A ritualistic paddling of a future Hall of Fame quarterback. That's what athletes at Alabama considered a required step of initiation for Bart Starr into the club of varsity lettermen.
Starr and his wife Cherry have kept a secret about the injuries that the Green Bay Packers legend suffered at the hands of his fellow Alabama athletes in the 1950's.
AL.com reports that Cherry Starr has finally disclosed the pain Starr endured in the beating in 1954.
"He was hospitalized at one point in traction," Cherry told AL.com. Her husband has not spoken often to reporters due to the complications of recent strokes and a heart attack which put his life in jeopardy.
"His back was never right after that...his whole back all the way up to his rib cage looked like a piece of raw meat."
The injury led him to fail an Air Force medical examination - one which if he passed, might have led him to not play football as long, or perhaps at all.
Instead, he played through "chronic pain his entire career."
The report says that in the 1980's, doctors finally found a crack on the anterior part of his spine, believed to be from the hazing injury.
