Houston Antwine voted in to Patriots' Hall of Fame

jmt57 · Apr 2, 2015

Houston Antwine voted in to Patriots' Hall of Fame.

Better late than never I suppose, but he really should have been in a very long time ago.

Shame that this only happened after he passed away.

https://twitter.com/cpriceNFL/status/583773344576733184

Houston Antwine voted into Pats Hall of Fame today unanimously by senior committee.

PatsWickedPissah · Apr 2, 2015

Antwine & Hunt. Eisenhauer & Dee. Loved my early 60s Pats.

AQPE · Apr 2, 2015

So happy to hear this news, very much deserved although far too late. I'm proud to be a fan of a team that doesn't forget the guys from its deep past. Special shout out to RayClay of our forum who had been a particular champion for this HOF induction over the past few years.

RayClay · Apr 2, 2015

PatsWickedPissah said:
Antwine & Hunt. Eisenhauer & Dee. Loved my early 60s Pats.

That was a tremendous front four. Don't know if anyone was using three man fronts then, but front fours were huge in the NFL and the Pats must have had the best in the AFL. Multiple all star appearances for every one and Antwine was the best, 6 pro bowls in a row and all time AFL starting DT.

Honestly don't think they compared with the NFL, which was a defensive league and more mature, with the fearsome foursome [Rams] Purple People eaters, the cowboys great lines, etc.

I know a lot of people think Billy Sullivan was a buffoon the way he ran the team like an Irish clan but, with no money and not much front office help, he acquired all time greats at center and defensive line, picked up a fine QB and a WR who could kick field goals and had a very competitive team in the early 60s. Antwine was an offensive lineman who switched from oline they picked up for a fourth round pick.

Building from the trenches.

I'm not old enough that i saw him a lot, I just know he was our best defensive player. He could rush, take on double teams and destroy the run.

RayClay · Apr 2, 2015

AQPE said:
So happy to hear this news, very much deserved although far too late. I'm proud to be a fan of a team that doesn't forget the guys from its deep past. Special shout out to RayClay of our forum who had been a particular champion for this HOF induction over the past few years.

Thank you sir. I thought I just didn't give a damn anymore, but I'm actually getting a little choked up. Read that Kraft invited him to dinner at his home in 2009 and there's going to be a ceremony with his daughter, so I guess it's never too late.

My lobbying efforts were in vain, because it was just too long ago, but i did write Reiss and that fat sack of blubber i won't dignify by naming, but he was just a name, if that, to them.

I actually called the Pro football Hall of Fame and asked the curator [? ] to specifically tell me if there was a plaque with all the names of the All Time AFL first team there and she assured me there was. LOL. Just wanted to say, truthfully, that he was already in the Pro Football Hall of Fame but not in the Pats.

Here's to Wicked Pissah, Joker, 1960 and others. We really always had a fun team, sometimes very good, or bad, sometimes funny, but almost always entertaining with good effort.

Now lets get Clayborn in there, and i won't beeyotch anymore. Maybe Julius Adams too.

patsfan13 · Apr 2, 2015

Very happy is in the Pats HOF. Wish it happened when he was still alive.

However I am sure it will mean a lot to his family.

PatsWickedPissah · Apr 2, 2015

Who can forget the immortal words of Pats coach Mike Holovak to Antwine after the Pats scored their 27th point vs the Jets and the D needed a big stop to win the game? "Houston" Mike said, "We have a problem."

italian pat patriot · Apr 3, 2015

i'm happy for the news and for RayClay who always supported his induction

very well done

fgssand · Apr 3, 2015

I'd like to take a count of how many saw "the twine" play in person?

I saw him on a number of occasions - very pleasant memories of my Dad taking his young son to Patriots games at the various venues back in the early 60's.

That 1963 teams was the best from that " Champion without a crown" era. That phrase was actually the title of their VCR tape from that year, denoting a team that won a playoff game, only to get drubbed by the one and only Sid Gillman.

Check out an article I found on those early patriots team and the Sid gillman coaching tree below:

http://talesfromtheamericanfootball...boston-patriots-came-to-being-an-afl-dynasty/

http://www.sports-central.org/images/gillman_tree_2008.jpg

RayClay · Apr 3, 2015

Nice article and site. I guess that's a different AFL site from Coniglio's, which was very good.

I followed and watched [once you could] the Pats but didn't go to a lot of football games back then. My father and uncles were baseball fanatics and i worked as a vendor at Fenway as a teenager, so I saw the Red Sox a lot in person. I did see the Pats against the Chiefs at BC, so I saw Antwine if he was healthy, though the memory is foggy.

RayClay · Apr 3, 2015

That article points out, as I've said many times, that the ownership did a fantastic job stocking those early teams with talent.

Being behind the whole league in preparation because of Sullivan snatching the franchise from Philly at the last minute, it's well known they also had a shoe string budget.

I still maintain, and would back it up with key facts, that there most likely would not be a franchise here had they waited for some billionaire to apply for one, and get a stadium built.

You just have to follow Boston politics and Real Estate conditions to Marvel at how the Irish con man kept the team in play, with a crappy stadium that was essential, long enough for Kraft to take over [though it was obviously at risk at times].

BlueThunder · Apr 3, 2015

I have been following the Pats religiously since I got discharged from the Navy back in 64. Babe Parilli was QB. I do remember them playing at Nickerson Field,Harvard Stadium and Fenway however I don't remember games being broadcast nationally while I was stationed in Texas.. This last decade and a half has been unbelievable....Thank you Brady and BB !!

patfanken · Apr 3, 2015

This news about Houston has completely washed away any of the bitterness due to Parcells being nominated again this week. Next to Ray Claybourn, he has always been the Patriot most missing team recognition.

