 Huff in college with West Virginia in 1955 | |||||||||
| No. 70 | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Position | Linebacker | ||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||
| Born | (1934-10-04)October 4, 1934 Edna, West Virginia, U.S. | ||||||||
| Died | November 13, 2021(2021-11-13) (aged 87) Winchester, Virginia, U.S. | ||||||||
| Height | 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m) | ||||||||
| Weight | 230 lb (104 kg) | ||||||||
| Career information | |||||||||
| High school | Farmington (Farmington, West Virginia) | ||||||||
| College | West Virginia (1952–1955) | ||||||||
| NFL draft | 1956: 3rd round, 30th overall pick | ||||||||
| Career history | |||||||||
Playing | |||||||||
Coaching | |||||||||
| |||||||||
| Awards and highlights | |||||||||
| |||||||||
| Career NFL statistics | |||||||||
| |||||||||
Robert Lee "Sam"Huff (October 4, 1934 – November 13, 2021) was an American professionalfootball player whose frequent battles againstCleveland Browns star fullbackJim Brown made him the first member of the defense to gain widespread prominence in theNational Football League. He starred for theNew York Giants and theWashington Redskins in the pro ranks and theWest Virginia Mountaineers in college. The one-time NFL champion, two-time All-Pro and five-time Pro Bowl selection is a member of theCollege Football Hall of Fame and thePro Football Hall of Fame (inducted 1982).
Huff was born and grew up in the No. 9 coal mining camp[1] inEdna, West Virginia.[2] The fourth of six children of Oral and Catherine Huff, he lived with his family in a small rowhouse with no running water.[3] Huff grew up during theGreat Depression while his father and two of his brothers worked in thecoal mines loading buggies for Consolidated Mining.[4]
Huff attended and playedhigh school football at the now-closed Farmington High School, where he was both anoffensive anddefensive lineman.[5] While he was there, Huff helped lead the team to an undefeated season in 1951.[6] He earned All-State honors in 1952 and was named to the first-team All-Mason Dixon Conference.[6]
Huff attended and playedcollege football forWest Virginia University, where he majored inphysical education.[7] He started at guard as a sophomore, then as a tackle his next two years, after winning a letter as a backup guard during his freshman season.[8] He was a four-yearletterman and helped lead West Virginia to a combined four-year mark of 31–7 and a berth in theSugar Bowl.[8]
In 1955, Huff was voted anAll-American[8] and served as co-captain in both theEast–West Shrine Game and theSenior Bowl.[9] Huff was also named first teamAcademic All-American for his outstanding efforts in the classroom.
Huff wasdrafted in the third round of the1956 NFL draft by theNew York Giants. Intraining camp, head coachJim Lee Howell was having a hard time coming up with a position for Huff.[10] Discouraged, Huff left camp, but was stopped at the airport by assistant (offensive) coachVince Lombardi, who coaxed him back to camp.[10]
Then,defensive coordinatorTom Landry came up with the new4–3 defensive scheme that he thought would fit Huff perfectly.[4][11] The Giants switched him from the line tomiddle linebacker behindRay Beck. Huff liked the position because he could keep his head up and use his superb peripheral vision to see the whole field.[3] On October 7, 1956, in a game against theChicago Cardinals, Beck was injured and Huff was put into his first professional game. He then helped the Giants win five consecutive games[4] and they finished with an 8–3–1 record, which gave them the Eastern Conference title.[3] New York went on to win the1956 NFL Championship Game[4] and Huff became the first rookie middle linebacker to start an NFL championship game.[3]
"Landry built the 4–3 defense around me.
It revolutionized defense and opened the
door for all the variations of zones and
man-to-man coverage, which are used
in conjunction with it today."
In1958, the Giants again won the East and Huff played in the1958 NFL Championship Game.[3] The championship, which became widely known as "The Greatest Game Ever Played", was the first National Football League (NFL) game to go intosudden deathovertime.[13] The final score wasBaltimore Colts 23,New York Giants 17.[3]
In1959, Huff and the Giants again went to theNFL Championship Game, which ended in a 31–16 loss to the Colts. Also that year, Huff became the first NFL player to be featured on the cover ofTime magazine[8][10] on November 30, 1959. He almost passed up the magazine appearance, demanding money to be interviewed, but relented whenTime agreed to give him the cover portrait.[3] Huff was also the subject of an October 31, 1960CBS television special, "The Violent World of Sam Huff",[8][10] broadcast as an episode of theWalter Cronkite-hosted anthology seriesThe Twentieth Century. The network wired Huff for sound in practice and in an exhibition game.[3]
"As long as I live, I will never
forgive Allie Sherman for trading me."
