No. 70
West Virginia
"Sam Huff, captain of the powerful West Virginia team, was named to four All-America teams in 1955. He was also selected to the North-South Game, the Senior Bowl and the All-Star Game, named to the Academic All-American team and lettered in baseball. Drafted No. 3 in 1956, Giant coaches rate him 'most likely to succeed.'
His hometown is Farmington, West Virginia."
-1956 Jay Publishing
"As the middle guard on defense in 1956, Robert Lee Huff three won watches as the most valuable Giant on defense for the afternoon. On one occasion he intercepted two passes and recovered a fumble in the same game, as well shackling the league's top ground gainer, Rick Casares. Quick and smart, Huff is also big enough to enforce his decisions on the field.
Huff was named to four All-America teams in 1955 and was also selected to the North-South Game, the Senior Bowl and the All-Star Game. He was drafted No. 3 by the Giants.
He's married with one son. His hometown is Farmington, West Virginia."
-1957 Jay Publishing
"Sam Huff (70), whose square name is Robert Lee Huff, joined the Giants last season and quickly made his presence felt. A multi-purpose lineman who now seems to have found a permanent niche as a line-backing middle guard, the former West Virginia All-America tackle won three awards in 1956 as the most valuable Giant on defense. Sam weighs 230 pounds and puts them to good use."
-1957 New York Giants Official Program (Yankee Stadium)
"Sam Huff, Giant middle guard, was captain of the West Virginia team in 1955. He was named on most of the mythical national teams selected that year. He was alson named on the Academic All-American team."
-1957 Chicago Bears Official Program
"His square handle is Robert Lee, but there's nothing cavalier about this All-Pro when he starts to slam ball carriers to the turf. Sam is one of the finest middle linebackers in the business and is usually assigned to dog the enemy's fiercest rusher. Fast and strong, Sam's a top play diagnostician.
He lives in Farmington, West Virginia."
-Pro Football Handbook 1959
HILLBILLY ROVER
He lives in Farmington, West Virginia."
-Pro Football Handbook 1959
HILLBILLY ROVER
The Giants' Middle Guard Blankets The Gridiron
"It was icy cold. There were 61,274 football fans huddled in Yankee Stadium, with newspapers under their feet to protect them from the cold, damp cement. However, the elements were a secondary matter that twenty-first day of December, because the New York Giants were to meet the Cleveland Browns in a playoff for the '58 Eastern Division title.
The Giants' hardest assignment, to cover Cleveland's redoubtable Jimmy Brown, has been delegated to Sam Huff. Only in his third year with the NFL, this sandy-haired, baby-faced hillbilly from Farmington, West Virginia was selected as the Giant most likely to succeed in holding down the ground-gaining champion.
The players banged into each other onto the frozen turf; in the severe cold, those shoulder pads and helmets hurtling into stomachs felt like iron pilings.
Huff hounded Brown relentlessly. To be able to react in time and to form his defense, Huff had to read carefully the 'keys' to what Brown was going to do, i.e., the tipoffs on the play coming up. When it was over and the Giants came through 10-0, Sam Huff's man had gained a total of only eight yards.
Huff is a prime example of the defensive might on the Giant club in '58, known by the close of the campaign as the 'eleven hangmen.' From his middle linebacker spot, Huff has proved himself to be a sure and steady star. He combines attributes seldom met with in a linebacker: bulk enough at 6-1 and 230 to fill a hole in the line and stop a 225-pound fullback, the swiftness to keep up with and catch the league's fastest halfbacks and ends, the savvy to ward off and escape an often heavier interference runner, and the mobility to defend a pass area.
Long hours of tedious preparation, on the field and in the movie projection room, go into bringing Huff's powers to their highest efficiency.
'During practice each week,' Huff explains, 'we work on the offensive patterns that we know the opponent uses. Our offensive unit runs them over and over until we are accustomed to every turn in them.
'Then comes the concentration on a particular player in the opposition,' Sam continued. 'When you've picked your man, you have to study him so you will know how to make your move the second he does. Just a little hesitation and the offense can reach you with blockers.'
Getting down to specifics, Huff went on to say: 'The toughest play for a middle linebacker to defend is the fullback draw, where the quarterback starts to fade as if to pass, then slips the ball to the fullback banging up the middle. When he fades, the middle-backer has to drop back in a hurry to cover his passing area; and then, when the fullback comes back up the middle, you're out of position and it's easy for the offense to get a blocker on you.'
