 Piccolo in 1967 | |||||||||||||||
| No. 41 | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Position | Halfback | ||||||||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||
| Born | (1943-10-31)October 31, 1943 Pittsfield, Massachusetts, U.S. | ||||||||||||||
| Died | June 16, 1970(1970-06-16) (aged 26) New York, New York, U.S. | ||||||||||||||
| Height | 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m) | ||||||||||||||
| Weight | 205 lb (93 kg) | ||||||||||||||
| Career information | |||||||||||||||
| High school | St. Thomas Aquinas(Fort Lauderdale, Florida) | ||||||||||||||
| College | Wake Forest (1961–1964) | ||||||||||||||
| NFL draft | 1965: undrafted | ||||||||||||||
| Career history | |||||||||||||||
| Awards and highlights | |||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||
| Career NFL statistics | |||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||
Louis Brian Piccolo (October 31, 1943 – June 16, 1970) was an American professionalfootball player who was ahalfback for theChicago Bears of theNational Football League (NFL) for four years. He playedcollege football for theWake Forest Demon Deacons. He died at age 26 fromembryonal cell carcinoma, an aggressive form ofgerm cell testicular cancer, first diagnosed after it had spread to his chest cavity.
Piccolo was the subject of the 1971 TV movieBrian's Song, with aremake TV movie of the same name filmed in 2001. He was portrayed in the original film byJames Caan and bySean Maher in the 2001 remake.[1]
Piccolo was born inPittsfield, Massachusetts, the youngest of three sons of Joseph and Irene Piccolo. The family moved south toFort Lauderdale, Florida, when Piccolo was three, due to his parents' concerns for his brother Don's health. Piccolo and his brothers were athletes, and he was a starrunning back on his high schoolfootball team, although he consideredbaseball his primary sport.[2] He graduated from the former Central Catholic High School (nowSt. Thomas Aquinas High School) in Fort Lauderdale in 1961.[2]
Piccolo playedcollege football atWake Forest inWinston-Salem, North Carolina; his only otherscholarship offer was fromWichita State. He led the nation in rushing and scoring during his senior season in1964,[3] and was named theAtlantic Coast Conference (ACC)Player of the Year,[4] yet went unselected in both theAFL andNFL drafts.[5][6]
In theballoting for theHeisman Trophy won byJohn Huarte ofNotre Dame, Piccolo was tenth, just ahead ofJoe Namath ofAlabama, and future teammateGale Sayers ofKansas.[7][8]
A season earlier in1963,Darryl Hill of theUniversity of Maryland was the first and only African-American football player in the ACC. According toLee Corso, a Maryland assistant coach at that time,Wake Forest had "the worst atmosphere" of any campus the Maryland football team visited. Piccolo went over to the Maryland bench, walked Hill over to the area in front of the student section and put his arm around him, silencing the crowd.[9]
Following his spectacular senior season, Piccolo married his high school sweetheart, Joy Murrath, on December 26, 1964.[10] They had three daughters: Lori, Traci, and Kristi.[2]
Because he was not selected in the1965 NFL draft orAFL draft,[10] Piccolo tried out for the Chicago Bears as afree agent.[11] He made the team for the1965 season, but only on the taxi squad (known today as thepractice squad), meaning he could practice but not suit up for games. In1966, he made the main roster but his playing time was primarily on special teams. In1967 he got more playing time backing up superstar starting tailbackGale Sayers, which increased after Sayers' knee injury in November1968.[12][13][14] Piccolo's biggest statistical year was 1968, during which he posted career bests with 450 yards on 123 carries (a 3.7 average), two touchdowns, and 28 receptions for 291 yards (a 10.4 average).[15]
In1969, Piccolo was moved up to startingfullback, with Sayers returning as halfback, placing the two in the same backfield on offense.
Players at that time were still segregated by race for hotel-room assignments. At the suggestion of the Bears' captain, the policy was changed and each player was reassigned by position, so that wide receivers would room together, quarterbacks would room together, etc. Running back was the only position of the 1969 Bears with one black and one white player, Sayers and Piccolo, respectively.
The Bears were in the midst of a 1–13 season in1969, the worst record in their history.[16] Piccolo had earned a place in the starting lineup as an undersized fullback. Their only win came in the eighth game on November 9, a 38–7 home win over strugglingPittsburgh. Piccolo opened the scoring atWrigley Field with a25-yard touchdown reception in the first quarter.[17][18][19] The next week inAtlanta, he scored a fourth-quarter touchdown on a one-yard run,[20][21] and then voluntarily removed himself from the game, something he had never done,[22] raising great concern among his teammates and coaches. Breathing while playing had become extremely difficult for him, so when the team returned to Chicago, he was promptly sent for a medical examination at which he was diagnosed withembryonal cell carcinoma.[23]
_at_Saint_Mary_Catholic_Cemetery%2c_Evergreen_Park%2c_IL.jpg)
Soon after initial surgery atSloan-Kettering inManhattan,New York to remove the tumor, he underwent a second procedure in April 1970 to remove his leftlung and leftpectoral muscle. Bothered by continuing chest pain afterward, he was re-admitted to the hospital in early June where doctors determined the cancer had spread to other organs, particularly hisliver. He died in the early morning of June 16 at the age of 26.[22][24][25] The month before Piccolo's death,Gale Sayers accepted the George S. Halas Award for Most Courageous Player and told the crowd they had selected the wrong person for the award. He said, "I love Brian Piccolo, and I'd like all of you to love him, too. Tonight, when you hit your knees to pray, please ask God to love him, too."
Dick Butkus,Randy Jackson,Ralph Kurek,Ed O'Bradovich,Mike Pyle, andGale Sayers were the six Bears teammates who served aspallbearers at Piccolo's funeral at Christ the King Catholic Church in Chicago on June 19. He was buried at Saint Mary Catholic Cemetery inEvergreen Park, Illinois.[26]
The filmBrian's Song, loosely based onGale Sayers' autobiography, tells the story of the friendship between Brian Piccolo and Gale Sayers and their time together while playing football for the Chicago Bears, up until Piccolo's death.[32] It first aired Tuesday, November 30, 1971, onABC, less than 18 months after his death, and starredJames Caan as Piccolo andBilly Dee Williams as Sayers. The movie was seen by 55 million viewers, half of the U.S. population that owned televisions at that time.[33] Its success on television led to it also being later shown in theaters.
Aremake aired in 2001 on ABC'sThe Wonderful World of Disney, and starredMekhi Phifer as Sayers andSean Maher as Piccolo.[34]
Piccolo's biography,Brian Piccolo: A Short Season, was written byJeannie Morris (a journalist whose husband was former Bears teammateJohnny Morris) and featured passages written by Piccolo himself for a planned autobiography.
| |
| Franchise | |
| Records | |
| Stadiums | |
| Culture |
|
| Lore | |
| Rivalries | |
| Retired numbers | |
| Key personnel |
|
| Division championships (21) | |
| Conference championships (4) | |
| League championships (9) | |
| Media |
|
| Current league affiliations |
|
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
