College and professional athletics legend Charley Trippi passed away peacefully earlier this morning at his home in Athens. He was 100 years old.

Hailing from Pittston, Pennsylvania, Trippi, who was also an All-American baseball player at Georgia, has been distinguished as arguably the most versatile football player in the history of Bulldogs football.

For his Georgia football career, which consisted of only 27 regular-season games in the Bulldog backfield from 1942, 1945-1946, Trippi totaled 2,718 all-purpose yards, including 1,737 rushing, and passed for another 1,765 yards. He also averaged 14.0 yards per punt return and nearly 23 yards per kickoff return. In addition, Trippi intercepted 10 passes while playing on the defensive side of the ball.

Despite his collegiate career ending more than 75 years ago, Trippi’s 31 touchdowns scored (24 rushing, four receiving, and three via return) and 44 touchdowns responsible for (31 touchdowns scored, plus 13 career passing touchdowns) both remain in Georgia’s all-time top 10.

Trippi had one of the more prolific careers in Georgia’s postseason history. As a sophomore, he played all but two minutes of a 9-0 win over UCLA in the 1943 Rose Bowl. Named the bowl’s Most Valuable Player, he rushed for 113 yards, passed for 83 yards, punted for a 43-yard average, and intercepted a pass on defense. In a win over Tulsa in the 1946 Oil Bowl, Trippi scored on a spectacular 68-yard punt return, or what he considered his greatest play as a Bulldog.

Leading Georgia to a perfect 11-0 season in 1946, Trippi was the recipient of the Maxwell Award as the national college football player of the year while finishing runner-up for the Heisman Trophy. In the 1947 Sugar Bowl against North Carolina, his final game as a Bulldog, Trippi passed to Dan Edwards for a 67-yard touchdown in the third quarter, giving Georgia its first lead in an eventual 20-10 victory.

Trippi was just as impressive for Georgia on the baseball diamond. Playing shortstop for the Bulldogs in 1946, he batted a lofty .464—which remains the second-highest single-season batting average in Georgia history—and stole 27 bases in being named All-American by the American Baseball Coaches Association.

Just two weeks following the 1947 Sugar Bowl, Trippi became the first professional football player to sign a $100,000 contract, agreeing with the Cardinals to be paid over the next four seasons. Only weeks later, he also signed a one-year contract with the Atlanta Crackers of the Double-A Southern Association baseball league for a then unheard-of $10,000. That season with the Crackers, he batted .334.

The first selection in the 1947 NFL Draft, Trippi played halfback, quarterback, and defensive back for the Chicago Cardinals from 1947 to 1955. A three-time All-Pro, he was named to the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s all-decade team of the 1940s.

Remarkably, in his first two off-seasons of professional football, Trippi returned to Athens from Chicago to coach the Georgia baseball team to a combined 34-18 record in 1948 and 1949.

From 1956 to 1965, Trippi was first an assistant coach with the Chicago Cardinals, followed by a stint as an assistant at Georgia, and lastly with the St. Louis Cardinals. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1959 and the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1968.

Since the mid-1960s, Trippi had remained in Athens, where he built a successful career in commercial property real estate. He leaves behind his wife of more than 40 years, Peggy, six combined children, 15 grandchildren, and several great-grandchildren.

Regarding Trippi’s time at the University of Georgia, where he earned his degree in education in 1951 and is still regarded as likely the greatest all-around athlete in the annals of the school, he said in multiple interviews: “I always say that my time at UGA was the best thing that ever happened to me.”