Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, October 17, 1995 TAG: 9510170055
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
On the way from Baltimore to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, Art Donovan stopped here.
He stopped again Monday. Donovan, known to the newest generation of pro football fans as the old-timer in the ESPN ``GameDay'' promotional spots, was at Victory Stadium as guest speaker for the United Way of Roanoke Valley progress report.
Does Donovan remember the Baltimore Colts playing two preseason games in Roanoke?
``Sure,'' Donovan said. ``My last game was here, against Dallas [in August 1962]. They said I retired after that game. What that means is they cut my [butt].''
Donovan also recalled his preseason visit to Victory Stadium in 1961. The Colts defensive tackle decided he'd heard enough about Pittsburgh guard John Nisby, so Donovan decided to try ``and take a cheap shot and get him out of there. ... On a kickoff, I went after him. I missed, went into the bench over there and messed up my knee.''
If Donovan was as great a football player as he is funny, it explains why he was the first of the great Colts inducted into the Canton, Ohio, shrine. And just what does being in the Hall of Fame mean to the 70-year-old?
``Nothing,'' Donovan said. ``Who votes on the Hall of Fame? Guys like you, writers. Do they know what kind of football player I was? No.''
His autobiography of several years ago, ``Fatso,'' is one of the most hilarious sports tomes penned. Then, he admits he had plenty of material for the book. In the first three years of his NFL career, he played for teams in three cities that finished a combined 3-31-2. One of those really didn't have a city to call home for half a season.
``I can honestly say, and give me credit for this, that I'm the only man who played for the worst teams in the history of pro football and also the best teams in pro football,'' Donovan said. ``The Dallas team [the Texans of 1952], we played the Rams twice and they scored 147 points. They were running center-eligibles, tackle-eligibles. Everyone was eligible except us. Those weren't football games. They were death marches.''
Donovan played for the NFL's first Colts in 1950, after their move from the All-America Football Conference, then for the new ones from 1953-61, created when the remnants of the Dallas franchise were presented to owner Carroll Rosenbloom. That Dallas team is the last in NFL history to fold.
``We played our last five games of that season on the road, after the league took over the team,'' Donovan said. ``We used Hershey, Pa., as our home base. Hershey ... all there was to do there at night was drink. So, we did.''
Asked what he's done since retiring from the Colts, Donovan said, ``Drink beer, and eat pizza, and salami and pastrami. I've never eaten chicken, turkey or fish, or green vegetables. I played at 275 [pounds]. I'm 280 now, but I got up to 335, then went on a diet because I got into a car and fainted.''
Told he appears a picture of health, Donovan asked, ``Are you looking at me?''
The Bronx native learned sports early from his father, famed boxing referee Arthur Donovan, who worked many of Joe Louis' fights. He still owns one gift from his dad, a baseball autographed by Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. Donovan still lives in Baltimore, which he knows is Ruth's hometown.
``Yeah,'' he said, ''but do you know who put Baltimore on the map? Johnny Unitas [Donovan's teammate], that's who.''
He said the NFL today can't compare to the one he played in with 33-man rosters and only 12 teams.
``The guys today talk about being tough,'' he said. ``What's tough is leaving home, going to World War II and getting your rear end shot at. That's tough. I joined the Marines because I wanted a blue uniform. I never got one, but I was in the war three years.''
And what did he appreciate most about his career?
``Just playing,'' Donovan said. ``The idea that many are called but few are chosen, and I was one of them. I almost quit after three years. I took the exam in New York to become a carpenter. That's what I wanted to do. Then, they got me a job at Schenley Distilling in Baltimore, and I kept playing. I was in the right place at the right time.''
Donovan said he has ``no idea'' why he was chosen for the ESPN campaign, but he went to Yonkers, N.Y., where 29 spots were filmed in four days, ``and they damn near killed me.'' Meanwhile, the ESPN stars were dying of laughter at Donovan.
And what does he think of what the NFL has become?
``Not much,'' Donovan said with typically blunt candor. ``It's hard to watch. I watched the Giants' game unday], and George Young [the Giants' general manager] is a good friend of mine. George told me they had a young quarterback [Dave Brown] and said he was very smart.
``Yeah, he may be smart, but the guy can't play quarterback. I don't know. Wouldn't you rather have a dumb guy who could play quarterback instead of a smart guy who can't play football?''
by CNB