The Fabulous 50's Volume 1 (1987)

these men had come back from the service they've been in a war this was a picnic after what they'd been through and it was a privilege and we didn't have all the high salaries and agents and unions and things of this sort that you have today and it was a real competitive tough proposition when she made it there was a lot of fun maybe he looked like a big marshmallow for a Santa Claus in a football uniform for the player across the line of scrimmage like a lot of them playing Arthur Donovan got religion we had a lot of fun playing football we didn't make much money so consequently we had subsidizes by having fun so we got a lot of characters in those days there were characters but they were great football player [Music] during the 1950's pro-football discovered the vehicle that would transport it out of these sleepy back waters of the national sports scene and carry it into the mainstream of American culture and that vehicle was television and the TV screen provided an ongoing portrait of the entire decade with a simple flick of the dial the 50s instantly came alive in black and white everything from Senator McCarthy pointing his finger to Elvis swiveling his hips with its unique way of capturing the intimacy and spontaneity of live events television proved to be the perfect medium for pro football TV not only documented the sports fast action and hard-hitting it also highlighted the game's personalities men like Bobby Lane Norvin Brocklin Gino Marchetti and Frank Gifford were just a few of the larger-than-life heroes in a long-running dramatic series that ran every Sunday during the 1950's pro football grabbed headlines yet still retained the innocence and charming awkwardness of the last dance at a high-school soccer [Music] the game and the fuel it's fans were about to make an impact on America's consciousness and for those just beginning to discover the NFL it was love at first sight thanks to a colorful collection of cut-ups and Crewcuts players whose low salaries never dampened their high spirits we had a lot of fun playing football we didn't make much money so consequently we had to subsidize it by having fun the style of the era was typify by goofy gimmicks like the hidden ball play and by the kind of fast-paced spontaneity one might find in the slapstick comedy of TV stars such as Milton Berle and Sid Caesar [Laughter] [Music] although this was a man's game there were times when the action appeared to be dictated by a couple of whimsical women known as Lady Luck and mother nature [Music] bikal faked and fancy footwork lent a playground atmosphere to pro football's playing fields but these men had earned the right to cavort life schoolboys for many of them had been forced to grow up in a hurry on distant dangerous Shores he's men and come back from the service they've been in a war this was a picnic after what they'd been through and it was a privilege and we didn't have all the high salaries and agents and unions and things of this sort that you have today and it was a real competitive tough proposition but once you made it there was a lot of fun this light-hearted approach was especially apparent and those who delivered heavy hits and a man's body became the most explosive weapon on a 100 yard long battlefield laden with booby traps carrying a football meant becoming a human target these men faced combat without face masks you block and you tackle you hit people is your face first that's where you're tough and that's the way you do it if you're good so your face took one from endless beating and if you could hold your teeth or not have a broken knowledge you had to be a penny waste would do any job players lost their teeth but never their nerve and every ball carriers courage was tested by shots that stretched the rules of the game the two-fisted 50s were enriched by a crazy combination of wild-eyed personality and eye-popping athletic prowess so we got a lot of characters in those days they were characters but they were great football players the portrait gallery of greats established in the 1950s includes some of the most exciting athletes who ever played the game [Music] of the 133 men enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame 55 spent all or part of their playing careers in the 1950s these players cast giant shadows upon the landscape of pro football and today these shadows loom even larger in the memories and imaginations of those who love the game the incomparable individual brilliance and unique team chemistry that marked this era have transcended their specific time and place to make the fabulous 50s an unforgettable part of a magic and myth of pro football while wild plays and great games made the 50s unique it was the players who really defined the era men like Frank Gifford to New York fans Gifford remains a symbol of a shining era a time when the Giants were a diamond stickpin in the best of professional football Gifford joined the Giants in 1952 and in the 12 seasons that he played the team won five divisional titles and one world championship he was the son of an oil rigger and his family moved frequently sometimes 15 times in a single year and Frank often slept on mattresses in the back of pickup trucks in 1948 he earned a football scholarship to the University of Southern California and while in school he appeared briefly in two motion pictures whose titles sum up his image