Undrafted out of Louisville, Frank Minnifield quickly found a home in the USFL, where he briefly played for the Chicago Blitz and the Arizona Wranglers before suing his way out of the league to play for the Cleveland Browns.  

Minnifield blossomed into one of the best Cornerbacks in the NFL in the second half of the 1980s, earning Pro Bowl Selections each year from 1986 to 1989.  A First Team All-Pro in 1988, Minnifield anchored a strong Cleveland Secondary, but perhaps his most significant contribution was coining the term “Dawg Pound” along with fellow Browns Corner, Hanford Dixon.  That alone is Hall of Fame-worthy in the eyes of many on the North Coast.

Bill Lee was a college champion in 1934 at the University of Alabama, and five years later, he became an NFL champion in 1939 with the Green Bay Packers.  Lee was named to the Pro Bowl that year and the 1930’s All-Decade Team as a Tackle.  Before his stint with Green Bay, he played for the Brooklyn Dodgers from 1935 to 1937, played for the Packers from '37 to 1942, and then served his nation during WWII.  He returned to play in 1946 and played 82 Games in the NFL.

We can't say enough about the AFL's Buffalo Bills defense of the 1960s, a unit that doesn't get the credit it should.  This team won the 1964 and 1965 AFL titles, but most people remember four straight Super Bowl failures in the early 90s.

We remember.

A member of the two back-to-back AFL Championships, Butch Byrd was a rookie on that first team, where the cornerback recorded 7 Interceptions and a career-high 179 Interception Return Yards.  Byrd would never have a season with less than four picks as a Bill, which is impressive considering that opposing QBs wanted nothing to do with him.

Byrd would be a Second Team All-AFL Selection and was a five-time AFL All-Star.  Also, the three-time First Team All-Pro is still the all-time leader in Interceptions and Interception Return Yards.

At the University of Nebraska, Glenn Presnell first played for the semi-pro Ironton Yanks in 1929.  The Yanks were not part of the NFL but played games against NFL teams, sometimes emerging as the victor.  Presnell would sing with the NFL's Portsmouth Spartans, where he would be a bona fide triple threat in terms of passing, running and kicking and would be an All-Pro in 1933.  Presnell would then join the Detroit Lions and was a key member of their 1935 Championship Team. 

While this era is a little hard to quantify, historians and sportswriters of his day were high on Presnell and his offensive skills.