At 5′ 4″, Buddy Young lived a giant life.
Young in 1954 (photo, Bowman)
Legendary running back Claude “Buddy” Young set track and football records for the University of Illinois, sprinted through both the All-America Football Conference and the NFL, and landed in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
But for thousands of long-time Baltimore residents, Young was a regular house guest. As a radio personality, Buddy woke them up every day on “The Early Bird Buddy Young Morning Show.”
The Pro Football Hall of Famer, you see, went from breaking records to spinning records. And, along the way, the National Football League made Buddy Young the first African American executive for a major sports league.
It all adds up to this: Buddy Young had a very full and a very interesting life.
As a college freshman in 1944, Young ran for 13 touchdowns, tying Red Grange’s Illinois single-season record. He was known as an elusive and speedy runner (as you’ll see in this video).
And, boy, could he run!. He won NCAA National Championships in both the 100 and the 220 dashes.
Drafted into the U.S. Navy, the speedy halfback made national headlines as the star of his service football team. After the war, Buddy rejoined the University of Illinois and led the Fighting Illini to the 1946 Big 10 title.
Young went on to play for the New York Yankees of the All-America Football Conference. After the AAFC folded, he starred for the NFL New York Yanks/Dallas Texans.
When the Texans moved to Baltimore (1952) and became the Baltimore Colts, Young continued to entertain NFL fans until he retired in 1955, when he joined the Colts front office. In 1966, the Colts retired his football jersey for the first time. They chose Buddy Young’s #22.
After retirement, Buddy hosted two popular DJ shows daily on radio station WEBB, “The Web,” in Baltimore, while working for the Colts and leading the way in a long list of community projects.
He was serving as the NFL’s Director of Player Relations in 1983 when he died in a car crash.
In height, Buddy Young was only 5’4,” but he stood incredibly tall. As NFL Films put it in the video that follows, “There may have been better players than Buddy Young, but there was no better man.”
Buddy should be in the Hall of Fame just for playing the 1952 season with the Texans. It was the classic Major League and Blazing Saddles by Texans ownership in trying to lose to get money. Dallas Citizens Council? If he and a George Taliaferro has been allowed to play with George being the lead back in the single-wing offense, they could have won 5 games. But they got unproven and terrible players for losing purposes. Good players like him and George were brutalized not to mention their skin color. The humiliation is overlooked and glossed by historians and film folks such as the Sabols who were Colts fans. In spite of it, Buddy had a heck of 9 year career. His play against in the 1947 All-Star game (1946 NFL champion vs. collegiate All-Stars) against the Bears shook George Halas to the core. I believe humiliating Halas is what kept Buddy out of the Hall of Fame. His overall yards of running and receiving is pretty impressive for that time when blocking was pretty primitive with techniques and schemes.