sammy baugh died - 94, last of 1st fb hof class

rube26105

sammy baugh died - 94, last of 1st fb hof class
Hall of Fame QB Baugh dead at 94 Associated Press Updated: December 17, 2008, 9:37 PM ET Comment Email Print LUBBOCK, Texas -- Sammy Baugh, who set numerous passing records with the Washington Redskins in an era when NFL teams were running most every down, died Wednesday night, his son said. Baugh, who was 94 and had numerous health issues, died at Fisher County Hospital in Rotan, David Baugh said. [+] EnlargeBruce Bennett Studios/Getty Images Sammy Baugh was a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame's inaugural class. David Baugh said his father had battled Alzheimer's and dementia for several years. He had been ill recently with kidney problems, low blood pressure and double pneumonia. "It wasn't the same Sam we all knew," his son told The Associated Press. "He just finally wore out." Sammy Baugh was the last surviving member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame's inaugural class. After starring at TCU, "Slingin' Sammy" Baugh played with the Redskins from 1937 to 1952. "Sammy Baugh embodied all we aspire to at the Washington Redskins," Redskins owner Dan Snyder said. "He was a competitor in everything he did and a winner. He was one of the greatest to ever play the game of football, and one of the greatest the Redskins ever had. My thoughts and prayers are with his family tonight." While he was noted for his passing, Baugh was one of the best all-around players of his day. One season he led the league in passing, defensive interceptions and punting. In one game, he threw four touchdown passes and intercepted four passes. He threw six touchdowns in a game -- twice -- and kicked an 85-yard punt. "There's nobody any better than Sam Baugh was in pro football," Don Maynard, a fellow West Texas Hall of Famer who played for Baugh, said in a 2002 interview. "When I see somebody picking the greatest player around, to me, if they didn't go both ways, they don't really deserve to be nominated. I always ask, 'Well, how'd he do on defense? How was his punting?" When Baugh entered the NFL, the forward pass was so rare that it was unveiled mostly in desperate situations. But Baugh passed any time. As a rookie in 1937, Baugh completed a record 81 passes (about seven a game) and led the league with 1,127 yards. At the time, only six passers averaged three completions a game that year. He went on to lead the league in passing six times. Baugh still holds Redskins records for career touchdown passes (187) and completion percentage in a season (70.3). His 31 interceptions on defense are third on the team's career list. He still owns the league mark for single-season punting average (51.4). "He was amazing, just tremendously accurate," Eddie LeBaron, who took over as Washington's quarterback in Baugh's last season, said in a 2002 interview. "He could always find a way to throw it off balance. I've seen him throw the ball overarm, sidearm and underarm and complete them." Baugh guided the Redskins to five title games and two championships, playing his entire career without a face mask. His No. 33 is the only jersey Washington has retired. Baugh's reputation blossomed as a star high school football, baseball and basketball player in Sweetw ater. It began to grow during his college days at TCU. It was there that he picked up the nickname "Slingin' Sammy" -- but it wasn't for his passing. It was for the rockets he fired to first base as a shortstop and third baseman. "Everybody thought I was a better baseball player growing up," he said in 2002. "I thought I was going to be a big league baseball player." As an All-American football player, he led TCU to a 29-7-3 mark, including Sugar Bowl and Cotton Bowl victories. He masterfully executed an early ancestor of the West Coast offense at TCU, and he credits Horned Frogs coach Dutch Meyer with his NFL success. "I was a little ahead of a lot of football players in those days because of Dutch," he said. Baugh was known to make blunt, witty remarks. After the Redskins' 73-0 loss to the Chicago Bears in the 1940 championship, a writer asked if the outcome would have been different had an end not dropped an early touchdown pass. "Yeah," drawled Baugh. "It would have been 73-7." Baugh was known for his reclusiveness. After his NFL career, Baugh retreated to his 7,600-acre West Texas ranch about 95 miles southeast of Lubbock. The Hall of Fame and the Redskins have tried to lure him east for ceremonies over the years, and he always turned them down. For years he drove to Snyder three or four times a week for golf, until sore knees, searing heat and the 100-mile round trip made those outings too tough. But he always enjoyed football season. "I'll watch it all damn day long," Baugh, who often sprinkled his conversation with mild obscenities, told The Associated Press in a 2002 interview. "I like the football they play. They got bigger boys, and they've also got these damn speed merchants that we didn't have in those days. I'd love to be quarterback this day and time." He bought the Double Mountain Ranch, named for two hills that jut out of the flat earth north of his house, in 1941. He and his wife, Edmonia, who died in 1990, raised five children on the arid expanse covered with mesquite trees, pri ckly pear cactus and about 500 cows. He came to the ranch full time in the mid-1960s, after two years coaching the New York Titans (now the Jets) and a year with the Houston Oilers

perkdog

Thats sucks.

