RetroSimba

Ballhawk Clendon Thomas was handy man to have on a team

February 11, 2026 by retrosimba

As a college football player, Clendon Thomas scored touchdowns in bunches. As a NFL player, his primary job was to prevent touchdowns.

In three varsity seasons (1955-57) with Oklahoma, Thomas scored 36 touchdowns: 34 (rushing or receiving) as a running back, one as a punt returner and the other on an interception return as a defensive back.

In 11 years with the Los Angeles Rams (1958-61) and Pittsburgh Steelers (1962-68), Thomas had stints on offense as a receiver and a kick returner, but he primarily was a cornerback and a safety. He intercepted 27 passes and recovered 10 fumbles, returning one for a touchdown.

Some of Thomas’ best NFL performances came versus the St. Louis Cardinals.

Elected to the College Football Hall of Fame in 2011, Thomas was 90 when he died on Jan. 26, 2026.

Producing points

In his hometown of Oklahoma City, Thomas grew up in a neighborhood populated primarily with oil field workers.

At Southeast High School (also the alma mater of baseball players Bobby Murcer, Darrell Porter and Mickey Tettleton), Thomas played football but “we weren’t too good,” he recalled to the Los Angeles Times.

A sportswriter convinced Oklahoma’s football staff to give Thomas a conditional scholarship. Showing speed, versatility and an ability to reach the end zone, Thomas impressed head coach Bud Wilkinson. In 1955, his sophomore year, Thomas joined junior Tommy McDonald as Oklahoma’s varsity running backs. McDonald scored 15 touchdowns and Thomas totaled nine (eight rushing and one on a punt return). The twin touchdown terrors led Oklahoma to an 11-0 record. Thomas also played defensive back. Beginning with a 20-0 victory over Missouri, Oklahoma shut out four consecutive foes and became national champions.

Thomas was college football’s leading scorer in 1956 as a junior, with 18 touchdowns (13 rushing, four receiving and one on a return of an intercepted pass from Paul Hornung of Notre Dame). Thomas averaged 7.9 yards per carry and 20.1 yards per catch. “He leans forward as he drives, his long legs knifing up and down, making him a hard man to tackle,” Deane McGowen of the New York Times observed. “Despite his long stride, he has the quickness of an open-field runner and can move laterally as well.”

The combination of Thomas and McDonald (12 TDs rushing and four receiving) carried Oklahoma to another national title in an undefeated 1956 season. Wins included 45-0 against Texas, 40-0 versus Notre Dame and 67-14 over Missouri.

Bud Wilkinson “taught me to reach down and do things I didn’t know I was capable of,” Thomas told The Daily Oklahoman. “He prepared us to win.”

Though slowed by a hip pointer his senior season in 1957, Thomas totaled nine rushing touchdowns. Oklahoma finished 10-1 for the year (Notre Dame snapped the Sooners’ 47-game win streak) and 31-1 during Thomas’ three varsity seasons. Video

Billy Vessels, the 1952 Heisman Trophy winner as an Oklahoma running back, told the Tulsa World in 1999 that Thomas “is probably the most underrated player we’ve ever had (at Oklahoma). He represented everything you wanted a college football player to be.”

L.A. days

The Los Angeles Rams took Thomas in the second round of the 1958 NFL draft, but he fractured his left ankle returning a kickoff for the college all-stars in an exhibition game against the Detroit Lions and was sidelined until November of his rookie season.

During his first three years with the Rams, Thomas was tried at halfback (“I’m a gangly kind, not the type they were looking for,” he told The Pittsburgh Press), tight end, split end and cornerback. He had some success as a receiver. In 1960, he caught a touchdown pass against the Cardinals, in their first regular-season game since moving from Chicago to St. Louis, and made seven catches for 137 yards against the Green Bay Packers.

Thomas returned fulltime to defense in 1961, starting at safety for the Rams, then was traded to the Steelers for linebacker Mike Henry in September 1962.

(Henry went on to an acting career, most notably as Tarzan in three movies from 1966-68. While filming a jungle scene, he was attacked and bitten on the face by a chimpanzee. Henry also had roles in “The Green Beret,” “Rio Lobo,” “Soylent Green,” “The Longest Yard” and “Smokey and the Bandit.”)

Multi-tasking

Thomas was the Steelers’ interceptions leader in 1962 (seven) and 1963 (eight). He picked off two Charley Johnson passes in a 1963 game versus the Cardinals.

During the 1964 season, the Steelers needed receivers, so head coach Buddy Parker asked Thomas to play both offense and defense. According to Roy McHugh of The Pittsburgh Press, Thomas, who owned horses on a ranch in Oklahoma, took a “bronco buster’s attitude” to Parker’s request. In other words: Bring it on.

“When I signed my contract,” Thomas told the newspaper, “I signed to play whatever position they picked for me.”

On Nov. 8, 1964, in his first game as a Steelers receiver, Thomas had four catches for 61 yards against the Cardinals. Consistently in the clear, Thomas would have had more receptions if quarterback Bill Nelsen had been on target. Thomas “knew what he was doing all the time,” Parker told The Pittsburgh Press, “and he ran his patterns as though he had been running them all season.”

Three weeks later, in a rematch with the Cardinals, Thomas intercepted a pass and made four catches for 113 yards.

Mike Nixon became Steelers head coach in 1965 and he continued to use Thomas as a receiver. In one of his best performances that season, Thomas had seven catches for 90 yards in a November game against St. Louis.

For his NFL career, Thomas averaged 17.4 yards per catch on 60 receptions. He also ran back kickoffs, averaging 25.1 yards on 22 returns.

However, as The Pittsburgh Press noted, “The Steelers’ defense was weaker without Thomas.” Restored fulltime to defense, Thomas finished his last three seasons at safety for Pittsburgh. “I’m glad to be back on defense,” Thomas told The Press. “I think I belong there and can help the team more.”

After his playing days, Thomas founded a chemical products company that manufactured water repellents for the construction industry.

Posted in Football, Games, Opponents, Prospects | 5 Comments »

How John Brodie got back his groove versus Cardinals

February 6, 2026 by retrosimba

An aching back couldn’t stop John Brodie from being a pain in the neck to the St. Louis football Cardinals.

After a hospital stay for back treatment, Brodie had one of his best games as San Francisco 49ers quarterback, passing for three touchdowns in a 35-17 triumph over the Cardinals.

The game also was noteworthy for the satisfaction two former Cardinals, John David Crow and Sonny Randle, got catching touchdown passes from Brodie against the team that traded them.

