Tag: Norm Snead

Former Washington QB dies at 84

Snead was the No. 2 overall pick in the 1961 NFL draft by Washington.

Norm Snead, who was selected to two Pro Bowls as Washington Redskins quarterback from 1961 to 1963, died Sunday in Naples, Florida, at the age of 84.

Snead grew up in Newport News, Virginia, and attended Wake Forest. During his last two years for the Demon Deacons, he was first-team All-ACC. He was taken by the Redskins with the second overall selection of the 1961 NFL draft.

Washington struggled during Snead’s tenure, posting records of 1-12-1 (1961), 5-7-2 (1962) and 3-11 (1963).

Following the disappointing 1963 season, Snead was traded to the rival Philadelphia Eagles in exchange for QB Sonny Jurgensen.

Jurgensen came to Washington and had a tremendous career, resulting in his being voted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in the class of 1983. Snead would start a total of 159 games for the Eagles, Minnesota Vikings, San Francisco 49ers and New York Giants. His teams had a record of only 52-100-7 in those games, and his 257 interceptions rank sixth all-time.

Commenting years later on the trade, Jurgensen said: “Maybe it was a good thing for Norm, too. Because he had been thrust on the field as a rookie without the surrounding cast that a young quarterback needs. There’s no question he could throw the ball. He just needed surrounding people. So, it was good for him to get out and start fresh.”

One of the more unusual facts regarding Snead’s career was that he was traded for two Hall of Fame quarterbacks. Not only was he traded for Jurgensen in 1964, but he was also dealt for Fran Tarkenton in 1972.

The latter trade brought Snead to the Giants, where he enjoyed perhaps his best NFL season, leading the NFL in completion percentage and earning a Pro Bowl selection as the Giants went 8-6. However, it was mostly overlooked because Dallas (the defending Super Bowl champion) and Washington (the NFC champion that season) were both in the top tier of NFL teams in 1972.

Snead had a big arm, but because his teams were so often playing from behind, he led the NFL in interceptions in four different seasons (1963, 1968, 1969, 1973).

Snead passed for 30,797 yards and 196 touchdowns in his career (1961-1976). He was voted to the Pro Bowl four times.

Former Giants quarterback Norm Snead dead at 84

Former New York Giants quarterback Norm Snead died on Sunday at the age of 84 after a lengthy illness.

Former New York Giants quarterback and four-time Pro Bowler Norm Snead died on Sunday after a lengthy illness. He was 84.

The Washington Redskins selected Snead with the second overall pick in the 1961 NFL draft. The Wake Forest product was also selected in the fifth round of the 1961 AFL draft but he opted to play in the NFL.

In addition to the Redskins, Snead also played for the Philadelphia Eagles, Minnesota Vikings, San Francisco 49ers and the Giants, with whom he had two stints.

In 178 career games (159 starts), Snead completed 52.3 percent of his passes for 30,797 yards, 196 touchdowns and 257 interceptions. He also rushed for 521 yards and 23 touchdowns over the course of his career.

In his four seasons with the Giants, Snead posted an overall record of 11-14-1, completing 58.3 percent of his passes for 4,644 yards, 27 touchdowns and 45 interceptions.

Snead’s best season with the Giants came in 1972, when he posted an 8-5 record and was named to the Pro Bowl for the final time. He also led the NFL in completion rate (60.3%) that year.

“I remember him as someone who would stop at the (Newport News) Boys Club, when it was on Jefferson Avenue, to play games with the boys and encourage them,” Snead’s brother, Danny, told the Virginian-Pilot. “He was more than one-dimensional, more than just a football player, and I think he influenced a lot of people positively off of the football field.”

Snead officially retired in 1977 following his last stint with the Giants. He went on to become the head football coach at The Apprentice School in Newport News, Virginia.

Once a Giant, always a Giant.

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Throwback Thursday: Giants, Oilers meet for first time in 1973

In the first Throwback Thursday of the season, we travel in time to 1973 when the New York Giants and Houston Oilers met for the first time.

The New York Giants have only met the Tennessee Titans 12 times since the NFL and AFL merged in 1970. The first meeting occurred on September 16, 1973, when the Titans were the Houston Oilers. It would be the only meeting between the clubs until they met again in 1982.