The Great "Slingin' Sammy Baugh" will forever be remembered.

perkdog

perkdog

BigDaddyBowman

It is a very sad night in the "BigDaddy" Household.

gumbyfan

RIP Sammy

Blackborder

Great player. Baugh is my favorite card from the 55AA set.

rube26105

i just saw it on scn a sec ago,sammy was a bas a$$ mo fo back in the days when you just got smushed into a ball, new player have no idea what 40-s50s fb was like,wonder if they would like to trade pads and helmets
you were great sammy
rip in the middle of nowhere texas, rotan,i got a check of his from 1971 at silver spur cafe $1.67 back in the good old days

rube26105

<Baugh was known to make blunt, witty remarks. After the Redskins' 73-0 loss to the Chicago Bears in the 1940 championship, a writer asked if the outcome would have been different had an end not dropped an early touchdown pass. "Yeah," drawled Baugh. "It would have been 73-7." >




haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa thats funny

rube26105

my only sammy auto- 1.67$ check in rotan silver spur cafe

tnspro

Sammy Baugh was the 7th oldest living NFL player and the 3rd oldest College Football HOF'er. He was a great signer TTM back in the day. He had a marvelous career and life. Otto Graham passed away exactally 5 years ago, Dec. 17. Not a good day for HOF QB's.

RIP Mr. Baugh

nearmint

One more Sammy:

djspann

Sad to hear this -- rest in peace.

tennesseebanker

One of the best ever to have played the game ! Sammy you will be missed, but never forgotten !

austinchau

<< <i>One of the best ever to have played the game ! Sammy you will be missed, but never forgotten !

>>



RIP Mr Baugh

Anyone has a scan of his rookie with auto?

tennesseebanker

nflhof

Sammy was a wonderful player. RIP Mr. Baugh.

rube26105

i tried to get a 50 when i was doing the 50 bowman set, but never had any luck, 94 years old, time to rest- all those years of fb,without a msk, old dudes where some tough sob's
they did that now everybody would cry they got poked in the eye
some of his interviews ive watched, he was a funny old dude on and off the field!!!!!!!!!!

GDM67

Almost everything I was thinking of saying has already been said (only Redskin retired number, triple threat.) He is still a hero to a certain generation of Redskins fans and an icon for all of us who followed the team later. He was still vibrant and salty well into his '80's and he is the only guy who could give Art Donovan a run for his money in telling tales for NFL Films. His profanity laced description of how George Preston Marshall riled up Halas and the Bears before the '40 Championship massacre is a masterpiece of blunt humor.

Rest well, sir. You earned it.

BigDaddyBowman

Anyone who hasn't seen an interview of Baugh..check out 75 Seasons history of the NFl...alot of great sound bites of him...he was hilarious and so entertaining. After seeing that film is when I started collecting Baugh items.

Bottom9th

RIP Sammy....the football world has lost a great one!

BigDaddyBowman

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pst4J1LerL0

can someone link this?

djspann

Here you go!

Baugh video

Edited to fix error

BigDaddyBowman

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ro4M1OMTSac&amp;feature=related

thanks Doug...How bout this one?

djspann

You're welcome, Ryan. Here it is

Doug

Estil

At least it sounds like he lived a long happy life hopefully.

wolfbear

Poor kid ... cut down in the prime of life ...

RIP ...

BigDaddyBowman

Slingin' Sammy last link to long-ago pro football era
By Frank Luksa
Special to ESPN.com
(Archive)
Updated: December 18, 2008, 12:37 AM ET
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Sammy Baugh, dropping back to pass against the Bears in 1942, was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1963. He played for the Redskins from 1937 to 1952.
He belonged to a world that vanished. A faster, more complex and less personal world replaced the one he knew. It left him linked to a time so distant that his deeds appear carved on a cave wall alongside pictures of prehistoric bison.


He played college football when our president answered to initials and pro football rosters were composed of 23 players. George Allen, a Pro Football Hall of Fame coach, was among a number of experts who ranked him as the NFL's all-time No. 1 quarterback. Baugh did things no quarterback, or anyone else, will ever duplicate: leading the league in passing, punting and interceptions as a 60-minute man.



