Dec. 12, 1964 - What may well have been the last pass thrown by Y. A. Tittle (pictured today) was not one of those classic passes he had managed to throw so many times through years of football. In fact, it was a poor pass that was intercepted by Vince Costello of Cleveland.
Y. A. was rushed too much on the play. As he let the ball go, he was struck hard and knocked down by a big fellow wearing No. 74. The two men went to the ground as Costello moved in for the steal.
Y. A. was on the bottom, face down in the mud and frustrated. He pounded his fist into the wetness of the Yankee Stadium turf as the 260 pounds of No. 74 moved to get up.
No. 74 straightened up, reached over and lifted Y. A. to his feet. No. 74, Dick Modzelewski, had given his old friend and former teammate a lift after giving him a mighty shove.
Those mighty shoves used to be done for the glory of the Giants. Now they are done for the glory of the Browns and against the Giants at times.
Dick had some regrets after the game which was won by the Browns, 52-20.
“I feel real good with this winner,” he said, “but I hate seeing it come against my ex-teammates. But when you’re a pro you got to try without worrying about such things, I guess.”
Then Modzelewski said: “I still think Y. A. is awful good. We gave him a pretty good rush today. But he’s one of the best still and always will be for me.”
“I’ve never said it before,” Dick went on, “but that day I was traded from the Giants to Cleveland I felt a little bitter. I felt hurt. But when practice started with Cleveland, I lost all that, and now I’m sure happy. But I must say I hold nothing against the Maras [Jack and Wellington, owners of the Giants] or [coach] Allie Sherman. After all, the Maras brought me into pro ball where I’ve made a living. And Allie is still one of the best coaches.”
In the Giant dressing room, Tittle, the bald hero of past Giant victories, said he was “going back home, sit in front of the fire, sell insurance, and then make up my mind next month about whether or not I will play football next year.”
Tittle, who saw his first professional game in Yankee Stadium in 1947, with the Browns playing the New York Yankees in the All‐America Conference, may have played his last game in a desperate effort to keep the Browns from a title at the Stadium.
If he leaves football as a player, it’s good that Modzelewski and others will remember him as a man who did big things, and not as a man who had to be picked up from the mud.
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