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The Official Web Site of the WVU Varsity Club |
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Profile: Sam Huff
In the 1950s it was customary for the best college players to play the best team in the NFL in an exhibition game before the players dispersed to their respective training-camp sites. In Huff’s case he was headed for Winooski, Vermont, where the New York Giants were coming off a 6-5-1 season for Coach Jim Lee Howell, whose board of strategy included offensive coach Vince Lombardi and defensive coach Tom Landry. “With those two,” Howell once said, “all I had to do was blow up footballs.” After forfeiting their first pick to the Los Angeles Rams (which turned out to be West Virginia running back Joe Marconi), the Giants picked Arkansas back Henry Moore with their second pick; Huff was the Giants’ second choice in the third round. The 6-foot-1, 230-pound Huff was considered a ‘tweener.’ He wasn’t big enough to play defensive line as he did at West Virginia University, and he wasn’t quite fast enough to chase down speedy ball carriers at linebacker. If Sam Huff was going to make his mark in the NFL, Tom Landry was going to have to come up with a defense specially suited for him. In the meantime, Huff was the target of Howell’s customary abuse he dished out to rookies. “I really think he hated rookies,” wrote Huff in his 1988 autobiography Tough Stuff. Once the team got settled in Winooski, Howell announced that they would scrimmage the next day and the winning team had the following day off. Huff’s team won the scrimmage easily -- Sam helping his team to victory by blocking a punt and running 50 yards for a touchdown. Huff made plans for a day of rest when Howell informed him that the day off didn’t apply to rookies. They were to be dressed and ready for the next practice. Huff, a country boy from Farmington, W.Va., had had enough. He was ready to turn in his playbook along with punter Bob Chandler, another country boy from Oklahoma. Huff and Chandler walked into Lombardi’s office and announced their intentions. Lombardi blew his stack. Chandler took off and headed straight for the airport. Huff, nursing a sore knee, couldn’t get out in time. “I was scared to death,” he admitted much later. After convincing Huff to stay, Lombardi jumped in his car and went after Chandler. He, too, changed his mind. And with that, Sam Huff’s NFL career was underway. *** Nothing changed radically in training camp for Sam after that – he was still taking abuse from Howell – but at least management made it clear that he was wanted. Then on Oct. 7, three days after Huff’s 22nd birthday, all-pro defender Ray Beck was injured in a game against the Chicago Cardinals and Huff got his big break. He took advantage of Beck’s injury and played well, helping the Giants win five straight games. It was during that time that Landry came up with a revolutionary new 4-3 defensive scheme that fit Huff perfectly. With brutes Rosey Grier, Andy Robustelli and Dick Modzelewski regulating action at the line of scrimmage, that left Huff free to use his great instincts and roam the field at middle linebacker. Landry’s complex system was made up of blitzing and slanting linemen designed to funnel plays inside to where Huff was. The strategy not only turned the Giants defense into one of the NFL’s best and helped New York win the 1956 NFL title, but it also made Huff a bona fide professional football star. “It’s uncanny the way Huff follows the ball,” said Lombardi in 1959. “He ignores all of the things you do to take him away from the play and comes after the ball, wherever it is thrown or wherever the ball goes. Sure, sometimes he goes with the fake. But that’s when the ball is there.” Sam was acknowledged to be the one defender of that era capable of stopping Cleveland Browns all-pro running back Jim Brown. Huff says the rivalry began during a West Virginia-Syracuse game in 1955 when Brown broke four of his teeth and put a scar on his nose when he tried to tackle him. Said Huff: “You’ve got to hit him straight on below the hips and with all of the power you’ve got, or he’ll knock you over and run right in your face.” Huff was named to his first pro bowl in 1959. By then the NFL was beginning to chip away at baseball’s national popularity. Huff’s reputation reached its peak when he was the subject of a CBS documentary hosted by Walter Cronkite entitled “The Violent World of Sam Huff.” CBS miked him during a game, filmed his every move, and he became the league’s first great defensive star. Huff paved the way for