My brothers father-in-law, Don is a great guy. Thanks for the picture never seen this one before.
So, I guess Gregory is your brother's brother-in-law.
I don't really know Gregory--I just happened to find him on the internet about five years ago and we exchanged emails. I sent him a very short clip of Don's TD against UF in '56, a big victory for us up at Gainesville. Told Gregory how much I enjoyed watching his father play over the years, first at UM then with the Redskins. Back in the late 50's and early '60's, the southernmost team in the NFL was Washington. So, they did regional broadcasts every Sunday, and for years, I was treated to watching the Redskins play almost every weekend. The team was always pretty bad--but it was fun to hope they'd win a game now and then and of course I always rooted for Don.
I was around 9 years old when I started paying attention to Don. He was the big star at UM so he became my first hero in sports. That would have been about '56, his senior year.
I've found a few other things in the last year or so. I think there was an article in a local paper up in western NY about the Bosseler family after Don got famous. Actually, a good number of very good players came out of western Pennsylvania and western N.Y. back in the '50's and '60's. The last real star was Jim Burt from the Buffalo area in the late '70's, I guess. Kevin Brinkworth was originally a walkon I think in the '90's, when we had the scholarship reductions.
It was mostly blue collar kids from those areas. Football got them a chance at higher education. I guess there were not many community colleges back then.
In the case of the Bosseler family, they were probably pretty good students anyway, and would have had educational opportunities even without sports. I think Don's older brother played football for and graduated from Penn. That's impressive academically. (I hope I'm not wrong, just doing this from memory).
His younger brother, Billy, started at Miami but came in with an injured foot as I recall. I think he transferred back home after about a year. I don't know the entire story. IdahoCane, who used to post more on another Hurricanes site, was Billy's roommate his freshman year at UM.
Smalltown football in NY had more of a luster back in those days. One of the greatest players I ever saw was Ernie Davis of Syracuse, who died of leukemia before he could play a single game in the NFL. He ran through the Miami defense in the OB one year. It was probably around 1960. I was there. Davis was from Elmira NY. (The last good football player from a small town in NY that I can remember would be Mark May, who is not exactly loved by Miami fans).
Most of the kids on these boards have very little or no idea who the past Miami greats were. That includes Don, who happens to be one of the few from UM in the College Football HOF.
Some years back, I met a fellow in Washington who claimed to have played at Pitt back during that era. He told me he played against Jim Brown at Syracuse, and Don, and said Don was the better football player.
If I can find some interesting stuff, I'll post or send it along.
Glad you liked the picture. I'm sensitive to those who are offended by a derogatory name, which some Native Americans are. Still, I'm wondering, "Why now?" After all these years. Does it really do any damage anymore? Of course, the Redskins have put out a PR film with interviews with a number of Native Americans who are not offended, some say they have more important things to worry about. So, I'm very ambivalent about the whole thing.
Just some trivia: we had some pretty good Native American players back around '65 or so: Jim Wahnee and Andy Sixkiller. I think they were both from Oklahoma. They might have been Cherokee, I'm not sure.
Andy was working for one of the Miami area Fire Departments, but died a few years ago.
Take care.
