No. 20
Mississippi
"Ball-hawking activity and blitzing speed have earned safetyman Jim Patton an All-League post for three straight years. This 29-year-old Belzoni (Mississippi) blazer led the circuit in interceptions in '58. He picked off six last year and ran them back 100 yards.
Another knowledgeable performer, he also assists defensive coach Harland Svare."
-1961 Pro Football Handbook
"For the last three years, Jimmy has been the dean of pro defensive backs. He's a little man who is absolutely fearless. He'll take on any fullback head-on.
His speed became readily evident in his 1955 rookie year when he broke away for a 98-yard kickoff return and a 70-yard punt return in the same game. He led the league in pass interceptions in 1958, with 11.
This astute safety of the Giants also doubles as a playing coach."
-1961 Fleer No. 72
"Jimmy Patton is the dean of professional safety men and a tutor as well as a leader. The little Mississippian acts as a roving ambassador on the New York Giants' last line of defense.
The Giants have been calling Jimmy Patton the finest secondary defender in football for so long that it's almost taken for granted. In New York's defensive pattern he plays a roving safety, which means that he is supposed to ferret out the direction of a play so as to augment the coverage in other zones. This is no job for a novice. Done right, it gives the Giants the best defense in the league, putting an extra man at every point of attack. Done wrong, it exposes them to a long gainer because a New York player has missed an assignment.
Statistics show Patton's effectiveness, for in a season where the team slipped to third place the defense, as he points out, was first against the rush and tied for first against the pass.
Jimmy takes more than individual pride in the achievement of the defense. He is one of the Giant coaches, in charge of the secondary. This dates from the beginning of last season, when Tom Landry vacated, leaving Harland Svare as the defensive strategist. Swede, playing linebacker, turned to Robustelli for help on the line and Jimmy in the deep spots.
Patton wasn't born to the job he performs. He's smaller than the average defender in the NFL. The Giants used to flinch every time he hurled his 180 pounds fearlessly into the path of a 230-pound fullback. It got so Jimmy would average a KO a game, but he kept coming back for more. To prolong his career, coach Howell finally insisted that Jimmy start making those tackles from the side.
At Mississippi, where he was one of the greatest defensive backs in Southeastern Conference history, Jimmy also ran the 100 in 9.9. When he joined the Giants in 1955 he put that speed to use returning punts and kickoffs. In one game, he gathered in a punt on his 30-yard line and sped the remaining 70 yards for a touchdown. Then he took a kickoff on his 2 and zipped 98 for another touchdown.
When a speedster like Bobby Mitchell or Hugh McElhenny breaks into the open, Patton doesn't go for the low, picture-book tackle. 'It's too risky,' he says. 'I hit them high and wrestle them down. It's not the way you're taught in college and it's not pretty- but it's effective.'
He has even learned to cope with bulldozers like Jimmy Brown, who could normally trample him. 'I watch his belt buckle,' says Patton, 'like batter watches the baseball; he can't wiggle his belt buckle. I try to hit him below the shoulder. Holding is another matter, though, because Jimmy can spin right over you. I usually manage to hold on to something.'
Because of Jimmy's ability to dog a receiver, the quarterbacks of the NFL have learned to shy away from his coverage zones, particularly after he led the league with 11 interceptions in 1958. Still, as a roving safety for the Giant defense, he's a threat on every ball thrown into the air."
-Murray Olderman, Sports All-Stars 1961 Pro Football
"A height of five feet-10 inches and a weight of 185 pounds would not ordinarily add up to a football player with sufficient sinew and stamina to withstand the savage pounding of pro competition. But Jimmy Patton, standing no taller and weighing no more, has survived six seasons of rough punishment to emerge as the acknowledged master of defensive backfield play.
Coming to the Giants in 1955 as the number eight draft choice, Patton was rated among the best defensive halfbacks in Southeastern Conference history at Ole Miss. As a dash man on the Mississippi track team, he ran 100 yards in 9.9. In 1957, working as a right safety for New York, he began to make a reputation for himself as a first-rate pass interceptor, and by the finish of the following season led the league with 11 steals, thereby winning all-league accolades and a starting berth in the Pro Bowl. Last season, Patton hauled down six enemy aerials and ran them back a total of 100 yards.
Fleet, vigilant and quick thinking, the 29-year-old Giant stalwart ranges all over the field and, for all his lack of size, has never backed off from anyone. Patton, who is married with two offspring, again stands as a major factotum in the traditionally tough defensive lineup of the New York Giants."
-Who's Who in Pro Football (1961 Edition)
"When Jimmy Patton (20) first showed up at Giants' camp from Ole Miss in 1955, the feeling was that he'd never make it as a pro. 'Too small to stand the gaff' was the snap judgment. Fortunately, no hasty action was taken.
Now, six years later, Jimmy, still a scant 180 pounds, is one of the 'big' defensive backs in the NFL. Besides holding down right safety, he'll again serve as an assistant coach."
-1961 Official New York Giants Program
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