Today in Patriots History
Walter Beach
Happy Birthday to
@Actual Pats Fan , born on this date in Framingham.
Happy 86th birthday to
Walter Beach
Born January 31, 1935 in Pontiac, Michigan
Patriot CB/RB, 1960-1961; uniform #26, #41
Walter Beach was drafted by the Giants in 1960, then signed with the Patriots early in their inaugural season. He played in 18 games for the Pats with one interception. Beach also played a bit on offense (with nine receptions and six carries) and on special teams (seven kickoff returns and one punt return). He had one touchdown with the Pats, a 51 yard reception from
Butch Songin against the Chargers. Walter Beach also spent four seasons with the Cleveland Browns and was a starting corner on that team's last NFL championship, in 1964.
Beach grew up two houses from a civil rights lawyer named Milton Henry and his family. Fast forward a bit, to
a 1962 preseason game in New Orleans that led to the Patriots cutting Beach:
He had been released by the Boston Patriots of the American Football League the previous year, after he organized a protest by the black players on the team against segregated accommodations in New Orleans, where Boston was scheduled to play a preseason game. While the white Patriots were set to stay in a luxury hotel, the black players were to stay with black families.
“I told them we signed up to play football, not to be segregated against,” Beach said. He told
Mike Holovak, the Patriots’ coach at the time, that he would fly down the day of the game and then fly back to Boston after the game was over.
Identified as a troublemaker, Beach was cut the next day.
Paul Brown was not just ahead of his time in as an innovative coach; he was also color blind when it came to his football players. The same was not true for Cleveland Browns owner
Art Modell, who decided Beach was a troublemaker and should be cut in training camp. This infuriated the great running back
Jim Brown, who knew Beach deserved a spot on the roster. Brown left camp to speak with the owner and coaches. Fifty minutes later Beach was back on the roster. That year Cleveland would win the NFL championship, thanks in part to the shutdown corner play of one Walter Beach. The powerful Baltimore Colts offense that featured quarterback
Johnny Unitas and wide receivers
Raymond Berry and
John Mackey - all three all-stars, two future hall of famers - were decisively shutdown by Beach and the rest of the Browns in a 27-0 shutout.
A group of top African American athletes from different sporting disciplines gather to give support and hear the boxer Muhammad Ali give his reasons for rejecting the draft during the Vietnam War, at a meeting of the Negro Industrial and Economic Union, held in Cleveland, June 4, 1967. Seated in the front row, from left to right: Bill Russell, Muhammad Ali, Jim Brown, and Kareem Abdul Jabbar. Standing behind them are: Carl Stokes, Walter Beach, Bobby Mitchell, Sid Williams, Curtis McClinton, Willie Davis, Jim Shorter, and John Wooten.
Walter Beach | The Undefeated
Walter Beach Recalls Athletes' Support of Ali | New York Times
Ballots and Bullets, by James Robenalt
Happy 56th birthday to
Stan Clayton
Born January 31, 1965 in Philadelphia
Patriot guard, 1990-91; uniform #76
Claimed off waivers from Atlanta on Sept 4, 1990
Stan Clayton played in 11 games with three starts for the Patriots in 1990. He was on and off the roster in '91, but never got on the field that season. Clayton played in a total of 26 NFL games, with 14 starts. He was part of the Penn State team that defeated Miami to win the 1986 NCAA championship.
Clayton has had various roles as a college football coach since 1995. He is currently the
offensive line coach and offensive coordinator at Stetson.
Happy 46th birthday to
Fred Coleman
Born January 31, 1975 in Tyler, Texas
Patriot WR, 2001-02; uniform #84
Signed as a free agent on November 8, 2001
Coleman played in nine regular season games in two stints with the Patriots, with two receptions. He also played in all three 2001 postseason games, with two special teams tackles. His biggest claim to fame is a 46 yard reception on a slant in
week 12 against the Jets. The Pats were down 13-0 in the third quarter and the play led to a touchdown run by
Antowain Smith. That was the catalyst for a comeback, with the Patriots eventually winning 17-16.
