Hall of Fame quarterback Y.A. Tittle dies at 90
Y.A. Tittle, the Hall of Fame quarterback and 1963 NFL Most Valuable Player, has died. He was 90.
Tittle, known as the “bald eagle,” played pro football 17 seasons after starring for LSU in college.
He played 10 years with the San Francisco 49ers, but had his greatest success in New
York, leading the
Giants to three division titles in four years in a remarkable late-career surge.
“Y.A. was one of the finest men I have ever known,” said Giants co-owner John Mara, whose late father, Wellington, was a close friend of Tittle’s. “He was a Hall of Fame quarterback and a Hall of Fame person. He brought our team to new heights in the early 1960s, and left an indelible mark on our franchise.”
Tittle never won a championship, but came to personify the competitive spirit of football, thanks to an iconic photo taken by Dozier Mobley during Tittle’s final season
in 1964.
The frame caught Tittle, who was 37 at the time, after throwing an interception returned for a touchdown by Pittsburgh’s Chuck Hinton. Tittle is seen kneeling in exhaustion and pain from an injured rib, blood dripping down his face from a head gash.
Tittle, who was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1971, passed for 33,070 yards and 242 touchdowns in two leagues during his career, including 13 300-yard passing games in an age when the running game dominated the sport.
Born Yelberton Abraham Tittle in Marshall, Texas, on Oct. 24, 1926, he led LSU to the Cotton Bowl before he was drafted by the NFL’s Detroit Lions in 1948. In 1950 he ended up with the San Francisco 49ers, where he started 78 games and became the first pro football player to be featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated in 1954.
Tittle’s career appeared nearly finished when San Francisco traded him to New York, where he became the Giants’ starter in 1961.
Tittle became one of the NFL’s most dependable passers, and New York reached the league’s title game from 1961-1963, but lost each time, leaving Tittle agonizingly short of his only remaining goal. The Giants plummeted to 2-10-2 in 1964, and Tittle retired after one of his worst pro seasons.