Richard (Dick) Yelvington New York Giants starting RT 1952-1957 passed away on the 24th of February, he was 84 years old.
Starting RT on the 1956 NFL Championship team.
Yelvington was selected by the Giants 23rd round of the 1951 draft. He went to the University of Georgia on a football scholarship but left for a 18 month stint in the US Army and was captain of the 24th corps football team in Korea. He then returned and convinced the Georgia head coach to restore his scholarship to play football at the University of Georgia. At Georgia he lettered as a freshman and was the starting RT from 1949 until 1951.
He had his first opportunity to start as a professional when Tex Coulter an All Pro tackle had to move to center to replace the injured John Rapacz before the Giants first game in 1952 versus the LA Rams. Yelvington a rookie took Coulter's spot at RT. He remained a starter into the 1957 season.
He became part of a strong OL in the mid 1950's with RG Jack Stroud D5 1951 Tennessee, C Ray Wietecha D12 1950 Michigan/Northwestern ; LG Bill Austin D13 1949 Oregon State and LT Rosevelt Brown D27 1953 Morgan State.
In 1956 his downfield blocking helped spring Alex Webster for his third TD of the game from 34 yards as the Giants defeated the Browns 21-9 in Cleveland. When LDT Dick Modzelewski injured his back against the Chicago Cards, Yelvington moved to DT and lined with Andy Robustelli, Rosey Grier, and Walt Yowarsky to hold the great Ollie Matson to 43 yards rushing in a 23-10 win that gave the Giants a undisputed hold on first place in the east.
In 1957 he and Bobby Epps were ejected for fighting in a game against the Chicago Cards. After one of the Cards had put his knee in Frank Gifford's back, the Giants ordered a special "bootsie" or educational play against the offender where no effort is made to advance the ball, but all 11 players pile on the offender. In the midst of all of this one of the Cards made as if he were going to slug Yelvington, the referee grabbed the Cards player as Yelvington landed what was supposed to be his retaliatory punch and the Giant tackle was ejected.
In 1958 Yelvington was traded to the Baltimore Colts and saw his career end there without playing a regular season game.
After retiring from football he became a agent for the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, forerunner of the DEA. After a cerebral hemorrhage in 1970 he took retirement.
http://obits.dignitymemorial.com/dignity-memorial/obituary.aspx?n=Richard-Yelvington& lc=2585& pid=163309105& mid=5436585
If 1952 through 1957 doesn't sound like a long career keep in mind what happened to the RT position for the next 31 years after Yelvington
1952-1957 Dick Yelvington
1958-1960 Frank Youso
1961 Greg Larson
1962-1963 Jack Stroud
1964 Jack Stroud; Roger Anderson; Frank Lasky
1965 Frank Lasky
1966 Francis Peay; Charlie Harper
1967 Charlie Harper; Francis Peay
1968 Steve Wright; Rich Buzin
1969-1970 Rich Buzin
1971 Charlie Harper
1972-1973 Joe Taffoni
1974-1976 Doug Van Horn
1977 Ron Mikolajzcyk
1978 Ron Mikolajzcyk; Brad Benson; Gordon King
1979 Tom Neville; Gordon King
1980 Gordon King; Vern Holland
1981-1983 Gordon King
1984-1986 Karl Nelson
1987 William Roberts
1988-1995 Doug Riesenberg
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