Roosevelt Brown - A True Giant

I suggest googling "Rosey Brown" and reading about him. He was a true giant/Giant in a different era.

My dad sat next to him on a plane once. Didn't recognize him at first, but noticed that he was a huge older man with a Giants Super Bowl ring, asked him about it and he identified himself. Dad said he was perfectly pleasant but made it clear that he did not want to talk about his career or the Giants at all.

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That first pic he looks just like Saquon.

thanks for re-posting it.

stuff. Thanks.

Great Job as is your usual.

My dad used to reminisce a lot about him and his Giants era.

Saquon in the first picture for sure

In comment 14723417 mattnyg05 said:

Quote:

Saquon in the first picture for sure

I was going to say the same. none of the other pictures just the 1st one

He was a gentleman and a very gracious man. He said some very nice things about the then current Giants offensive line that we both knew were not true.

He was wearing shorts and his thighs were huge despite his age. We chatted but we really did not talk much about the Giants themselves.

In comment 14723417 mattnyg05 said:

Quote:

Saquon in the first picture for sure

I think someone pulled a prank and photoshopped Saquon in there....the left eye (only) black is a dead give-away. Pretty funny really.

Thanks so much truebluelarry!

brings back great memories of that era.

I do have other legit photos of Brown in the red uniform:

I happened to score tickets to the final game of the 1964 season..a 2-10-2 season. The Giants scored the first TD of the game, and Cleveland proceeded to hang 52 on them by the time the game was over. Dick James and Gifford were playing CB by the end, as everyone else was injured. It was ugly.

With two minutes to go, fans started to go onto the field. My friend and I looked at each other and decided to join in. I was walking toward the field and without even realizing what I was doing, walked right into the Giants' dugout. Suddenly Rosey was towering over me,peering down from a great height. He looked so huge and intimidating to me as a kid. But, in the kindest and gentlest voice you can imagine, he just said, "You can't stay here, son". I'll always remember that even in the worst circumstances imaginable for a proud man, he treated me with patience and kindness.

Jim Parker?

NYT (1964) Left Tackle; The story of a lineman—Roosevelt Brown—and what it takes to be one.

“THE game is about to begin. Down on the field, the players are being introduced, their names resounding from the public address system. Each one runs under the goal posts and down the field, into and out of the view of the television camera placed on the grass. It is a conspicuous but meaningless ceremony, a show biz side to professional football.
Although he is no showman and all football player, Roosevelt Brown of the New York Giants makes a production out of his introduction. He bursts forward and really runs downfield, his bare head held high and his hard helmet held low, at the end of a long arm. His stride is smooth and the helmet does not bounce. Rosey could carry eggs in it and not bruise one.
“I do it fast to get it over with,” he says of the introduction bit. “It doesn't have anything to do with the game.”
An unaffected man, Brown is not aware of the tremendous visual impression his physical being projects. By any standards, he is huge. He stands 6 feet 3 and weighs 255 pounds. His neck, shoulders and chest are massive. But the body tapers in a heroic way. His waist and buttocks, in proportion to what's above, are small. Then come the legs, similarly massive.

HIS size is not exceptional in this game of big men, but there is also smooth, flowing grace in his movements. That is unique. A lady of certain artistic talent has tried numerous times to capture Rosey Brown on her sketch pad. She has never been satisfied with the results. “T'm not worthy of the subject,” she has said. “I leave him to Michelangelo.”
yincent Lombardi, head coach of the Green Bay Packers, takes a pragmatic view of Brown the football player, rather than Brown the body. Says Lombardi, “When you think of great tackles in professional football, you must think of Rosey Brown.”
Brown is a lineman, the left tackle on the offensive platoon of the Giants. He has played that position for a long time. This is his 12th season with the team. He is 32.
Football is a dishonest game in that the public adulation it stimulates is often directed at the wrong players. The true values of the game are so difficult for the spectator to comprehend that the skills of a lineman usually go unrecognized. They are the martyrs and most of them accept their lot. Brown does.

“The backs who carry the ball,” he said recently, “they get the credit, the headlines, the big money. But they know and we know that they wouldn't be anything if it wasn't for us who give them the blocks.
“I get my satisfaction from doing the job. When one of our backs breaks away for a big gain, I feel good because I knocked somebody down on the other side which made the play go. That's my satisfaction. I don't think it takes too much to run with the ball if someone makes the blocks.”
Knock somebody down. That is the name of this game, one of brutal, continuous contact for a lineman. “I hit on every play,” says Brown and that is not true of the backs, who on many occasions merely run a pass route or a fake without any physical contact.
“Nobody plays this game for money,” sdid Brown one time. “You have to enjoy it. You have to have the game in your heart. They can't pay us enough for what we go through on the field.”

