Howard Cassady, 1934-2019

In 1904, writer Clarence Mulford created the character of Hopalong Cassidy. He was a rough-talking Wild West character who gained his nickname due to having a wooden leg. In 1935, William Boyd began playing a much nicer version in Western movies.

He was the 1st hero to wear a black hat, breaking the pattern of heroes wearing white ones and villains wearing black ones. Richard Boone as Paladin on Have Gun -- Will Travel and Pernell Roberts as Adam Cartwright on Bonanza would also be good guys with black hats.

Naturally, after this, any famous person named Cassidy, or the soundalike Cassady, would be nicknamed Hopalong -- even if he turned out to be fleet of foot. Howard Cassady wore a silver hat, or helmet, both in collegiate and in professional football. And he was a hero.

Howard Albert Cassady was born on March 2, 1934 in Columbus, Ohio, and went to that city's now-closed Central High School. As a star football player in that city, it was natural for the city's big college team, Ohio State University, then coached by the very determined Woody Hayes, to want to recruit him.

"Hopalong" Cassady played 36 games for Ohio State, and scored 37 touchdowns. These were the last years of two-platoon football, and he also played defensive back. This was still an age when Big Ten teams did not pass the ball much. Hayes himself, citing a completion, an incompletion, and an interception, said, "There are three things that can happen when you throw the football, and two of them are bad." Nevertheless, no pass defended by Cassady was completed. None.

In 1954, the Ohio State Buckeyes won the National Championship. Cassady finished 3rd in the voting for the Heisman Trophy. The winner was another Big Ten running back, Alan "The Horse" Ameche of Wisconsin, who later starred for the Baltimore Colts. In 1955, Ohio State repeated as Big Ten Champions, although not as National Champions. This time, Cassady won the Heisman. Ohio State retired his Number 40.

He was drafted by the Detroit Lions, and played for them from 1956 to 1961. He was a member of their 1957 NFL Championship team. He split the 1962 season between his home-State Cleveland Browns and the Philadelphia Eagles, and played 1 more season with the Lions, 1963. He finished his pro career with 1,229 yards and 6 touchdowns.

Perhaps it was a little disappointing, but he won the Heisman Trophy, an NCAA Championship, and an NFL Championship. How many men, living or dead, can truthfully make that claim? 6 or 7: Cassady, Glenn Davis, Leon Hart, Tony Dorsett, Marcus Allen, Charles Woodson, and, sort of, Reggie Bush.

After leaving football, he founded a company manufacturing concrete pipe. He was married to a woman named Barbara, and had sons Craig and David, and daughter Jay, living to see 4 grandchildren and 3 great-grandchildren. Craig Cassady also played defensive back at Ohio State, and 12 games for the New Orleans Saints in 1977.

He also played baseball at Ohio State, but did not try to make the major leagues in that sport. "I could have signed for $10,000 with the Yankees," he said, "but I would have had to go through the minors. As the Number 1 draft choice, I could start right away playing football." The Lions had offered him a $15,000 signing bonus, and that was that.

However, he did eventually get involved with the Yankees. At Ohio State, he was friends with a coed named Joan Zieg. She married a Cleveland-based shipbuilder named George Steinbrenner. Although George was not an Ohio State graduate (his alma mater was Williams College in Massachusetts), he and Joan became major donors to Ohio State.

George's American Shipbuilding needed concrete and steel, which were being produced by Howard's companies, and he bought Howard out, and gave him an executive job at AmShip. George also hired Howard for the Yankee organization, allowing him to coach for the Class AAA Columbus Clippers when they were the Yankees' top farm team, and also to scout for the Yankees. After he retired from his various ventures, George, who lived in Tampa, got the Cassadys a deal on a house in the city.

Barbara and Howard Cassady at their home in Tampa

It was announced yesterday that Howard Cassady had died on September 28, 2019, 8 days earlier, in Tampa, at age 85. Although no cause of death has been released, requests for donations to organizations fighting Alzheimer's disease suggest that Howard was yet another in a long line of football players who eventually dealt with contract-related head trauma.

With his death, there are now 7 surviving players from the Detroit Lions' last NFL Championship team, in 1957: Joe Schmidt, Gene Cronin, Steve Junker, Bob Long, Gerry Perry, Jerry Reichow and Roger Zatkoff.

Schmidt is also the last surviving player from the Lions' 1953 NFL titlists. The last 2 survivors of their 1952 NFL titlists, Blaine Earon and Jim Hardy, both died earlier this year. Their other NFL Championship team was in 1935, and the last survivor was Glenn Presnell, who lived until 2004.