Brodie spent 17 seasons in the NFL, all with the 49ers. Only Joe Montana has more career completions and more career passing yards as a 49er than Brodie.

Brodie also played professional golf and was a sports broadcaster for NBC. He was 90 when he died on Jan. 23, 2026.

Rooted in the region

Born and raised in the Bay Area, Brodie was an athlete at Oakland Technical High School. The Oakland Athletic League named him first-team all-city in football (quarterback) and basketball (forward). He and Frank Robinson competed against one another in basketball. In Oakland Tech’s 58-50 victory against McClymonds in February 1953, Brodie poured in 17 points and Robinson scored 14.

Brodie told the San Francisco Examiner he planned to enroll at Cal Berkeley. He changed his mind and went to Stanford instead. Brodie shared quarterback duties on the freshman team. When he reported for varsity spring practice in 1954, he was sixth on the depth chart. His superior passing skills vaulted him to the top. Brodie became varsity starter as a sophomore. “We can’t recall any Stanford athlete in the past 10 years who has developed as fast as Brodie has in the short space of a year,” coach Chuck Taylor told the Peninsula Times Tribune.

As a senior in 1956, Brodie was the NCAA leader in total offense and passing. The 49ers made him the third overall pick in the first round of the 1957 NFL draft, taking him ahead of Jim Brown.

Tough crowd

Brodie spent his first four NFL seasons in competition with incumbent Y.A. Tittle for the quarterback job. In his book “Open Field,” Brodie recalled, “On the practice field and during games, the tension between Tittle and me continued to mount … It got to be a very unhealthy situation. We were both using up a lot of effort fencing with each other.”

Tittle was traded to the New York Giants before the 1961 season and led them to three consecutive East Division titles. Brodie took over as 49ers starter and became a scapegoat for the team’s failure to make the playoffs during the 1960s.

Though he three times led the NFL in completions and passing yards, and twice was tops in touchdown throws, Brodie was a frequent target of boos at San Francisco’s Kezar Stadium. He had 224 passes intercepted, 90 more than any other 49ers quarterback all-time.

His relations with the paying customers worsened when Brodie benefitted from an attempt to leave the 49ers. It happened after the 1965 season when the rival AFL tried to entice players to jump over from the NFL. Brodie, paid $35,000 in 1965, agreed to a three-year $750,000 offer from the AFL Houston Oilers.

Soon after, though, the NFL and AFL arranged to merge, voiding Brodie’s deal. When Brodie threatened to sue, jeopardizing the merger plans, the clubs rushed to appease him. The 49ers made Brodie the highest-paid player, with a four-year contract for $915,000. The Oilers agreed to pay about half the cost.

In Brodie’s first three games as the richest man in football, the 49ers went winless, including a 34-3 loss to the Los Angeles Rams, who intercepted Brodie four times. San Francisco fans responded with a collective boo.

“Brodie spent most of the 1960s getting booed,” the San Francisco Chronicle noted. The boos sounded “like waves of thunder rolling overhead,” Brodie said in his book. Boos weren’t the worst of it. Above the tunnel leading from the locker rooms to the field at Kezar Stadium, fans hurled bottles and cans at their quarterback. “Brodie had to wear his helmet after games as he ducked into the tunnel,” the Chronicle observed.

A teammate, linebacker Dave Wilcox, told the newspaper, “If we lost, you knew not to walk off the field with Brodie.”

In his book, Brodie recalled, “Stadium officials built a wire cage with cyclone fencing over the exposed part of the ramp. That didn’t stop some of the fans. They fell into the habit of dropping hot pennies through the mesh, aiming for the space between the back of the neck and the shoulder pads.”

Cardinals provide cure

Fans figured to be in a foul mood for the 49ers’ 1968 home opener against the Cardinals. The 49ers had looked awful in Week 1 at Baltimore. Former 49ers quarterback Earl Morrall threw two touchdown passes and led the Colts to a 27-10 victory. Brodie was intercepted three times and had no touchdown throws.

In the week leading up to that first home game, Brodie’s back stiffened. He spent Thursday and Friday in traction at a hospital. On Sunday, he was in the starting lineup against the Cardinals.

Brodie completed his first five passes. On second-and-nine from the Cardinals’ 29, receiver Sonny Randle came into the huddle and told Brodie to look for him. Randle exploded off the line and got between defensive backs Brady Keys and Larry Wilson. He caught Brodie’s throw and spun into the end zone for his 65th and last NFL touchdown reception. (Sixty of those came as a Cardinal.) It was special for him to score one against his former team. “This one had to be the biggest thrill of them all,” Randle told the San Francisco Examiner.

After the Cardinals tied the score at 7-7, the 49ers were at the 50. John David Crow, the former Cardinals running back who converted to tight end with San Francisco, told Brodie that safety Mike Barnes, filling in for injured Jerry Stovall, could be beaten over the middle. Crow caught Brodie’s pass at the 15 and ran into the end zone from there.

Gleeful about scoring against his former team, Crow flung the ball high into the stands. In those days, clubs discouraged that by making the player pay for the football. “I don’t care if the ball cost $100,” Crow crowed to the Chronicle. “I feel that good about it.”

Randle said he and Crow had talked before the game about wanting to play well against the Cardinals. “You like to feel you always put out 100 percent,” Randle told the Peninsula Times Tribune, “but today we reached down for a little more.”

When Brodie trotted off the field with 3:23 remaining and the 49ers safely ahead at 28-10, he received a standing ovation from the Kezar Stadium crowd. Later, in the locker room, Brodie winced from the pain in his back as he took off his shoulder pads. “When I’m out on that field, I don’t feel a thing,” he told the Peninsula Times Tribune, “but I can assure you it is hurting plenty now.” Video

From football to fairways

Brodie took the 49ers to the NFC title game in both 1970 (when he won the NFL Most Valuable Player Award) and 1971. His pro football career ended in 1973, but he wasn’t done with sports. Brodie was a football and golf broadcaster for 12 years with NBC. He also was an expert at bridge and backgammon and competed in the world dominoes championship. When he turned 50 in 1985, Brodie joined the Senior PGA Tour.

Golf was a passion for Brodie. According to the Los Angeles Times, he taught himself to play as a youth. At Stanford, he earned two varsity letters in golf.

