Rick Casares

Rick Casares was born in Tampa, Florida, in 1931. When he was 7 years old, his father was killed in a gang shooting; his mother sent him to live with an aunt and uncle in Paterson, New Jersey. At 15, Casares became a Golden Gloves boxing champion in the 160-pound division. When he was offered a professional boxing contract, his mother refused to permit it, and he returned to Tampa. where his teachers introduced him to high school sports as a way to keep him in school. == College career ==

After graduating from high school, Casares received an athletic scholarship to attend the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida, where he played fullback for coach Bob Woodruff's Florida Gators football team from 1951 to 1953. Casares quickly became the star rusher of the Gators' backfield. As a 210-pound, six-foot-two-inch sophomore in 1952, he scored the first touchdown of the Gators' first bowl game, a 14–13 victory over the Tulsa Golden Hurricane in the January 1, 1953 Gator Bowl, In 1953, he was a team captain. Casares was also a member of coach John Mauer's Florida Gators basketball team, and led the team in scoring and rebounding with 14.9 points and 11.3 rebounds as a sophomore in 1951–52, and 15.5 points and 11.5 rebounds as a junior in 1952–53. In basketball, he was a third-team All-SEC selection in 1952; as basketball team captain in 1953, he received second-team All-SEC honors. Casares' college career was cut short when he was drafted into the U.S. Army after his junior year. As part of an article series for The Gainesville Sun in 2006, he was recognized as No. 37 among the top 100 players of the first 100 years of Florida Gators football. == Professional career ==

Casares was selected in the second round (eighteenth pick overall) of the 1954 NFL draft by the Chicago Bears, but was offered a $20,000 annual contract with Canadian Football League's Toronto Argonauts. In the fourth game of the 1955 season, against the Baltimore Colts, he ran for an 81-yard touchdown. At the time, this was the second most yards gained in a single season in the NFL, short of the NFL single-season record by only 20 yards. During the following season, Casares again led the NFL with 204 rushing attempts, but his 700 yards was later eclipsed by Jim Brown's 942 yards on two fewer carries. After ten seasons with Chicago, Casares was the Bears' all-time leading rusher with 1,386 carries, 5,657 yards, and forty-nine rushing touchdowns. "He was the toughest guy I ever played with," Mike Ditka, a former Bears tight end and coach, told The Tampa Tribune. "I remember him playing on a broken ankle." Casares was questioned in 1962 by NFL investigators as part of a spreading inquiry that included the FBI into links between league players and organized crime. Casares, who had been seen with a bookie and was known to visit with other Bears players two nightclubs connected to the Chicago mob, said he had been questioned about point shaving for gamblers and had taken and passed two lie detector tests. The investigations eventually would lead to the one-season suspensions of Alex Karras, of the Detroit Lions, and Paul Hornung, of the Green Bay Packers. Casares finished his professional career with the NFL's Washington Redskins in , and in with the AFL's Miami Dolphins, receiving only limited carries in his final two seasons. ==NFL career statistics==

Regular season Postseason == Life after football ==

Casares retired to his hometown of Tampa, Florida following his professional football career and some business projects in Chicago. His last career venture was in the residential home improvement field, specializing in room additions. He died on September 13, 2013, at the age of 82, after a string of illnesses, including heart disease and shoulder problems stemming from his days in football. As a U.S. Army veteran, Casares was buried in the Sarasota National Cemetery. == See also ==