Friedman gets posthumous honour


(AP) - No less an authority than Red Grange called Benny Friedman one of the NFL's greatest players.
On Sunday in Canton, Ohio, 72 years after his retirement and 23 after he died of a self-inflicted gun wound, Friedman will join Grange and many of those other greats in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. - NFL Football -
It took some aggressive campaigning by Friedman's former players at Brandeis University to finally convince the voters to admit the former quarterback Grange dubbed "the best I ever played against." Friedman and Fritz Pollard, another pioneer of the NFL's early days, were nominated by the veterans committee, then voted in by the 39-member panel that annually chooses new Hall of Famers. - NFL Football -
Dan Marino and Steve Young are the other inductees.
"For a variety of reasons we can speculate on, he didn't make it into the Hall of Fame," said Bill McKenna, a receiver when Friedman coached at Brandeis and a former CFL player with the Calgary Stampeders. "But unquestionably those who remained in football and knew of him and who knew football, they were all confident he would get in the Hall.
"A group of us, mainly the players of Brandeis, maybe 40 or 50 players who played under him, recognized that and made a series of objectives, put together presentations and brochures, and hopefully they would come true and get Benny Friedman into the Hall."
At five foot eight or so and just 170 pounds, Friedman hardly was the prototype quarterback. But he became a star at Michigan - his field goal in 1925 lifted the Wolverines past Grange and Illinois - and then moved into the pros. - NFL Football -
With no draft, he was able to choose his team, and Friedman signed with the Cleveland Bulldogs in 1927. A year later, the franchise moved to Detroit and became the Wolverines. It seemed Friedman had come full circle.
While starring for that team, his popularity was noticed by New York Giants owner Tim Mara, who needed a headliner to stop the flow of red ink he was enduring. He acquired Friedman, and fans began showing up at Giants games, with Mara turning a profit during Friedman's first season on the roster. - NFL Football -
Nearly three-quarters of a century later, Mara's son Wellington returned the favour, endorsing Friedman for the Canton shrine.
In all, Friedman played for four teams from 1927-34, and was considered the best player on each of them. - NFL Football -
Famed columnist Paul Gallico once wrote in the New York Daily News:
"When a Friedman pass reaches the receiver, it has gone its route. The ball is practically dead. The receiver has only to reach up and take hold of it like picking a grapefruit off a tree."
Of course, the ball more resembled a watermelon in those days.
After he quit as a player, Friedman coached City College of New York after being personally asked by Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia to take the job. He spent six seasons there, then joined the Navy during World War II.
Following the war, Friedman went to Brandeis as athletic director and football coach. He turned the program at that elite New England school into one of the best on its level in the nation.
"And we accomplished as 'Bennie's Boys' a lot of good things for the university, and I think it made our group that much stronger," McKenna said. "Not just get-togethers for fun's sake, but we helped the university and future athletes at the school." - NFL Football -
Friedman often would work out with the players after practice. McKenna said he would run 30 or so yards downfield and Friedman would throw him perfect passes, time after time.
Friedman once bragged he probably could still play in his 40s, and the boast nearly came back to haunt him. Brandeis was playing Springfield College - "the school was for phys ed only, so it was all athletes," McKenna said.
"They started riding Benny after the comment showed up, saying: 'You are an old man, no way you could play.' He didn't say a word. He was too much of a gentleman.
"All we could do for him was win the game and when we won the game, he was a very happy man. And he walked away, the gentleman he was, without getting involved in all the tormenting that was going on from the stands," McKenna recalled.
More than 20 of Benny's Boys will be in Canton this weekend to honour one of football's pioneers. - NFL Football -
"There was no question he was one of the dominant football players of the era of the late 1920s and early '30s," McKenna said. "We recognized this and, fortunately, the members of the Hall of Fame committee were kind enough to look at the material we put together. Every time I read it, I am proud of what my teammates have done. ... It has come to fruition." - NFL Football -

BARRY WILNER