Paul Flatley

Distinguished Alumnus Paul Flatley, Class of 1959

Born on January 30, 1941, in Richmond, Indiana, Paul Flatley graduated from Richmond High School in 1959.  He  came to the high school having played basketball at St. Andrew School but never football.  He played football for three years, becoming quarterback of the Red Devils his senior year.  He was named All-Conference and All-State in 1959.

After graduation, he attended Northwestern University in Chicago, Illinois.  When Ara Parseghian, head football coach there,  spoke at Richmond, and he had watched game films of RHS football, the coach recruited Flatley for the Wildcats as receiver. Ara Parseghian was coach from 1956 to 1963 at Northwestern University, later becoming head football coach at Notre Dame.

Flatley’s four years at Northwestern were a success and he was drafted in the 1963 NFL draft.  He was selected in the fourth round by the Minnesota Vikings.  During his rookie season he had fifty-one passes for 867 yards and four touchdowns.

Flatley was named National Football League Offensive Rookie of the Year in 1963.  He played seven seasons with the NFL, four with the Minnesota Vikings and three with the Atlanta Falcons.  He pulled in more than three hundred receptions and twenty-four touchdowns during those years. He also had 495 yards carried and a sixteen-yard average per game. He was invited to play in the 1966 Pro Bowl.

After retiring from professional football, Flatley lived in Minnesota and was a broadcaster for the Minnesota Golden Gopher (WCCO) radio broadcasts with Ray Christensen from 1971 to 1990.  He also was an analyst for the team from 1983 to 1997. He built his own business, Flatley Temporary Services, which he sold in 1996.  He returned to Richmond in the late 1990s.

Flatley was inducted into the Indiana Football Hall of Fame April 29, 1978, and he was inducted into the Chicagoland Sports Hall of Fame on September 21, 2011.

Flatley lives in Richmond.  He is divorced and the father of three daughters. He was chosen as an RHS Distinguished Alumnus in 1998.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  380 Hub Etchison Parkway, Richmond, IN 47374

 (765) 973-3338