Brodie played the PGA Tour in 1959 and 1960 during the NFL off-season, but made only nine cuts in 29 tournaments. Brodie “was good but not good enough,” Arnold Palmer recalled to the Los Angeles Times. “Maybe he was just a step or two away from where he actually could do it.”

In the 1959 U.S. Open at Winged Foot, Brodie shot 76-77 and missed the cut by three strokes, but was a stroke better than 19-year-old amateur Jack Nicklaus.

On the Senior PGA Tour, Brodie drove well, hit solid irons but wasn’t a good putter. He played in 230 Senior PGA Tour events between 1985 and 1998, winning once.

The victory came in 1991 at Los Angeles when Brodie prevailed in a playoff with George Archer and Chi Chi Rodriguez. On the first playoff hole, Brodie needed to make a four-inch birdie putt for the win. As Brodie eyed the shot, Chi Chi Rodriguez, ever the entertainer, “took out a handkerchief and placed it over Brodie’s eyes like a blindfold,” the Associated Press reported.

Brodie laughed and, with eyes wide open, sank the putt, triumphing over a field that included Arnold Palmer, Gary Player, Lee Trevino and Billy Casper.

For Brodie, winning a pro golf tournament was as thrilling as anything he achieved in the NFL. “Golf is the most demanding sport in the world,” he told the Louisville Courier-Journal. “It’s the best and most challenging game to play.”

Posted in Football, Games, Opponents | 11 Comments »

Greasy Neale ran gamut from World Series to NFL title game

February 2, 2026 by retrosimba

Greasy Neale had a career that gleamed with success in baseball and football.

He played in a World Series with the Cincinnati Reds. He was a head coach in college and pro football. He took a team to the Rose Bowl. He led the Philadelphia Eagles to two NFL championships.

Neale also had a stint as third-base coach for the St. Louis Cardinals, though that didn’t work out as well as he had hoped.

Name game

Alfred Earle Neale was from Parkersburg, W.Va., located at the confluence of the Ohio and Little Kanawha rivers. Julia Beckwith Neale, mother of Stonewall Jackson, was an ancestor.

There are two versions to the story of how Neale got his nickname.

According to Pat Harmon of The Cincinnati Post, a teenage Neale had a job at a metal shop, greasing the rolling mills. He joined the high school football team, and “because it was so hard to hold him when he had a football tucked under his arm,” he got named “Greasy,” John Kieran of the New York Times reported.

Another version is that a neighbor kid, seeing his pal’s face smeared with butter and jam, called him “Greasy.”

Neale had no objection to the nickname and used it throughout his life.

Diamond dandy

Neale became a standout college athlete at West Virginia Wesleyan. Those skills enabled him to gain year-round employment as a professional baseball and football player, as well as a college coach.

A left-handed batter and outfielder, Neale, 20, joined the minor-league London (Ontario) Tecumsehs in 1912. “My first love was baseball, and my consuming ambition was to become a big-leaguer,” Neale recalled to Collier’s magazine in 1951. “The football I played as a youngster was merely a fill-in to keep busy until it was warm enough for baseball.”

Neale reached the majors with the Reds and was a starting outfielder his first five seasons (1916-20). The Sporting News described him as “a dependable hitter and a demon on the bases.” He had five hits in a game against the Cardinals in 1918. Boxscore

In the 1919 World Series, the one in which White Sox players rigged the outcome for gamblers, Neale was one of the top producers for the champion Reds. He hit .357 and reached base safely in 40 percent of his plate appearances.

Busy man

After each baseball season, Neale played and/or coached football. In 1917, he and Jim Thorpe were baseball teammates with the Reds and football teammates with the Canton Bulldogs. Neale used the alias “Foster” with Canton because the Reds didn’t want him playing football. “I think the Reds really knew what I was doing but just looked the other way,” Neale later told The Sporting News.

Neale coached and played for a factory team, the Dayton Triangles, in 1918 and led them to an 8-0 record.

He was head coach of six college football teams: Muskingum (1915), West Virginia Wesleyan (1916-17), Marietta (1919-20), Washington & Jefferson (1921-22), Virginia (1923-28) and West Virginia (1931-33).

In 1921, he played for the Phillies and Reds during the baseball season, then coached the Washington & Jefferson football team to an undefeated regular season, including wins versus Syracuse, Pittsburgh and West Virginia. Located in Washington, Pa., the school’s athletic teams, naturally, were called the Presidents.

Washington & Jefferson was rewarded with a berth in the Rose Bowl against another undefeated team, the California Golden Bears. A year before, Cal crushed Ohio State, 28-0, in the Rose Bowl. The team facing Washington & Jefferson looked even better. Led by all-purpose scoring threat Brick Muller, Cal averaged 34 points a game and won by scores of 72-3 vs. Washington and 39-0 vs. Oregon.

Few gave Washington & Jefferson much of a chance. As one West Coast scribe wrote, “All I know about Washington & Jefferson is that both of them are dead.”

Greasy Neale, though, was confident and aggressive, and his players reflected that approach. Neale used the same 11 players the entire game, never substituting, and they held Cal to two first downs. The game ended in a scoreless tie but it felt like a victory for the underdogs.

“Washington & Jefferson may be a freshwater college, and Washington, Pa., may be a one-horse town, but it has a million-dollar football team,” Francis Perrett declared in the Los Angeles Evening Express.

Cardinals calling

Neale played his last game in the majors with the Reds in 1924, but stayed in baseball while coaching college football. He was a minor-league manager in 1927 and 1928. Then the Cardinals brought him back to the big leagues.

Though the Cardinals were National League champions in 1928 with manager Bill McKechnie, club owner Sam Breadon felt embarrassed when the Yankees swept the World Series. Breadon had McKechnie swap jobs with Billy Southworth. McKechnie was demoted to minor-league Rochester. Southworth, who led Rochester to an International League pennant, replaced McKechnie in St. Louis.

For one of the two coaching spots on his 1929 Cardinals staff, Southworth hired Neale, who left the head football coaching job at Virginia to take the offer. The two had been teammates in the minors. The other coaching job, filled by the front office, went to Gabby Street.

“In signing Greasy Neale as 1929 coach, the Cardinals acquired a set of working brains that ought to net considerable benefit to the club,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch columnist John Wray noted. “Neale’s wide experience in both playing and coaching ought to be of genuine aid to the Cards.”

Southworth gave Neale the title of assistant manager and third-base coach. As the Brooklyn Citizen noted, “He is an alert, quick thinker. Southworth is banking heavily on his assistance.”