The linebacker's pregame studies, put into practice later on the field, include a thorough review of the habits of opposing quarterbacks: how often they like to run the ball, what holes in the line they prefer to hit, which receivers they choose in various passing situations.
Huff explained further: 'Then, too, it's complicated because we have to change our defense the second time we play a team. We can use our normal defense in the first game. But, figuring that the other team is going to be studying the movies also, we do things differently the second time.'
Off the field, Huff is a gentle-mannered soul who, while in training camp at Bear Mountain Inn on the Hudson River, can be found passing out fudge he has just received from home. As is often the case, his easy-going ways are a natural outgrowth of a poised self-assurance about the job he's doing.
When he was a rookie playing his first game, Sam won a watch for being most valuable player on defense during a game against Pittsburgh, which New York won, 38-10. When the man came around with the prize the next day, Sam asked if he could have a ladies watch, as a present for his wife.
'Sorry,' was the reply, 'I have only men's watches with me.'
'Well, could you get a ladies watch for me next week?' asked Sam (who was christened Robert Lee).
'Of course.'
'Well, you do that,' said the rookie. 'You have it ready to give me when I'm chosen most valuable player again next week.'
And Sam Huff fulfilled his promise that next week. In all, he was presented with three timepieces that season and gave them, in turn, to his wife, father and brother. He had already won two watches as All-American when he was a West Virginia tackle.
Sam married a childhood sweetheart, Mary Helen Fletcher, when he was 17. When he left for college at West Virginia U., only 30 miles from Farmington, Mary Helen stayed behind to work in a grocery store. Sam came home on weekends after football games, bringing pay he had earned sweeping out the gym or waiting on tables. Now they are two little Huffs, Robert Lee, Jr. (called Sam, too) and Kathy. Sam Senior has bought a 25-acre farm near Farmington where he hopes to raise a few horses and cattle.
Huff has no favorites when it comes to tackling a ball carrier. 'They all hurt you,' he says. He classes Brown and Don Bosseler of Washington as the hardest to bring down to earth. Of Brown, he says: 'When you hit that guy he lunges like a bull and sometimes he lunges right out of the tackle.' Ollie Matson, he claims, isn't likely to shake him up so much. 'Matson's the hardest back in the league to catch, but once you get him he's not as hard to bring down as some others.'"
-Murray Olderman, Sports All-Stars 1959 Pro Football
"Sam had a great season in 1958. Among the highlights were the two touchdowns he set up by intercepting a pass and recovering a fumble- all in the first three minutes of the Giants-Cards contest!"
-1959 Topps No. 51
"It was icy cold. There were 61,274 football fans huddled in Yankee Stadium, with newspapers under their feet to protect them from the cold, damp cement. However, the elements were a secondary matter that twenty-first day of December, because the New York Giants were to meet the Cleveland Browns in a playoff for the '58 Eastern Division title.
The Giants' hardest assignment, to cover Cleveland's redoubtable Jimmy Brown, has been delegated to Sam Huff. Only in his third year with the NFL, this sandy-haired, baby-faced hillbilly from Farmington, West Virginia was selected as the Giant most likely to succeed in holding down the ground-gaining champion.
The players banged into each other onto the frozen turf; in the severe cold, those shoulder pads and helmets hurtling into stomachs felt like iron pilings.
Huff hounded Brown relentlessly. To be able to react in time and to form his defense, Huff had to read carefully the 'keys' to what Brown was going to do, i.e., the tipoffs on the play coming up. When it was over and the Giants came through 10-0, Sam Huff's man had gained a total of only eight yards.
Huff is a prime example of the defensive might on the Giant club in '58, known by the close of the campaign as the 'eleven hangmen.' From his middle linebacker spot, Huff has proved himself to be a sure and steady star. He combines attributes seldom met with in a linebacker: bulk enough at 6-1 and 230 to fill a hole in the line and stop a 225-pound fullback, the swiftness to keep up with and catch the league's fastest halfbacks and ends, the savvy to ward off and escape an often heavier interference runner, and the mobility to defend a pass area.
Long hours of tedious preparation, on the field and in the movie projection room, go into bringing Huff's powers to their highest efficiency.
'During practice each week,' Huff explains, 'we work on the offensive patterns that we know the opponent uses. Our offensive unit runs them over and over until we are accustomed to every turn in them.
'Then comes the concentration on a particular player in the opposition,' Sam continued. 'When you've picked your man, you have to study him so you will know how to make your move the second he does. Just a little hesitation and the offense can reach you with blockers.'
