Malcolm Kutner, 83; NFL Player of Year in 1947, All-Pro End
Malcolm “Mal” Kutner, 83, the NFL Player of the Year in 1947 and an All-Pro end in 1947-48 for the Chicago Cardinals, died Friday in Tyler, Texas, after an extended illness.
Growing up in Dallas during the Depression, Kutner started playing football for the SMU Midgets, a children’s team on the campus of Southern Methodist University.
As a student at the University of Texas, he was named All-American in football and All-Conference in basketball, also lettering in track.
A day after the Longhorns defeated Oregon, 71-7, in Kutner’s final college gridiron game, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. After his senior year, Kutner joined the Navy for the duration of World War II.
He played for the Cardinals from 1946 to 1950, as offensive halfback and defensive end, then made a career in the Texas oil business.
He retired in 1983 as executive vice president of C&K; Petroleum.
Kutner was inducted into the National Football Foundation’s College Hall of Fame in 1974 and into the Texas Sports Hall of Fame in 1994.
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