PRINT THIS PAGE | E-MAIL THIS PAGE

Sunday, March 22, 1998

Sammy Baugh concentrating on golf these days

By Ted Dunnam / Assistant Sports Editor

Sammy Baugh has an ideal schedule these days. He plays golf during the week and watches sports on weekends.

More than 50 years ago, his schedule wasn't a bad one, either. Then, it was practice football during the week and play football on weekends.

This past Tuesday, St. Patrick's Day, Baugh celebrated his 84th birthday, and he's still going strong, proving that you can't take the boy out of the man.

"I try to play golf about every other day," Baugh said Friday from his home in Rotan. "I'm not a very good golfer, but I need the exercise."

Many longtime football observers insist today that Baugh is not only the best quarterback to ever play the game, but is undoubtedly the best player ever to don a football uniform.

He owns two NFL records that will likely never be broken - season punting average (51.4 yards) and career punting average (45.1 yards). His leg, though, isn't what earned him the nickname "Slingin' Sam".

In his 15 years with the Washington Redskins, Baugh set numerous NFL passing records. Because of the evolution of the game, however, all of those have been broken except one, and it's in jeopardy. Baugh and current San Francisco 49ers quarterback Steve Young share the most NFL passing titles with six each.

Baugh says he could have played in the NFL longer had he not punted and played defensive back in addition to quarterbacking the Redskins.

"I had a lot of injuries when I was playing, but nobody ever knew about them. If you were hurt, they wouldn't tell the newspaper or anybody," Baugh said. "Then they finally put in a rule that you had to let the home office know that somebody was hurt."

It was 50 years ago that Baugh's punting career ended. In 1947, he led the league with a 43.7 yard average. However, between then and the end of his career in 1952, Baugh punted the ball just 15 times. In 1951, his four punts average 55.3 yards.

"Toward the end of my playing career, Mr. (George) Marshall wanted me to work with these new quarterbacks," Baugh said. "I really concentrated a lot on that because I knew I wasn't going to play much longer."

It's somewhat amazing that Baugh - who led the Redskins to a pair of NFL championships - remained with Washington for his entire career because Marshall had a well-documented reputation of being highly disagreeable.

"None of the players liked Mr. Marshall. He made all of his players mad, especially the good ones."

That was never more evident than in the 1940 NFL championship game, now legendary for its lopsidedness. The Chicago Bears defeated the Redskins, 73-0, in the most one-sided NFL championship game ever played.

"We had beat them (7-3) two weeks earlier," Baugh said. "But Mr. Marshall started popping off and didn't stop. He was making fun of the Bears all the time. Our players were so pissed off with him.

Needless to say, so were the Bears. The Redskins' worst fears were then soon realized.

"We used three quarterbacks in that game, and all three of us had interceptions returned for touchdowns," Baugh said.

After the game, Baugh came up with one of sports' most memorable quotes. A sure touchdown pass was dropped early in the game by a Washington receiver. A reporter later asked Baugh how he thought the game might have ended had the receiver caught the ball.

"73 to 6," Baugh said.

While that game was the rout to end all routs, John Elway had experienced his share of Super Bowl shellackings before finally breaking through with a victory in January.

"I was glad he got it," Baugh said. "He's a helluva quarterback and he's kind of on his last legs. I'm glad he finally won the thing."

Baugh is good friends with another Texas football legend, Doak Walker, who had an unfortunate skiing accident last month.

"I know Doak real well," Baugh said. "A friend of mine just called me from Virginia, and he said he hadn't heard anything new on Doak. He thinks he's still paralyzed, and hopefully he'll come out of it.

"It's just lasting longer than they thought. He's in really great shape for someone his age. He came by here not too long ago, and we must have talked for three hours. He's a great man."

At the time of his accident, Walker, like Baugh, was still very active. Skiing would attest to that. Baugh said that remaining active is the key to enjoying life.

"Me and Bob O'Day get out and play with old Ricky Kahlich at the pro shop over there at Snyder," Baugh said. "I don't know what I shoot because I don't usually ever keep my score. We like to beat ol' Ricky every chance we get, but it doesn't happen to often. He's pretty good."

Nevertheless, Baugh has plenty of fun.

"I'll play golf about twice a week during the winter, and about three or four times in the summer," he said. "I'll tell you what, old people need exercise. That's the best thing for them.

"I can't sit in this damn chair and not do anything. It just throws me completely off. I sleep a lot better and eat a lot better if I get out and do some sort of exercise."

And Baugh says he'll be back on the golf course Monday in Snyder.

"Snyder closes its course on Tuesday, so I'll have to go over and play in Hamlin."

Which proves one thing. You just can't take the boy out of the man.