{"id":253,"date":"2018-10-03T14:20:38","date_gmt":"2018-10-03T14:20:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/?p=253"},"modified":"2018-10-18T15:17:34","modified_gmt":"2018-10-18T15:17:34","slug":"daniel-fortmann-nfl-bears-player-surgeon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/2018\/10\/03\/daniel-fortmann-nfl-bears-player-surgeon\/","title":{"rendered":"Flashback: Daniel Fortmann \u201936, Team Player in the NFL and the OR"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">During the first-ever NFL Draft in 1936, Chicago Bears owner George Halas picked Daniel J. Fortmann \u201936 as the team\u2019s ninth and final draft pick. \u201cDanny Fortmann. Now that name\u2019s got a good sound to it,\u201d Halas said of the offensive lineman. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\"> Meanwhile, Fortmann was a senior all-star at Colgate under legendary Coach Andy Kerr, who once referred to him as the \u201cbest player [he] ever coached.\u201d A leader off the field as well, Fortmann was a member of Konosioni, Phi Beta Kappa, Maroon Key, and Delta Upsilon. As he prepared for graduation, the chemistry major had a choice: the NFL or medical school. He chose both. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">At age 19, Fortmann became the youngest NFL starter playing, and he enrolled at the University of Chicago\u2019s medical school. He earned his MD in 1940, becoming the first person to do so while still playing pro football, according to the <i>Los Angeles Times<\/i>. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">Named the \u201c\u2018heart and soul\u2019\u201d of the Bears\u2019 offense by the United Press, he won three NFL championship titles and ranked first or second for All-NFL honors during each season of his eight-year football career.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">In 1944, Fortmann joined the Navy and was stationed on a hospital ship in the Pacific Ocean. He later became the team doctor for the Los Angeles Rams as well as a surgeon at St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank, Calif. \u201cThe experiences you gain on the football field can be carried over in many other aspects of life,\u201d he said, according to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, to which he was inducted in 1965. \u201cTeamwork is something that\u2019s important in both [of my] professions.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">Colgate inducted him into its Athletic Hall of Honor in 1979. Fortmann also stayed connected to the university as a member of the Alumni Corporation Board (1981\u20131985) and a Maroon Citation Award winner (1982).<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">In 1983, Fortmann was diagnosed with Alzheimer\u2019s disease, which ultimately took his life at the age of 79 in 1995. He was survived by his brother, 2 sisters, 2 sons, and 5 grandchildren.\u2009<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Daniel Fortmann \u201936 joined the NFL as a starter at 19, the same year he enrolled in medical school. His life didn&#8217;t slow down from there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1221,"featured_media":262,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,11],"tags":[40,62,112],"coauthors":[146],"class_list":["post-253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-alumni-updates","category-flashback","tag-athletics","tag-football","tag-sports"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/palXSH-45","amp_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2018\/10\/alumni-fortmann.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1221"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=253"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":643,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253\/revisions\/643"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=253"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}