Buddy Burris

Name correction: OU's draft list says "Paul (Buddy) Burns," but this is Paul "Buddy" Burris. Wikipedia confirms he was Green Bay's fifth-round pick, 31st overall, in 1947. He was born in Nowata, Oklahoma, in 1923 and raised in Muskogee, one of six football-playing Burris brothers, including Kurt and Bob. He played at Muskogee Central High School and then at Tulsa, including the 1943 Sugar Bowl. He served as an Army staff sergeant in Europe and Japan. After the war, Jim Tatum offered him a scholarship once he blocked three punts in an OU practice. He played guard from 1946 to 1948 and was the first Sooner to be an All-American all three years, a consensus pick in 1948. He was also the first Sooner in the Helms Athletic Foundation Hall of Fame. He played three NFL seasons for the Packers and died on November 26, 2007. The Daily Oklahoman (December 20, 1946, NewsBank page 28) squad roster prints "LEFT GUARDS—Paul Burris, Norman McNabb, Dee Andros, Lester Jensen"; the item does not say whether "Paul Burris" is Buddy Burris.