On June 15, the Cardinals (34-19) were in first place. Then they nosedived, losing 17 of 19. Breadon reversed course. He demoted Southworth to Rochester and brought back McKechnie to manage the Cardinals. Neale went to Rochester, too, but, soon after, the Cardinals made him a scout.

Neale was a candidate to replace Reds manager Jack Hendricks after the 1929 season, the Post-Dispatch reported, but the job went to Dan Howley.

Neale returned to managing in the minor leagues in 1930 and also was head coach of the Ironton (Ohio) Tanks, a semipro football team.

Ivy League to NFL

After a three-year stint as head football coach at West Virginia, Neale became an assistant to Ducky Pond at Yale in 1934. According to the Hartford Courant, Neale “was known as a smart tactician” and got credit for helping develop two Heisman Trophy winners at Yale _ Larry Kelley (1936) and Clint Frank (1937).

Neale was a Yale assistant from 1934-40. For part of that time, he was joined on the staff by graduate assistant coach Gerald Ford, the future U.S. president. Ford attended law school at Yale after graduating from Michigan, where he was a standout center on the football team.

In December 1940, Alexis Thompson, a Yale graduate, became owner of the Philadelphia Eagles. As a Yale football fan, Thompson knew all about Neale and hired him to be the Eagles’ head coach.

The Eagles hadn’t achieved a winning season since entering the NFL, but Neale formulated a plan for turning them around. He was one of the first to use scouting reports and data to select players in the NFL draft. “The other clubs laughed at me,” Neale recalled to the Philadelphia Inquirer. “They picked players out of magazines. They stopped laughing when we started beating them.”

Neale studied film of the T-formation used by the Chicago Bears and adopted a variation, introducing elements of a shotgun setup, to fit the skills of his players. He drew up a triple reverse, naked reverse and fake reverse and added those to the playbook. He also devised a 5-2-4 defense which eventually morphed into the 4-3-4 (with nose tackle Bucko Kilroy dropping back into pass coverage like a middle linebacker) that became standard in the NFL. The New York Times described Neale as “a wizard strategist” and “a bold innovator.”

After two losing seasons, Neale had the Eagles soaring. The players believed in him. “He was real special to most of the guys on those teams,” tackle Al Wistert told the Inquirer. “We had wonderful feelings for Greasy.”

Neale played cards (bridge and pinochle mostly) with the players and bet the horses with them, too. Steve Van Buren, the star halfback, was one of Neale’s favorite companions at the pari-mutuel window. “Greasy was his loan shark,” end Jack Ferrante recalled to the Philadelphia Daily News. “He was always loaning money to him to play the ponies.”

Van Buren told reporter Mark Kram, “Neither of us won. I broke even sometimes. I always paid him back. I loved him.”

Neale didn’t like to travel in airplanes, so the Eagles went by train to games. “God almighty, I hated those train trips,” linebacker and center Chuck Bednarik told the Daily News. “Here I was a man who had flown 30 missions over Germany in World War II, had gotten shot at and survived. So, you know, he should have felt safe flying on the same plane with me.”

With an offense built around Van Buren and end Pete Pihos, the Eagles outscored their opponents by more than 200 points in both 1948 and 1949, but it was the defense that won the NFL title games. The Eagles beat the Chicago Cardinals in a snowstorm, 7-0, for the 1948 title, and won, 14-0, in a rainstorm against the Los Angeles Rams for the 1949 championship.

The 1948-49 Eagles are the only team to win consecutive NFL titles with shutouts.

A syndicate led by trucking magnate Jim Clark bought the Eagles and Neale clashed with the new boss. After the 1950 season, Clark sent Neale a telegram, informing him he was fired.

“Firing Greasy was a boneheaded move,” Chuck Bednarik told the Philadelphia Daily News. “By God, he was the finest coach I ever played for.”

Posted in Football, Games, Hitters | 11 Comments »

Paying it forward: How Marty Marion helped Luis Aparicio

January 26, 2026 by retrosimba

On his way to becoming the first Venezuelan to get elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, shortstop Luis Aparicio received a big early boost from a former Cardinals standout at the position.

Marty Marion was the White Sox manager who brought Aparicio to the major leagues and made him the starting shortstop as a rookie in 1956.

Nicknamed “Mr. Shortstop,” Marion was the starter on four Cardinals pennant winners in the 1940s and the first shortstop to win the National League Most Valuable Player Award.

Aparicio merely had two years of minor-league experience when Marion picked him to be the White Sox shortstop. It was an astute decision. Aparicio won the American League Rookie of the Year Award and went on to have a stellar career. He earned the Gold Glove Award nine times, led the American League in stolen bases for nine years in a row (1956-64) and totaled 2,677 hits. Video

Elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1984, Aparicio is one of several Venezuelans who have achieved prominence in the big leagues. Others (in alphabetical order) include Bobby Abreu, Ronald Acuna Jr., Jose Altuve, Miguel Cabrera, Dave Concepcion, Andres Galarraga, Freddy Garcia, Ozzie Guillen, Felix Hernandez, Magglio Ordonez, Salvador Perez, Johan Santana, Manny Trillo, Omar Vizquel and Carlos Zambrano.

The first Venezuelan to play in the majors was pitcher Alex Carrasquel with the 1939 Washington Senators. The first Venezuelan to play for the Cardinals was outfielder Vic Davalillo in 1969. Besides Davalillo and Andres Galarraga, other Venezuelans who were noteworthy Cardinals included Miguel Cairo, Willson Contreras, Cesar Izturis, Jose Martinez and Edward Mujica.

Baseball genes

Aparicio was from the seaport city of Maracaibo in northwestern Venezuela. According to the encyclopedia Britannica, “Until petroleum was discovered in 1917, the city was a small coffee port. Within a decade it became the oil metropolis of Venezuela and South America. It has remained a city of contrasts _ old Spanish culture and modern business, ancient Indian folklore and distinctive modern architecture.”

Aparicio’s father (also named Luis) was a standout shortstop in Latin America and was known as “El Grande,” the great one. When the father retired as a player during a ballpark ceremony in 1953, he handed his glove to his 19-year-old son and they embraced amid tears.

While playing winter baseball in Venezuela for Caracas, young Luis Aparicio got the attention of White Sox general manager Frank Lane and scout Harry Postove. Cleveland Indians coach Red Kress also was in pursuit of the prospect. After the White Sox paid $6,000 to Caracas team president Pablo Morales, Aparicio signed with the White Sox for $4,000, The Sporting News reported.