What I'm really looking forward to is the fact that there will be a new generation (or three) that will learn about what, not only the kind of player Houston was, but the kind of man he was as well. The Kraft family have always taken care of their own for these kinds of events. I know they won't fail Houston here. Not only will Houston get his moment in the sun, so will many of his teammates who had the privilege to play with them.

I had the late, great Bob Dee coach me during my year with the Quincy Giants in the fall of 69.

BTW- I was never an insider within the Pats, but I did know enough to poison my impression of the Sullivan Family. Billy Sullivan gets too much credit for the start of pro football in Boston. People forget that the Pats where initially a stock company, which Sullivan "stole" away for pennies on the dollar, and then over the next 2 decades , managed to turn into the laughing stock of the league, snatching defeat from the jaws of victory at almost every turn.

So there is no "Sullivan love" from me. I just feel fortunate the franchise survived them and it fell into the hads of the Krafts like it should have 20 years earlier . Don't forget that Billy Sullivan (for some reason) never wanted Bob Kraft to own the team and worked very hard to make sure that it didn't

RayClay · Apr 3, 2015

patfanken said:
This news about Houston has completely washed away any of the bitterness due to Parcells being nominated again this week. Next to Ray Claybourn, he has always been the Patriot most missing team recognition.

What I'm really looking forward to is the fact that there will be a new generation (or three) that will learn about what, not only the kind of player Houston was, but the kind of man he was as well. The Kraft family have always taken care of their own for these kinds of events. I know they won't fail Houston here. Not only will Houston get his moment in the sun, so will many of his teammates who had the privilege to play with them.

I had the late, great Bob Dee coach me during my year with the Quincy Giants in the fall of 69.

BTW- I was never an insider within the Pats, but I did know enough to poison my impression of the Sullivan Family. Billy Sullivan gets too much credit for the start of pro football in Boston. People forget that the Pats where initially a stock company, which Sullivan "stole" away for pennies on the dollar, and then over the next 2 decades , managed to turn into the laughing stock of the league, snatching defeat from the jaws of victory at almost every turn.

So there is no "Sullivan love" from me. I just feel fortunate the franchise survived them and it fell into the hads of the Krafts like it should have 20 years earlier . Don't forget that Billy Sullivan (for some reason) never wanted Bob Kraft to own the team and worked very hard to make sure that it didn't

Not really arguing anyone should love Sullivan, but a stock company didn't spend the weekend on the phone stealing the last franchise from Philadelphia.

Love him or hate him, his single minded obsession put a team in a city with everyting against im and virtually no money.

It's like the wild west atmosphere of the early NBA, where owners used to fist fight after games. If they waited for a comfortable wealthy owner for a team with no stadium, it wasn't happening. They had failed with football franchises before.

Jimke · Apr 3, 2015

Two of the current candidates for the Patriots HOF are Fairbanks and Parcells. I believe that
Mike Holovak should be considered ahead of them. I thought that he was a terrible choice to
replace Saban but he proved me wrong. Mike fielded competitive teams despite operating
on a very small budget. He helped keep the team afloat in the early years.

patfanken · Apr 3, 2015

RayClay said:
Not really arguing anyone should love Sullivan, but a stock company didn't spend the weekend on the phone stealing the last franchise from Philadelphia.

Love him or hate him, his single minded obsession put a team in a city with everyting against im and virtually no money.

It's like the wild west atmosphere of the early NBA, where owners used to fist fight after games. If they waited for a comfortable wealthy owner for a team with no stadium, it wasn't happening. They had failed with football franchises before.

Well I guess we are going to have to part ways on this one, Ray. From what little I know Billy Sullivan was a self serving, self promoting thief .....and I don't know it all.

BTW- If you think that if it wasn't for Sullivan, there wouldn't be pro football in the Greater Boston area, you really don't understand demographics. At the time Boston was the 6th largest TV market in the country with one of the best pro sports markets in the country. So if for some reason the AFL or NFL might have passed on the Pats in 1960, there would have no doubt been a team in the area before the end of the decadee, whether Billy Sullivan existed or not.

Joker · Apr 3, 2015

fgssand · Apr 3, 2015

fgssand said:
I'd like to take a count of how many saw "the twine" play in person?

I saw him on a number of occasions - very pleasant memories of my Dad taking his young son to Patriots games at the various venues back in the early 60's.

That 1963 teams was the best from that " Champion without a crown" era. That phrase was actually the title of their VCR tape from that year, denoting a team that won a playoff game, only to get drubbed by the one and only Sid Gillman.

Check out an article I found on those early patriots team and the Sid gillman coaching tree below:

http://talesfromtheamericanfootball...boston-patriots-came-to-being-an-afl-dynasty/

http://www.sports-central.org/images/gillman_tree_2008.jpg

O
OK it was actually the 1966 team that was the Champion without the crown"

Here is the 1/2 hour video....great stuff, even though it ended with the Jets knocking us out of the eastern division championship and a chance to have played in that first Super Bowl, which wasn't called Super Bowl back,then.

http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNjk1ODQ4MTI4.html?x

PatsWickedPissah · Apr 3, 2015

As you newbies can see Jets hatred goes way back!

RayClay · Apr 3, 2015

Jimke said:
Two of the current candidates for the Patriots HOF are Fairbanks and Parcells. I believe that
Mike Holovak should be considered ahead of them. I thought that he was a terrible choice to
replace Saban but he proved me wrong. Mike fielded competitive teams despite operating
on a very small budget. He helped keep the team afloat in the early years.

Also in the front office. Maybe the team doesn't survive without him. I read an article saying that a few years ago, but...

Well, the article's gone, but the thread about it survives.

http://patsfans.com/new-england-pat...ads/did-mike-holovak-save-the-patriots.76108/

Houston Antwine voted in to Patriots' Hall of Fame

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