He was the last living member of the 17 original Pro Football Hall of Fame inductees from the class of 1963. Now there are none. Slingin' Sammy Baugh died Wednesday at age 94 in Fisher County Hospital in Rotan, Texas.
Baugh, shown in 1998, died Wednesday in Rotan, Texas, at 94. He rarely strayed from his West Texas home in his later years.
At 6-foot-2, 180 pounds, Baugh played his last NFL game in 1952 for the Washington Redskins and spanned the evolution from single wing to T-formation. He later coached at Hardin-Simmons, Tulsa and Oklahoma State, as well as serving as the head coach of the New York Titans (now the Jets) and the Houston Oilers. His last NFL job was as a backfield aide to former teammate Harry Gilmer in Detroit (1966).
Other than driving to a golf course in nearby Sweet water, Baugh rarely strayed from his Rotan ranch in western Texas for the next 40-odd years. He never could be lured back to Washington for post-career recognition, or even to Dallas for induction into the Cotton Bowl Hall of Fame.
"I've got a rule that includes not going anywhere that I can't get back from by sundown," Baugh said when he was 85. "I go to the golf course and back home. That's my travel. As long as I do that, I feel good, I eat good and sleep good at night. I sure don't go to any big city.
"I don't fly. I don't drive at night. And I sure don't miss it a lot."

All-American at TCU
Apply a time frame to Baugh's life and it seems attached to the fifth day of Creation. The year was 1937. The war to end all wars had been fought, although it turned out to be just a prelude to World War II. FDR was president.

Baugh was a two-time All-American college senior at TCU en route to becoming the do-it-all quarterback-punter-safety for the Redskins into the 1950s. In Washington, he would rescue a financially strapped franchise, lead the Redskins to two NFL championships and lose two others by margins tiny (15-14) and titanic (73-0).

The summer before joining the Redskins in 1937, Baugh tried his hand at pro baseball with the St. Louis Cardinals as a third-base prospect. That was where he emerged as Slingin' Sam, nicknamed for his rocket throwing arm. However, a futile duel with curveballs made Baugh reconsider a pro football offer from Redskins owner George Preston Marshall.

Baugh's entry into the NFL jumps ahead of his story line. There are early blanks to fill in. One such is when and how he began to play quarterback (actually tailback in the pre-T-formation era).

"I grew up in Temple, [Texas,] where my dad worked for the Santa Fe railroad. All through junior high, I played end, but when I got to high school, I wound up playing on about the sorriest team Temple ever had," went Baugh's drawling recall.
"We couldn't beat anyone, and one day the coach, Bill Henderson, came over and said, 'We can't run on anybody and we can't stop anybody. Maybe we can throw on 'em. I'm puttin' you in at tailback.
"Didn't make a damn bit of difference that I could tell. We just kept on losin'."
When the family moved to Sweet water, Baugh automatically played tailback because that had been his position in Temple. Although he twice led Sweet water to the state playoffs, Baugh was considered better at baseball. In fact, he was recruited primarily to play baseball at TCU, with permission to dabble in football.
Dutch Meyer became TCU's football coach in Baugh's sophomore season and installed a pass-happy offense. If not the founder, Meyer was at least a pioneer in developing ball control through passing. Baugh made him sound like the original Bill Walsh by citing Meyer's three-S aerial philosophy: short, safe, sure.
"I didn't learn anything about the passing game in the NFL that I didn't know from Dutch," Baugh reminisced. "We had a better passing game at TCU than in the pros. I loved Dutch, and I owe him a lot."
Baugh, signing autographs during his playing days, "embodied all we aspire to at the Washington Redskins," Redskins owner Dan Snyder said in a statement Wednesday night.
In three seasons (1934-36), Baugh led TCU to a 29-7-2 record, victories in the Sugar and Cotton bowls, and a No. 1 spot in the 1935 Williamson national rankings. He passed for 3,384 yards and 39 touchdowns. More national exposure followed when exalted sportswriter Grantland Rice traveled from New York to Texas to write of Baugh's exploits.
Graduation meant Baugh had to decide between holding a Depression era job with a lumber company or accepting a pro football bid from Marshall. His memory offered insight into the salary structure of the 1930s.
"I think he was offering something like $5,000, and it was worth considering," Baugh recalled. "But I already had a job, and jobs were very important at the time. I didn't know who the damn teams were 'cause I'd never paid much attention to the pros. I didn't care much about playing up there.
"I asked Dutch about it, and he said, 'Well, if they'll pay that, why not ask for $8,000?'
"So I did, and they accepted. To me, that looked like a million bucks."
Baugh learned it looked like even more to his teammates.
"After I'd been on the team awhile, I discovered we had three All-Pros making $2,700 a year each. And there were a lot of guys making $150-$200 a game.
"It scared the livin' hell out of me because I thought someone would find out how much I was making. It really gave me a strange feeling to know I was so overpaid when we had guys doing their job as well as I did and making less than $200 a game.
"We won the [NFL] championship that year, and Cliff Battles led the league in rushing. The next year, he asked for a $250 raise up to $3,000 a year, and Marshall wouldn't give it to him, so he quit.
"If I'd known what they were doing, I would have given him the $250 myself because after that first year, I was making $12,000."
And after Baugh's rookie season, Marshall reported a $20,000 profit, compared with an $80,000 loss the previous year. "He took the Redskins out of the red and put them in the black," Marshall gloated.
Thus began an unprecedented career that left Baugh's name still liberally sprinkled among NFL records. He won the most passing titles (6), punting crowns (4) -- setting the highest-ever season average (51.4) -- and tied for the most interceptions (4) in a single game. If the NFL had a Triple Crown, Baugh retired it in 1943 when he led the league in passing, punting and interceptions.
The game back then bore little resemblance to the modern era version. There were no dome stadiums. No artificial turf. No television. There was barely radio.
The 1940 NFL title game was carried on network radio to 120 stations over the Mutual Broadcasting System, which paid $2,500 for the rights. Red Barber supplied play-by-play and analysis and probably also read the commercials.
In three seasons from 1934-36, Baugh led TCU to a 29-7-2 record, including victories in the Sugar and Cotton Bowl.
Barber's task was to describe Chicago's 73-0 destruction of the Redskins, an outcome that helped popularize the T-formation with a man in motion. The result further astonished because Washington had beaten Chicago 7-3 three weeks earlier. Puffed by that victory, Marshall kept insulting the Bears, calling them "crybabies," and Baugh felt those taunts tipped the emotional scales for the rematch.
"Every time he opened his mouth, they got madder and madder and our morale got lower and lower," Baugh said. "He basically destroyed his own team, but George was kind of like that. I never knew anyone who liked him much."
The Redskins had a chance to score early, but receiver Charlie Malone dropped Baugh's pass in the end zone. Asked afterward whether the game would have been different if Malone had caught the touchdown, Baugh replied:
"Yep, it might have been 73-7."

