A three-time Pro Bowl honoree, the late Frank Ryan net worth got significant deposits from his career as an NFL player & a professor.
Ryan died on January 1, 2024, at the age of 87, after complications of Alzheimer’s disease at a nursing home.
Before the family moved him to the Waterford, Connecticut, healthcare facility, the former quarterback lived with his wife, Joan Ryan, on 78 acres of heavily forested land.
Frank Beall Ryan is the late American football player who was an NFL quarterback from 1958 to 1970.
He was the round-five 1958 NFL draft pick of the Los Angeles Rams & played through 1961.
Then, he played in Cleveland Browns (1962-68) and Washington Redskins (1969-70).
With the Browns, Frank won the 1964 NFL Championship, which has been called the “Super Bowl” since 1966.
Having concluded his NFL career with a passer rating of 81.43, he ranks 5th best behind Milt Plum, Baker Mayfield, Otto Graham, and Bernie Kosar.
Besides being a proficient football QB, he was a mathematician and a professor at Case Institute of Technology (now Case Western Reserve University).
Moreover, he held administrative roles at Yale University and his alma mater, Rice University.
Frank Ryan Net Worth Before Death: QB’s Career Earnings & Income
On January 1, 2024, Frank Ryan had an estimated net worth of $1 million at the time of death.
His first significant source of income was his NFL career. Then, in his post-playing career, he got hands in a considerable sum as a professor & an athletic director.
While the exacts of his NFL contract or career earnings are not out, they were allegedly in the six-digit figure.
Given his 13 seasons with teams like the Browns, Rams & Redskins (now Commanders), his earning potential seems valid.
While at the LA Rams in the late 1950s, Ryan was earning $12,000 per season (equivalent to $131.5K now).
Then, after the 1961-62 season, he was traded to the Cleveland Browns. With the team, he earned three Pro Bowl honors & won the 1964 NFL Championship.
As reported, each team member in the winning team of the NFL Championship (i.e., the Browns) received $8,000 each.
Conversely, the Colts players who faced defeat made around $5,000 each.
Until then, Frank was earning $18,000 per season, which is equivalent to $200K these days.
After the championship, the then-Cleveland Browns owner Arthur Bertram Modell raised his salary by 38% to $25,000 per year. That amount has the same purchasing power as $275K in 2024.
Then, in 1969, he signed with the Washington Redskins & made only game appearances in the 1969-70 & 1970-71 seasons.
On April 13, 1971, he retired from the NFL with 1,090 completions in 2,133 attempts for 16,044 yards, 149 touchdowns, and 111 interceptions.
Frank Ryan’s Post-NFL Career & Achievements
A graduate with a bachelor’s degree in physics, Ryan completed a post-graduate degree in mathematics from Rice University.
Then, in 1965, he obtained his Ph.D. from the university above. He pursued his academics amid his ongoing football career.
After retiring from the NFL in 1970, he worked as director of information systems for the House of Representatives for six years.
He played an integral role in establishing the body’s first electronic voting system during that time.
Later, on March 7, 1977, Frank became the athletic director at Yale University, a position he held for 10 years.
The 1965 Golden Plate Awardee then served his alma mater, Rice University, as a Vice President for Institutional Planning from 1990 to 1995.
During that time, he was also a computational and applied mathematics professor at Rice.
After that, Frank Ryan held many administrative roles: CEO of Contex Electronics and the director of America West Airlines, Sequoia Voting Systems, and Danielson Holding Corporation.
There is no report on the amount of money he earned from these academic & administrative roles. But also, it’s a fact that it saw him a lucrative cashflow into his bank accounts.
