No. 53 | |||||||||
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Position: | Linebacker, center | ||||||||
Personal information | |||||||||
Born: | La Crosse, Washington, U.S. | February 28, 1929||||||||
Died: | March 20, 2015 Huntington Beach, California, U.S. | (aged 86)||||||||
Career information | |||||||||
College: | Washington State | ||||||||
NFL draft: | 1951 / round: 5 / pick: 58 | ||||||||
Career history | |||||||||
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As a coach: | |||||||||
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Career NFL statistics | |||||||||
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Record at Pro Football Reference |
LaVern Earl "Torgy" Torgeson (February 28, 1929 – March 20, 2015) was an American football player and coach. He played college football for Washington State from 1948 through 1950. Torgeson played professionally in the National Football League (NFL) for seven seasons, principally as a linebacker, for the Detroit Lions from 1951 to 1954 and for the Washington Redskins from 1955 to 1957.[1]
After retiring as a player, Torgeson worked for 35 years from 1959 to 1993 as an assistant coach in the NFL. His coaching positions included stints with the Washington Redskins (1959–1961, 1971–1977, 1981–1993), Pittsburgh Steelers (1962–1968), and Los Angeles Rams (1969–1970, 1978–1980). He was a coach on three Super Bowl championship teams in 1982, 1987, and 1991. As a player and coach, he spent 42 years in the NFL, 26 of them with the Redskins.