Rosey Brown has won eight citations as an all pro performer and has had seven invitations to play in the annual Pro Bowl game—figures which certify him as the first, second or third best player at his position in the National Football League. Because of these facts and, more important, because of his value to his team, his worth in terms of salary can be estimated at $20,000 a year. (Pro teams never disclose salaries, but close estimates can be made.)
Jim Brown, the Cleveland Browns' fullback, who is the game's best runner, is a $50,000 a year man. So is Y. A. Tittle, the Giants' venerable quarterback. Frank Gifford, the player for whose benefit Brown has thrown hundreds of blocks in their 11 seasons together, has established an image as a television sportcaster and endorser of sports clothes. His income, from football and the side businesses that grow out of it, can be said to be three or four times that of Brown's. But is his value that many times greater than Rosey's?

OF the game's displaced values, Brown shrugs and says, “That's the way it is.” He has no desire to be a reformer.
Nor is he a violent man. Like most players, he is temperate and gentle off the field. On the field, he has often performed with controlled anger. “I only remember Rosey being thrown out of one game,” recalls Emlen Tunnell, the Giant scout who is his great friend. “He got in a fight on the field with Jerry Groom. The referee kicked them both out. Rosey was real mad.”

When excited, Brown's words are likely to stick together. “He came to the beneh,” Tunnell went on, “and he was swearing. The other players couldn't understand what he was saying. The words sounded so funny, they laughed at him. When he heard them laughing, he quieted down. I wouldn't have wanted to mess with him then.”
Brown enjoys the contact that football requires. “I like the hitting.” he has said in a matter ;of fact way. “Everybody does—or they ought to. If you don't, you can't stay in this game. You'll never make it.”

BROWN'S hitting began years ago in his home town, Charlottesville, Va. This is how he tells his story.
“I was always a big boy. When I was 6, my mother put me in school and I took a test. I must have passed it because they put me in third grade. No first grade and no second grade. That meant I graduated from high school when I was 15 and from college at 19. When I played my first game for the Giants, in 1953, I was still 19.”

(Brown was the most precocious of all pro football players. The majority start when they have finished college, at 21 or 22. A few are 20. None are 19.)
“I didn't play any football until I was in Jefferson High School. At first I played trombone in the band. The coach saw me and I guess he liked my size. I weighed about 180, even though 1 was only 13. I wanted to play. He spoke to my mother and she said all right.
“My father worked on the railroad, the Southern Railroad. He was gone all week, home only on weekends. His brother had been hurt playing football and died because of the injury. My father didn't like it.
“Well, I played and we didn't tell him. The next year he found out and raised all of trouble. But there wasn't anything he could do then. It was too late.”

For college, Brown went to Morgan State, in Baltimore, on a football scholarship. He was co captain and good enough to be named twice to a Negro college all star team—nominations that brought him to the Giants in a roundabout way.
The pro teams 10 years ago did not have the extensive player & scouting systems on which they now spend $100,000 or more each year. In those days, each of the league teams was allowed to choose 30 men from the college candidates. By the 27th round of the 1953 draft, the Giant management was bare of ideas.
The Giant officials were sitting around a table and one of them had a copy of The Pittsburgh Courier, a Negro newspaper, which showed in its sports pages the all star team on which Brown of Morgan State played. “So we took him,” recalls Wellington Mara, the Giant vice president. “It didn't seem to make much difference who we took then.”
The Giants thus stole a star from obscurity. Brown was the 318th college player chosen in the draft and only four others from that group are still playing in the N.F.L, Fewer than 50 were good enough to play at all.

