Douglas had pros, but stint full of cons
Posted on Tuesday, September 16, 2008
When the news spread that Dave Hanner had died at 78 last week in Florida, football fans of an advanced age bracket were prompted to ponder Otis Douglas’ coaching hitch with the Arkansas Razorbacks for perhaps the 10, 000 th time in 58 years.
They remain as puzzled as ever, of course.
A Philadelphia Eagles assistant hired as Arkansas head coach in 1950 to convert the Hogs’ system to “pro stuff”, Douglas arrived pledging to “beat all those Texas teams.” In three years, he went 2-8, 5-5, and 2-8. His teams didn’t win a game on Texas soil.
Here’s where the paradox comes in. Six of his athletes — Hanner, Fred Williams, Pat Summerall, Bob Griffin, Lew Carpenter and Lamar McHan — were destined to spend a combined 63 seasons in the NFL and participate in a total of 14 championship games.
“It’s hard to figure, isn’t it ?” Summerall (by then a respected sportscaster ) said in a 1973 interview. “It’s really amazing when you think of that much professional talent on a college team that couldn’t win.” When the Razorbacks went 5-5 in 1951, Hanner, Williams, Griffin and Summerall were seniors, Carpenter was a junior and McHan was a sophomore quarterback gifted as a passrun-punt triple threat.
In the 1952 NFL Draft, Griffin, Summerall, Hanner and Williams were picked in the second, fourth, fifth and fifth rounds, respectively, by the Los Angeles Rams, Detroit Lions, Green Bay Packers and Chicago Bears. Ironically, the two fifth-round picks lasted the longest.
Williams, 6-4, 250 pounds, spent 14 NFL years as a Pro Bowl-caliber defensive tackle — 12 with the Bears and two with the Washington Redskins, retiring at the end of the 1965 season. He was in two NFL Championship games with the Bears, a 1956 loss to the New York Giants and a 1963 victory over the Giants.
Hanner, 6-2, 255, was a five-time All-Pro and two-time Pro Bowl selection as a Green Bay defensive tackle, fondly known as “Hawg” Hanner to Packers fans. He played in three title games under Coach Vince Lombardi, losing in 1960 to Philadelphia and whipping the Giants in 1961-1962. He retired in 1964 after 13 seasons.
(As one of Lombardi’s assistants, Hanner was on the coaching staff when the Packers defeated Baltimore in the 1965 title game, and won the first two Super Bowls in 1967-1968. )
Summerall, 6-4, 230, spent part of his 10-year career as an offensive-defensive end and evolving place-kicker with the Chicago Cardinals. He flourished as a Giants climax kicker during his final four seasons, 1958-1961.
Summerall’s 49-yard field goal in a snowstorm let the 1958 Giants defeat the Cleveland Browns and force a division playoff, won 10-0 by New York. That set up the fabled overtime championship game that New York lost 23-17 to the Baltimore Colts.
Luckless in title matches in Summerall’s time, the Giants also lost to Baltimore in 1959 and to Green Bay in 1961.
Griffin, 6-3, 235, a defensive lineman at Arkansas, was a Rams regular linebacker when Los Angeles lost the 1955 championship game to Cleveland.
Carpenter, 6-1, 220, the Arkansas fullback picked in the eighth round by Detroit in 1953, was mostly a running back for the Lions before being converted to receiver with Cleveland and Green Bay. During 10 seasons, he took part in two title games with Detroit, one with the Browns, and two with Green Bay, winding up on the winning side twice.
McHan, 6-1, 200, a first-round pick by the Chicago Cardinals in 1954, spent five years as the Cardinals’ starting quarterback. He backed up Bart Starr in Green Bay in 1960, when the Packers lost to Philadelphia, and finished his 10-year career playing for the Colts and San Francisco 49 ers.
In a long-ago interview, Hanner was asked to analyze why the Douglas Hogs flopped as collegians and thrived as pros.
“Coach Douglas was a fine man and a smart man,” Hanner said. “He knew a lot of football. I don’t think he realized how important discipline was. He took a lot of things for granted.” Fred Williams once put it another way. “We didn’t win many games,” he said, “but we never lost a party.”
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