Saturday's hero and the all-american boy in 1951 Hollywood handsome Frank Gifford was a bit player in movies but as a tailback for the Southern Cal Trojans he played the leading man and perfectly fit the role of all-american the next year this golden boy from the Golden West was gift-wrapped and presented to the New York Giants in the NFL Draft he carried with him an aura of style and glamour that no University offered in its curriculum when I arrived at the jaw of someone graphic my wife was a centerfold of Argosy magazine at the time I was the number one draft pick there was a lot of talk about by working in movies I guess I was a good-looking guy I thought there wasn't any real resentment on the part of the players I don't think initially this handsome hero of girls dreams and boys ambitions became the most versatile running back of the 1950's he could run throw and catch and the option pass became the Giants most effective weapon averaging a touchdown every four attempts Gifford began his career as a defensive back and ended it as a receiver and although he made every move look effortless no giant player worked harder than number 16 Frank was the type that would stay out after practice work on past patterns do some extra running and I think his ambition to be as good as he could possibly be motivated him as far as getting maximum out of his abilities his looks and gentlemanly ways were mistaken by some as softness but Gifford was an intense competitor who hated to lose and usually managed to find a way to win Frank with a thinking football player that always aware of what defenses they were in and always able to come up with something and come into the huddle and tell you something I like that when it's under came he made the big catch he made a big play he might not catch four to pause again but one of them was when they shouldn't have caught and he did catch it by the mid-50s the Giants were the kings of pro football and the Prince of the city was Frank Gifford handsome man I mean here we are as a big old guys down on the mud you know we always we always looked muddy we always look Grammy we always look sweaty and Frank always look so good I mean I don't remember Frank ever having a muddy uniform Frank was everything that you ever thought about being I mean he was it he didn't really associate with too many of the other players not because he didn't want to but because everybody was sort of saying you know this guy is really something look all he's got going for him I mean he had a radio show nobody had a radio show I'm Frank Gifford I've been in the lake for 10 years when you with the Jazz you learned that football is a game of percentages so I think most of the players were just sort of saying boy what a guy he is and then you win ballgames I worked hard I think more than I think probably more than anyone I know on the Giants and there was a lot of resentment against me within our own ballclub as we started to do well and we won the championship in 56 I would get all the publicity I think I handled it rather well I just never could figure out some of the animosity that I got from players once I got over the hurt really of that I just said to hell with it I went out I played my game there were a lot of deliberate shots taken at me give me an e an elbow God knows a finger in the eye if I'm working against somebody who is emotionally involved with something else and part of that is well I'm gonna put that no-good yo-yo freak from California out of the game I'm gonna beat that guy I'm nine times out of ten he aspired to great deeds and possessed the confidence that he could accomplish them for eight seasons he ignored the cheap talk and escaped the cheap shots but in 1960 he was hospitalized after a clean hit by concrete Charlie Bednarik the next hit on Frank was the greatest tackle what I've ever seen I mean you know it's I used to stay up nice thinking about hitting a guy like that Frank was not looking at Bednarik he should have been looking for him because Charlie could hit and if something's gotta give Nicholas Frank as I caught the ball and turned into and hit me in the chest and I went over backwards and this is from people telling me about it and looking at the fells because I don't think I remembered much of anything we thought he was dead when I walked by him on the field do you know he was he was quivering and his eyes were back in his head and I said did you know that he's gone like a cheap shot a well it really wasn't I mean dead neck had to give me a cheap shot I probably would be sitting here he is but just a good solid football player and a great football player injured in 1961 Gifford came back to help lead the Giants to two Eastern Conference titles when he retired in 1964 he owned the hearts of the fans and had won the respect of his teammates he liking words he respected I think there's a very fine line between dislike and respect I think Frank had everybody's respect and sometimes we confuse that issue he still has everybody's respect Frank Gifford carved his clean-cut image and an era also known for its tough guys men who played the game because they loved combat in contact during the 50s every team had a notorious hit man in San Francisco the 49ers had a smallish linebacker named Hardy Brown who might have been the most destructive hitter of all time 49er players measured an opponent's toughness by how he got up if he