The White Sox sent Aparicio, 20, to Waterloo, Iowa, in 1954. The Waterloo White Hawks were a Class B farm club managed by former catcher Wally Millies. Aparicio “couldn’t speak a word of English,” according to Arthur Daley of the New York Times, but language was no barrier to his ability to play in the minors. Before a double hernia ended his season in July, he produced 110 hits in 94 games for Waterloo and had 20 stolen bases. Wally Millies filed a glowing report to the White Sox: “Aparicio has an excellent chance to make the big leagues.”

On the rise

Returning to Venezuela for the winter, Aparicio hired a tutor and learned English. The White Sox invited him to their 1955 spring training camp. That’s when Marty Marion got a look at him.

After managing the Cardinals (1951) and Browns (1952-53), Marion was a White Sox coach in 1954. He became their manager in September 1954 after Paul Richards left to join the Orioles.

Marion liked what he saw of Aparicio at 1955 spring training and it was he who suggested the shortstop skip the Class A level of the minors and open the season with the Class AA Memphis Chickasaws.

Aparicio responded to the challenge, totaling 154 hits and 48 steals. He dazzled with his range and throwing arm. David Bloom of the Memphis Commercial Appeal deemed Aparicio “worth the price of admission as a single attraction.”

Memphis had two managers in 1955. Jack Cassini, who was the second baseman and manager, had to step down in early August after being hit in the face by a pitch. Retired Hall of Fame pitcher Ted Lyons, the White Sox’s career leader in wins (260), replaced Cassini. Both praised Aparicio in reports to the White Sox.

Cassini: “He does everything well.”

Lyons: “Aparicio plays major league shortstop right now … Can’t miss.”

Lyons, who played 21 seasons in the majors and spent another nine there as a manager and coach, told The Sporting News, “The kid’s quick as a flash and has a remarkable throwing arm. He’s dead sure on a ground ball and makes the double play as if it were the most natural thing in the world. He’s one of the greatest fielding shortstops I have ever seen.”

Ready and able

Based on the reports he got on Aparicio during the summer following his firsthand observations in spring training, Marion urged the White Sox front office to trade shortstop Chico Carrasquel so that Aparicio could step into the job in 1956. Carrasquel was sent to Cleveland for outfielder Larry Doby in October 1955.

The move was bold and risky. A Venezuelan and nephew of Alex Carrasquel, Chico Carrasquel was an American League all-star in four of his six seasons with the White Sox, and the first Latin American to play and start in an All-Star Game.

Marion and others, however, became disenchanted with Carrasquel’s increasingly limited fielding range. “I was amazed when I watched Carrasquel (in 1955),” White Sox player personnel executive John Rigney told The Sporting News. “He had slowed up so much he didn’t look like the same player.”

Marion said to reporter John C. Hoffman in January 1956, “I know Luis Aparicio is a better shortstop right now than Carrasquel was last year … I saw enough of him last spring during training to know he’s quicker than Chico and a better hustler.”

Aparicio showed at 1956 spring training he was ready for the job. As Arthur Daley noted in the New York Times, Aparicio “has extraordinary reflexes as well as the speed afoot to give him the widest possible range. He breaks fast for a ball and his hands move with such lightning rapidity that his glove smothers the hops before they have a chance to bounce bad. He gets the ball away swiftly to set up double plays and ranks as probably the slickest shortstop in the business.”

Marion was impressed by all facets of Aparicio’s game and his ability to mesh with second baseman Nellie Fox. (Aparicio and his wife Sonia later named a son Nelson in honor of Fox.)

“I’m certain now that he’ll be twice the shortstop that Carrasquel was last year,” Marion told The Sporting News in March 1956.

Rookie sensation

Marion considered putting Aparicio in the leadoff spot, but instead batted him eighth. “He has all the physical equipment for becoming a wonderful leadoff man, but at the moment he still lacks the ability to draw walks,” Marion explained to The Sporting News. “Once he gets that, he’ll be one of the best. Drawing walks is something that comes with experience. He has to sharpen his knowledge of the strike zone and then develop the confidence to lay off those pitches that are just an inch or two off the plate.”

Once the season got under way, the rest of the American League joined Marion in voicing their admiration of the rookie. Aparicio played especially well versus the powerhouse Yankees. He hit .316 against them, including .395 in 11 games at Yankee Stadium, and fielded superbly.

“He is not only the best rookie in the league; we’d have to say he was the best shortstop,” Yankees manager Casey Stengel exclaimed to the Chicago Tribune.

Yankees shortstop Phil Rizzuto, in the final season of a Hall of Fame career, said to The Sporting News, “As a fielding shortstop, Aparicio is the best I ever saw.”

Rizzuto said Aparicio’s superior range reminded him of Marty Marion with the Cardinals. Marion, though, told The Sporting News, “He has to be better than I was. He covers twice the ground that I did.”

In August 1956, Marion moved Aparicio to the leadoff spot. Aparicio batted .291 there in 31 games, with a respectable .345 on-base percentage. “We frankly didn’t think he would come along quite this fast,” Marion told the Chicago Tribune.

Aparicio completed his rookie season with 142 hits and 21 stolen bases. He batted .295 with runners in scoring position and .412 with the bases loaded. He made 35 errors, but also led the league’s shortstops in assists and putouts.

Changing times

The 1956 White Sox finished in third place at 85-69, 12 games behind the champion Yankees. On Oct. 25, White Sox vice-president Chuck Comiskey summoned Marion to a meeting. When it ended, Marion no longer was manager.

“The White Sox called it a resignation and Marty, always agreeable, went along with this label,” Edward Prell of the Chicago Tribune noted. “Marion’s official statement of resignation, however, sounded like one of those Russian confessions,” departing “in the best interest of the club.”

According to the Tribune, “It was known that Marion’s insistence on keeping Aparicio eighth in the batting order did not set well with some of the White Sox officials. They thought Marty should be … having him lead off.”

Days later, the White Sox hired Al Lopez, who led Cleveland to a pennant and five second-place finishes in six years as manager. In the book “We Played the Game,” White Sox pitcher Billy Pierce said Marion “did a very good job with us. I didn’t know why he didn’t stay with us longer, other than that Al Lopez was available.”

Marion never managed again.

With Aparicio the centerpiece of a team that featured speed, defense and pitching, Lopez led the White Sox to the 1959 pennant, their first in 40 years.

