Frank Tripucka
Frank Tripucka's professional football career started in 1949 with the Detroit Lions of the NFL. Tripucka played with the Chicogo Bears and the Dallas Texans between 1950 and 1952, mainly as a backup QB. His most action coming in 1952 when he completed 86 of 174 jpasses for Dallas in 6 games. Tripucka came north to Canada and joined the Saskatchewan Roughriders. From 1954 to 1958, Trickucka was the Rider's starting QB, throwing for over 2000 yards in each season, with a career high 3274 yards in 1956. Tripucka was a West All-Star in 1954 (there were no CFL All-Stars until 1962). Tripucka spent one season in Ottawa in 1959 and then returned to the States and the newly founded AFL in 1960 where he took over as the starting QB for the Denver Broncos. Tripucka was released by Denver partway through the 1963 season and he returned to the CFL and Saskatchewan to back up Ron Lancaster.
Complete AFL / NFL Statistics for Frank Tripucka
| Year | Team | GP | PA | PC | % | Yds | TD | Int | Sacked | Yds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1953 | SASK | 94 | 49 | 62 | 703 | 4 | 5 | |||
| 1954 | SASK | 259 | 152 | 56.7 | 2003 | 14 | 14 | |||
| 1955 | SASK | 257 | 158 | 61.5 | 2306 | 11 | 17 | |||
| 1956 | SASK | 383 | 216 | 56.4 | 3274 | 13 | 22 | |||
| 1957 | SASK | 343 | 172 | 50.1 | 2589 | 12 | 29 | |||
| 1958 | SASK | 338 | 189 | 55.9 | 2766 | 20 | 27 | |||
| 1959 | OTT | 145 | 79 | 54.5 | 1119 | 4 | 14 | 12 | 104 | |
| 1959 | SASK | 45 | 27 | 60 | 311 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | |
| 1963 | SASK | 66 | 38 | 57.6 | 435 | 3 | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| Year | Team | TC | Yds | Avg | TD | Long |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1953 | SASK | 5 | -77 | -15.4 | 0 | |
| 1954 | SASK | 25 | -125 | -5 | 0 | 3 |
| 1955 | SASK | 36 | -155 | -4.3 | 0 | 8 |
| 1956 | SASK | 31 | -138 | -4.5 | 0 | 9 |
| 1957 | SASK | 29 | -95 | -3.4 | 3 | 9 |
| 1958 | SASK | 26 | -58 | -2.2 | 0 | 9 |
| 1959 | OTT | 3 | -3 | -1 | 0 | |
| 1959 | SASK | 3 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 3 |
| 1963 | SASK | 4 | -8 | -2 | 0 | 2 |
| Year | Team | F | FL |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1953 | SASK | ||
| 1954 | SASK | ||
| 1955 | SASK | 4 | |
| 1956 | SASK | 3 | |
| 1957 | SASK | 0 | |
| 1958 | SASK | 1 | |
| 1959 | OTT | 1 | |
| 1959 | SASK | 0 | |
| 1963 | SASK | 0 |
| Year | Team | P | Yds | Avg | Long | S |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1953 | SASK | 31 | 1463 | 47.1 | ||
| 1954 | SASK | 16 | 686 | 42.8 | 55 | |
| 1955 | SASK | 7 | 242 | 34.5 | 58 | |
| 1956 | SASK | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 1957 | SASK | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 1958 | SASK | 19 | 936 | 49.2 | 80 | 4 |
| 1959 | OTT | 52 | 2057 | 39.6 | 58 | 1 |
| 1959 | SASK | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 1963 | SASK | 4 | 185 | 46.2 | 65 | 1 |
Tripucka had one fumble recovery in 1963.
