Dec. 10, 1963 - “I think it will be the toughest game we’ve had all year. They really hit you.” The speaker at Yankee Stadium today was Jim Katcavage (pictured), the genial giant of the Giants. The game in question was the one in New York Sunday between the Giants and the Pittsburgh Steelers for the Eastern Conference championship of the NFL. Big Jim, a 6-3, 240-pound defensive end, has started all except two games for the Giants going back to the opening exhibition of the 1956 season. The exceptions came at the end of the 1960 campaign when Kat went home early with a separated shoulder. Katcavage has learned from Andy Robustelli, his defensive coach, and Dick Modzelewski, the tackle to his right, to shrug off the pain of injury. “The good ones always play,” he says. A prime requirement of a defensive end is to rush the passer, and Kat does well at this. Fran O’Brien, his last opponent who plays right offensive tackle for Washington, said of Katcavage, “He wears you down. He keeps coming all the time. He’s just as strong on the last play as he was on the first.” The indestructible Katcavage is missing two front teeth, and he wears a neat bridge except during games. Does he remember the games in which he lost the teeth? “I didn’t lose them playing football,” he said with an indignant look in his pale blue eyes. “It was basketball.” The Giants jogged lightly around the field today at noon, then sat down with their pencils and notebooks to study the Steeler offense. “We have movies of their last two games, and they have our last two,” said coach Allie Sherman. “That’s a league rule. And of course we have pictures of our previous game with them.” In that game, played at Pitt Stadium on Sept. 22, the Giants’ offense and defense went to pieces. The Steelers had the ball for 77 plays, the Giants for only 49. The result was a 31-0 whipping which the Giants will now seek to avenge.