Traded to the Orioles in January 1963, Aparicio joined third baseman Brooks Robinson in forming an iron-clad left side of the infield. In “We Played the Game,” Robinson said, “Luis was just a sensational player … He was the era’s best-fielding shortstop. He had so much range that I could cheat more to the (third-base) line.”

With their pitching and defense limiting the Dodgers to two runs in four games, the Orioles swept the 1966 World Series.

Aparicio was traded back to the White Sox in November 1967. He spent his last three seasons with the Red Sox.

Tradition of excellence

When Ozzie Guillen was a boy in Venezuela, he idolized Luis Aparicio. Guillen became a shortstop. In 1985, he reached the majors with the White Sox and won the American League Rookie of the Year Award. He eventually became an all-star and earned a Gold Glove Award, too.

In 2005, as White Sox manager, Guillen led them to their first pennant since the 1959 team did it with Aparicio. Before Game 1 of the World Series at Chicago against the Astros, Guillen got behind the plate and caught the ceremonial first pitch from Aparicio.

The White Sox went on to sweep the Astros, winning their first World Series title since 1917.

Posted in Games, Hitters, Managers, Pitchers | 12 Comments »

Browns, Cardinals joined race to sign Jim Thorpe

January 19, 2026 by retrosimba

St. Louis tried to attract the nation’s best athlete at a time when its teams, Browns and Cardinals, were the worst in major-league baseball. Jim Thorpe, however, chose to enter the majors at the top, with the 1913 New York Giants.

A two-time Olympic gold medalist in track and field as well as a football standout, Thorpe wasn’t as prominent in baseball. For six seasons in the National League with the Giants, Reds and Braves, he mostly was a spare outfielder.

The team Thorpe did best against was St. Louis. A career .252 hitter, Thorpe batted .314 overall versus the Cardinals and .339 in games played at St. Louis.

Bright Path

A citizen of the Sac and Fox Nation, James Francis Thorpe and a twin brother, Charles, were born in what is now Oklahoma. (Charles died of pneumonia as a youth.) Jim Thorpe also was known as Wa-Tho-Huck, which in the Sac and Fox language means “Bright Path,” according to the Oklahoma Historical Society.

After attending schools in Oklahoma and Kansas, Thorpe enrolled at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania when he was 16 in 1903 and excelled in athletics, especially football and track, for coach Pop Warner.

Thorpe also was proficient at archery, baseball, basketball, canoeing, handball, hockey, horsemanship, lacrosse, rifle shooting, skating, squash and swimming, according to The Sporting News.

Carolina in my mind

Taking a break from Carlisle in 1909, Thorpe, 22, signed to play minor-league baseball for the Rocky Mount (N.C.) Railroaders, a Class D club in the Eastern Carolina League. He was paid $12.50 to $15 per week, plus room and board, team secretary E.G. Johnston told the Rocky Mount Telegram.

A right-hander, Thorpe pitched and played right field. Speed was his main attribute. Eyewitness accounts told of him scoring from first on a single to right and racing to the plate from second on an infield out. His statistics that season were nothing special (9-10 record, .254 batting mark), but he was the talk of the town. A local sports reporter, Sam Mallison, noted, “Few Rocky Mount citizens had ever seen one of these original Americans.”

Rocky Mount was a segregated town of about 8,000 in 1909. It had a prominent railroad yard, cotton mills and tobacco farms. At that time, “The horse and buggy still provided the principal method of transportation between points not connected by the railroad,” Sam Mallison recalled in the Rocky Mount Telegram. “There were no hard-surfaced highways and few paved streets.”

As for baseball, Thomas McMillan Sr. wrote in the Telegram, “In those days, the players dressed for the game in their rooms (and) walked to the ballpark. Many stayed at the new Cambridge Hotel, a short block north of the passenger train station. The players would be met by a crowd of little boys as they came out of the hotel. Each boy sought the privilege of carrying the shoes or glove or bat for one of the ballplayers. Carrying a glove or a pair of shoes meant free admission to the game. I was one of those little boys and big Jim Thorpe seemed to favor me as his shoes and glove caddy. I remember Jim perfectly. Black hair, black eyes, high cheekbones in a mahogany face, and a physique that gave an impression of strength rather than mere size. His movements were quick and lithe.”

Thorpe returned to Rocky Mount in 1910, but the luster was lost. According to Sam Mallison, “(Thorpe’s) custom, in the early evening, was to take a snoot full … As time went on, (drinking) took hold of Jim earlier in the day, occasionally before the noon hour, and this, plus the fact that opposing pitchers had learned he was a sucker for a curveball on the outside (corner), diminished his speed and caused his batting average to plummet … (Thorpe) had ceased to be such an enormous gate attraction, and his antics were the despair of both the field manager and the front office. He ignored the rules and was wholly unresponsive to managerial direction. In short, he became a problem child.”

That summer, Thorpe was traded to the Fayetteville (N.C.) Highlanders and finished the 1910 season with them.

Glory and scandal

Thorpe re-enrolled at Carlisle and rocketed toward his athletic peak. He gained national fame as a consensus first-team football all-America in 1911 and 1912. He rose to worldwide prominence at the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm, winning gold medals in the decathlon and pentathlon. Thorpe was the first Native American to win an Olympic gold medal for the United States.

“To a whole generation of American sports lovers, Jim Thorpe was the greatest athlete of them all,” the New York Times declared. “No one has equaled the hold that he had on the imagination of all who saw him in action … He was a magnificent performer.”

In January 1913, after the International Olympic Committee learned of Thorpe’s minor-league ballplaying, it was determined he had competed in the 1912 Games as a professional, violating the rules of amateurism. He was stripped of his medals and his achievements were erased from the Olympic records. “The committee’s insistence that the Olympics are amateur is as fatuous as its insistence that sports should never be soiled by politics,” the New York Times opined.

(In July 2022, 69 years after Thorpe’s death, the International Olympic Committee declared him sole winner of the 1912 Olympic decathlon and pentathlon.)

Looking to extend his athletic career, Thorpe saw big-league baseball as offering the best path. (The American Professional Football Association, which became the NFL, wasn’t established until 1920).

On the money

Thorpe got offers from five big-league clubs _ Browns, Giants, Pirates, Reds and White Sox, the New York Times reported.

The Browns had more than 100 losses in three consecutive seasons (1910-12) and would finish in last place in the American League at 57-96 in 1913, but club owner Robert Hedges was serious about a pursuit of Thorpe. Hedges had scout Pop Kelchner try to woo Thorpe to St. Louis. On Kelchner’s recommendation, the Browns acquired a minor-league shortstop, Mike Balenti. He and Thorpe played together in the Carlisle football team backfield. The Browns hoped having Balenti would help them land Thorpe.