Tunnell, then a star with the Giants, went down to Baltimore to meet Brown in the spring. “He didn't look like much when I first saw him,” said Emlen. “He wore those big glasses of his. He had on a homburg hat and he carried a wrapped umbrella around all weekend. I didn't know if he was a football player or not.”
The Giants, and Tunnell, found out that summer. Brown was raw and untutored, a 225 pound growing boy. Al DeRogatis, a Giant player scout who served as a coach in the training camp, remembers the rookie Rosey well. “Ed Kolman [the team's line coach] had to teach him almost everything,” said DeRogatis. “He didn't even know how to take a proper stance. But he had that tremendous body. He also had the speed, the reflexes and the balance. We knew that if he could learn all Kolman had to tell him, the Giants would have a great player. Rosey learned all right.”
Brown has been hurt numerous times, but in the fashion of the true professional he has played on, disregarding the injuries. There have been three exceptions.
In 1958, playing against Baltimore, Brown fractured a cheekbone. “There was a big hole in my face,” he said. How did it happen? “Gifford had the ball and he was runningaround a lot back there. They were after him pretty good. I tried to pick off two of them so he could get out of there. I got squeezed between Gino Marchetti and Big Daddy Lipscomb.”

The Colts' Lipscomb weighed 290. A teammate, Marchetti, at 245 pounds, hits as hard as any man in pro football. There was a tremendous impact and the three men went down. The plastic helmet can withstand considerable pressures, but Brown's was shattered as he hit the ground and some force —one that Rosey never could could identify — struck and fractured his cheekbone. He missed the subsequent game but not the next one. He has been absent from only two other games. One absence came after a twisted ankle in the fifth game this season: another after a concussion in 1962. He has been knocked silly many times.
Dr. Francis Sweeney, the Giants' physician, has a way of dealing with players who have mislaid their wits in a certain way. He comes on the field and asks the groggy athlete what day it is. what team the Giants are playing, and what's the score ? If the answers are faulty, the player goes to the sidelines to recuperate,

HE has asked me those things a lot of times,” said Brown. “Bill Svoboda, who used to play for us, he'd give Doc the answers before Doc could ask the questions. He'd say, ‘Sunday, Pittsburgh, we're behind 14 7, go away.’ ” And Brown gave forth with that big pleasant laugh of his, framed by a mass of teeth.
Brown was asked recently what role he thought football had played in his life. “It's been my whole life,” he said. “The friendships I've had, the good times, the championships we've won, I wouldn't trade that for all of everything.”

But he has built another life. He and his wife, a pretty, quiet girl named Thelma, live in Teaneck, N. J., and Brown works in the off season as a promotion and goodwill representative for Ballantine's beer. The Browns' friends are not necessarily from the world of sport, although a good one—and a neighbor — is Elston Howard, the catcher for the New York Yankees.
ROSEY likes music, cars and clothes (his suits are size 50). “I've always liked music,” he says. “At first only classical, but now all kinds except that rock ‘n’ roll. I don't need that.” Cars? He has indulged himself with a Ford Thunderbird and a Cadillac.

He knows his days as a Giant are numbered because linemen do not last much longer than a dozen years. “You lose a step and you're done,” he explains. “You know how to do things, but you can't do them any more.”
There is humility in him. “I'll go a while longer,” he says. “I don't like to say just how long. A fellow says he's going to play one more, two more years—how can he know that? You can always stay too long.”

In comment 14723629 No Where Man said:

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Jim Parker?

Great question - I recall in my research coming across a quote from PArker saying he emulated Brown and wanted to be as good as he was. Perhaps they were 1 and 1A of their period.

Parker, who was drafted in 1957 out of Ohio State, once said of Brown, "Rosey never did the same thing twice," according to the Newark, N.J., Star-Ledger. "He was incredible. He was my favorite, my idol. Everything I learned, I picked up from him. I wanted to be just like him."

“ Offensive linemen were an anonymous lot in the '50s. You would see the same names on the Pro Bowl rosters—Harley Sewell, Lou Creekmur—then you would forget about them until the next year. The little acclaim that did come their way was for run blocking. Roosevelt Brown, for example, the New York Giants' left tackle, earned some notice for his speed at pulling to lead sweeps. But Ewbank had apprenticed under Paul Brown in Cleveland, and one of Brown's principal contributions to the game was his scheme of cup blocking to protect quarterback Otto Graham. Every time the old Browns broke their huddle, the linemen would chant, "Nobody touches Graham." The value of a great pass protector was not lost on Ewbank.

