George Karlaftis

George Karlaftis was born and raised in Athens, Greece. His parents, Amy and Matthew Karlaftis, met at Purdue and then moved to Greece, where Matt was from. Matt Karlaftis died of a heart attack in 2014 and Amy then moved the George and his three siblings to her hometown of West Lafayette, Indiana. He played water polo in Greece where he played goalie on the U-16 Greece national team. He didn’t start playing football until he moved to the US. Despite the late start, Karlaftis grew into a force at West Lafayette (Ind.) High where he was Indiana Class 3A Player of the Year as a senior. Karlaftis was also a two-time state champion in the shot put. He was an AP freshman All-American and All-Big Ten second team in 2019. He was second-team All-Big Ten again as a sophomore. His favorite saying is “Prove them wrong.” Matthew Karlaftis ran track and field at Miami. Amy Karlaftis was a three-sport star at West Lafayette High and left school as the girls’ basketball team’s leading scorer. His brother, Yanni Karlaftis, was a consensus four-star recruit in the 2021 recruiting class and is now a teammate at Purdue. George Karlaftis is majoring in selling & sales management at Purdue.