Post by yanks27 on Mar 26, 2007 11:29:12 GMT -5
Here's an interesting article on an old Heisman Trophy winner who has been with the Yankees farms since the 70's. I knew Hopalong Cassady as a Heisman winner with Ohio State but didn't know he was a beloved insider:
TAMPA, Fla., March 21 — He is still on a depth chart every day, listed as No. 40, the way he was in his glory days more than a half-century ago. Howard Cassady, the running back known as Hopalong who won the Heisman Trophy for Ohio State in 1955, has been in baseball longer than he was in football.
Cassady is a special instructor at the Yankees’ spring training, as he has been for many years. Current Yankees who came through the farm system know him as the former first-base coach for the Columbus Clippers, the Yankees’ old Class AAA affiliate. Cassady, his hair still Ohio State red, was royalty.
“When they would call out the lineups, you’d just get the usual cheers for players, nothing big,” Yankees first baseman Andy Phillips said. “And then they would call out the coaches at third base and first base. When they got to him, the place would just go crazy every time. It happened every night.”
With the Yankees gone from Columbus, Ohio — the affiliate is moving to Moosic, Pa., this season — Cassady is a tangible reminder of the principal owner George Steinbrenner’s roots. Steinbrenner took graduate courses at Ohio State while Cassady played baseball and football there, and Cassady later sold steel for Steinbrenner’s shipbuilding company.
In 1976, Steinbrenner hired Cassady as a conditioning coach for the Yankees, and he has worked for the organization ever since. When spring training is over, Cassady, who lives in suburban Tampa, helps out at the Yankees’ minor league complex, hitting grounders and assisting with the full-time staff.
“He’s tough, he’s honorable, and I value him both as a friend and as a special instructor,” Steinbrenner said through his spokesman, Howard Rubenstein. “I have the highest possible opinion of him. I’ve told him, ‘You should win a Heisman for being a great guy.’ ”
Of all the people in pinstripes, Cassady is probably the only one who remembers Steinbrenner, 76, as an assistant football coach at Northwestern and as a hurdler.
“You can look it up, he was an alternate to Harrison Dillard in the ’48 Olympics,” Cassady said, though Dillard did not qualify for the hurdles at the 1948 London Games. “He jumped hurdles. George is a darn good athlete.”
Some of the spring instructors have had volatile relationships with Steinbrenner over the years, notably Yogi Berra. But Cassady and the former major league slugger Frank Howard, also from Ohio State, share a mutual affection with Steinbrenner, who rarely visits the clubhouse anymore.
“Hop and I say, how fortunate are we?” Howard said. “He just turned 73, I’m almost 71 and we’re still working for the greatest organization in the world. I don’t know how lucky two guys can be.”
Berra and Reggie Jackson are spring training fixtures who are Hall of Famers in the game they teach. Cassady is a member of the College Football Hall of Fame, though not all the players realize it.
“I’m from Michigan, so of course I know Hop,” Derek Jeter said. “But I would assume most of the young guys probably don’t know who he is.”
Ron Guidry, the pitching coach, was 5 when Cassady won the Heisman Trophy. He was aware of the name while growing up, and said he eagerly sought out stories from Cassady in the 70s.
“I asked him one time, ‘Did you ever get hit real hard?’ ” Guidry said. “And he said, ‘One time I got hit so hard — we didn’t have those facemasks — and my helmet went around and I was looking almost through the hole on the side of my head.’ It was fun to listen to him recount those moments, because a lot of those moments are in the annals of football, and when you go and read about them, they belong to him.”
These days at Legends Field, Cassady is not a vocal presence. He mostly floats among the players, holding a sandwich or a new pair of batting gloves as he shuffles from the clubhouse to the coaches’ room, or a fungo bat and glove as he quietly patrols the practice fields.
He does not hop along anymore, and his knees require gel injections every 14 to 16 months. “Can’t run on ’em,” Cassady said.
He played the last of his 84 N.F.L. games in 1963, for the Detroit Lions, but he sees the reminders of his career on the backs of his hands. There are calcified bumps and ridges along the hands, both of which he has broken. He has also broken both shoulders and his right tibia.
But, at least, Cassady was never tossed in a Dumpster with his fingers broken. That is what happened to his famous trophy some 20 years ago in Columbus. It was stolen while Cassady was away from a home he had there. The burglar was never found, but the Heisman was.
“The guy that stole it thought it had gold or something in it,” Cassady said. “The garbage man found it in a bag, and the hand was sticking out of it. He pulled it out from the trash and called the school, and they took it to the police department. They got it fixed for me and put the fingers back on it.”
Cassady won his trophy the year after Alan Ameche of Wisconsin and the year before Paul Hornung of Notre Dame. But only Cassady also won the Associated Press Athlete of the Year award. He is the last college football player to do so.
The nickname came from the cowboy movie hero played by William Boyd, an Ohioan who posed for pictures with Cassady before the 1955 Rose Bowl.
“I had his guns on and I got on his horse,” Cassady said. “He said he was awfully proud that I was called Hopalong, too.”
Cassady said he often attends the annual Heisman Trophy presentation in New York. One night last week at Legends Field, he handed out awards, too. Before a Yankees game, Cassady bestowed championship medals around the necks of high school athletes from Plant City, Fla., who were standing along the baselines.
The public-address announcer called Cassady “one of the greatest football players of all time” as the sound system played “We Are the Champions.” The teenagers might not have known who he was, but to athletes of Cassady’s generation, there is never any doubt.
