The Meads and a Football "Giant"...

Mel Hein as New York Giants Center

I've written more than once about my parents' closeness to the family of Carroll and Eleanor Gardner.  The relationship started when my father and Carroll (whom I always knew as "Uncle Pink) grew up as next-door neighbors on Eagle Street in Schenectady.  Almost as interesting as the Gardners were some of the people whom my folks got to know through their friendship.  One of these secondary friendships was a gentleman named Mel Hein and his family.  And Mel, whom I called "Uncle Mel" turned out to be a genuine football giant.

Carroll ("Pinky") Gardner had a sister, Marge, who married J. Harold "Hal" Wittner.  Hal was the Athletic Director at Union College, the campus of which was only a block from our house.  He was another of those non-blood-relatives whom the Mead children addressed as "Uncle" Hal.

Hal Wittner had attended Union College in the late teens and early twenties and had been a stellar athlete.  He was Captain of the Union Garnet baseball team both his junior and senior years as an undergraduate.  He had become Union's Director of Athletics in 1938.  When World War II broke out in late 1941, the Navy established an officers' training program called V-12.  Many prominent athletes volunteered to assist the host universities with the physical training aspects of the program.  That is how Mel Hein ended up at Union College in Uncle Hal's department.  He served as Union College's football head coach from 1943 until 1946, when the family left for California.

The Hein family lived on University Place, just about a half-block distance from our house.  They had a son, Mel Jr., whom they called "Cappy."  Cappy was my age and we became fast friends.  Little did I know that my friend's father, "Uncle" Mel Hein, was a true football "Giant."

According to Wikipedia: "Melvin Jack Hein (August 22, 1909 – January 31, 1992), sometimes known as "Old Indestructible",[1][2] was an American football player and coach. In the era of one-platoon football, he played as a center (then a position on both offense and defense) and was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1954 and the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1963 as part of the first class of inductees. He was also named to the National Football League (NFL) 50th and 75th Anniversary All-Time Teams.

Hein played college football as a center for the Washington State Cougars football team from 1928 to 1930. He led the 1930 Washington State team to an undefeated record in the regular season and received first-team All-Pacific Coast and All-American honors.

Hein next played 15 seasons in the NFL as a center for the New York Giants from 1931 to 1945. He was selected as a first-team All-Pro for eight consecutive years from 1933 to 1940 and won the Joe F. Carr Trophy as the NFL's Most Valuable Player in 1938. He was the starting center on NFL championship teams in 1934 and 1938 and played in seven NFL championship games (1933–1935, 1938–1939, 1941, and 1944).

Hein also served as the head football coach at Union College from 1943 to 1946 and as an assistant coach for the Los Angeles Dons of the All-America Football Conference (AAFC) from 1947 to 1948, the New York Yankees of the AAFC in 1949, the Los Angeles Rams in 1950, and the USC Trojans from 1951 to 1965. He was also the supervisor of officials for the American Football League from 1966 to 1969 and for the American Football Conference from 1970 to 1974."

How many people do you know that have their own bubble gum card?

On February 2, 1992, Uncle Mel's obituary appeared in the New York Times:
Mel Hein, 82, the Durable Center of the New York Football Giants
By Robert Mcg. Thomas Jr.

Credit: The New York Times Archives

Mel Hein, the great center-linebacker who was the iron man and captain of the Giants teams that won seven division titles and two league championships in the 1930's and 1940's, died Friday night at his home in San Clemente, Calif.

He was 82 years old and died of stomach cancer, his family said.

From the time the big all-American from Washington State stepped onto the field in a Giants uniform for the first time in 1931 until he retired at the end of the 1945 season, he was a legend to Giants players, coaches, fans and opponents. 

Called the Greatest Center

Virtually impossible to get past on offense and all but unblockable on defense, he was widely described as the greatest center ever to play the game.

The Giants owner, Wellington Mara, who grew up awed by the great 1930's teams of his youth, once called him the No. 1 player of the team's first 50 years, and if there has been his equal since, it is the linebacker Lawrence Taylor.

Al Davis, the Raiders owner and former coach who worked alongside Mr. Hein when both were assistants at the University of Southern California in the 1950's and who later hired him as supervisor of officials for the old American Football League, was even more outspoken when he was asked about Mr. Hein last week.

"He was truly a football legend and a giant among men," said Mr. Davis. "Mel was one of the greatest football players who ever lived."

For much of his career, in the days when players were expected to play both offense and defense, the 6-foot-3-inch, 230-pound Mr. Hein was considered indestructible.

After playing virtually all of every game at Washington State for his full four years and then leading the team to the Rose Bowl (a loss to Alabama in 1931), Mr. Hein continued the pattern with the Giants.

The first, and only, sign that he, too, might be subject to human frailties occurred in the championship game against the Packers in 1938. He was knocked out briefly in the first half and had to be carried off the field but returned a few minutes later (despite a broken nose) to help the Giants nail down their second N.F.L. championship. It was the only time in his career that he occasioned a timeout.

Mr. Hein then won the league's most valuable player award for the season, the first time the award was given. No interior offensive lineman has won it since.

For all the glory of his career with the Giants, it happened largely by accident and through a violation of sacred postal regulations.

In 1931 Mr. Hein wrote to several N.F.L. teams, including the Giants and the Providence Steamrollers, offering his services. When the Providence team was the first to respond, offering him a $125-a-game contract, Mr. Hein signed it and mailed it back.

The next day a Giants contract, offering $150 a game, arrived, and Mr. Hein sent a wire begging the postmaster in Providence to intercept the other contract and return it. The official obliged, and the rest is Giants history, A Coach and an Official

After leaving the Giants, Mr. Hein, whose $5,000 salary in 1945 made him the highest-paid lineman in the N.F.L., served as line coach for several pro teams, including the Yankees and the Rams, and then spent 15 seasons at U.S.C. before accepting Davis's offer in 1965 to direct the A.F.L. officials. After the merger of the A.F.L. into the N.F.L., he remained as supervisor of officials for the American Football Conference until his retirement in 1974.

He was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame in 1954 and was a charter member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame when it was organized in 1963.

He is survived by his wife, Florence; a son, Mel Jr.; a daughter, Sharon Wood, and four grandchildren.