Getting down to specifics, Huff went on to say: 'The toughest play for a middle linebacker to defend is the fullback draw, where the quarterback starts to fade as if to pass, then slips the ball to the fullback banging up the middle. When he fades, the middle-backer has to drop back in a hurry to cover his passing area; and then, when the fullback comes back up the middle, you're out of position and it's easy for the offense to get a blocker on you.'
The linebacker's pregame studies, put into practice later on the field, include a thorough review of the habits of opposing quarterbacks: how often they like to run the ball, what holes in the line they prefer to hit, which receivers they choose in various passing situations.
Huff explained further: 'Then, too, it's complicated because we have to change our defense the second time we play a team. We can use our normal defense in the first game. But, figuring that the other team is going to be studying the movies also, we do things differently the second time.'
Off the field, Huff is a gentle-mannered soul who, while in training camp at Bear Mountain Inn on the Hudson River, can be found passing out fudge he has just received from home. As is often the case, his easy-going ways are a natural outgrowth of a poised self-assurance about the job he's doing.
When he was a rookie playing his first game, Sam won a watch for being most valuable player on defense during a game against Pittsburgh, which New York won, 38-10. When the man came around with the prize the next day, Sam asked if he could have a ladies watch, as a present for his wife.
'Sorry,' was the reply, 'I have only men's watches with me.'
'Well, could you get a ladies watch for me next week?' asked Sam (who was christened Robert Lee).
'Of course.'
'Well, you do that,' said the rookie. 'You have it ready to give me when I'm chosen most valuable player again next week.'
And Sam Huff fulfilled his promise that next week. In all, he was presented with three timepieces that season and gave them, in turn, to his wife, father and brother. He had already won two watches as All-American when he was a West Virginia tackle.
Sam married a childhood sweetheart, Mary Helen Fletcher, when he was 17. When he left for college at West Virginia U., only 30 miles from Farmington, Mary Helen stayed behind to work in a grocery store. Sam came home on weekends after football games, bringing pay he had earned sweeping out the gym or waiting on tables. Now they are two little Huffs, Robert Lee, Jr. (called Sam, too) and Kathy. Sam Senior has bought a 25-acre farm near Farmington where he hopes to raise a few horses and cattle.
Huff has no favorites when it comes to tackling a ball carrier. 'They all hurt you,' he says. He classes Brown and Don Bosseler of Washington as the hardest to bring down to earth. Of Brown, he says: 'When you hit that guy he lunges like a bull and sometimes he lunges right out of the tackle.' Ollie Matson, he claims, isn't likely to shake him up so much. 'Matson's the hardest back in the league to catch, but once you get him he's not as hard to bring down as some others.'"
-Murray Olderman, Sports All-Stars 1959 Pro Football
"Sam had a great season in 1958. Among the highlights were the two touchdowns he set up by intercepting a pass and recovering a fumble- all in the first three minutes of the Giants-Cards contest!"
-1959 Topps No. 51
"In four seasons with the Giants, Sam Huff (70) has earned recognition as one of football's top middle linebackers. Amazingly mobile for a 230-pounder, the baby-faced West Virginia graduate who played tackle in college, ranges from sideline to sideline and way downfield. You'll almost see him in the thick of the play and wonder how on earth he ever managed to get there."
-1959 New York Giants Official Program (Yankee Stadium, November 1)
"Robert Lee Huff was drafted No. 3 in 1956. He succeeded at the difficult middle guard or middle linebacker slot as a rookie. Against the Bears in '56 he shackled the league's leading rusher, Rick Casares, and intercepted two passes and recovered a fumble. He's a natural diagnostician with the speed and size to follow through.
Huff was named to the All-Pro team in 1958 and also was a standout performer in the Pro Bowl. Captain at West Virginia, he was named to four All-America teams in 1955 and selected for the North-South, Senior Bowl and College All-Star games.
Born October 4, 1934, his nickname is Sam. He's married and has two children."
-1959 Cleveland Browns Official Program
"A rough, aggressive middle linebacker who rarely has a bad game, Sam has been an All-Pro selection the past two years. He's quick to diagnose plays and he's equally adept at jamming a ground attack or breaking up an air assault. The 6-1, 230-pound West Virginia grad draws the most difficult defensive assignments, such as dogging the footsteps of Cleveland's Jim Brown.
His number 70 may appear to be all over the gridiron today and it won't be an illusion."
-1959 Baltimore Colts Official Program (Memorial Stadium, NFL Championship Game)
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