On Jan. 24, 1913, the St. Louis Globe-Democrat reported, “It was learned yesterday that Jim Thorpe … had promised Hedges that if he played ball in professional circles he would join the Browns.”

A week later, though, Thorpe signed with the Giants. Led by manager John McGraw, the Giants won National League pennants in 1911 and 1912. They’d go to the World Series again in 1913. Perhaps most important of all to Thorpe was the money. The Giants offered a salary of more than $5,000, the New York Times reported. According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Thorpe got a $6,000 salary and a $500 signing bonus, and Carlisle coach Pop Warner got $2,500 from the Giants for steering Thorpe to them.

“There are very few $6,000 ballplayers in the game today,” St. Louis columnist Sid Keener noted. According to Keener, that select group included Ty Cobb, Ed Konetchy, Nap Lajoie, Christy Mathewson and Tris Speaker.

Though McGraw never had seen Thorpe play, he told the New York World, “A wonderful athlete like Thorpe ought to have in him the makings of a great ballplayer. He has the muscle and the brain, and it is up to me to locate the spot where he will be of most value to the team.”

Cardinals calling

After seeing Thorpe in spring training, McGraw determined the best spot for him was on the bench, or maybe the minors. Thorpe, who turned 26 that year, was plenty fast and strong, but he misjudged fly balls, didn’t slide properly and couldn’t hit the curve consistently.

In April 1913, before the regular season got under way, McGraw apparently considered placing Thorpe on waivers. If Thorpe was available, Cardinals manager Miller Huggins was determined to get him.

“Jim Thorpe … may become a Cardinal,” the Bridgeport Times of Connecticut reported. “All that is needed for (Thorpe) to join the (Cardinals) is for John McGraw to accept an offer made by Miller Huggins. It is believed that waivers have been asked on Thorpe because Huggins sent the following telegram to McGraw: Will take Thorpe off your hands. What is his salary?”

According to the New York Herald, Huggins said the Cardinals, destined to finish with the worst record in the majors (51-99) that year, would spend “the extreme limit” for Thorpe.

Huggins told Sid Keener, “I believe Thorpe can be developed into a ballplayer. He has what I want _ speed. It may be that he will need plenty of seasoning, but I would be willing to carry him a year or so as a utility player.”

The Cardinals’ eagerness to take Thorpe apparently gave McGraw pause. He decided Thorpe would remain with the Giants. “I can make a first-class player of him,” McGraw said, according to the Montpelier (Vermont) Morning Journal.

Playing on

Thorpe stuck with the Giants in 1913 and 1914, but rarely played. He spent most of 1915 in the minors. Sent to minor-league Milwaukee in 1916, Thorpe made significant progress. He led Milwaukee in total bases (240) and hits (157).

In 1917, the Giants loaned Thorpe to the Reds. McGraw’s friend and former ace, Christy Mathewson, was the Reds’ manager. In a game against the Cardinals, Thorpe had two hits and two RBI. In another, at St. Louis, he totaled four hits, three RBI and scored twice. Boxscore and Boxscore

Thorpe’s highlight with the Reds, though, came in a game at Chicago. Fred Toney of the Reds and Hippo Vaughn of the Cubs each pitched nine hitless innings. In the 10th, Thorpe’s single versus Vaughn drove in a run and the Reds won, 1-0. Boxscore

After four months with the Reds, Thorpe was returned to the Giants. He played for them in 1918, then was traded to the Braves. Thorpe hit .327 for Boston in 1919 and .354 versus the Cardinals. It wasn’t enough to keep him in the majors, but he wasn’t through with baseball. Thorpe played three more seasons in the minors and thrived, batting .360 for Akron in 1920 and .358 for Toledo in 1921.

Meanwhile, when the American Professional Football Association began in 1920, Thorpe was welcomed in as player-coach of the Canton Bulldogs.

In 1925, Thorpe, 38, was a running back with the NFL New York Giants. He is one of two men who played for both the NFL and baseball New York Giants. The other, Steve Filipowicz, was an outfielder with the baseball Giants (1944-45) and a running back with the football Giants (1945-46).

Thorpe finally got to play for the Cardinals, too. His last NFL game was with the Chicago Cardinals in 1929.

Posted in Games, Hitters, Opponents, Prospects | 12 Comments »

Picture this: Fran Tarkenton as a St. Louis Cardinal

January 12, 2026 by retrosimba

Throughout the NFL in 1971, quarterbacks with big reputations and colorful nicknames swaggered across the playing fields. Broadway Joe (Namath, of course) with the New York Jets. Mad Bomber (Daryle Lamonica) in Oakland. Captain Comeback (Roger Staubach) for Dallas.

Then, almost, there was … the St. Louis Scrambler.

In his 1976 book “Tarkenton,” Fran Tarkenton revealed the New York Giants nearly dealt him to the Cardinals during the 1971 season. “The Giants tried to trade me … and they came close to dealing with St. Louis,” Tarkenton said.

Much like he did in scrambling out of reach of defenders, Tarkenton managed to dodge a trade to St. Louis.

Fran the Man

Tarkenton first got the attention of St. Louis football fans as a junior at the University of Georgia. Facing Missouri in the Orange Bowl on Jan. 1, 1960, Tarkenton threw two touchdown passes in Georgia’s 14-0 triumph. “Tarkenton showed aerial marksmanship and important ability to elude charging Missouri linemen,” Bob Broeg noted in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

An expansion franchise, the Minnesota Vikings, took Tarkenton in the third round of the 1961 NFL draft. Their head coach, The Dutchman, Norm Van Brocklin, was the quarterback who led the Philadelphia Eagles to the 1960 NFL championship.

In the Vikings’ first regular-season game, Tarkenton came off the bench, threw for four touchdowns and ran for another to beat the Chicago Bears. “A star was born,” the Associated Press declared.

Tarkenton was the Vikings’ quarterback their first six seasons (1961-66). He didn’t have a strong arm, but he was smart, accurate, creative, agile. As Jon Nordheimer of the New York Times noted, “He developed the role of scrambler into an art form, a quarterback who ran out of the protective pocket of his linemen a step ahead of grasping tacklers, crisscrossing the field on broken plays that often turned into long gains for his team.”