“He’s everybody’s favorite,” Howard said. “He always has been.”
TAMPA, Fla., March 21 — He is still on a depth chart every day, listed as No. 40, the way he was in his glory days more than a half-century ago. Howard Cassady, the running back known as Hopalong who won the Heisman Trophy for Ohio State in 1955, has been in baseball longer than he was in football.
Cassady is a special instructor at the Yankees’ spring training, as he has been for many years. Current Yankees who came through the farm system know him as the former first-base coach for the Columbus Clippers, the Yankees’ old Class AAA affiliate. Cassady, his hair still Ohio State red, was royalty.
“When they would call out the lineups, you’d just get the usual cheers for players, nothing big,” Yankees first baseman Andy Phillips said. “And then they would call out the coaches at third base and first base. When they got to him, the place would just go crazy every time. It happened every night.”
With the Yankees gone from Columbus, Ohio — the affiliate is moving to Moosic, Pa., this season — Cassady is a tangible reminder of the principal owner George Steinbrenner’s roots. Steinbrenner took graduate courses at Ohio State while Cassady played baseball and football there, and Cassady later sold steel for Steinbrenner’s shipbuilding company.
In 1976, Steinbrenner hired Cassady as a conditioning coach for the Yankees, and he has worked for the organization ever since. When spring training is over, Cassady, who lives in suburban Tampa, helps out at the Yankees’ minor league complex, hitting grounders and assisting with the full-time staff.
“He’s tough, he’s honorable, and I value him both as a friend and as a special instructor,” Steinbrenner said through his spokesman, Howard Rubenstein. “I have the highest possible opinion of him. I’ve told him, ‘You should win a Heisman for being a great guy.’ ”
Of all the people in pinstripes, Cassady is probably the only one who remembers Steinbrenner, 76, as an assistant football coach at Northwestern and as a hurdler.
“You can look it up, he was an alternate to Harrison Dillard in the ’48 Olympics,” Cassady said, though Dillard did not qualify for the hurdles at the 1948 London Games. “He jumped hurdles. George is a darn good athlete.”
Some of the spring instructors have had volatile relationships with Steinbrenner over the years, notably Yogi Berra. But Cassady and the former major league slugger Frank Howard, also from Ohio State, share a mutual affection with Steinbrenner, who rarely visits the clubhouse anymore.
“Hop and I say, how fortunate are we?” Howard said. “He just turned 73, I’m almost 71 and we’re still working for the greatest organization in the world. I don’t know how lucky two guys can be.”
Berra and Reggie Jackson are spring training fixtures who are Hall of Famers in the game they teach. Cassady is a member of the College Football Hall of Fame, though not all the players realize it.
“I’m from Michigan, so of course I know Hop,” Derek Jeter said. “But I would assume most of the young guys probably don’t know who he is.”
Ron Guidry, the pitching coach, was 5 when Cassady won the Heisman Trophy. He was aware of the name while growing up, and said he eagerly sought out stories from Cassady in the 70s.
“I asked him one time, ‘Did you ever get hit real hard?’ ” Guidry said. “And he said, ‘One time I got hit so hard — we didn’t have those facemasks — and my helmet went around and I was looking almost through the hole on the side of my head.’ It was fun to listen to him recount those moments, because a lot of those moments are in the annals of football, and when you go and read about them, they belong to him.”
These days at Legends Field, Cassady is not a vocal presence. He mostly floats among the players, holding a sandwich or a new pair of batting gloves as he shuffles from the clubhouse to the coaches’ room, or a fungo bat and glove as he quietly patrols the practice fields.
He does not hop along anymore, and his knees require gel injections every 14 to 16 months. “Can’t run on ’em,” Cassady said.
He played the last of his 84 N.F.L. games in 1963, for the Detroit Lions, but he sees the reminders of his career on the backs of his hands. There are calcified bumps and ridges along the hands, both of which he has broken. He has also broken both shoulders and his right tibia.
But, at least, Cassady was never tossed in a Dumpster with his fingers broken. That is what happened to his famous trophy some 20 years ago in Columbus. It was stolen while Cassady was away from a home he had there. The burglar was never found, but the Heisman was.
“The guy that stole it thought it had gold or something in it,” Cassady said. “The garbage man found it in a bag, and the hand was sticking out of it. He pulled it out from the trash and called the school, and they took it to the police department. They got it fixed for me and put the fingers back on it.”
Cassady won his trophy the year after Alan Ameche of Wisconsin and the year before Paul Hornung of Notre Dame. But only Cassady also won the Associated Press Athlete of the Year award. He is the last college football player to do so.
The nickname came from the cowboy movie hero played by William Boyd, an Ohioan who posed for pictures with Cassady before the 1955 Rose Bowl.
“I had his guns on and I got on his horse,” Cassady said. “He said he was awfully proud that I was called Hopalong, too.”
Cassady said he often attends the annual Heisman Trophy presentation in New York. One night last week at Legends Field, he handed out awards, too. Before a Yankees game, Cassady bestowed championship medals around the necks of high school athletes from Plant City, Fla., who were standing along the baselines.
The public-address announcer called Cassady “one of the greatest football players of all time” as the sound system played “We Are the Champions.” The teenagers might not have known who he was, but to athletes of Cassady’s generation, there is never any doubt.
“He’s everybody’s favorite,” Howard said. “He always has been.”