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_(cropped).jpg) Rote in 1951 | |||||||||||||
| No. 44 | |||||||||||||
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| Positions | Halfback Wide receiver | ||||||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||||||
| Born | (1928-10-27)October 27, 1928 San Antonio, Texas, U.S. | ||||||||||||
| Died | August 15, 2002(2002-08-15) (aged 73) Baltimore, Maryland, U.S. | ||||||||||||
| Height | 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m) | ||||||||||||
| Weight | 199 lb (90 kg) | ||||||||||||
| Career information | |||||||||||||
| High school | Thomas Jefferson(San Antonio, Texas) | ||||||||||||
| College | SMU | ||||||||||||
| NFL draft | 1951: 1st round,1st overall pick | ||||||||||||
| Career history | |||||||||||||
| Awards and highlights | |||||||||||||
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| Career NFL statistics | |||||||||||||
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William Kyle Rote Sr. (October 27, 1928 – August 15, 2002) was an American professionalfootball player who was arunning back andwide receiver for eleven years in theNational Football League (NFL) for theNew York Giants. He was anAll-American running back for theSMU Mustangs and was the first overall selection of the1951 NFL draft. Following his playing career, Rote was the Giants backfield coach and later a sports broadcaster forWNEW andWNBC radio in New York and forNBC television.
Born and raised inSan Antonio, Texas, Rote was the son of Jack Tobin and Emma Belle (Owens) Rote. He was a first cousin ofTobin Rote. His family suffered tragedies duringWorld War II; when he was 16, his mother was killed in a car accident and his older brother Jack was killed onIwo Jima.
Rote attendedThomas Jefferson High School in San Antonio, where he earned All-State honors in both football and basketball, while also being considered one of the region's brightest pro-baseball prospects. He was a running back in football, a guard in basketball, an outfielder in baseball, and a member of the track team.[1]
After graduating from high school in 1947, Rote accepted an athletic scholarship to Southern Methodist University inDallas, where he became one of the most celebrated collegiate football players in the country. In December1949, in a near upset over eventual national championNotre Dame, Rote ran for 115 yards, threw for 146 yards, and scored all three SMU touchdowns in a 27–20 loss. His performance was voted by the Texas Sportswriters Association as "The Outstanding Individual Performance by a Texas Athlete in the First Half of the 20th Century." Twenty-five years later, Notre Dame made Rote an "Honorary Member" of their Championship Team.
In theCotton Bowl againstOregon in January1949, SMU was on their own four-yard-line after aNorm Van Brocklin punt. Nearing halftime, Rote quick-kicked on first down from his own end zone, and the ball ended up 84 yards from the line of scrimmage, on the Oregontwelve.[2]
In his senior year at SMU in1950, Rote was runner-up for theHeisman Trophy, won byVic Janowicz ofOhio State. While in college, Rote also playedbaseball and ran track for theMustangs; he was inducted into theCollege Football Hall of Fame in 1964.
Immediately after graduation at SMU, Rote signed a contract with theCorpus Christi Aces of the Class B Gulf Coast Baseball League. In 23 games his batting average was .348.
TheNew York Giants selected Rote with the first overall pick in the1951 NFL draft. He started out as a running back, but after the first two years switched towide receiver due to a knee injury. When Rote retired after the1961 season, he had become the Giants' career leader in pass receptions (300), receiving yardage (4,805), and touchdown receptions (48). He was second highest in total touchdowns (56) and fifth-leading scorer (312 points). His average gain per catch was 15.9 yards. In all, Rote played in four world championship games, including the1956 NFL Championship Game against theChicago Bears, and the1958 game won by theBaltimore Colts in sudden-death overtime23–17, known as The Greatest Game, the first ever nationally televised NFL championship game. Rote was the captain of the New York Giants for eight years.
During his career, Rote made a guest appearance as an imposter for an undercover police officer on the May 13, 1958 episode of theCBS game showTo Tell the Truth. He fooled the panel into thinking he was the officer, garnering three of the four possible votes fromPolly Bergen,Jim Backus, andJoan Fontaine. OnlyHy Gardner voted for the actual undercover police officer.[3]
Rote spearheaded the movement that became theNFL Players Association, fighting for equal opportunities for all players, so that all players of all races would receive equal treatment when the teams played on the road. Rote became the NFLPA's first elected president serving for several years, and also acted as the Giants team representative.