Tarkenton’s helter-skelter style produced thrills but gave Van Brocklin chills. According to Newsday, the coach said, “No scrambler will ever win a championship.” Tarkenton bristled and the relationship deteriorated.

After the 1966 season, Van Brocklin resigned and Tarkenton was traded to the Giants for four draft picks.

Talk of the town

With Tarkenton, the Giants sought to regain some of the flair they lost when Joe Namath made the Jets the glamour football team in New York.

It was an ideal Gotham storyline. Namath was Times Square. Tarkenton was Wall Street. The playboy versus the preacher’s boy. Or, as the New York Times put it, the swinger and the square.

Tony Kornheiser of Newsday wrote, “In a town where the other quarterback is Joe Namath, Tarkenton could run naked down the streets of New York with a pound of marijuana in one hand and a gallon of wood alcohol in the other and still the people would say, ‘He’s conservative.’ ”

Some of Tarkenton’s best performances for the Giants came against the Cardinals. He threw a career-high five touchdown passes versus St. Louis on Oct. 25, 1970. Two other times _ in 1967 and 1969 _ he had four touchdown throws in a game against the Cardinals. Video

“It’s as if he waves his magic wand and the Big Red defense disappears,” Jeff Meyers of the Post-Dispatch observed. “The ball has some mystical attraction to his receivers’ hands. There are some Cardinals who swear he wears a turban, not a helmet.”

Prodigal son

Entering the 1971 season, his fifth with the Giants, Tarkenton said he asked club owner Wellington Mara for a $250,000 loan. When Mara said no, Tarkenton left the team on the eve of the first exhibition game and went home to Atlanta. Mara was miffed and told the media Tarkenton retired.

A couple of days later, a contrite Tarkenton returned and signed a contract. In his book, Tarkenton said the deal called for a salary of $125,000 and a $2,500 bonus for each game the Giants won, but no loan.

Privately, Mara couldn’t forgive Tarkenton for abandoning the team. As Tarkenton noted in his book, “A breach had been created. What I had done, in Wellington’s mind, was to commit an act of disloyalty.”

Tarkenton played poorly (two touchdown passes, nine interceptions, 43 percent completion rate) in the Giants’ remaining exhibition games. When the Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Giants, 20-3, in the exhibition finale at Yankee Stadium, Tarkenton and his teammates were booed. “It was a reception we deserved,” Tarkenton told the New York Daily News.

Gotta have Hart

At the same time Tarkenton was going through turmoil with the Giants, a quarterback drama was unfolding with the Cardinals. First-year head coach Bob Hollway used the 1971 exhibition games as a competition between incumbent Jim Hart and Pete Beathard for the starting job.

Hart prevailed _ barely _ but in the regular-season opener at home against Washington he was intercepted three times and fumbled. Fans responded with “an avalanche of boos” and chants of “We want Beathard” before Hart was replaced early in the fourth quarter, the Post-Dispatch reported.

Beathard took over as starter for Game 2.

It was about then that the Giants and Cardinals apparently talked seriously about a trade involving Tarkenton.

According to Bob Broeg of the Post-Dispatch, speculation was the Cardinals would send Hart and safety Jerry Stovall to the Giants for Tarkenton. In the book “The Jim Hart Story” by Tom Barnidge and Doug Grow, the proposed deal was Hart, Stovall and defensive lineman Bob Rowe for Tarkenton.

At some point, it appears the Giants changed course and decided to wait until after the season to weigh offers for Tarkenton.

The 1971 Cardinals went 2-3 with Beathard before Hart was restored to the starter role.

Domino effect

Neither Tarkenton (11 touchdown passes, 21 interceptions), Hart (eight TDs, 14 interceptions) nor Beathard (six TDs, 12 interceptions) did well in 1971.

Tarkenton told the New York Daily News he expected to be traded. “The only teams I’d care to go to would be proven contenders,” he said.

In January 1972, Tarkenton informed the Giants he’d accept a trade to one of five teams _ Baltimore, Kansas City, Minnesota, Oakland, Washington. According to William N. Wallace of the New York Times, “Mara said four clubs called the Giants about Tarkenton’s availability, but he wouldn’t name them and only he knows if they match Tarkenton’s list.”

To Tarkenton’s delight, the Giants sent him to the Vikings for quarterback Norm Snead, receiver Bob Grim, running back Vince Clements and two draft choices.

The trade had a big impact on the Cardinals. Tarkenton’s return made Vikings quarterback Gary Cuozzo expendable. With Bob Hollway still not sold on Jim Hart as the starter, the Cardinals dealt their best receiver, John Gilliam, and two draft choices to Minnesota for Cuozzo in April 1972.

Hollway declared Cuozzo, an aspiring orthodontist, the starting quarterback. “We wouldn’t trade a player like Gilliam if we didn’t think Gary would come in here as our quarterback,” Hollway told the Post-Dispatch.

Tarkenton should have sent the Cardinals a thank-you card. Gilliam, the Cardinals’ leader in receiving yardage for three consecutive years (1969-71), was just what Tarkenton needed. Gilliam led the Vikings in receptions, receiving yards and touchdowns caught in each of his first two seasons (1972-73) with Minnesota. In a 1974 playoff game against the Cardinals, Gilliam caught two touchdown passes from Tarkenton in the Vikings’ 30-14 romp. As he had done with St. Louis, Gilliam averaged 20 yards per catch during his time with Minnesota.

Meanwhile, Cuozzo was a bust for the 1972 Cardinals. He played poorly in the exhibition games and, when the season opened, Hollway named Tim Van Galder, a 28-year-old NFL rookie, the starter.

The Cardinals were 1-3-1 in Van Galder’s five starts. Cuozzo took over, lost five of his six starts (the lone win was against Tarkenton and the Vikings) and was booed in St. Louis. When Jim Hart was reinstated as the starter for the final two games, the same fans cheered.

After Don Coryell replaced Hollway as head coach in 1973, one of his first decisions was to keep Hart as starting quarterback and build an offense around him. The Cardinals became a playoff team.

In Minnesota, Tarkenton thrived, taking the Vikings to three Super Bowls (though they lost each one.)

Tarkenton remains the Vikings’ career passing leader in yards (33,098), touchdowns (239) and completions (2,635). With the Giants, he threw 103 TD passes in 69 games. The only Giants with more touchdown throws are Eli Manning (366), Phil Simms (199) and Charlie Conerly (173).

Posted in Football, Games, Opponents, Trades | 12 Comments »

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