
Early life
Karcis was born in 1907 at Monaca, Pennsylvania, located 25 miles northwest of Pittsburgh. He attended Monaca High School, where he played football at the tackle position and was selected as a first-team player on the All-Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic League teams in both 1925 and 1926. In December 1926, John McMahon of The Pittsburgh Press called Karcis "the best lineman in Pennsylvania", "an inspiring leader", and a player with "remarkable speed" who could run 100 yards in 11 seconds.
Carnegie Tech
Karcis enrolled at the Carnegie Institute of Technology in 1927 and played at the fullback position for Carnegie's freshmen football team.
The public source identifies “John Karcis” as american football player (1908-1973). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around John, Karcis and American.
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Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 7, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6242482. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1908, 1973, 1927 and 1930.
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This entry incorporates text from “John Karcis” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.