Plunkett was the NFL’s first 350-pound offensive lineman. He played on the Baltimore Colts championship teams of 1958 and 1959 and, along with Sample, was later recruited by Weeb Ewbank to play for the Jets, where he became an all-star.
San Diego Chargers coach Sid Gillman, quoted in a New York Times article back in 1966, said, “Getting around Plunkett is like taking a trip around the world.” Plunkett was cut by the Jets in summer 1968 by coach Weeb Ewbank, the camp before the “guaranteed” Jets Super Bowl victory over Baltimore.
Plunkett retired to work for the Baltimore Department of Recreation and said at the time, “All my life I was a taker, and now I have an opportunity to give something back.”
Sherman Plunkett died in 1989 at the age of 56. Johnny Sample is the only professional football player to have won an NFL, AFL and Super Bowl championship. Sample later became a tennis official and came to officiate at Wimbledon, the U.S. Open, the French Open and the Australian Open. I talked to him several times in the Eagles’ press box. Johnny Sample died in 2005. Plunkett and Sample graduated from then-Maryland State College in Princess Anne in 1956 and knew of the civil rights struggles back when people of color were called “colored people.”
The weekend of Martin Luther King’s holiday while Jets fans bask in the afterglow of a win over the Patriots, I think of Johnny Sample and Sherman Plunkett, both with class under fire and tough hombres on the gridiron.
Momma’s boy - My mother Dot, later nicknamed by me “Dot Dash,” always smiled and said, “Make a (insert minority category) your friend and they will be your friend for life.”
I grew up those early years in the diverse neighborhood of row-house North Philadelphia. I understood prejudice and lame racist humor but was never feeling it. I remember in 1965 my Temple roommate Kenny Morgan, a 6-foot-8 basketball player out of West Philly High (mascot Speedboys, later a separate girls’ school, mascot Speedgirls) was lamenting a road trip to North Carolina where Temple was playing Wake Forest.
Kenny returned his eyes wider than when he left. “They don’t like us down there,” he told me in amazement, and I responded “By us, you mean Temple?” and he said “No, us as in colored people.”
Packer connections - Mike Meade out of Dover High then Penn State was drafted in the fifth round and played for the Green Bay Packers in 1982 and 1983, starting seven games in ‘83. Mike is a great guy now living in the Dover area.
I remember in 1977 before a track meet, sprinter Gilbert Maull asked me, “Can I get him? Can I get Meade in the 100?” “Come out hard,” I said. “There is always the chance he will slip and stumble.”
We laughed, then Meade slipped and stumbled. Gilbert ran a 10.3 100-yard dash, which is quick on a cinder track.
Meade recovered and ran 10.1. “Change ‘slip and stumble’ to ‘splatter’ and you got him,” I told Gilbert, who responded, “That big joker can run.”
Bookmark that Paige - University of Delaware freshman Paige Morris long jumped 18-feet-5-inches to place second at last weekend’s Gotham City Cup hosted by New York University. The jump by Paige was the third best in University of Delaware history.
Paige’s mom Lisa teaches at Beacon and her dad, Martin Waples, is a former Cape basketball player.
Paige was a sprinter, thrower and jumper at Sussex Tech; add academics to her talents and you have the quadruple threat.
Snippets - The Packers, Jets, Steelers and Bears have all won Super Bowls, the Steelers leading the way with six.
A bad playoff for flying mascots as Eagles, Ravens, Falcons and Seahawks have all crashed. Fourteen teams have never won a Super Bowl and that includes the Eagles. Speaking on behalf of younger fans, can we drop the Roman numerals?
No one knows why last year was XLIV so this year is XLV. Try explaining the system to the student at your dinner table.
Why do you think the metric system never caught on in this country? Take me to your liter!
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Sports Editor Emeritus
Email Fredman at fredman@capegazette.com
