Edward Burke (American football)

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Edward Burke (1907–1967) was an American football guard and a United States Navy officer. Born in Larksville, Pennsylvania, he grew up in Wilkes-Barre and entered the United States Naval Academy in 1925. He played guard for the Navy Midshipmen from 1926 to 1928 and captained the team in 1928. He was a consensus first-team All-American in 1928 and earned first-team All-Eastern honors that year. He graduated from the Naval Academy in 1929.

Burke spent his career in the Navy. In World War II he commanded destroyers USS Simpson and USS Plunkett. He received the Navy Cross for heroism at Anzio in 1944 and the Legion of Merit for rescuing survivors from a burning hospital ship during the 1943 invasion of Italy. After the war, he served as deputy navy advisor in Berlin (Office of Military Government for Germany) from 1946 to 1947, and he later taught naval science at the College of the Holy Cross. In 1959 he became director of enlisted personnel at the Bureau of Naval Personnel and later commanded the USS Des Moines. He retired with the rank of rear admiral in 1959.

Burke was married to Adele and had a daughter, Patricia. He lived in Sarasota, Florida later in life and died on August 19, 1967. He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.