Rick Casares

Richard Jose Casares (July 4, 1931 – September 13, 2013) was an American professional football player who played fullback in the National Football League and the American Football League across twelve seasons during the 1950s and 1960s. He played college football at the University of Florida, where he was a standout fullback and kicker. In the professional ranks, Casares played for the Chicago Bears and the Washington Redskins of the NFL, and was a member of the expansion Miami Dolphins of the AFL.

Casares was born in Tampa, Florida, in 1931. When he was seven, his father was killed in a gang shooting, and his mother sent him to live with an aunt and uncle in Paterson, New Jersey. At fifteen, he 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.

From the age of fifteen, Casares lived in West Tampa with his mother and attended Thomas Jefferson High School in Tampa, where his teachers introduced him to high school sports as a way to keep him in school. The Jefferson coaches discovered him as a 190-pound, six-foot-one-inch freshman.