On this day: The 1st Deaf NFL Player was Born

On this date (June 1) in 1948 Bonnie Sloan was born in Tennessee.

Bonnie would become the first deaf player in the NFL at the age of 25 when he ran onto the field when the St. Louis Cardinals took on the Philadelphia Eagles in 1973. His career only lasted one season because of a knee injury, but he made his mark. The 6-foot-5, 260-pounder came out of Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, Tennessee, where he was the first player to bench press 500 pounds. Sloan was an All-Ohio Valley Conference defensive tackle at the college. The City of Hendersonville, Tennessee honored him by declaring a day August, 2013 as Bonnie Sloan Day. Read more about Sloan here.