{"id":797104,"date":"2026-07-12T13:18:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T13:18:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/797104\/"},"modified":"2026-07-12T13:18:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T13:18:11","slug":"former-michigan-qb-browns-cfl-player-bob-ptacek-dies-at-89-local","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/797104\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Michigan QB, Browns, CFL player Bob Ptacek dies at 89 | Local"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>                        <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"data:image\/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAADCAQAAAAe\/WZNAAAAEElEQVR42mM8U88ABowYDABAxQPltt5zqAAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==\" alt=\"robert ptacek\" class=\"img-responsive lazyload full blur\" width=\"499\" height=\"490\" data- data-\/><\/p>\n<p>             <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/6a538ed2a97fb.image.jpg\" alt=\"\" aria-hidden=\"true\" loading=\"lazy\" height=\"196\" width=\"200\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Robert Ptacek<\/p>\n<p>Robert James \u201cBob\u201d Ptacek, a former University of Michigan quarterback who played professionally with the Cleveland Browns and Saskatchewan Roughriders, has died. He was 89.<\/p>\n<p>Ptacek died June 29 at his Dayton home, according to his obituary.<\/p>\n<p>Born April 23, 1937, in Cleveland, Ptacek starred at Michigan from 1956-58 and was named the Wolverines\u2019 most valuable player as a senior. He set a Big Ten record with 24 pass completions in a 1958 game against Ohio State and later earned MVP honors in the 1959 college all-star game.<\/p>\n<p>At Michigan, he often played both sides of the ball.<\/p>\n<p>The Cleveland Browns selected Ptacek in the eighth round of the 1959 NFL Draft. He appeared in 12 games for Cleveland before being traded to the Saskatchewan Roughriders in a rare NFL-CFL transaction involving future NFL Hall of Famer Jim Marshall.<\/p>\n<p>Ptacek played six seasons with Saskatchewan, earning CFL All-Star honors and later being inducted into the Roughriders\u2019 Plaza of Honour in 2001. He remains the CFL record holder for most fumble returns in a playoff season, with three in 1963.<\/p>\n<p>After football, Ptacek worked in transportation sales with Yellow Freight.<\/p>\n<p>Family members said his greatest pride was his wife, Donna, and their family. The couple were together for 73 years and married for nearly 68 years.<\/p>\n<p>He is survived by his wife; children Terri Horvath, Bob Ptacek, Gayle Adair and Lynn Ptacek; six grandchildren; 12 great-grandchildren, with another expected; and his brother, Jim Ptacek. He was preceded in death by his parents and grandson Nick.<\/p>\n<p>A private family service is scheduled for July 17. A Celebration of Life will be held from 3 to 5:30 p.m. that day at Routsong Funeral Home in Dayton.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Robert Ptacek Robert James \u201cBob\u201d Ptacek, a former University of Michigan quarterback who played professionally with the Cleveland&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":797105,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":["post-797104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cfl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canadian-football-league","tag-canadianfootballleague","tag-cfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=797104"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797104\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/797105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=797104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=797104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=797104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}