My Mean Green Encounter With Nfl Hall Of Famer

[PlummMeanGreen]

I was shopping just the other day at a West Fort Worth business and in one particular aisle I was in I noticed an older gentleman who was wearing an NFL Alumnus wind-breaker. He greeted me with a Texas-friendly nod at which time I took the opportunity to ask him what his connection with the NFL had been.

Well....................the silver haired senior citizen with a Texas accent told me he had played for the Detroit Lions back when Doak Walker and Bobby Layne were his teammates and with that bit of info I immediately knew from my NFL history lessons of the past just who I was talking to.

As he talked about his collegiate alma mater I then told him I was a proud 1976 graduate of North Texas. He mentioned Hayden Fry to me before I could get a word out and he said that he knew Coach Fry and respected his work. I then told this NFL Hall of Famer that we had just hired Todd Dodge (which he already knew about) and that one day in the future a large number of us felt many would respect Coach Dodge just as he had Hayden Fry. After our conversation ended, I told him what an honor it had been to meet him and then we went our separate ways.

Not meaning to be a tease with all this, but I will open this up as a trivia question to (most likely) older NT Exes as to who they think this NFL Hall of Famer was that I had met. I'd say what his college alma mater was but I think that would be a dead give away to most of our older alums (and who knows, maybe even a handful of of your young gun alums who know their NFL history as well).

Edited February 28, 2007 by PlummMeanGreen

[Guest GrayEagleOne]

Yep, I figured it out, Jim and you're right, the school where he played would be a dead giveaway to the older crowd. His position would make it even easier. By the way, this mystery celebrity is a native Fort Worthian.

I'll hold off on the answer until tomorrow night unless someone comes up with it before then.

[PlummMeanGreen]

Yep, I figured it out, Jim and you're right, the school where he played would be a dead giveaway to the older crowd. His position would make it even easier. By the way, this mystery celebrity is a native Fort Worthian.

I'll hold off on the answer until tomorrow night unless someone comes up with it before then.

OK, Jack, the mystery man will continue to be just that. (Heck, I suddenly feel like host John "Charles" Daley from the old "Whats My Line"Sunday night game show with Dorothy Kilgallon, Bennett Cerf and (suddenly) my mind goes blank on who the other 2 "mystery" panel members were from that golden age of TV game show. Good gosh! We now have more mystery names to guess, now don't we?

Jack, the amazing part about that NFL Hall of Famer I met over in W. Fort Worth was what good shape he really seemed to be in. I wish I could have spoken about an hour or 2 or 3 with that man.

Edited February 28, 2007 by PlummMeanGreen

[MeanGreengdub]

Give the younger crowd a hint.

[ADLER]

Harvard, Dartmouth......., I give up.

[SilverEagle]

Give the younger crowd a hint.

If this is who I think they're talking about, he used to own a Ford dealership.

[LongJim]

Yale Lary? Wow!

[PlummMeanGreen]

Harvard, Dartmouth......., I give up.

Jeff, school region-wise you were getting warm because it was Yale.........but in this case LongJim got it right (with GrayEagleOne and other older NT Exes who I'd bet also knew that it was, in deed):

Former Texas Aggie, Detroit Lions and NFL Hall of Famer:

Yale Lary

Told him growing up around the Houston area that I always had more than my share of Aggie friends and contacts--after all, don't we all? Also told him Texas Aggies all but ran Dow Chemical Company (where my late sainted dad worked for 37 years before his retirement in 1977).

We talked a bit about Gene Stallings who I mentioned to Mr. Lary I had seen his last game as Aggie coach and who had also briefly served as a consultant for all us Mean Greeners of UNT.

I shook his hands and told him it had been quite an honor (gush, gush) to meet and talk with him. He left that shopping aisle smiling and (maybe?) a little impressed that someone who was a very young kid when he was making hay at Texas A & M College (as it was called when he attended) and in the NFL knew all about him.

Edited February 28, 2007 by PlummMeanGreen

[SCREAMING EAGLE-66]

---He is the ONLY former Aggie player to be a member of the NFL Hall of Fame.....which means we have as many alums in the HOF as do the Aggies and Baylor (Singletary) and one more than TxTech (none). To me that is somewhat surprising. UT only has one that has played since 1960 (Earl Campbell) but also had Tex Schram and Landry for their non-playing duties. The same is true of SMU and TCU.... only E.Dickerson and Bob Lilly played since 1960...... UTEP has one and there are one or two from smaller colleges.

---In other words there are not a lot of those guys walking around in Texas. UT, SMU, and TCU had several players that were players prior to 1960 but I am not sure if any of those are still alive.

Edited February 28, 2007 by SCREAMING EAGLE-66

[SCREAMING EAGLE-66]

---------deleted -----( it double posted somehow)

Edited February 28, 2007 by SCREAMING EAGLE-66

[greenjoe]

Jim-The other "What's My Line" panelist was Arlene Francis. There was a male "regular in addition to Bennett Cerf, but when he left he was replaced with a weekly "guest" panelist.