got up after being hit by Hardy Brown 30 years ago the San Francisco 49ers fielded a team with for future Hall of Fame but cardi Brown was not one of number 33 was a skinny linebacker who captained the San Francisco defense in the mid fifties and whose career is nearly forgotten today but time cannot dull the memory of how Hardy Brown could get calmly fires want to bill siblings all goes well until hard-hitting Hardy Brown hurls his hefty Hopkin at the ball carrier and as the fellow with Rex berry recovering for the 49 Brown never used his arms while tackling only a well-timed shoulder to separate men from the ball and their senses he had an educated shoulder where he'd snap it up and be able at the time if so he hit hit the ball carrier or whatever right underneath his choppers I have seen him put people out cold with that shoulder and Hardy was not a big man he was only about under 95 200 pounds but boy he learned how to put that hump India from Tulsa and he hit when Bob water-filled got to playing for the for the Rams one day is crossing some Street down there in LA and a Volkswagen hit him and he got up and they said you all right and he said yeah I'm all right but I thought Hari Brown was in town and that's it perhaps Hardy Browns violent nature was shaped at the Masonic home for orphans in Fort Worth Texas where he was sent at the tender age of five to learn about life and football and my father was murdered and they sent me and my brother and the sister out there and we started that when we started fooling around football I had an older brother and he started teaching all the guys play football out there using that kind of a shoulder and all those kids played out the home there they had to play that way or they would make deep one year we got to the semi-finals and we're gonna have to play ever ill of Texas finally they beat us 14 to 7 and they came in our addressed room and said you guys sure brought funny we said why they showed us their lips and they say they're all of the split lips football took Hardy Brown out of the orphanage in San teams Tulsa University then on to the 49ers where he developed the skills of a solid pro linebacker but it was Hardy's unique method of mayhem that made him a folk hero among those he played with and against I've seen tardy brown knuckle the helmet right off a player hit him in the chest chin boom it's the players feet would continue down you would see him come running like this player up in the air helmet off and just spread eagle every time we play the Chicago Bears Halas would have the officials come in and inspect hard he always thought he had a steel plate or something up on his shoulder pad hard it was a linebacker and probably a very most punishing linebacker I think that I've ever known who could throw a punch with exact timing and clay hit a guy right on the point of the nose and that's usually where Hardy aim for the point of the nose it's kind of like a Jack Dempsey punch it didn't need lift six inches that's all it needed and you want to sleep you see these Western you see guys have niches on their belts for guys it killed my hardy Brown had niches on his belt for all the jockstrap see guy he put more people to sleep for the shoulder Rick's anybody I've ever seen take one step forward keep your back straight keep your eyes open shoot over the years I guess I've got 75 or 80 knockouts Lance the festival football no I don't feel sorry for anybody out here I really don't [Music] so they want to get me to the Rams had a $500 deal for like getting knocked out of the game and I found out about it and the guy that told me was a guy that was in the backfield with me at Tulsa Paul Barry and I said Paul if you get to play come in and hit me in our fake and go out and we'll split that $5,500 250 piece party it's been almost 30 years since you played and the game's changed a lot since then what do you think of the NFL today I like it's a game they won't let up linebacker meet a guy coming across the line or anything you know what I'd do if I was playing for some team and one of the good ends came across I'd take a whack at it you knock him out so that we would have food waiting anymore I'm like came a few teeth in during the whole time that you play party did you ever come across anybody you felt was as tough as you were somebody you know who could who could hit as hard as you could [Music] nobody [Music] I mean that unless has been one of my teammates at the home party Brown was one of the most feared hitmen in a decade that also featured dauntless Daredevils breathtaking aerial acts and also clown princes and one team that provided plenty of laughter and thrills was the Chicago Cardinals before moving to st. Louis in 1960 the Cardinals played in Chicago's Comiskey Park and during the ten-year period between 1950 and 1959 the Cardinals finished in the conference cellar five times and only once that they managed to compile a winning record but despite their losing ways they were never dull and were one of the most entertaining sideshows in the crazy circus that was pro football in the 1950s well they had some wild coaches asked some wild players in those days they have guys who kind of inept and the the best thing they could do is run as far as away from the defending lineman and throw the ball and sometimes it took out in a kind of a Charlie Chaplin ask appearance out there [Music] in true slapstick