Frank Gifford: Legend
Vital statistics
Date of birth: Aug.
16, 1930
Place of birth: Santa
Monica, Calif.
High School: Bakersfield
High (’47)
College: USC
NFL Draft:1952, Round 1
by New York Giants, his team until his retirement from football in
1964.
Pro Bowls: 1953,
1954, 1955, 1956,
1958, 1959, 1963
Awards: 1958 Pro
Bowl MVP, 1956 UPI MVP
Honors: NFL 1950s
All-Decade Team
Retired Numbers: Giants
No. 16
Pro Football Hall of Fame: 1977
TV career: Francis
Newton Gifford was one of the better-known American sports commentators
in the latter part of the 20th century who made the transition from an
athlete to broadcasting. He was part of the popular ABC Monday Night
Football trio of commentators during the 1970s that included Howard
Cosell and “Dandy” Don Meredith.
NFL career
After graduating from Bakersfield High School,
Gifford was unable to gain an athletic scholarship to the University of
Southern California due to his low grade point average. Undeterred, he
played a season for Bakersfield College, making the Junior College
All-American team while making the grades needed to enroll at USC. At
USC, Gifford earned All-America and began his NFL career with the New
York Giants by playing both offense and defense, a rarity when platoon
football became popular after World War II. His career led him to eight
Pro Bowl appearances and five trips to the NFL Championship Game, the
forerunner of the Super Bowl. Gifford's biggest season may have been
1956, as he won the Most Valuable Player award of the NFL, and led the
Giants to the NFL title over the Chicago Bears.
Gifford lost 18 months in the prime of his career
when he was the victim of one of the most brutal, though completely
legal, hits in NFL history. During a 1960 game against the Philadelphia
Eagles, he was cleanly blindsided by Chuck Bednarik on a pass play,
suffering a severe head injury that led him to retire from football.
However, Gifford returned to the Giants in 1962, changing positions
from running back to wide receiver (then known as flanker). Despite
having to regain his skills after his long layoff and learn a new
position, he became a star once again. His seven Pro Bowl selections
came at three different positions — defensive back, running back,
and wide receiver. He retired again, this time for good, in 1964, after
making the Pro Bowl as a receiver. Gifford was officially inducted to
the Pro Football Hall of Fame on July 30, 1977.
During his 12 seasons with the New York Giants (136
regular season games) Frank Gifford had 3,609 rushing yards and 34
touchdowns in 840 carries, he also had 367 receptions for 5,434 yards
and 43 touchdowns. Gifford completed 29 of the 63 passes he threw for
823 yards and 14 touchdowns.
After Retirement
After his playing days ended, Gifford became a
commentator mainly for NFL games on CBS. His big break came in 1971
when he replaced Keith Jackson as play-by-play announcer on ABC's
Monday Night Football, joining Howard Cosell and Don Meredith, and
would continue on as a commentator until 1998, amid controversy
regarding an affair he had with airline stewardess Suzen Johnson.
Gifford also served as a reporter and commentator on other ABC
programs, such as their coverage of the Olympic Games and skiing, and
has guest hosted Good Morning America on occasion. In 1995 he was given
the Pete Rozelle Award by the Pro Football Hall of Fame for his NFL
television work.
Family
Gifford has been married since 1986 to former
television talk show host and singer Kathie Lee Gifford. He is known
for passing out money to underpaid sweatshop laborers who had been
making his wife's clothing line for Wal-Mart in 1996 and for a highly
publicized (and photographed) affair with former TWA flight attendant
Suzen Johnson in 1997, who later posed for Playboy magazine. His
daughter, Victoria, was married to Michael Kennedy, who died in a
skiing accident on December 31, 1997.