An often overlooked sidelight to the famous Giant-Colt sudden-death championship game in 1958 was the job that Parker did on defensive end Andy Robustelli, one of football's premier pass rushers. Parker, in only his second year in the league, already had established himself as a superb drive-blocker, but his domination of Robustelli was something different, a performance so smooth, so complete, that it was used as a textbook case for many years: He takes an outside rush, you run him around the corner; he goes inside, you collapse him into the pile. Parker calls it "the most perfect game I ever played," and even the game announcers were drawn to this unusual display of line technique that had never been highlighted before.”
Link - ( New Window )

In comment 14723917 Defenderdawg said:

Quote:

Parker, who was drafted in 1957 out of Ohio State, once said of Brown, "Rosey never did the same thing twice," according to the Newark, N.J., Star-Ledger. "He was incredible. He was my favorite, my idol. Everything I learned, I picked up from him. I wanted to be just like him."

Yes, that's the quote I was thinking of! Thanks DD!

Brown was the only one to play a game in the NFL

27-315 BAL Ray Graves TX A&M

Texas A&M

Ray played football for Texas A&M from 1950 - 1953 and was the quarterback from 1951 - 1953. He was an avid sportsman. After college Ray worked for American National Life Insurance Co from 1956 - 1996,

27-316 WAS John Zanetti John Carroll

27-317 CHI C.O. Brocato Baylor

Football Outsiders

Following his graduation from Baylor University, Brocato was the head football coach at Jesuit High School in North Louisiana from 1958-67. He capped his tenure by earning Coach of the Year honors in 1967 when he led his school to a perfect 13-0 record in AA play.
In 1968, he assumed the title of Defensive Coordinator at Northern Arizona, remaining at the Flagstaff school for three seasons. From 1971-74, he held a similar post at Texas-Arlington before joining the Oilers in a scouting capacity from 1974-76. From 1977-81, Brocato served as a scout for the United States Scouting Combine.  

He re-joined the Titans in 1981 for his second tour of duty with the club as a scout. Brocato has been placed on the preliminary list of nominees of former players, coaches and contributors for election to the Pro Football Hall of Fame three times (2008, 2007 and 2005). He was featured in an ESPN.com story in 2006, detailing his role as one of the NFL’s most respected scouts.

27-318 PIT Jack Delaney Cincinnati

27-319 CHI Marvin Whalin Arizona State

27-320 GBY Jim McGonaughey Houston

Baylor

“While Matthew McConaughey is more associated with his alma mater, the University of Texas, where he prowls the sidelines at football games in Austin and gave the team a pep talk before an important game last fall, he has a Houston tie, since his father, "Big Jim" McConaughey, once played college football at the University of Houston.

4. His father, James Donald McConaughey, was from Louisiana and ran an oil pipe supply business. He played for the Kentucky Wildcats and the Houston Cougars college football teams. In 1953, Jim McConaughey was drafted in the 27th round by the NFL football team the Green Bay Packers. He was released before the season began and never played an official league game in the NFL.

27-321 SFO Ralph McLeod LSU

Obituary

He served in the United States Marine Corps from 1946 to 1949. He was a 1953 graduate of Louisiana State University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Geology. While at LSU, he lettered in football and co-captained the 1953 Tigers, and lettered in track as well. He had a long, productive career in petroleum geology.

27-322 NYG Rosey Brown Morgan State HOF
NYG 1953-1965

27-323 PHI Earl Hersh West Chester

Baseball Reference

“He was named to the Little All-America team and played in the Blue-Gray game, catching a touchdown pass from future Baltimore Colts and Ravens coach Ted Marchibroda.

Hersh said he was offered a professional contract by the Philadelphia Eagles, but turned it down to pursue a baseball career. He signed with the Braves and put up big minor-league numbers for several seasons before making his major league debut on Sept. 4, 1956.

He turned down a chance to play in the NFL and he played professional baseball, earning a call-up to the Braves and, batting cleanup, right behind Aaron, doubled in his first major league at-bat.

With future Hall of Famer Eddie Matthews injured, Hersh batted fourth that day, in the middle of a pennant race. Hersh led off the second inning by ripping a double.

Matthews soon returned and Hersh finished with three hits in 13 at-bats, for a .231 average and a .462 slugging percentage.

That wound up being his career line because the Braves were young and loaded, making the World Series in 1957 and 1958, and didn't really have a spot for Hersh, who never got back to the majors.

