Football and basketball star

Otto Schnellbacher, 84, who played defensive back for the New York Giants football team and also played a season of professional basketball, died Monday in Topeka, Kan. He had been battling cancer, according to the University of Kansas, which announced his death.

Schnellbacher was a two-sport star at Kansas in the 1940s and later played two seasons with the New York Yankees of the All-America Football Conference in 1948-49 before joining the Giants in the National Football League, where he was a Pro Bowl player in 1950 and 1951. He led the league with 11 interceptions in 1951. He also spent the 1948-49 season in the Basketball Assn. of America with the St. Louis Bombers and Providence Steamrollers.

Schnellbacher was born in the small Kansas town of Sublette. In college, he was known as the “Double Threat From Sublette.” At 6 feet 4, he was a standout wide receiver and captain on the 1947 Kansas team, which went 8-1-2 and played in the Orange Bowl, where the Jayhawks lost to Georgia Tech 20-14.

His 58 receptions and 1,069 yards during his college career stood as school records for 22 years.

He also captained the Kansas basketball team and was a four-time all-conference selection, one of only three players to accomplish the feat in school history. He averaged 12.8 points a game his senior year.