fashion the Chicago Cardinals of the 1950's walked a fat laden with banana peels [Music] footballs were thrown like pies and there were chases worthy of the Keystone Cops [Music] like slapstick movie characters the Cardinals thrived on ridiculous situations that enabled them to display on common resourcefulness from chaos the Cardinals created high comedy and it was high comedy created in a low-budget environment we'd have very good equipment the Cardinals at that time the word class never never came close to us we rode the train to games train to Cleveland train to Green Bay wherever we went it was just a it was not the big leagues we played a Kaminsky Park in those days which was the home of the White Sox - it used to sod the infield and we escort a touchdown so it was on the south end of the of the field which was the sodded portion of portion and Billy cross went in to hold for Joe Gary well the ball was snapped Joe goes through the motion makes a kick and ref throws his hands up in the air stands all yell and what had happened is that Joe had actually kicked a piece of sod over the over the had gone over the goalpost and Billy cries I'll never forget I happen to be looking at Billy and the look on his face Khazaria is still holding the ball the team was usually left holding the bag during a decade in which they totaled a mere 33 wins they boasted but one true superstar halfback ollie Matson whose speed made him seem less a man than a force of nature I can remember hearing him go by it was like the wind storm going by and I never heard anything like that before he was just so fast that he'd created a breeze when he went by Mattson number 33 was a Russian receiving and returned threat whose many talents would earn him a place in all of things the cards got a lot out of namsun and when they eventually traded him they got a lot for him or so it seemed Cardinal is a mess the Los Angeles Rams 11 vault of the 11 nine had to be classified as garbage absolute garbage I think six or seven of them never showed up because they were real dogs the Matteson trade was one of several unusual personnel decisions we drive to the quarterback from Ohio State one here number one and we said Oh Superboy we needed a quarterback Babri and I'd be in a receiver thought I wish we get somebody to get the ball to me and lo and behold a fella showed up and started throwing a bomb he couldn't get the ball 15 yards down the field and we found out the reason they drafted him because they liked his picture in the street and Smith the nice legs and looked well proportioned looked like a real football player but even if the team's quarterbacks weren't picture-perfect they did fit into an offense that somehow managed to move the ball forward without benefit of the forward pass [Applause] during the 1950's sleight of hand was the Cardinals trademark and the tricks of their trade induced gasps of astonishment from an awestruck audience we didn't win many games we were exciting to watch a lot of those plays really were not designed plays needless to say by looking at them you could tell they weren't designed plays thank you remember the five head coaches that I played for in five years and sometimes they just throw up their hands in and disgust because of the way that some of those zany players would turn out one head coach who devised creative methods of indicating his disgust was Joe Stein he had a very unique way of paying us he'd bring in a fistful of brown envelopes which contained our paychecks and he would have seen the game films and he would write a little note on each each player about his performance in the previous game such things as I always thought you were had no guts and now after watching the film it's confirmed and I remember once we had to play two bears the last game of the season he came storming in the door of the dressing-room threw the checks across the dressing room they scattered all over the floor told us to fight for our own checks and he says if you guys don't beat the Bears next week I'm not paying in any of you I'm finding your A game salary well that's the only game with one that get repeat the Bears at Wrigley Field 24 to 10 for a while the Cardinals always seem to cash in against the Bears from 1950 to 1955 the cards won six out of nine meetings from they're more successful neighbors from the Northside this crosstown rivalry gave the Cardinals an opportunity to steal the Thunder from the team that reigned supreme in the Windy City the media we felt was always tainted towards the Northside the Chicago Bears we never had that and on the south side I can remember playing games in Comiskey Park in the 50s where there was six or seven 9,000 people in the stands Wrigley Field was always sold out but when the Bears want dad to play the Cardinals in Kaminsky Park the place was packed I mean it was and it turned into a ride every time bar games a place against the Capitals when I was a bear a bit of the fight but while the Cardinals often won the battles the Bears ultimately won the war for territorial rights to the toddlin town in 1960 the Cardinals moved to st. Louis signaling the end of a colorful era during the 1950's the Chicago Cardinals didn't produce many victories but their offbeat and exciting style of play produced plenty of thrills and made them one of the most entertaining teams in NFL history Rick Casares was one of football's toughest characters