Alexander George Karras was born July 15, 1935 in Gary, Indiana, to his parents Dr. George Karras, a Greek immigrant, and Emmeline Karras, a Canadian immigrant. Alex was the youngest of three boys; his brother Lou was 8 years older than he, and Ted was just a year older. Dr. Karras opened a medical practice in Gary, but would die suddenly when Alex was 13. Alex had learned to play football in a parking lot near his home and he would blossom into a 4-time Indiana all-state selection, playing defensive tackle at Emerson High School.
Shortly after his graduation of high school, three coaches from University of Iowa arrived with an airplane and flew Karras to Spencer, Iowa. For the entire summer, Alex was a incommunicado writing in the Iowa-City Free Press “nobody knew where I was, not even my mom, although Louie told her not to worry. As Louie explained it, some accommodations were made by the people at Iowa that would make things easier for the family, and so away I went. It was the beginning of some awful years." Awful came in the form of his new college coach, Forest Evashevski or "Evy" to his players. In his sophomore year, Alex showed up 20 pounds over playing-weight and was hampered by a fractured ankle. After being disappointed that he wouldn’t play in the season finale, Alex threw a shoe at Evashevski. Karras would not earn a letter for the 1955 season.
