Dec. 3, 1964 - The NFL scored twice in signing No. 1 draft choices today when the Chicago Bears put Dick Butkus, an Illinois center, under contract and Craig Morton, a University of California quarterback, agreed to terms with the Dallas Cowboys.
Butkus signed with the Bears at “an amount substantially less” than that offered by the New York Jets of the AFL, who had acquired the rights to the Illinois lineman from the Denver Broncos.
“The decision was up to Dick,” said attorney Arthur Morse, Butkus’ representative. “I told him that a lawyer can only go so far, that it was his body and his family. Whatever use he wants to make of his body and where he wants to locate his family are up to him. He picked the Bears and Chicago.”
Butkus said he never had “really seriously” considered any team other than the Bears.
“I didn’t like Denver’s approach,” he said. “There’s more to it than just money and that’s all Denver wanted to talk about. I saw a Jets official just once in New York, and that was my last contact with the AFL.”
Butkus will be honored tomorrow night at a banquet in New York with other members of the Football Writers’ Association All-American team. He hopes to return to Chicago in time to see Saturday’s Packers-Bears game — “if I can get a ticket.”
Butkus, voted player of the year by the Football Coaches Association this season, will be used by the Chicago owner-coach, George Halas, as a linebacker and offensive center.
“If Dick had been available to spell Mike Pyle when Pyle got hurt this season,” said Halas, “we would have been in much better shape.
Butkus is 6-3 and weighs 245 pounds. His signing brought Chicago’s one‐two choices into the fold. Gale Sayers, a Kansas halfback, signed Tuesday.
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