The Giants then visited the championship under new coachAllie Sherman in1961,1962, and1963, but lost every one of them.[3] To improve what he thought was a defensive problem, Sherman then traded many defensive players, includingCliff Livingston,Rosey Grier, andDick Modzelewski. After these trades, Huff went to ownerWellington Mara and was assured he would not be traded.[3] But in1964, Giants head coachAllie Sherman traded Huff to theWashington Redskins fordefensive tackleAndy Stynchula andrunning backDick James.[3][4] The trade made front-page news inNew York City and was greeted with jeers from Giants fans, who crowdedYankee Stadium yelling "Huff-Huff-Huff-Huff."[4]
Huff played in four consecutivePro Bowls with the Giants from1959 through1963. He was named most valuable player of the 1961 Pro Bowl.[4]
Huff joined the Redskins in1964 and they agreed to pay him $30,000 in salary and $5,000 for scouting, compared to the $19,000 he would have made another year with New York.[3] The impact Huff had was almost immediate and the Redskins' defense was ranked second in theNFL in1965.[14]
On November 27, 1966, Huff and the Redskins beat his formerGiant teammates 72–41, in the highest-scoring game in league history.[14] After an ankle injury in1967 ended his streak of 150 straight games played[14] Huff retired in1968.[4]
Vince Lombardi talked Huff out of retirement in1969 when he was named Washington's head coach.[4] The Redskins went 7–5–2 and had their best season since1955 (which kept Lombardi's record of never having coached a losing NFL team intact).[15] Huff then retired for good after 14 seasons and 30 career interceptions.[3] He spent one season coaching the Redskins' linebackers in1970 following Lombardi's death fromcolon cancer.[14]
After leaving the NFL, Huff took a position withJ. P. Stevens in New York City as a textiles sales representative. He later joined theMarriott Corporation as a salesman in 1971, rising to vice president of sports marketing before retiring in 1998.[3][16][17] While with Marriott, Huff was responsible for selling over 600,000 room nights via a partnership between the NFL and Marriott that booked teams into Marriott branded hotels for away games. In the late 1950s and early 1960s he was a spokesman for Marlboro cigarettes.[18][19]
After retiring from football, Huff spent three seasons as acolor commentator for the Giants radio team and then moved on in the same capacity to the Redskins Radio Network, where he remained until his retirement at the end of the 2012 season, calling games alongside former Redskins teammateSonny Jurgensen and play-by-play announcersFrank Herzog (1979–2004) and Larry Michael (2005–2012).[8] He was also a broadcaster for a regionally syndicated TV package of Mountaineer football games in the mid-1980s.[8]
In 1982, Huff became the second WVU player to be inducted into both theCollege andPro football Halls of Fame.[8] In 1988, he was inducted into the WVU School of Physical Education Hall of Fame and, in 1991 he was inducted into the WVU Sports Hall of Fame.[8]
In 1999, Huff was inducted into the National High School Hall of Fame[6] and was ranked number 76 on theSporting News' list of the 100 Greatest Football Players.[20]
In 2001, Huff was ranked number six onSports Illustrated's list ofWest Virginia's 50 Greatest Athletes.[21] In 2005, Huff's uniform number 75 was retired byWest Virginia University.[22]
In 1986 Huff began breedingthoroughbredracehorses at Sporting Life Farm inMiddleburg, Virginia. Hisfilly, Bursting Forth, won the 1998Matchmaker Handicap. He also helped establish theWest Virginia Breeders' Classic.[23]
In 1970, Huff ran for a seat in theU.S. House of Representatives,[5] but lost in the West Virginia Democratic primary[3] forthe 1st district againstBob Mollohan by more than 19,000 votes.[4]
Huff was diagnosed withdementia in 2013.[24] He died at the age of 87 at a hospital inWinchester, Virginia, on November 13, 2021.[24]
Huff is a vice president of marketing for Marriott Hotels for whom he has worked 11 years.
Huff was an All-American tackle for WVU in 1955 and then played for the New York Giants and Washington Redskins. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1982. He now lives in Virginia and is a radio color commentator for the Redskins. He joined Marriott as a salesman in 1971 after his football career ended and eventually became the chain's vice president of sports marketing. Huff owns 5 percent of the Town Center Marriott.
...decades of aggressive marketing by Philip Morris aimed at associating its cigarette brands with athletic prowess, notably through Marlboro ads featuring National Football League stars Frank Gifford, Sam Huff, and others. ...
{{cite journal}}:Cite journal requires|journal= (help)Huff began breeding thoroughbreds in 1986 at Sporting Life Farm in Middleburg, Virginia, and Bursting Forth was a multiple graded-stakes winner for him and trainer Graham Motion. She won 10 of 28 starts and earned $524,474. Among her biggest victories were Monmouth Park's Grade 3 Matchmaker (1998) and Keeneland's Grade 3 Bewitched (1999). In 1987 Huff helped launch the West Virginia Breeders Classic at Charles Town Races. The 35th running of the $300,000 Classic on Oct. 9 topped a nine-stakes, $1 million card for state-breds.
Links to related articles | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