The Redskins lost the 1945 title to Cleveland thanks to a weird rule that has since been amended. The Browns were awarded a safety when Baugh's pass from the end zone hit the goalpost. (The goalposts were on the goal line in those days.) The Redskins lost by those two points, 15-14.
"Everyone expected Sam to punt because we were backed up to the goal line," said Wayne Miller, the intended receiver. "There was no one within a mile of me when I broke into the clear. But as Baugh threw the ball, the wind shifted and blew the ball into the goalpost. Instead of being ahead 7-0 on a 105-yard play, we were behind 2-0."
16 seasons with the Redskins
Baugh played on and on -- eventually wearing out 100 jerseys and 60 pairs of shoes -- leading the NFL in completed passes five times. Yet he never changed shoulder pads. Their tattered remnants were called Blue Jays, and they shrank to no bigger than a corn plaster.

Late in his career, someone asked Baugh whether the coming season would be his last.

"I dunno. I haven't tried it. Maybe last year was," he shrugged.

The Redskins held a Baugh Day in Washington in 1947. Fans donated a station wagon that some felt might be needed to carry him off the field. Washington had lost five in a row and faced the Western Conference champion-to-be Chicago Cardinals on muddy footing.

Baugh responded with what he considered his greatest performance -- 25 completions for 355 yards and six touchdowns -- in a 45-21 victory: "I guess it was because it was my day and I did pretty good."

Baugh lasted 16 seasons with the Redskins. He retired in 1952 after throwing 187 touchdown passes with a bloated football of the period near the shape of a watermelon. It was estimated that Baugh earned $300,000 in his NFL career.

He explained how he spent it, saying, "Half went to taxes. The other half went to Texas."

Baugh once reminisced about career highlights. Instead of winning championships and individual titles, he chose an action no longer available to modern quarterbacks.

"I called plays in college and all the time in pro ball," he pointed out. "The quarterback did in those days. We didn't get much help from the sideline. When someone asks me what's the best thing I got out of football, the most satisfying was beating the defense. I enjoyed that part of it."

Thus we close a visit to the long life and long-ago times of Slingin' Sammy Baugh. He was the last of a vanished tribe.

Frank Luksa is a freelance writer based in Plano, Texas. He was a longtime sports columnist for The Dallas Times Herald and Dallas Morning News.

bigreddog

RIP

djspann

Great article, Ryan -- nice reading.

Doug

Estil

Inducted into the HOF in 1963? I guess he was the NFL's Bob Feller (longest tenured HOFer still living) until now.

Publius

bman90278

94 years old. Sounds like he lived a full and complete life, but my prayers still go out to all of his family members and loved ones as I'm sure he had many.

Brian

baseballfan

yeah that was sad to hear.

love the name sligging sammy baugh

RIP