Good and quick
GREATEST ATHLETES IN CHICAGO HISTORY | From Phillips High to Illini to NFL, Hall of Fame back was even better as a person
It was his legs that made him one of the fastest men on the planet. It was those short, thick, impossibly strong legs that allowed him to stop and start, to avoid and run over would-be tacklers en route to heart-stopping touchdowns for the University of Illinois and several pro teams.
Those legs helped Buddy Young become Chicago’s Windy City Flyer long before Devin Hester came along. They also are the biggest reason why he was voted the 23rd Greatest Athlete in Chicago history by a Sun-Times panel. What everybody should know about Claude ‘‘Buddy’’ Young, however, is that his speed and athleticism didn’t define him. As fast and as good of an athlete as he was, those who knew him best claim he was an even better person.
(Sun-Times file)
‘‘If I were to tell you the five best people I’ve ever met in football, if he isn’t
No. 1, he’s tied for first,’’ said former Giants general manager Ernie Accorsi, who watched Young play for the Colts as a child and later worked with him as a member of Baltimore’s front-office. ‘‘There’s nobody who I would say was a better person than Buddy.’’
Young never would have played football had he listened to the coach at Englewood High, who turned away the 5-4, 157-pounder because he was too small. He then transferred to Phillips High and scored four touchdowns against Englewood later that season.
Young wouldn’t let what other people viewed as his limitations — be it his height, weight or the color of his skin — stand in his way. Instead, he blew right past these obstacles, making friends and influencing people along the way.
‘‘If you don’t like Buddy Young,’’ former Colts coach Cecil Isbell once said, ‘‘you don’t like people.’’
Young graduated from high school a semester early and arrived on the Illinois campus like a lightning bolt in the spring of 1944, winning the NCAA championships in the 100 meters and tying the world indoor record in the 60-meters with a time of 6.1 seconds. He made an immediate impact in football, returning a punt 82 yards for a touchdown in his first game. The first African American in 40 years to play for the Illini was dubbed ‘‘Bronze Bullet’’ while racking up 842 yards and 13 touchdowns, which tied former Illini great Red Grange’s single-season Big-Ten record.
‘‘I remember the game he tied Red Grange’s record,’’ said Geraldine Young, Buddy’s widow. ‘‘[Coach] Ray Eliot took him out of the game with five or six minutes to go. We had a lot of friends from Detroit and Indiana and they were livid. They thought the only reason Eliot did it was because Buddy was black and he didn’t want a black man to break Red Grange’s record. Buddy said he’s the coach of the team and it’s his decision. I never heard him complain.’’
Instead of starring for the Illlini again in 1945, Young played for the Navy’s Bluejacket football squad in Fleet City, Calif., after being drafted into the Navy. He scored three touchdowns, including two kick returns for scores, in a title game in Los Angeles and became as popular on the West Coast as he was in Champaign.
Young returned to Illinois when his military commitment ended and took center stage in one of the greatest seasons in Illini history. Led by Young, nicknamed ‘‘Mr. Five-by-Five,’’ Illinois went 8-2 in 1946 and trounced heavily favored UCLA 45-14 in the Rose Bowl. Young rushed for 103 yards in the game. His two touchdowns were the first scored by an African American in the Rose Bowl.
Young signed with the New York Yankees of the All-American Conference before the following season and was met in Baltimore by fans with black painted faces who taunted him outside the lockerroom before a game. Young went on to play with the Dallas Texans, who became the Colts and moved to Baltimore, where he was once again confronted by racism when the host hotel refused to serve him during the team’s kickoff banquet before the 1953 season.
His athletic ability and personality allowed him to overcome racial prejudices to become a fan favorite in the same town within a few short years. In 1956, he was the first Colts player whose number was retired.
‘‘Until [Johnny] Unitas, Lenny Moore, Raymond Berry and Brooks Robinson came along, Buddy Young was the biggest name in the city of Baltimore since John McGraw of the old Orioles,’’ Accorsi said. ‘‘There were a million banquets in town and he was at all of them and always got the loudest ovation.’’
Young, who Steelers owner Art Rooney said could bring a crowd to life like no one else, retired before the 1956 season after having amassed 7,219 combined yards and averaging 4.6 yards per carry. He scouted for the Colts before former NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle made him the first African-American executive of a major sports league. According to Accorsi, Rozelle relied heavily on Young’s advice. Young would later alter the course of NFL history by ensuring that Gale Sayers signed with the Bears and not the AFL’s Kansas City Chiefs before the 1965 season.
Young died in a single-car accident in 1983 while on league business. He was 57.
‘‘He was quite a fella,’’ said Geraldine, who still lives in Baltimore. ‘‘I certainly never met anybody like him.’’