Robustelli Brought Defense to the Fore

Few fans thought about the defensive side of football until Andy Robustelli and several of his New York Giants teammates turned it into an art form during the 1950s.

With Robustelli and Jim Katcavage at defensive end, Sam Huff at middle linebacker, and Rosey Grier and Dick Modzelewski at defensive tackle, the Giants’ defensive unit developed a rabid following. Indeed, with most of this unit intact, the club competed in no fewer than six National Football League championship games in an eight-season span, winning it all in 1956.

Robustelli, the Stamford native who rose from an obscure small college program – Arnold College in Milford – to become a seven-time All-NFL selection and a 1971 inductee into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, died on May 31. He was 85.  

Giants aficionados of a certain age have warm memories of making the trek down Route 8 to watch the club train at Fairfield University during the late 1950s and early ‘60s. Fans were able to rub elbows and exchange pleasantries with Robustelli, Huff, all-purpose back Frank Gifford, quarterbacks Charlie Conerly and Y.A. Tittle, receiver Kyle Rote, fullback Alex Webster and other members of Big Blue at the pre-season camp.

During the sportswriting segment of my career, I had the opportunity to interview Robustelli on a few occasions, once on the Fairfield U. campus during the summer of 1974. This was after Andy had rejoined the club as director of operations and the Giants had returned to Fairfield for summer training.

I asked him if a director of operations was akin to being a general manager. “I don’t think any one man can run a club (today), with the possible exception of Paul Brown,” he responded. “It’s too difficult. I don’t know where you can find the time to do it.”

Robustelli believed, correctly, that the day of the front-office specialist had arrived, when one man – in this case, Ray Walsh, who retained the title of general manager – would handle business matters, while Robustelli oversaw everything pertaining to football: Coaching, scouting, player signings, trades, and the pre-season camp.

“I think it’s just the beginning of what will eventually happen,” he predicted. “I think you’ll have a person who’ll specialize in signing people. Because of the increase in business agents, there are so many more aspects now…deferred payments, different combinations of contracts.”

As the co-owner of a sporting goods store in the Cos Cob section of Greenwich and the operator of Stamford-based Robustelli Travel Services, Inc., Robustelli possessed the business acumen to deal with the complexities of modern football.

“I’m in the good and unique position of having 10 years in business. “That’s rare in football,” he said. “I bargained for everything I got in business.”

He also oversaw a family that encompassed nine children (six boys, three girls) and ultimately 29 grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. The general manager in this case was Jeanne, his wife of more than 60 years. She died in April.

The Robustelli football legacy began in his native Stamford and at Stamford High School, where, inexplicably, he was not selected to the All-State team. After serving in the Navy during World War II, he entered Arnold College on the GI Bill, and played both football and baseball.

Few recall that Robustelli was a fine player on the diamond, a barrel-chested third baseman who stopped hard-hit ground balls and hit hard enough and often enough to bat clean-up in the Arnold line-up. The New York Giants were impressed enough to  offer him a contact with one of their Class-B farm clubs.

“We had a lot of good ballplayers on that Arnold team,” Robustelli remembered. “I think our record was something like 18-and-2. We even beat St. John’s.”

Ed Mariano, the retired Naugatuck High basketball coach and college baseball umpire, was the catcher on that Arnold team of long ago. He has a vivid memory of Robustelli’s competitiveness on the diamond.

“We were playing at Wesleyan and they had this lefty pitcher who was throwing the ball hard,” Mariano recalled. “He whistled one ball toward Andy’s head. ‘Don’t crowd the plate,’ he was telling Andy. Well, Andy never said a word. On the next pitch Andy hit the ball at least 450 feet to right center, a three-run home run. We won the game, 6-4, I believe.”

A two-way end at Arnold playing against the likes of New Haven State Teachers College, St. Michael’s, Adelphi and American International, Robustelli’s pass-catching and jarring tackles attracted the attention of a part-time Los Angeles Rams scout named Lou DeFilippo. The Rams heeded DeFilippo’s advice and selected Andy on the 19th round of the 1951 NFL draft.

The Rams were among the NFL’s early glamour teams, a powerhouse with two superb quarterbacks, Norm Van Brocklin and Bob Waterfield, two of the finest pass-catchers in Elroy “Crazy Legs” Hirsch and Tom Fears, and quality running backs in Deacon Dan Towler and Paul “Tank” Younger.

They played their home games in the Los Angeles Coliseum, usually before 85,000 people, some of whom were more famous than the athletes they were watching.

“Jane Russell was married to Waterfield then. She was always there,” Robustelli said. “Bob Hope had an interest and Bing Crosby always came out with his kids. And Tony Martin, the singer.”

Enter Andrew Richard Robustelli, son of a Stamford barber and 19^th round draft choice from a college few had heard of.

“I started at $4,200,” Andy said. “Our top draft choice, Charley Toogood, a tackle from Nebraska, got a $5,000 contract and a $500 bonus. We thought he was rich.”

With Robustelli starting at defensive end, the Rams won the NFL title in 1951, his rookie year, and Western Division championships that same season and in 1955.

Traded to the Giants for a future draft choice – who turned out to be pass-catcher-extraordinaire Del Shofner – Robustelli helped to transform the Maramen into a championship club. They captured the league title in 1956 and won five Eastern Division titles in the next seven seasons.

No fewer than six members of those Big Blue teams would be elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame: Robustelli, Huff, Gifford, Tittle, offensive tackle Roosevelt Brown and defensive back Emlen Tunnell.

Although Andy Robustelli never earned more than $24,000 in a season, and that was as a combination player-coach in 1964, he had few regrets. “I never looked over my shoulder,” he said.

Only wary opposing linemen did that.

               Connecticut Players in Pro Football Hall of Fame

Player, Pos.  (Hometown/High School)     Teams       Career  Inducted 
Ken Strong Jr., HB-K (West Haven/West Haven), Stapletons, Giants,  Yanks                                                                                         1929-35, ’39, ’44-47   1967
Andy Robustelli, DE (Stamford/Stamford), Rams, Giants       1951-64            1971   
Steve Young, QB (Greenwich H.S.), Buccaneers, 49ers             1985-99           2005
Floyd Little, HB (Waterbury/Hillhouse), Broncos                      1967-75           2010