Rote was inducted into theCotton Bowl Hall of Fame,Texas Sports Hall of Fame, College Football Hall of Fame, Texas Pro Football Hall of Fame, San Antonio Hall of Fame, Texas High School Football Hall of Fame, Texas High School Basketball Hall of Fame,Southwest Conference All-Time Team, and received the SMU Distinguished Alumni Award. In 1995, Rote was named as wide receiver on the All-Time Giants Team in conjunction with the 75th celebration of the founding of the NFL. TheProfessional Football Researchers Association named Rote to the PRFA Hall of Very Good Class of 2006.[4]
Rote retired in April1962,[5] then was the Giants' backfield coach for two seasons; in both those years, New York captured the NFL's Eastern Division championship, a third consecutive in1963, but fell in each of the title games.
Out of the record 14 Touchdown Passes former teammate/halfbackFrank Gifford threw in the NFL, Rote caught 4 of them.
While in the NFL, Rote spent the offseasons as the sports director for radio stationWNEW. In the 1960s and early 1970s, like his former Giant teammatesFrank Gifford,Pat Summerall, andDick Lynch, he enjoyed a second career as asportscaster, working atNBC andWNBC New York on radio and television. Rote is generally believed to be the first athlete to use the popular slogan, "You cannot stop a great player like (ex. Jim Brown), you can only hope to contain him." The phrase is now used commonly to describe different players, and was made popular by former ESPN Sportscaster Dan Patrick, albeit jokingly, using the line to describe marginal competitors.
Rote and his first wife, Elizabeth Jeanette Jamison, married in 1949 and had four children – Kyle, Gary, Chris, and Elizabeth. His oldest son,Kyle Rote, Jr., was one of the first notablesoccer stars from theUnited States. He said of his father, "To me the most remarkable thing about him from a football standpoint was that he had fourteen teammates who named their sons after him." In 1965, Rote marriedSharon Ritchie (Miss America 1956); they were divorced in 1973. Rote married Betty-Nina Langmack in 1976. he died of heart attack in Baltimore Maryland on August 15 2002 at age 73.
Rote was the cousin ofTobin Rote, a multi-championship winning and record holding AFL and NFL quarterback.[6]
Rote authored the books,Pro Football for the Fans andThe Language of Pro Football, and wrote theGiants Fight Song. He also published two volumes of poetry, was anASCAP songwriter, accomplished pianist, and oil painter having a number of his works shown at museums throughout the United States.
There is a Kyle Rote Street inSan Antonio, Texas.[7]
| Legend | |
|---|---|
| WonNFL championship | |
| Led the league | |
| Bold | Career high |
| Year | Team | Games | Receiving | Rushing | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GP | GS | Rec | Yds | Avg | Lng | TD | Att | Yds | Avg | Y/G | Lng | TD | ||
| 1951 | NYG | 5 | 5 | 8 | 62 | 7.8 | 18 | 0 | 21 | 114 | 5.4 | 22.8 | 31 | 1 |
| 1952 | NYG | 12 | 3 | 21 | 240 | 11.4 | 26 | 2 | 103 | 421 | 4.1 | 35.1 | 52 | 2 |
| 1953 | NYG | 9 | 7 | 26 | 440 | 16.9 | 75 | 5 | 63 | 213 | 3.4 | 23.7 | 18 | 1 |
| 1954 | NYG | 11 | 8 | 29 | 551 | 19.0 | 63 | 2 | 30 | 59 | 2.0 | 5.4 | 14 | 0 |
| 1955 | NYG | 12 | 4 | 31 | 580 | 18.7 | 71 | 8 | 10 | 46 | 4.6 | 3.8 | 14 | 0 |
| 1956 | NYG | 12 | 7 | 28 | 405 | 14.5 | 31 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 1.7 | 0.4 | 3 | 0 |
| 1957 | NYG | 12 | 12 | 25 | 358 | 14.3 | 33 | 3 | 1 | 13 | 13.0 | 1.1 | 13 | 0 |
| 1958 | NYG | 12 | 11 | 12 | 244 | 20.3 | 44 | 3 | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| 1959 | NYG | 10 | 10 | 25 | 362 | 14.5 | 34 | 4 | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| 1960 | NYG | 12 | 11 | 42 | 750 | 17.9 | 71 | 10 | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| 1961 | NYG | 14 | 14 | 53 | 805 | 15.2 | 57 | 7 | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| Career | 121 | 92 | 300 | 4,797 | 16.0 | 75 | 48 | 231 | 871 | 3.8 | 7.2 | 52 | 4 | |
| Preceded by | The NFL Today (asNFL Kickoff) host 1962–1963 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | NFL on NBC lead analyst 1968–1970 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Super Bowl television color commentator (AFC package carrier) 1968-1970 | Succeeded by |
| International | |
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| National | |
| Other | |