Oh the waste...

[Guest GrayEagleOne]

---He is the ONLY former Aggie player to be a member of the NFL Hall of Fame.....which means we have as many alums in the HOF as do the Aggies and Baylor (Singletary) and one more than TxTech (none). To me that is somewhat surprising. UT only has one that has played since 1960 (Earl Campbell) but also had Tex Schram and Landry for their non-playing duties. The same is true of SMU and TCU.... only E.Dickerson and Bob Lilly played since 1960...... UTEP has one and there are one or two from smaller colleges.

---In other words there are not a lot of those guys walking around in Texas. UT, SMU, and TCU had several players that were players prior to 1960 but I am not sure if any of those are still alive.

I know that you're going to hate to hear this SE but SMU has had two. Raymond Berry may have started before 1960 but played with the Colts until 1967.

[greenminer]

Just to make ya'll feel a little bit older:

I have no idea who Yale Lary is :/

[Smitty]

Just to make ya'll feel a little bit older:

I have no idea who Yale Lary is :/

From the Pro Football Hall of Fame's website:

YALE LARY

HOF Class of 1979

Defensive Back, 5-11, 185

(Texas A&M)

1952-1953, 1956-1964 Detroit Lions

Robert Yale Lary, Jr. . .Major contributor to three Lions championships. . . 11-year fixture at right safety, exceptional punter, long-distance threat on kick returns. . .Lifetime marks show 50 interceptions, 44.3-yard punting average, three NFL punting crowns, three TDs on punt returns. . .All-NFL five years. . .In nine Pro Bowls. . .Third-round pick, 1952. . . Career interrupted by army service. . .Born November 24, 1930, in Fort Worth, Texas.

BIOGRAPHY

Detroit Lions fans recall Yale Lary in many different ways. Some remember him as a superb right safety, a key cog in Detroit's fearsome defensive platoon in the 1950s and 1960s. Others will tell you he was one of history's truly great punters. Still others say it was his breakaway ability on punt returns that set him apart from all the rest.

In reality, each assessment is correct because the multi-talented Texas A&M product did all of those things superbly well during his 11 years with the Lions. There is no question that Yale's defensive play was exceptional. A fixture at right safety throughout his career, he was named to the All-NFL team five times and played in nine Pro Bowls. His career mark showed 50 interceptions and he might well have had many more had not opposition quarterbacks avoided throwing in his area.

Still those who remember Lary as a superb punter have plenty of reason to do so. His career average of 44.3 yards on 503 punts places him among the best ever. He won three NFL punting titles and missed a fourth by a razor-thin margin. "Kicking from the end zone, Yale invariably put the ball across midfield with enough hang time to let us cover the kick," team captain and Hall of Fame linebacker Joe Schmidt recalled. "He made our defense look good because he always gave us room to work."

While Lary's outstanding exploits might be remembered in different ways, all who saw him play undoubtedly would agree that he was a rare find, the kind that comes along only once in a generation. Comparatively small at 5-11 and 185 pounds but armed with a big heart and great ability, he did much to make the Lions a championship team.

[GBarksdale]

Just to make ya'll feel a little bit older:

I have no idea who Yale Lary is :/

Words right out of my mouth. But here's one you might guess. I met a Hall of Famer a couple years ago. He went to a non-Texas college but played for a Texas pro FB team. Was a huge star in the 70s. Still lives in the Metroplex. Unfortunately, we mainly discussed business and I was able to make only a passing reference to his glory days. He was shorter than I imagined.

I also met Brooke Shields on a plane once. She was much taller than I imagined.

[SCREAMING EAGLE-66]

I know that you're going to hate to hear this SE but SMU has had two. Raymond Berry may have started before 1960 but played with the Colts until 1967.

--Berry did not play in college during or after 1960 which is what I meant. He did play well into the 60's however. Bobby Lane was also playing in the NFL until the early '60's but left UT in 1947.

---1960 is an interesting NFL year and to me starts the modern era..... Those players that started before then represent a totally different group. The AFL started in 1960 and the NFL added the Cowboys that year and Minnesota started the following year. This is the beginning of National-wide pro football. Until then it was pretty much a Northeastern league with a couple of West-Coast teams. TV coverage really kicked in at that time as well. (TV had been common place in remote areas only a few years (5?). Also I was a HS kid in 1960 and almost no-one ever talked pro-football or paid much attention to it at that time... Here people paid more attention to college football. A lot of the very good players in college did not even "go pro" until that time because of the salery was rather low and physical risk was high.

Edited February 28, 2007 by SCREAMING EAGLE-66

[BleedGreen64]

Another panelist was Steve Allen. I believe Yale shared the DB popsistion with a HOF named Nighttrain Lane.

[Quoner]

Thanks geritol!

[ADLER]

Jeff, school region-wise you were getting warm because it was Yale.........

!