OT: A List of Obscure / Favorite Lions
i'm not one for creating board posts, but at the gym this morning i was thinking about how long i've been a fan (a.k.a. "victim") of this team, and how much fun i'm having with this team right now.
then i was remembering that greg landry was my first favorite football player. then charlie sanders, and altie taylor, and lem barney (i got his autograph, once), and mike lucci (oh, man i LOVED mike lucci), and steve owens, and...
okay, old farts and less-scarred younguns. your list of lions. no barry sanders, no calvin, no stafford, just your list of Guys.
January 23rd, 2024 at 9:30 AM ^
i'll continue:
- ron jessie
- errol mann
- dexter bussey
- horace king
- dennis franklin (for about twelve minutes...the first of my michigan faves to cross over)
- levi johnson
- larry hand
- herb orvis
- rick kane
- rob rubick
- doug english
- bubba baker
i could go on.
January 23rd, 2024 at 10:50 AM ^
You had me at Dexter Bussey!
January 23rd, 2024 at 11:02 AM ^
Dexter is still going strong in Bloomfield Township, a true Lion through and through!
And rightfully very proud of his son-in-law, Michigan assistant coach Ronald Bellamy!
January 23rd, 2024 at 11:07 AM ^
Lem Barney has entered the chat
January 23rd, 2024 at 11:30 AM ^
Alex Karras lived down the street. He bummed a cigarette from my mom at a PTA meeting.
January 23rd, 2024 at 11:33 AM ^
My brother in law is a nuerologist and Horace King is not just a patient he is a christmas party guest. Past tense. Brother in law went to jail for medicare fraud and has not been hosting any christmas parties. So horace may be dead for all i know. A very nice guy, dead or alive.
January 23rd, 2024 at 12:26 PM ^
HIPPA!!!!1
January 23rd, 2024 at 7:50 PM ^
It’s only a HIPAA* violation if a covered entity or business associate reveals the info. If the guy talks about his care at a party, it’s fair game to discuss publicly.
January 23rd, 2024 at 11:36 AM ^
Nick Pietrosante
Milt Plum
Gail Cogdill
Yale Lary
Dick LeBeau
Wayne Walker
Mel Farr, Superstar
and of course...
Garo Yepremian
January 23rd, 2024 at 11:49 AM ^
Love your list Robbie. Nick Pietrosante was my first favorite NFL player. I remember him setting the single season Lions rushing record in 1960. He also caught the winning TD pass from Earl Morrall in 1962 when the Lions beat Johnny Unitas and the Colts 21-14 at the first NFL game I attended (at Tiger Stadium) with my Dad and two of my uncles.
January 23rd, 2024 at 11:57 AM ^
My first Lions game the fans threw snowballs at Harry Gilmer.
January 23rd, 2024 at 12:55 PM ^
Part 1 of the 1957 NFL Championship game in Detroit:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdKjyFF2LVA
January 23rd, 2024 at 1:18 PM ^
Roger Brown, Darris McCord, Sam Williams, and Alex Karras: Detroit's "Fearsome Foursome," which pre-dated Los Angeles's version of the same:
https://nflfootballjournal.blogspot.com/2018/12/who-was-nfls-first-fearsome-foursome.html
January 23rd, 2024 at 2:54 PM ^
Absolutely Don and for at least one season before Sam Williams, the fearsome foursome included the other 3 and defensive end Bill Glass, who was traded to Cleveland along with Jim Ninowski, in the deal that brought Milt Plum to Detroit.
January 23rd, 2024 at 1:23 PM ^
January 6, 1958 in Sports Illustrated:
"ALL HAIL THE LUSTY LIONS
JOY OVERFLOWED IN DETROIT WHEN ITS "UNCOACHABLE" FOOTBALL TEAM—UNLOVED AND UNWANTED IN AUGUST—FINALLY BEAT CLEVELAND FOR THE PRO CHAMPIONSHIP"
"The team which had prompted Parker to quit was a rowdy, gay, tough team. It didn't take kindly to the strictures of training camp. It was led and typified by Bobby Layne, a chunky, blond quarterback who was arrested on a charge of drunken driving early in the season and acquitted later because the arresting officer (by then the most unpopular man in Detroit) admitted that Layne's Texas drawl might have sounded like the slurred speech of a man in his cups.
The Detroit trainer reacted to this odd bit of judicature by manufacturing a sign which read, "I'm not drunk. I'm just from Texas." The team thought that was very funny, and so did everyone else in Detroit. No one blamed Bobby Layne, because, after all, Layne was the incomparable leader of the Lions, who performed miracles under pressure and who was certainly entitled to a little off-field recreation."
https://vault.si.com/vault/1958/01/06/all-hail-the-lusty-lions
January 23rd, 2024 at 11:46 AM ^
I worked with Horace King a few times at GM.
January 23rd, 2024 at 9:30 AM ^
Antonio "Stick" London
Robert Porcher
Luther Ellis
Stephen Boyd
Corey Schlesinger
that era of Lions
January 23rd, 2024 at 10:19 AM ^
Dont forget Johnnie Morton and Herman Moore
January 23rd, 2024 at 10:44 AM ^
oh man johnnie morton
i feel like there's a similar kind of player throughline from morton -> golden tate -> amon-ra
January 23rd, 2024 at 11:15 AM ^
I was going to say this. When I watch St. Brown, I feel like I'm back in the 90s watching Johnnie Morton
January 23rd, 2024 at 10:33 AM ^
Porcher immediately takes me back to that DL of Porcher, Pritchett and Spindler. Plus Swilling as what we'd call now an "Edge". I think he was technically an OLB but he played with a hand down.
