Early years and college career

Born and raised in Marshall, Texas, Tittle played high school football at Marshall High School. He attended Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge and played quarterback for the LSU Tigers. As a junior, Tittle was named the MVP of the legendary 1947 Cotton Bowl, a scoreless tie in an ice storm between LSU and Arkansas.

Professional career

Tittle was the sixth overall selection of the 1948 NFL Draft, taken by the Detroit Lions. He was the second quarterback drafted, following Bobby Layne of Texas. Tittle began his career with the Baltimore Colts of the All-America Football Conference (AAFC) in 1948; the Colts joined the NFL in 1950, but became defunct after that season.

Tittle was drafted by the San Francisco 49ers in the 1951 NFL Draft after the Baltimore Colts folded and stayed for ten seasons. In 1951 and 1952, Frankie Albert also played quarterback extensively, and then from 1957 through 1960, John Brodie took time on the field away from Tittle.

In mid-August 1961, the 49ers traded the 34-year-old Tittle to the New York Giants for second-year guard Lou Cordileone. (Cordileone, the 12th overall pick in the 1960 NFL Draft, was quoted as reacting "Me, even up for Y.A. Tittle? You're kidding," and later said angrily that the Giants traded him for "a 42-year-old quarterback.") Tittle went on to lead the Giants to three straight Eastern Division titles, part of a team that featured such great players as Del Shofner, Frank Gifford, Jimmy Patton, Rosey Brown, Andy Robustelli, and Sam Huff. Tittle threw seven touchdown passes on October 28, 1962, in a 49-34 win over the Washington Redskins. In 1963, he set what was then an NFL record by throwing 36 touchdown passes. All told, Tittle threw a grand total of 86 touchdown passes from 1961 to 1963.

The following year in 1964, Tittle's final season, the Giants went 2-10-2 (.214), the worst record in the 14-team league. Tittle's performance fell from 36 touchdowns and 14 interceptions in 1963 to 10 touchdowns and 22 interceptions in 1964. He retired after the season at age 39, jokingly saying rookie quarterback Gary Wood not only "took my job away, but started to ask permission to date my daughter."

Tittle was the first professional football player featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated, on its fifteenth issue dated November 22, 1954. His second cover was with the Giants in November 1961, and he was on the season preview issue of 1964, a two-page fold-out photo from the 1963 title game. Following his retirement, Tittle was on a fourth SI cover in August 1965.

Legacy

During Tittle's Hall of Fame career he never won an NFL championship. The Giants, with Tittle, lost three consecutive title games in 1961, 1962 and 1963. In the 1963 NFL Championship Game, Tittle hurt his leg while the Giants lost to the Chicago Bears 14-10. In a 17-year career from 1948 through 1964, Tittle passed for 33,070 yards and 242 touchdowns, and four times received the NFL Most Valuable Player Award: in 1957 and 1962 from the UPI; in 1961 by the NEA; and in 1963 by the AP and NEA. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1971.

Tittle threw seven touchdown passes on October 28, 1962, which tied the all-time record for passing touchdowns in a single game set by Sid Luckman (1943) and followed by Adrian Burk (1954) and George Blanda (1961, AFL). The feat was later equaled by Joe Kapp (1969), Peyton Manning (2013), Nick Foles (2013) and Drew Brees (2015). Tittle, Manning, and Foles did it without an interception. Tittle was the first player in NFL history to throw 30 or more touchdown passes in consecutive seasons. His 36 touchdown passes in 1963 set a record which stood for over two decades, surpassed by Dan Marino in 1984.

Famous photo

A photo of a dazed Tittle in the end zone taken by Morris Berman of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on September 20, 1964, is regarded among the most iconic images in the history of American sports and journalism. Tittle, in his 17th and final season, was photographed helmet-less, bloodied and kneeling immediately after having been knocked to the ground by John Baker of the Pittsburgh Steelers and throwing an interception that was returned for a touchdown at the old Pitt Stadium. He suffered a concussion and cracked sternum on the play, but played the rest of the season.

Post-Gazette editors at first declined to run the photo, looking for "action shots" instead, but Berman entered the image into contests where it took on a life of its own, winning a National Headliner Award. The photo was published in the Oct 2, 1964 issue of Life Magazine. It is regarded as having changed the way that photographers look at sports, having shown the power of capturing a moment of reaction. A copy now hangs in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

After at first having failed to see the appeal of the image, Tittle eventually grew to embrace it, putting it on the back cover of his 2009 autobiography. "That was the end of the road", he told the Los Angeles Times in 2008. "It was the end of my dream. It was over."

Pittsburgh player John Baker, who hit Tittle right before the picture was taken, ran for sheriff in his native Wake County, North Carolina in 1978, and used the photo as a campaign tool. He was elected and went on to serve for 25 years.

Miller Beer used the photo in an ad relaunching its "Miller High Life" brand in 2007-08.

Unusual style

Tittle threw the ball from a sidearm, almost underhand position, something novel at those times, though it may have been common practice in earlier decades. In fact, it was this seemingly underhand style that drew the curiosity and admiration of many fans. In tandem with his baldness, he made for a very striking personality.

Post-retirement

During his NFL career, Tittle worked as an insurance salesman in the off-season and after retiring, founded his own company Y. A. Tittle Insurance & Financial Services (now operated by his son). In 1975 Tittle renewed an Intel policy on credit for a plant in Penang, Malaysia that produced more than half of its DRAM shortly before the plant burned to the ground. Company officials had forgotten to renew and Tittle assumed that Intel was good for the premiums. Although the plant was wrought with faulty wiring, claims adjusters were told that there were communist insurgents in the area and that locals theorized that the fire resulted from a rocket attack on the facility. Following the fire, all manufacturing buildings in the area were retrofitted with sprinklers.

Tittle currently suffers from severe dementia.

Career statistics

Year	Team	G	Cmp	Att	Cmp%	Yds	TD	Int	Rate	Rush yds	Rush TD
1948	BAL	14	161	289	55.7	2,522	16	9	90.3	157	4
1949	BAL	11	148	289	51.2	2,209	14	18	66.8	89	2
1950	BAL	12	161	315	51.1	1,884	8	19	52.9	77	2
1951	SF	12	63	114	55.3	808	8	9	68.2	18	1
1952	SF	12	106	208	51.0	1,407	11	12	66.3	-11	0
1953	SF	11	149	259	57.5	2,121	20	16	84.1	41	6
1954	SF	12	170	295	57.6	2,205	9	9	78.7	68	4
1955	SF	12	147	287	51.2	2,185	17	28	56.6	114	0
1956	SF	11	124	218	56.9	1,641	7	12	68.6	67	4
1957	SF	12	176	279	63.1	2,157	13	15	80.0	220	6
1958	SF	11	120	208	57.7	1,467	9	15	63.9	35	2
1959	SF	11	102	199	51.3	1,331	10	15	58.0	24	0
1960	SF	9	69	127	54.3	694	4	3	70.8	61	0
1961	NYG	13	163	285	57.2	2,272	17	12	85.3	85	3
1962	NYG	14	200	375	53.3	3,224	33	20	89.5	108	2
1963	NYG	13	221	367	60.2	3,145	36	14	104.8	99	2
1964	NYG	14	147	281	52.3	1,798	10	22	51.6	-7	1
Career		204	2,427	4,395	55.2	33,070	242	248	74.3	1,245	39

* MVP seasons in bold

[ Source: Wikipedia ]