The 1973 meeting was the season opener and took place at Yankee Stadium. It would be the Giants’ next-to-last home game at The House That Ruth Built in the Bronx. They moved to the Yale Bowl in New Haven, Connecticut the next week.

The move was not being received well by Giant fans as the game drew just under 58,000 fans — the lowest attendance in five years and the first non-sellout since 1960.

The Giants took a 27-0 halftime lead on two Pete Gogolak field goals, two one-yard rushing touchdowns from running back Ron Johnson and a 14-yard pass play from Norm Snead to Don Herrmann.

The Oilers turned a pair of interceptions into touchdowns in the third quarter to narrow the score to 27-14. The Giants closed out the scoring with a one-yard plunge from running back Joe Orduna to ice the game, 34-14.

The win would be only one of two the Giants would record on the season. They finished the year at 2-11-1. The Oilers didn’t fare that well, either, going 1-13 on the season.

As a result, the Oilers would earn the top pick in the 1974 NFL draft but could don’t capitalize on it as they had dealt it earlier in the year to the Dallas Cowboys in exchange for defensive end Tody Smith and wide receiver Billy Parks.

Dallas ended up drafting Tennessee State defensive end Ed “Too Tall” Jones with that No. 1 pick and then used the other selection they got in the deal — a 1975 third rounder — to take quarterback/punter Danny White. Ouch.

The Giants held the third overall pick in 1974 and selected Ohio State guard John Hicks.

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Throwback Thursday: Giants defeat Saints at Yankee Stadium in 1972

In the latest Giants Wire Throwback Thursday, we head to 1972 when the New York Giants beat the Archie Manning-led Saints at Yankee Stadium.

Professional football in New York was in a much different place back in 1972. There were two teams playing within the five boroughs, and there were enough fans to go around for both teams regardless of where they were in the standings.

In Flushing, the New York Jets were three years removed from their miracle Super Bowl upset, and Joe Namath’s knees were wearing thin. Up in the Bronx, the New York Giants were trying to find their way back to the NFL playoffs, a place they hadn’t been since 1963.

On Sunday, Oct. 8, the Jets were hosting the powerful Miami Dolphins at Shea Stadium. Miami was 3-0 coming into the game, and Jets were 2-1 after dropping the prior week’s game to the Houston Oilers, 26-20.

The 1-2 Giants were entertaining a winless New Orleans Saints team quarterbacked by Archie Manning.

From the New York Times:

New York was an autumn festival yesterday for pro football fans as both the Giants and Jets played home games. A total of 125,898 fans turned out at Yankee Stadium and Shea Stadium.

At Yankee Stadium, Charlie Evans scored three touch downs to lead the Giants to an easy 45-21 victory over the New Orleans Saints before 62,057. The second‐year pro caught a scoring aerial of 10 yards from Norm Snead and tallied on runs of 24 and 8 yards all in the first half when the Giants were building a 31‐7 lead.

At Shea Stadium, 63,841 saw the Miami Dolphins continue as the only undefeated team in the National Football League with a 27‐17 triumph over the Jets. Bob Griese threw a 17‐yard touch down pass to Howard Twilley and set up two scoring runs by Jim Kiick with passes.

Lots to unpack here. First off, that’s a lot of people going to see football, but that day was perfect weather for it. The Jets sold enough tickets to lift the local TV blackout. The Giants did not — the near 80,000-seat Yankee Stadium was nearly impossible to sell out.

Who was Charlie Evans? Well, he was a 14th-round draft pick of the Giants out of USC in 1971 and was used in tandem with Ron Johnson. As a rookie in 1971, Evans scored three times in a game in San Diego.

This would be his other big game in a Giants uniform. Evans’ 87 yards on that day would be the most in his four-year career. He played in Washington in 1974 and was out of football after that season.

The Giants went on to finish 8-6 for head coach Alex Webster in 1972 but fell shy of the postseason. It would be their last winning season until 1981.

The Jets went on to a 7-7 year and lost to Miami twice. No big deal there as the Dolphins went undefeated that season.

But for those too young to know or remember, football was always a big draw in the Big Apple and this Sunday proved that.

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