future Hall of Fame middle linebackers Dick Butkus, Mike Curtis and Tommy Nobis. Also featured on the cover of Time Magazine, Huff was a two-time all-pro selection and played in four pro bowls with the Giants from 1959-63. He was named most valuable player of the 1961 Pro Bowl. Then in a stunning move initiated by Giants coach Allie Sherman, Huff was traded to the Washington Redskins for defensive tackle Andy Stynchula and running back Dick James. The trade made front-page news in New York and was greeted with jeers from Giants fans that religiously packed Yankee Stadium yelling “Huff-Huff-Huff-Huff.” Sam eventually had the last laugh in 1966 when his Redskins team annihilated New York, 72-41 in Washington in one of the most pleasurable professional games of his career. Huff played five years with Washington, earning another pro bowl berth in 1964 before retiring in 1968. Lombardi talked Huff out of retirement in 1969 when he was named Washington’s head coach. One more season was enough and he retired for good after 14 years and 30 career interceptions. *** Huff’s background was not unique for a boy growing up in West Virginia during the depression. His father Oral Huff worked in the coalmines loading buggies for Consolidated Mining in Farmington. Two of his brothers also worked in the mines but Huff, a star football player at Farmington High School, wasn’t interested in that life. “I wanted to become a coach,” he once said, “and I knew I had to aim for college first.” West Virginia University coach Art Lewis didn’t have to travel far to watch Huff play (Morgantown is located less than 30 miles from Farmington) and he liked what he saw in the rawboned 200-pound tackle. Huff joined players like Bruce Bosley, Joe Marconi, Fred Wyant and Bobby Moss to help West Virginia become one of the nation’s strongest teams by 1953. The Mountaineers had an 8-1 regular season record and was ranked in the Top 10 for the first time in school history. West Virginia met Georgia Tech in the 1954 Sugar Bowl but lost to the Yellow Jackets 42-19 in a disappointing result that still bothers Huff almost 50 years later. Huff helped West Virginia to another 8-1 season in 1954 and an 8-2 record in 1955 to finish his career with a brilliant 31-7 four-year mark. With Huff in the lineup, West Virginia won three out of four games against Penn State and two of four against Pitt. He was named to four All-American teams and during a Look Magazine All-American photo session in New York, Huff met Giants owner Wellington Mara, who was interested in signing him. Mara made the deal right there on the spot for $7,000. *** By 1970 Huff, now 36, grew interested in politics. His interest actually began 11 years earlier during the 1959 West Virginia presidential primary when he was contacted by John F. Kennedy to endorse him. Kennedy, a shrewd politician, knew a hometown NFL star like Huff was the right person to help West Virginians, mostly protestant, cast their votes for a Catholic presidential candidate in a key primary election. Huff later became friends with the entire Kennedy family and was often invited to Bobby Kennedy’s famous parties at Hickory Hill. However, Huff’s bid for a political career of his own was thwarted in 1970 when his challenge against Congressman Robert Mollahan failed by more than 19,000 votes in the West Virginia Democratic Primary. In the meantime, he developed a relationship with Bill Marriott, a devoted Redskins fan, and imparted an idea of his about a way to attract weekend business for Marriott’s hotel chain. A Marriott stockholder who studied the company’s annual reports, Huff figured the best way to do this was to go after college and professional teams. And who better to go and get them than all-pro linebacker Sam Huff? Marriott liked the idea and Huff soon became a vice president. Huff spent the weekends broadcasting Giants games with Marty Glickman on WNEW radio. That soon led to a longtime partnership with NFL quarterback Sonny Jurgensen on the Washington Redskins Radio Network. Sam was also instrumental in initiating the West Virginia Breeders’ Cup in Charles Town, W.Va., and today tends to his ranch in Middleburg, Va. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1980 and the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1982. He was a member of West Virginia University’s inaugural Hall of Fame induction class of 1991. |
New
York Giants rookie Sam Huff was tired, hungry and pretty well beaten
up after the College Football All-Star Game against the NFL champion
Cleveland Browns. |
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