An SEC Player of the Year in 1939 with LSU, Ken Kavanaugh was chosen by the Chicago Bears the following year in the 3^rd Round of the NFL Draft.  The End would be a member of the dominant “Monsters of the Midway” that won back-to-back NFL Championships (1940 & 1941), scoring a TD in the first one (which was the lopsided 73-0 dismantling of the Washington Redskins).

Like many of his peers, Kavanaugh enlisted to serve his country in World War II, and when he returned, the former LSU Tiger picked up right where he left off.  Kavanaugh would again help the Bears win the 1946 NFL Championship.  He would be named a First Team All-Pro in various publications three times and would twice lead the NFL in Touchdown Receptions before he retired after 1950.  He was named to the 1940's All-Decade Team.

Andy Russell debuted for the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1963, and he had to sit out his next two seasons due to ROTC commitments.  He returned to the Steelers in 1967, and in 1968 he earned his first Pro Bowl selection in 1970.  He would become a perennial Pro Bowl Selection from that year until 1975, and the Linebacker was an early member of the Steel Curtain Defense, where he would help them win their first two Super Bowls.

Russell is a member of the Pittsburgh Steelers All-Time team, which says a lot considering how much talent that the team had throughout the years.

Isiah Robertson was the 10^th overall pick from Southern University in 1971, and it didn't take long for him to prove to the Los Angeles Rams that he was the right choice, as he would go on to win the AP Defensive Rookie of the Year.  The Linebacker would go on to be one of the best defensive players the Rams ever had, as he was chosen for six Pro Bowls and two First Team All-Pros as a Ram, and he was an integral part of L.A.'s multiple playoff appearances in the 70s.

Robertson later provided leadership for the Buffalo Bills and retired with 25 Interceptions, a very high number for a Linebacker.

This one might be a little tough to justify, but it wasn't uncommon for players before World War II.

Byron “Whizzer” White was a hot commodity after being a consensus All-American at Colorado, and he was drafted 4^th Overall by the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1938.  As a rookie, he would lead the NFL in Rushing, but the National Football League was not the only organization that sought his talents.  He played there for only one year, deferring his pro career to attend Oxford, but the Rhodes Scholar stayed only one year as he returned to the United States after the outbreak of World War II.

White returned to football and played for the Detroit Lions for two years, where in 1940 he again won the Rushing Title.  Like many others, he enlisted in the military when the U.S. joined World War II; he served in the Navy as an officer in Military Intelligence.  Although he was more than good enough to play football again after the war, he went into law and politics and became an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court.  A great humanitarian, the Whizzer White Award is given annually to the NFL player for his charity work (though this would be changed to the Alan Page Award)

Despite playing only two seasons in the 1940s, he was chosen for the All-Decade Team, but a spot in Canton is hard to earn when you played only three years in total.