Jimbo Covert

Position:
OL
Years at Pitt:
1978-82
Hometown:
Conway, Pa.
High School:
Freedom
College Football Hall of Fame:
Inducted in 2003

Legendary offensive line coach Joe Moore once described Pitt tackle Jimbo Covert in the following manner: “Jimbo is so good, it's like watching a clinic film.”

“After a play," said Moore, “I'm never surprised to see Jimbo and his man 10 or 15 yards downfield.”

Covert's elite play helped forge Pitt's status as an offensive lineman factory in the 1980s. He was an All-American in college and an All-Pro in the NFL.

Raised in the steel-making town of Conway, Pa., Covert arrived as a freshman at Pitt in 1978 following a decorated career at Freedom High School. He actually began his collegiate career on the defensive line. A shoulder injury sidelined him for the 1979 season and he was redshirted. At the urging of Moore, he switched to offensive tackle in the spring of 1980. It was a decision that would lead Covert to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Covert was a fixture on Pitt’s punishing offensive front his final three seasons, surrendering just three sacks during that span. As a consensus All-American his senior year, he did not give up a single sack.

Not coincidentally, Pitt went 31-5 during Covert’s three years as a starter, finishing in the nation’s Top 10 each season. The 1980 and 1981 teams each went 11-1 and finished as high as No. 2 in the national polls.

His junior year, Covert was named a first team All-American by Football News and the Newspaper Enterprise Association (NEA). As a senior, he earned consensus status by being named an All-American by no fewer than six different national selectors. Following his final Pitt season, he played in the prestigious Hula Bowl and Senior Bowl all-star games.

Covert was chosen in the first round of the 1983 NFL Draft (sixth overall) by the Chicago Bears and head coach Mike Ditka, himself a former Pitt All-American from Western Pennsylvania.

Ditka said there was no war room debate on how the Bears would use their first round pick in that draft.

“Jimbo’s the guy we wanted. From Day 1, we put him at left tackle and moved on,” Ditka said. “You don’t get too many people who come along who can make that impact. He had the respect of all his teammates and all his coaches.”

How did the rookie Covert earn such respect?

“By kicking (butt),” Ditka said. “But that’s how we did it back then.”

Covert quickly established himself as one of pro football’s top offensive tackles and was a consensus All-Rookie pick. By his second NFL season, Covert was voted a Bears captain by his teammates.

With Covert as a spearhead, the Bears led the NFL in rushing four consecutive seasons from 1983-86. His teammate, Hall of Fame running back Walter Payton, called him “the best offensive tackle in the NFL.”

Covert was a vital part of Chicago’s famed 1985 team—considered one of the finest in NFL history—that went 15-1 and demolished the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XX, 46-10.

During that era, the Bears and New York Giants were among the NFC’s heavyweights, annually vying to represent the conference in the Super Bowl. Three times Covert squared off against the Giants and their devastating Hall of Fame pass rusher Lawrence Taylor. And all three times Covert held Taylor without a sack.

“Covert was better than all of those guys in the NFC at the time—way better,” former Giants coach Bill Parcells told Dan Pompei of The Athletic Chicago. “It’s not close. He was one of the best in my 30 years in football. Other guys had to have help against Taylor.”

Despite facing chronic back problems later in his pro career, Covert would play eight seasons in Chicago (1983-90), earning All-Pro honors four times, two first-team All-NFL selections and two Pro Bowls. He was twice named the NFL Offensive Lineman of the Year (1985 and 1986). Covert was named to the NFL’s All-Decade Team of the 1980s by the Pro Football Hall of Fame Selection Committee. In January 2020, he received his richly deserved Canton Call as part of the Pro Football Hall of Fame's Centennial Class.

Covert’s No. 75 jersey was retired at halftime of the Pitt-Notre Dame game at Heinz Field on Nov. 7, 2015.

Fittingly, Covert was surrounded by a slew of his fellow Pitt greats. Among the attendees that day to pay tribute to him were Mike Ditka, Dan Marino, Tony Dorsett, Bill Fralic and coaches John Majors and Jackie Sherrill.

“Pitt is a family,” Covert said. “We have a bond that is unbreakable and it lasts well beyond college and throughout our entire lives.

“I am truly humbled and extremely appreciative of this honor. I owe Pitt a tremendous debt of gratitude because the university has given me so much in so many important ways. Everything I was able to accomplish as a player, and most importantly as a person, is a credit to my parents and the people who taught and coached me at the University of Pittsburgh. I’m proud to call myself a Pitt Man.”

Covert, who went on to a highly successful business career after football, is a member of Pitt’s Board of Trustees.