he looked like he could have been one of Al Capone's hired guns instead the Bears star Runner of the 50s chose the Chicago backdrop to perform a different kind of mayhem fullback Rick casseras number 35 was a hard edge kid out of Paterson New Jersey who brought his street smarts with him to the Chicago Bears from 1955 through 1966 casseras slashed through the back alleys of NFL defenses for over 5,600 yards and became pro football's toughest guy on the block ricochets was one of the most inspirational guys ever played with when you lined up in the huddle and you looked at Rick you knew he was all business and I really mean that I saw the guy try to play a game with a broken ankle and and he it was broken he had shot said he put a high-top shoe on he had tape under he had tape over he went out and tried to play on it it was exciting to get into a huddle with him and look at his eyes because you know that Rick acerous was all man and all football the only thing he wanted to do was play the best he could he was a man's man to me I mean I just I idolized him because he was a tough guy that didn't wear it outside he did everything by example he did nothing by word at age 14 casseras fought on a phony birth certificate and won the New Jersey middleweight Amateur Championship word spread quickly that this was not a man to be trifled with Rick was a very nice guy he was he was a nice looking gun and a quiet quiet spoken guy but nobody ever messed with Richard sir he had a reputation I guess he did some boxing golden gloves boxing him I just know nobody ever messed with him I think that maybe one guy that even dog actions weren't a mess Toronto would rip just he was so nice that I just think you know you thought of him as being the true silencer because if he had if he had a hit he was silenced yet if any one man could be said to have left his imprint on the 1950s it was coach Paul Brown and if any one team could be said to have dominated the decade it was the one that carried his name the Cleveland Browns Paul Brown invented the playbook the face mask the draw play and was his idea to put coaches in the press box with phones so they could talk to the coaches on the sidelines Brown was the Lindbergh the Einstein and the Marconi of pro football and his team was a perfect expression of his vision of how the game should be played the NFL and television formed a perfect marriage during the fabulous fifties and the best men played for the Cleveland Browns the bronze incomparable sense of teamwork enabled them to attain a level of perfection that produced three world championships during the decade the Browns were a family operation and the patriarch was head coach Paul Brown a man who combined the values of father knows best with the vigilance of sergeant Friday when it came to devising and enforcing rules of behavior for his players in my opening lecture I always said to admit day if you're a bum Boozer a chaser that kind of person I'm not interested in you making our team he gave me the IQ test and if you want the IQ test you got cut if you ate too much ice cream you dead you one of the other things I told them in my opening talk I I don't want to hear you swearing how you dress how you talked how you eighties always said don't slip your suit he believed and it's what they call it Tuesday rule after Tuesday don't touch your wife you know keep away from sex I want him to look like an intercollegiate bunch that played for the sheer pleasure of beating somebody the Browns collegiate spirit fused with thorough professionalism resulted in seven conference titles and more victories than any team of the 50s Cleveland's consistent standard of excellence would have induced fits of ecstasy in most head coaches but the fussy feisty Brown was a difficult man to please they say Wyatt were bull what we did wrong in the game they take out there's people pay some paper and it would drop all the way to the floor see we just beat these guys 38 nothing you know as a motivator Brown brought out the best in his players by telling them that their best wasn't good enough he'd like to meet all you he had a little you know think instead of saying you know and he was always up under you and he'd look right up in your faith he said do you know what you're killing a football team he would always say little things like maybe you're not good enough Bobby Mitchell now you're looking at him you want to kill him you want to do it the next time you go out there the first jersey you saw opposite of yours you hit it by stirring passions instead of stroking egos Brown unleash the ferocious power of great runners such as Mach Lane number 76 and Jim Brown number 32 Paul Browns frosty demeanor crystallized into legend but there was another story behind his icy reserve of course the New York writers I became the cold deadly brutal calculating Brown I was sent to Korea and the whole time I was over there him and his wife Katie would call my wife every week ask her if she needed anything and checking on the kids and to see what was dating was fine with them he tried to hold back his emotions he didn't really want to show that that he was the human being he really I really don't feel cold I guess I might might give that impression at times my former players that I see I see a lot of them often and I don't think they feel that way because they get feeling for them The Fabulous 50's became pro football's