I don't know if they were actually great, but 15 year old me sure thought it was!
January 23rd, 2024 at 11:00 AM ^
Swilling was incredible in New Orleans. (The Saints' four linebackers -- Swilling, Rickey Jackson, Sam Mills, and Vaughan Johnson -- were a wrecking crew and all four made the Pro Bowl in 1991 and 1992.).
The Lions traded their 1st round pick -- who turned out to be Hall of Famer Willie Roaf -- for Swilling who was pretty good but not all-Pro level in Detroit. (They even un-retired Joe Schmidt's #56 for Swilling.)
January 23rd, 2024 at 1:08 PM ^
Came here for Schlesinger
January 23rd, 2024 at 9:33 PM ^
Schlesinger in his prime would be a menace with today's Lions.
January 23rd, 2024 at 9:33 AM ^
Bubba Baker - he was one big, mean mofo
January 23rd, 2024 at 9:33 AM ^
THE MAD DUCK!
Watch NFL Films
and
MONGO
Watch "Blazing Saddles"
January 23rd, 2024 at 9:34 AM ^
obligatory.
January 23rd, 2024 at 9:36 AM ^
Mel Gray
Jerry Ball
Bennie Blades
Willie Green
Edit spelling.
January 23rd, 2024 at 9:51 AM ^
Came here to post Willie Green “The Touchdown Machine”!👍
January 23rd, 2024 at 11:47 AM ^
Dude shattered a backboard at a charity basketball game in my HS
January 23rd, 2024 at 9:36 AM ^
Barry Sanders. You can't stop me.
Beyond Barry, I always liked Herman Moore. He was great in NFL footbal '94 on Sega Genesis. For some reason Moore was the fastest player in the game. I would just run Barry or pass to Moore every single play and score like 80+ ppg.
January 23rd, 2024 at 9:55 AM ^
+1 for Herman Moore.
I grew up in Atlanta and was never a Lions fan so I didn't really know many of the Lions outside of the big names. I always really liked Herman Moore for some reason. Just remember him as a dude who would go about his business and was a really really good player. Nothing too flashy or cocky about him.
January 23rd, 2024 at 11:36 AM ^
He wore thick glasses like me when he came into the league. Looked like David Ruffin.
January 23rd, 2024 at 7:50 PM ^
+1 for David Ruffin
January 23rd, 2024 at 10:35 AM ^
I'm a mid-40s man who grew up in southeastern Michigan. There are literally no greater heroes in sports than the Fab Five, the Bad Boy Pistons and MF'n Barry Sanders.
insert dumb change my mind meme jpg here. :)
January 23rd, 2024 at 11:07 AM ^
I worked for a company that worked with Vinnie Johnson's company. It amazes me how many people have no idea who the Bad Boys are that are not that much younger.
I think every kid in Michigan in the 90's wanted to be Barry too. I had a spin move that worked great in neighborhood pickup tackle football games.
For the question, I wished they had kept Eric Kramer longer. Was never a fan of Mitchell. As others have mentioned, Morton and Moore were fun to watch with Barry. Honestly, I watched as a kid because I loved to watch Barry run. When he quit, I switched most of my attention from Lions to Michigan and have never had the same connection.
January 23rd, 2024 at 11:42 AM ^
Kramer had a good year or 2 with the Bears I think. Then got injured yet again as that was that. But yeah, he was my favorite QB of that era.
January 23rd, 2024 at 11:53 AM ^
When he quit, I switched most of my attention from Lions to Michigan and have never had the same connection.
Pretty much the same here. I watched the Lions more than UM until '97, then they were about equal. When Barry retired that was basically the end of my Lions fandom.
January 23rd, 2024 at 3:47 PM ^
Same here on the drop off. Rewatching the Barry Sanders documentary, I feel justified in that decision.
January 23rd, 2024 at 12:44 PM ^
Rumor at the time was that Scott Mitchell posted the lowest Wonderlic score ever seen. I believed it then and do now.
January 23rd, 2024 at 3:43 PM ^
My attempt at a Barry Sanders spin move during an IM flag football game at Fuller Park resulted in my blowing up my ACL
January 23rd, 2024 at 10:55 AM ^
barry is the best running back in the history of the nfl. period.
...and nobody stopped barry (except barry), i don't know why i thought *I* could!
January 23rd, 2024 at 11:31 AM ^
William Clay Ford stopped Barry.
January 23rd, 2024 at 12:31 PM ^
"You can't stop me, you can only hope to contain me."
January 23rd, 2024 at 9:37 AM ^
No one's obscure here, but I like this story:
https://www.vintagedetroit.com/marvin-gaye-whats-going-on-with-lem-barney-and-mel-farr/
January 23rd, 2024 at 9:56 AM ^
I'm curious about the claim in the story that "...Barney happened to be in Gaye’s neighborhood in suburban Detroit one afternoon during the summer of 1968."
I read a few years back in a book about 1968 that Gaye became the first African American to move into an all white section of northwest Detroit just a year or two prior. I wondered if the author of the article got "suburban Detroit" wrong.
According to an article I just dug up, "Gaye lived with Anna, Berry Gordy's sister, in the light brown brick ranch at Outer Drive and Monica for roughly seven years, from the mid-1960s to the early 1970s when he relocated to California." That street was renamed for him just 2 1/2 years ago.
January 23rd, 2024 at 10:39 AM ^
I noticed that as well but was too lazy to find a similar article with correct geographical details. Thanks for the info.
January 23rd, 2024 at 9:39 AM ^
Mike Utley.
Somehow left a profound impact on me. I'll always remember his thumbs up.
January 23rd, 2024 at 9:41 AM ^
I watched the "Thumbs Up" vhs many many times.