No. 79
Morgan State
"Tremendous strength and immediate get-away speed help make Roosevelt Brown an All-Pro and a superlative offensive tackle who's also used defensively on goal line stands. He usually leads the club downfield on kickoffs.
He was a college wrestling titleholder at Morgan State."
-1961 Pro Football Handbook
"Rosey is proof positive of the opportunities in pro football. A real 'sleeper,' he was drafted 27th in 1953 without any advance scouting. He came to camp as a raw specimen, but the battering a rookie takes didn't discourage him. By 1956, he was the top offensive lineman in the league.
Rosey is a superb downfield blocker, faster than most of the backs. When the Giants go into goal line stands, he comes onto the field to play defense."
-1961 Fleer No. 71
"When it comes to clearing a hole for a ball carrier, Roosevelt is your man. He's great at crashing through a fort of opposing players."
-1961 Topps No. 88
SPEED, POWER- ALL IN 260 POUNDS
"Roosevelt Brown is the man on the spot for the New York Giants. When the goal line is threatened, he gets the call, and in his regular offensive tackle spot, he is charged with obliterating any opponent in the ball carrier's way.
An offensive tackle has a generally thankless job in pro ball. When Conerly or Unitas passes, the fan in the upper tier isn't nudging his neighbor and saying, 'Did you see the way Brown (or Parker) held off that defensive end?' Yet without the key pass-protection blocking provided by a tackle, the entire aerial game breaks down.
The average offensive tackle doesn't even get the kick of running with the backs, as does a guard who pulls out of the line for escort service. Fortunately for Rosey Brown, he's not average. This 260-pounder with the V-torso and the 32-inch waist is so fast that the Giants design wide plays in which the tackle pulls out, and there's not a lineman in the league who can excel him in barreling downfield and eliminating secondary defenders.
There's another bonus for Rosey in the way the Giants use him, and it's revealed when you ask him for his biggest moment of the 1960 season. 'Holding San Francisco for four downs in a goal-line stand in the opening game,' answers Brown.
Now that doesn't sound like the stuff that comes within the province of an offensive tackle, but Rosey is the kind you use in any emergency. This was the situation: the Forty-Niners trailed 21-17 with the clock running out when quarterback Y.A. Tittle slammed 19 yards on a keeper down to the Giant five and a first down. A quick smash brought it to the one.
Off the Giant bench, at the motion of coach Jim Lee Howell, trotted big No. 79. Sam Huff, No. 70, one of the NFL's defensive stars, left the field and Roosevelt Brown took his place in the middle. Twice more the San Francisco line heaved against the Giant defense and budged it a couple of precious feet. On fourth down, inches to go, the game hanging in the balance, Tittle slipped the ball to J.D. Smith, one of the hardest runners around, on a straight dive. Brown tunneled under the San Francisco blockers, straightened up to form an impenetrable mass and Smith was stopped straight in his tracks.
Brown has performed that kind of defensive feat in the clutch since 1956 when the Giants won the title and he was the outstanding tackle in the game. If his blocking weren't so valuable, Rosey would be an All-Pro playing anywhere on the defensive line. As it is, he doesn't lack activity. When the Giants kick off, he's out there with the 'kamikaze' boys seeing that the return is held to a minimum. When the Giants punt, he's the first downfield to cover.
He's an uncomplaining player, and that's why he made the club. Brown is one of the real bargains of pro football history. At the 1953 draft meeting, the Giants came to their 27th pick undecided about their choice. Wellington Mara, their personnel chief, remembered that a fellow named R. Brown of Morgan State (Maryland) had been named to the Negro All-American team. At a strapping 6-3, he looked like a pretty good gamble.
When he came into camp, the Giants saw a 20-year-old kid who didn't know how to take the proper stance, get off on the right foot or block with technique, and he was still a bit scrawny at 215 pounds. Arnie Weinmeister was their All-Pro defensive tackle, and Rosey was pitted against him in a scrimmage. The veteran ate him up. But after the bruising exchanges, when everyone else had gone in to shower, Rosey, bedraggled by the buffeting, had stayed on the field, running around the track. Such persistence was bound to impress the coaches.
Rosey made the team. He played, but he wasn't much at first. By 1956, however, he was voted Offensive Lineman of the Year, and the Giants knew they had a great one. After eight full seasons, he's still a comparative youngster at 28. 'He simply obliterates them,' explains Columbia coach Buff Donelli. 'He's so fast and strong, he doesn't have to worry about blocking angles and that kind of stuff.'
Brown says the kick of pro ball for him is 'the chance to play against some of the greatest athletes of our time.' Rosey Brown is one of them."
-Murray Olderman, Sports All-Stars 1961 Pro Football
"A mountain of a man, and certainly the most valuable offensive tackle in pro football, Roosevelt Brown represents a longshot gamble that has paid rich dividends to the New York Giants. Upon Rosey's graduation from Morgan State in 1953 and his being named to the Negro All-American team that year, the Giants drafted him in the 27th round and signed him to a contract.
'Quite frankly,' says former Giant coach Jim Lee Howell, 'we were getting down to the end of our draft picks and stabbing in the dark. We opened a copy of the Pittsburgh Courier and looked at the pictures of the Negro All-Americans. Rosey's picture caught our attention. We knew nothing about him but his size and dimensions (six feet-three inches, 245 pounds) were impressive, so we decided to take a chance on him. He was green as grass when he arrived in our training camp but made the starting lineup that first season. By the end of the third year, he began to develop as a potential star.'
And since then, Roosevelt Brown has set a new standard of NFL offensive line play, maturing into a perennial all-leaguer and Pro Bowl performer. Big and strong, Rosey is deceptively fast as well, which explains his standout ability as a downfield blocker. He also plays defense as a member of the Giants' goal line unit.
Hailing from Charlottesville, Virginia, where he was born on October 20, 1932 and where he started playing football as a 13-year-old high school freshman, Rosey today lives in Teaneck, New Jersey with his wife. In the off-season he works as a salesman for a national beer company."
-Who's Who in Pro Football (1961 Edition)
"Roosevelt Brown (79), now in his ninth season with the Giants, has been a model performer at offensive left tackle for eight years. A 27th-round draft choice in 1953, Rosy ranks as one of the most inspired 'deep dip' finds in Giant history.
The 6 foot 3 inch, 225-pound Morgan State graduate has the speed of a halfback, blocks with shattering impact and is a key goal-line defender."
-1961 Official New York Giants Program
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