Alex Karras

Karras' older brothers Lou and Ted played college football. Lou (a future member of the Redskins) at Purdue, and Ted (who later played with the Bears and Lions) also at Purdue before transferring to Indiana. Because of Ted's move Alex maintained that "Indiana had the inside track" on recruiting him. Shortly after he graduated from high school, three coaches from the Iowa Hawkeyes met Karras at his brother Lou's house with an airplane and flew him to Spencer, Iowa, where he remained incommunicado through the summer. Writing in the Detroit Free Press in 1971, Karras said that "nobody knew where I was, not even my mom, although Louie told her not to worry. Obviously, Iowa came up with something, I have no intention of stirring up any mess. I'll only say that, as Louie explained it, some accommodations were made by the people at Iowa that would make things easier for the family, and so away I went. It was the beginning of some awful years." Initially, Karras struggled at Iowa with classwork, homesickness, and with his coach, Forest Evashevski. He was a pledge at Sigma Nu fraternity as a freshman. Karras probably would have left Iowa had he not befriended a Greek theater owner, Ernie Pannos, as well as fellow players Cal Jones and Bob Commings. Karras's sophomore year with Iowa in 1955 got off to a rocky start when he showed up for practice forty pounds (18 kg) overweight. Karras had been (dubiously) advised that year that he would need to gain substantial weight to have a…

Karras was born and raised in Gary, Indiana, the son of Dr. George Karras, a Greek immigrant from Chios. A graduate of the University of Chicago, George studied medicine in Canada, where met and married Emmeline (née Wilson), a native-born registered nurse. George opened a medical practice in Gary, but died when Alex was thirteen years old. By that time, Alex Karras had learned to play football in a parking lot near his home, with and against his athletically inclined brothers. Excelling at high school football, baseball, track, wrestling, and basketball, he blossomed into a four-time Indiana all-state selection at Gary's Emerson High School. Karras also excelled in numerous other sports in high He graduated in 1954.

Karras was married twice. In 1958, he married Joan Jurgensen, with whom he had five children. The marriage ended in divorce in 1975. He married actress Susan Clark on March 21, 1980, and they had a daughter together.