27-324 CLE Jack Sisco Baylor

Obituary

He was a collegiate football All-American and All-Southwest Conference center for Baylor University and played in the 1952 Orange Bowl Classic.. He received his Masters Degree at North Texas State University. He served as an Air Force Captain during the Korean War before beginning a 33 year career with the Dallas I.S.D. as a teacher and school principal at several elementary schools in the East Dallas area

27-325 LAR Lou Welsh USC

USC

“Welsh was a 3-year (1950-51-52) letterman center and linebacker for the Trojans. He earned All-Conference honors as a center in 1952. That 1952 team won its first 9 games before finishing 10-1 overall and fifth in the final AP poll. USC defeated Wisconsin, 7-0, in the 1953 Rose Bowl.
He also was the Most Inspirational Player on the 1951 USC team that started off the season with 7 consecutive wins before losing its final 3 contests.
He won USC's Spartan Award in 1950 as the top junior varsity player.
Although he was drafted by the Rams in 1953, he instead began working at Washington Iron Works, a steel contracting firm in Gardena, Calif. He then became owner and operator of the company.”

27-326 DET Jackie Parker Miss State

College Football HOF

“The resurgence of Mississippi State football has been fueled largely by the stellar play of quarterback Dak Prescott. Before Dak, however, there was “Jack” … as in Jackie Parker.
Parker, who was married and older than the other players, was originally turned away by Bulldog coaches in 1952 as coach Murray Warmath had an internal policy against married players. Parker found a home on the Mississippi State baseball team where he excelled at shortstop. A switch to the Split-T offense for the Bulldogs on the gridiron left them in need of an athletic quarterback to guide the attack, and Parker fit the bill.
He was named as an All-SEC performer in 1952 and 1953, as well as an All-American in 1953. In 1952, he led the NCAA in points scored with 120, a mark that would stand as an SEC record for 40 years.
After college, Parker declined more lucrative offer to play for the New York Giants and joined the Edmonton Eskimos and helped build a dynasty in the Canadian Football League. He won six straight Jeff Nicklin Memorial Awards honoring the best player in the West Conference and was an eight-time CFL All-Star (three times as a running back and five times as a quarterback). He finished his career as the CFL’s all-time leading scorer with 750 points.
Following his playing career, Parker served as a coach and general manager for both the BC Lions and Edmonton Eskimos before moving on to a career as an executive with Interprovincial Steel & Pipe Corporation.”

Several would have a Giants connection at some point


QB Zeke Bratkowski D2 CHI/LA/GB 1954-1971
QB Rudy Bukich D2 LAR/WAS/CHI/PIT 1953-1968
HB Alex Webster D11 WAS NYG 1955-1964
FB John Henry Johnson D2 SF/DET/PIT/HOU 1954-1966 HOF
SE John Carson D15 CLE WAS/HOU 1954-1960
TE Pete Retzlaff D22 DET PHI 1956-1966
RT Bob St. Clair D3 SF 1953-1963 HOF
RG Chuck Noll D20 CLE 1953-1959 HOF as a head coach
OC Jim Ringo D7 GB/PHI 1953-1967 HOF
LG Stan Jones D5 CHI/WAS 1954-1966 HOF
LT Rosey Brown D27 NYG 1953-1965 HOF

LE Tom Scott D5 PHI/NYG 1953-1964
DT Ed Husmann D9 CHI C/ DAL/HOU 1953-1965
DT Dick Modzelewski D2 WAS/PIT/NYG/CLE 1953-1966
RE Doug Atkins D1 CLE/CHI/NO 1953-1969
LO Galen Fiss D3 CLE 1956-1966
MB Joe Schmidt D7 DET 1953-1965 HOF
RO Harlan Svare D17 LA/NYG 1953-1960
RO Bill Forester D3 GB 1953-1963
RS Carl Karilivacz D23 DET/NYG/LA 1953-1960
LS Fred Bruney D SF/PIT/LA/BOS 1953-1962
RC Tom Brookshier D10 PHI 1953-1961

Two became Giants:

Joe Ramona G D28-Santa Clara 1953 NYG 1953

G D28 out of Santa Clara by the Giants in 1953, and played for the NYG in 1953. The 1953 draft is the same that produced Giants great Rosey Brown in the 27th round. Ramona was released after the exhibition season but added to the roster on October 16, 1953. He entered the army after the 1953 season and was listed on the all-army team of NFL players currently playing club football in the military while based at Fort Still in 1955.

Al Barry G D30-USC 1953 Green Bay 1954, 1957 NYG 1958-1959 LA Chargers 1960

Barry was acquired from Green Bay and was the Giants starting left guard in 1958 and 1959 (Alongside Roosevelt Brown). He was selected by Dallas in the 1960 Expansion Draft.

He is still alive today and write a book in 2008, The Unknown Lineman / the lighter side of the NFL.