1972 Profile: Bob Tucker

Tight End

No. 38

Bloomsburg

"Bob became the first tight end in NFL history to win a conference pass receiving title, finishing first in the NFC and second in the NFL to Oakland's Fred Biletnikoff, who caught 61 to Tucker's 59. Bob gained 791 yards for an average gain of 13.4 yards. Another tight end, Ted Kwalick of San Francisco, was second to Tucker in the NFC, showing how quarterbacks were throwing to their tight ends more often last season.

The reason was the prevalence of zone defenses that shut down pass routes to wide receivers. Tight ends were cutting into the seams of the zone defenses to take short passes. The new 1972 rules, moving the hash marks in toward the center of the field, will give offenses more room to operate on left and right. Zone defenses will have more area to cover. Result: defenses might go back to man-to-man and tight ends might go back to blocking more and catching less.

Tucker has been a surprise for the Giants. Signed as a free agent after he failed to make the Patriots in 1968 and the Eagles in 1969, he played minor league football in 1968 and 1969 and won a job in 1970, ranking third among the team's receivers with 40 catches with an average of 14 yards a catch.

Bob was a Little All-America and played defensive end and tight end. He was a major in biology and hopes to teach science."

-John Devaney, The Complete Handbook of Pro Football, 1972 Edition

"Bob enjoyed a superb season for the Giants in 1971 as he led the NFC in pass receptions and became the first tight end ever to win a conference title. His fine moves left him continually open to receive Fran Tarkenton's tosses, and his four touchdowns included a 63-yarder.

Bob majored in biology in college."

-1972 Topps No. 185

BOB TUCKER THE GIANTS UNSUNG STAR

In Publicity-Conscious New York, Somehow He Gets Overlooked

"New York is where America's great illusions are created, where instant celebrity often can be achieved by performers of mediocre talent.

It is a town where Earl Morrall, once a backup quarterback in Detroit, can be given a radio show merely because he became an average passer for the Giants.

Norman Snead, a nondescript quarterback in Washington, Philadelphia and Minnesota, becomes a Giant- and his picture immediately appears in endorsement of advertisement, even before he has played his first game.

New York is the communications and propaganda command center of the nation. It is there, in midtown Manhattan, that All-America myths are made.

So it is absolutely incongruous that Bob Tucker is a virtual unknown. He plays in this ballyhoo environment and is a bona fide star on a football team which has so few. He is the tight end for the New York Giants and his background is so unusual it makes a saga. But so few know- and who cares?

The glamor tight ends in pro football are Charlie Sanders in Detroit, Ted Kwalick in San Francisco, Ray Chester in Oakland, Jackie Smith in St. Louis, Jerry Smith in Washington and Jim Mitchell in Atlanta.

Bob Tucker in New York could be invisible. He is ignored, snubbed, unmentioned. But last season he caught more passes than any tight end in pro football. Indeed, he caught more passes than any other receiver in the National Football Conference.

He caught 59 passes. He was the first tight end who ever won the championship.

But Sanders was the All-Pro tight end for the third straight year, an honor which he earned. Sanders and Kwalick, No. 2 behind on the pass receiving list, were the NFC's tight ends in the Pro Bowl.

Tucker is ambivalent about his lack of recognition. 

'It doesn't really bother me that there were no All-Pro honors,' he said, 'but I should have made it.

'I did everything a tight end should have to do to be in the Pro Bowl. I blocked, I caught passes, I ran with the ball after catching them. No tight end did more.'

Tucker can rationalize about his anonymity.

'The Giants didn't have a very good record and perhaps this persuaded people to ignore me,' he said. 'But the team didn't ignore me. I got a nice raise.'

Tucker has a peculiar background- one that should have made him ideal for a New York-style rags-to-riches epic.

He was a free agent out of Bloomsburg State in Pennsylvania. But there is more. He first traveled to West Texas State, Duane Thomas' old school, where he was a center. Tucker became bored in Texas and dropped out and returned to his native East.

Then he enrolled in Bloomsburg State and won the center job. In competition with several others. The coach, realizing Tucker's ability, asked him to volunteer to play another position of his choice so someone else could be used at center.

Tucker selected and he played end on offense and defense and was selected as a Little All-America both ways.

But when he finished his career at Bloomsburg State the pros ignored him in the draft. A free agent, he went to camp with the Boston Patriots. They farmed him to the Lowell (Mass.) Giants in the Atlantic Coast League. The next year the Patriots reneged on a promise to bring him back to training camp.

So Tucker went to camp with the Philadelphia Eagles. They farmed to the Pottstown (Pa.)  Firebirds, where he led the Atlantic Coast League in receiving. The  Eagles brought him back and placed him on their taxi squad.

The Eagles, however, were caught with two extra men on the taxi squad and they were forced to drop them. Tucker was on the practice field when he was told he had been released.

The following year- 1970- Green Bay, Chicago and the Giants invited him to camp. With some unfortunate previous experiences in which he had gone to pro camps without being paid, Tucker asked for a bonus first. The Giants offered it, so Tucker went to camp with them, his third pro team.

He stuck with the Giants, became a regular- and last year he was the NFC's receiving champions.

It is a story straight from the mind of a Madison Avenue image maker- except it is so far out nobody would believe it. So Bob Tucker, receiving champion and tight end par excellence, remains relatively unknown."

-Jerry Green, The Detroit News (Football Digest, December 1972)