ANDY ROBUSTELLI
Defensive End
No. 81
Arnold
In just over a decade of two-platoon football in the pros, the New York Giants have fielded the most feared and respected defense in the pros, truly a winning tradition in Yankee Stadium. No man represents such sustained excellence as does Andy Robustelli. And no man has so earned the admiration of New York's sophisticated football fans, who certainly appreciate good defense.
Andy won the Bert Bell Award last year as NFL Player of the Year, an honor most richly deserved, as New York won yet another NFL East title. The seven-time Pro Bowl selection and six-time All-Pro has played every game for the Giants since arriving for their NFL championship season of 1956.
Still one of the greatest outside pass-rushers, Andy leads the Giants' defense of the East pennant and the pursuit of the NFL championship.
JIM KATCAVAGE
Defensive End
No. 75
Dayton
"The most consistent of the Giants' defensive Fearsome Foursome is Jim Katcavage. The Kat is the team's best pass-rusher. This Wilkes-Barre (Pennsylvania) defensive end is so aggressive that he usually gets his way against bigger offensive tackles. He can play defensive tackle, too.
He was a two-way end at the U. of Dayton. In the scrap-metal business in Philadelphia during the off-season, Jim is an eight-year man with the Giants."
-Don Schiffer, Pro Football 1963
"'You play pressures,' confides Jim Katcavage of the New York Giants. 'You just play the pressures. It's an instinctive sort of thing. Right after you move across the line, you feel if there is pressure. If there is none, I'm suspicious and I cover to the inside to guard against a trap.'
Experience has been a good teacher for the All-Pro defensive end who first joined the Giants in 1956. In those days Katcavage used brute strength - blast through the opposition, bring him down with sheer power. He used to boast: 'I really haven't found anybody who can overpower me.'
This technique enabled Jim to hold down a starting post as defensive end with the Giants, but it kept him from realizing his true potential. Overeager, he was often trapped by his opponents.
'It wasn't until he learned how to vary his charge and use his feet better that he reached his real potential,' comments Andy Robustelli, veteran New York defensive end and assistant coach.
The 28-year-old Katcavage credits Robustelli with teaching him a lot of the tricks of the pro football lineman's trade. Now he keeps the enemy guessing by plowing straight ahead on one play, then hitting and sliding to the inside on another.
An outstanding high school athlete in Philadelphia, Katcavage attended the University of Dayton where he won All-America recognition. The Giants selected Jim as their fourth choice in the pro draft at the end of the 1955 college season. The 6'3", 240-pound end became a regular in his rookie season, a stalwart figure in the superb New York defensive forward wall which includes Robustelli, Rosey Grier and Dick Modzelewski. Says coach Allie Sherman: 'These four fellows have played almost every minute of every game for the past seven years.
'Katcavage,' Sherman continues, 'always had the ability to be great, but in the past few seasons he has gained a feel for defense that makes him one of the best ends in the game.'"
-1963 Official Pro Football Almanac
"Jim has kept improving as a Giant until he is now one of the NFL's top defensive ends. A co-captain on the Dayton football team, Jim was the Giants' No. 4 draft choice in 1956."
-1963 Topps No. 55
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