Friday, March 17, 2006

Sammy Baugh is 92


Today not only is St. Patrick's Day. It's also Sammy Baugh's birthday.

Slingin' Sammy is 92 today.

He did everything. Ran, passed, kicked. Tough as a boot.

He's the oldest living member of the NFL Hall of Fame and still holds the NFL record for career punting average and the best punting average in a season.

You also may not know that Baugh was a matinee idol, starring as "King of the Texas Rangers," a Republic Pictures serial, and was the first coach of the New York Titans (which later became the Jets) in the first years of the American Football League.


Sammy, a TCU graduate, played for the Redskins from 1937 to 1952. He lives in Rotan, in the Texas Panhandle.

Happy birthday, Sammy.

[sammy baugh, actor]
[redskins.com]

3 comments:

Irene Done said...

Is it the great Sammy Baugh who first gave us the phrase "matriculated down the field?"

Banjo Jones said...

I don't know, Irene. Where'd you hear or learn that?

Irene Done said...

Sorry. I shoulda Googled it. It was Hank Stram who urged his Kansas City Chiefs to "matriculate the ball down the field," which is a brilliant and colorful phrase that has always stuck in my mind. But there's a very thin Sammy Baugh connection: Lamar Hunt hired Stram to coach his AFL franchise because he played for Stram in college...at SMU...which is TCU's archrival.

I love Sammy Baugh-TCU-SMU football stories, which is another way of saying I have read too many Dan Jenkins books.