golden era because of teams like the Cleveland Browns and men such as Paul Brown many times personal records and statistics do not provide an accurate measure of a player this is certainly true in the case of Willie Gallimore our running back for the Chicago Bears who never gained a thousand yards in any of his six pro seasons as a matter of fact if it wasn't for a jockey and Miami's highly a racetrack Willie would never have played pro football at all when George Halas paid a visit to the track Jackie came up to him and said hey coach there's this great little running back down here at Florida A&M and you ought to give him a look well Halas scouted him signed him and Willie the wisp went on to become one of the most exciting and elusive ball carriers of all time in 1957 George Halas to the tip from a jockey at Hialeah racetrack admirer and placed a bet not on a roll but on a player named Willie Gallimore Gallimore number 28 came to the bears as a late round draft choice from tiny Florida A&M and proved to be one of the last great skiros before scouting became sophisticated elusive and swift Willie was the Ferrari of running backs possessing a passing gear or the players only dream about [Applause] [Music] a rival defensive lineman once said he was not hard to bring down once you got your hands on but getting your hands on Willie was unbelievably difficult well it was nicknamed one of the wisp and in reality that was the way he ran all of a sudden you'd see him break out into the open and you don't know where he came from Willie was unbelievably quick going downfield he he wasn't sideways or this way he just zoomed down the field and seemed to be so fast nobody could catch him you ever try go hunting and it rabbits in an open feel and you try to shoot a rabbit or gimmick like back when a guy like that he had speed like you he one motion the same speed be able to cut the only difference between him and McElhenney Willie was faster to me it seemed like he did the 192 going like this fantastic little Willy Gallimore puts the Bears on their way to another score Willie Gallimore reverses his field [Applause] Jake's loss tackler after Sakura on a spectacular touchdown gallery Willie Gallimore could turn the corner faster than most fellas could run forward I've seen him do that Gallimore never gained a thousand yards in a season but statistics were not the measure of this man he painted pictures in the open field each run was a Rembrandt and as a collection they became a gallery that hung in the meadow it seems like everybody forgot it and he's made some runs that I've never seen a back to yet I have never seen anyone and I don't believe you have it any of your film seen anyone catch it from behind or from an angle he is only 9 6 feet but he seemed like he run as fast he had to galimov is as gifted a pass catcher as he was a runner and in today's game he probably would have been turned into a wide receiver he could get down field so fast on the defensive halfback at the safety the free safety that the free safety was not free anymore this was the greatness of true great half backs and professional football have to affect we were playing a game in 1963 I guess it was and a game was very close and and I hit Willie with a pass about the middle of the field man and he just caught the ball and zoomed through everybody I mean it was just like it was unbelievable I mean lady was so quick he had to the operations here before the 63 season I think he broke something like six tackles you know just had a knee operation his band up again if anyone here and he was amazing and I always told he is one of the best honors and I never could understand why he did get more recognition as a runner Willie Gallimore Willie the wisp gone but not forgotten the running style of Willie Gallimore is one reason why it's easy to see the 50s as a decade characterized primarily by brilliant individual performers but pro football has always been a team sport and the building of a winner has always stemmed from that rare ability to integrate and unite men with diverse personalities and backgrounds now the 1958 Baltimore Colts were perhaps the most colorful and unique collection of individuals ever to win an NFL championship and the core of this team was the defensive line a crazy quilt quartet who joined together to help propel the once ragtag cults to the world chin in the late 1950s the Baltimore Colts won back-to-back World Championships while the glamour of winning went to the big-name stars of the offense the true personality of the Colts was shaped by the defense and in particular by four extraordinary men who played in the defensive line at right tackle was six foot six inch 290-pound Eugene Lipscomb the Big Daddy of the Baltimore Colts in the nineteen fifties the main job of the defensive tackle was to jam up the middle but Big Daddy revolutionized his position when he invented what is now called pursuit whenever the play was directed away from him which was often Big Daddy pulled out on the line in pursuit of the ball carrier and made more tackles than any lineman on the team Big Daddy was big he was the first big black man in the National Football League he came here at 56 with me but his greatest asset was the fact that he could read the defense and then pursue that ball carrier and usually get to him before the ball carrier turned the corner Jeanne's forte was his great