22 Facts About Babe Parilli

Vito "Babe" Parilli was an American football quarterback and coach who played professionally for 18 seasons.

Babe Parilli played college football at Kentucky, where he twice received consensus All-American honors and won two consecutive bowl games.

Babe Parilli achieved his greatest professional success in the AFL as the starting quarterback of the Boston Patriots from 1961 to 1967.

Babe Parilli earned three All-Star Game selections, while leading the Patriots to their only AFL postseason and championship game appearance in 1963.

Present for the entirety of the AFL's existence, Babe Parilli played his final seasons for the New York Jets and was part of the team that won a Super Bowl title in Super Bowl III.

Babe Parilli was inducted to the College Football Hall of Fame in 1982.

Babe Parilli was born and raised in Rochester, Pennsylvania, an industrial town northwest of Pittsburgh, Babe Parilli graduated from Rochester High School in 1948.

Babe Parilli played college football at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, and was a quarterback for the Wildcats under head coach Paul "Bear" Bryant.

Babe Parilli was a consensus All-American in 1950 and 1951 and was fourth in the Heisman Trophy voting in 1950 and third in 1951.

Babe Parilli led the Wildcats to victories in consecutive New Year's Day bowl games in the 1951 Sugar Bowl and 1952 Cotton Bowl.

Babe Parilli was the fourth overall selection of the 1952 NFL draft, taken by the Green Bay Packers.

Babe Parilli played two seasons with the Packers, two with the Ottawa Rough Riders in Canada, one with the Cleveland Browns in 1956, two more with the Packers, and another with Ottawa in 1959.

At age 30, Babe Parilli was picked up by the Oakland Raiders of the fledgling American Football League on August 17,1960, and threw for just over 1,000 yards that season.

In 1964, throwing primarily to Gino Cappelletti, Babe Parilli amassed nearly 3,500 yards passing with 31 touchdowns; the latter was a Patriots record until Tom Brady broke it in 2007.

Babe Parilli is a member of the Patriots All-1960s Team.

Coincidentally, this gave the Jets two quarterbacks from Pennsylvania's Beaver County, with Babe Parilli being from Rochester and Namath being from nearby Beaver Falls and both played for "Bear" Bryant in college, Namath at Alabama.

Babe Parilli is one of only 20 players who were in the American Football League for its entire ten-year existence, and is a member of the University of Kentucky Athletic Hall of Fame.

In 1982, Babe Parilli was named to the College Football Hall of Fame.

Babe Parilli retired as a player at the age of 40 in August 1970.

In 1974, Babe Parilli became the head coach of the New York Stars of the World Football League; after going bankrupt, the franchise moved to Charlotte mid-season.

Babe Parilli died on July 15,2017, in Parker, Colorado of multiple myeloma at the age of 87.

Babe Parilli was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame in 1982.