Top NFL Running Backs, 1961

[sport historian]

I have the October 1961 issue of Sport Magazine. In it, there is an article titled, "Frank Gifford rates The NFL Running Backs. Gifford has two categories, The Power Backs and The Speed Backs.


The Power backs are: 1 Jim Brown, 2 John David Crowe, 3 Jim Taylor, 4 Nick Pietrosante, 5 Rick Casares, 6 J.D. Smith, 7 Paul Hornung, 8 Ollie Matson, 9 Tom Tracy, 10 Alex Webster, 11 Joe Perry, 12 Mel Triplett.


The Speed backs are rated by Gifford: 1 Lenny Moore, 2 Bobby Mitchell, 3 Jon Arnett, 4 Willie Galimore, 5 Hugh McElhenny, 6 Tom Wilson, 7 Hopalong Cassidy, 8 L.G. Dupre, 9 Joe Morrison.


Several of these players such as Matson, Perry, and McElhenny were past their best days. Crowe would have injuries while Jim Taylor came on strong. Webster had his best year in 1961. Pietrosante declined after 1961, as did some others. Still, 12 out of 21 were white, around fifteen years after the league was integrated. I never had looked at this before, by the way. Eight of these players (Brown, Taylor, Hornung, Matson, Perry, Moore, Mitchell, and McElhenny) are in the HOF.

 

[White Lightning]

That's very interesting.Thanks for the info.It reminds me alot of track/sprinting in the 50's and 60's.You had both blacks and whites that were amazing sprinters.It was the same in most sports.That was alll before the civil rights movement and now as we all know there has been the Caste System in place for a very long time.The question is can we ever get back to a level playing field.I tend to doubt it.The truth of the matter is that the sitution is getting worse.We have to educate people.

 

[Don Wassall]

I've seen footage of McElhenny and he was amazingly elusive. If he came along now and could find a good college program that would let him run the ball he would probably be treated like Scott Greene, a RB at Michigan State a decade ago who had magical feet, but was totally wasted by the NFL by being forced into the obligatory blocking fullback role.