lateral movement when asked to explain his revolutionary technique Big Daddy said simply I take the shortest route to the ball carrier and arrived in ill-humour he would try to intimidate you he would try to pull knows the thing you know and squeeze your nose you know not in a dirty vein kind of like a you know like he was playing with you like a like a CAD would play with a mouse reach under your face mask and you know squeeze your nose and say I'm gonna get you next time what really make you mad as hell well Big Daddy was cast as the teen bully number seven day art Donovan played the team buffoon maybe he looked like a big marshmallow for a Santa Claus in a football uniform for the player across the line of scrimmage but a lot of them playing Arthur Donovan got religion he was a especially adept at splitting the double-team he could take double-team blocking and separate it like he would ten pins because of this immense strength that he had any shoulders Donovan was a four-time all-pro defensive tackle and he was destined to be the first Baltimore Colt to enter the Hall of a be lying the fact that he that he was stout and portly and didn't look like he had much speed had all the quickness that you would want for four or five yards put it exerted tremendous pressure on the quarterback handled their running plays straight at him with the same kind of a deafness just a total football player all you would want in two defensive lineman at right hand was Don Joyce a ferocious past Russia and a huge man with a huge appetite that was world publicized and well-documented choices about six for three about 270 pounds and they talked about you know the sanity is a very very thin line well I think Joyce summertime watch him in the movies he was on the left side of their line so I said well I think Joyce could eat more chicken anybody else on the team the guy said no he can't $400 Marchetti can sir nice alright so when I hear two more guys better we had $300 better and we had this chicken eating contest up in Western Maryland College so that the eight of us the six guys bet and the two guys eating the participants we get in there here comes the waiters out with a typical Southern Maryland Sunday afternoon meal chicken mashed potatoes and peas and all the trimmings so anyhow Gino he's just starts eating the chicken well Joyce he's eating the chicken and mashed potatoes and the peas we said for Christ's sakes don't worry about the mashed potatoes and peas just eat the chicken so anyhow Gino leads 23 pieces of chicken he stops 23:25 well Joyce is twenty four so two more champ and we win we call him champ across the offseason he was a wrestler he and Big Daddy had a tag team match you know he would take teams so when he says now I'm still hungry and he eats 36 pieces of chicken so finally he says Roy he says I can't eat anymore he says he says I gotta wash this down and in front of him we had a big pitcher of iced tea so today our champ eat it all eat drink it all we don't care if it blows up now because we won the bet put that here eats into his pocket and pulls four pieces of Sakhalin and dropped it in the iced tea he was watching his calories left mg no Marchetti number 89 likes quarterbacks more than shipping and on Sunday afternoons he dined in style Geno the giant was a defensive end in the classic sense he didn't just play the position he was the position [Applause] [Music] [Applause] you couldn't run out him by him or around and if you run away from him he had the speed to track you down [Music] Marchetti in his own words played mad all the time and his temper was a permanent part of his weaponry Marchetti was the backbone of that defense you know to watch him paste that locker room before a game I mean he was like a caged land and I'd really stop think about that till right at this moment you talk about that but I've been a lot around a lot of locker rooms since then and I don't see you know that all the time I mean that intensity is not something you just find every day one of the reasons why he was a great one Gino Marchetti was the backbone of a defense that had many heroes and more than its share of clowns who together shared many moments of low comedy and high drama we enjoyed the game whoever thought that of all the kids that played football down through the years and all the grammar schools and high schools and colleges that you would be picked to be lucky enough to play professional football and we used to we used to look back and I said we're lucky well like over here this is this is something great happen to us that it doesn't happen to many guys that's the way we all look at it you know arts right it must have been fun playing pro football during the 1950's the era was rich in characters and character so rich in fact that it's impossible to capture the spirit of the times in a single one-hour program the decade is definitely worth a second look so please join us next time for the fabulous 50s part 2 [Music]

Channel: Grey Beard

Views: 3,777

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: NFL Films, Steve Sabol, Ed Sabol, Frank Gifford, New York Football Giants, Art Donovan, Pat Summerall, Chicago Cardinals, Baltimore Colts, Raymond Berry, Paul Brown, Bobby Mitchell, Hardy Brown, Cleveland Browns, Chuck Bednarik, Willie The Wisp Galmore

Id: 9yjc0oxsUcI

Length: 49min 1sec (2941 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 08 2020