Pats sign WR Fred Coleman | Patriots.com
Happy 85th birthday to
Bill Kimber
Born January 31, 1936 in Winter Park, Florida
Patriot DE, 1961; uniform #86
Bill Kimber played in four games for the Patriots in what would be his final season of pro football. He also spent two seasons with the Giants, and training camps with the Chargers (for
Al Davis) and the expansion Minnesota Vikings.
Bill Kimber | Tales From The AFL
And then I got injured, pulled a hamstring, and couldn’t really function as far the function to keep my job. I was running first string when I got hurt, but Van Brocklin, I will always remember, came up to me. He was the coach at that time. He said, “Bill, we’re going to shoot that leg so you can get out there and practice.” I said, “Coach, I can’t do that. There’s too much of a possibility of a sustained injury that would probably end my career. It’s not worth it to me.”
So after I got rehabilitated, where I could play, I went out and had a hell of a ball game in the last exhibition game. I had a good outing, and was cut the following day. It meant that they had to see that I was back in shape to play, but I was cut before I even got out there, in their mind. So I came back, stayed for about two or three weeks, and then the Boston Patriots called me up. That’s where I finished out the season.
At that time, when I went to the Boston Patriots, I guess I was so out of shape that I don’t think I really capitalized on the opportunity that I had. But as I was gradually getting back into shape, to play, in the style that I was accustomed to, Lou Saban was fired. But not before he released me on Thursday. He was fired on Friday and Mike Holovak, the coach that came in as head coach then, tried to reinstate me, but I had already been deactivated on Monday or Tuesday of that week, even though I was told later. So it meant sitting out for a period of time and the season was virtually over. I said, “Gentlemen, that’s it. I’m taking off, and I’ll see you later.”
So that was my third year and also my sudden burst of realization that it was time to get serious and go get a job and raise a family like I had, and chalk it up and be thankful that I had the experience and go on about life.
Happy 59th birthday to
Todd Frain
Born January 31, 1962 in Council Bluffs, Iowa
Patriot TE, 1987; uniform #44
The former Nebraska Cornhusker played in all three of the 1987 replacement player games for the Patriots, with two receptions for 22 yards.
Happy 29th birthday to
Blaine Clausell
Born January 31, 1992 in Mobile, Alabama
Patriot OT, 2015 practice squad; uniform #68
Signed as a free agent on Sept 7, 2015
Clausell was waived as part of final roster cuts by Baltimore after his rookie training camp. He spent most of 2015 on the Patriot practice squad before being released on November 19. Clausell appeared in two NFL games for Arizona; he is now a real estate agent.
Other pro football players born on January 31 with a New England connection:
Kenny McKinley (1987-2010)
Draft pick trades
McKinley was drafted in the 5th round (141st overall) in the 2009 draft. That 5.141 pick had belonged to Philadelphia, who traded it and another fifth round pick to the Patriots in exchange for CB
Ellis Hobbs. The Pats then took those same two picks and traded them to Baltimore for a fourth - which was used on OL
Rich Ohrnberger - and a sixth, which was used for LS
Jake Ingram. McKinley sadly died from suicide at the age of 23.
Jalen Reeves-Maybin, 26 (1995)
Draft pick trades
The linebacker was selected in the fourth round (124th overall) in the 2017 draft. That pick was initially traded by Tennessee, along with a third round pick (used on
Derek Rivers) for a third and a sixth. The Pats then took that 4.124 pick and packaged it with a third (96th overall) to move up eleven spaces to the 85th overall pick in the third round. Unfortunately the Pats used #3.85 on
Antonio Garcia, while Detroit selected WR
Kenny Golladay with the #3.96 pick.
Ted Karras (1934-2016)
Grandfather of current Patriot offensive lineman Ted Karras
The Karras patriarch played in the NFL from 1958 to 1966, winning an NFL championship in 1963 as the starting left guard for the Chicago Bears. His two brothers also played in the NFL (Lou and Hall of Famer Alex), as did his son (Ted) and grandson,
Ted Karras of the Patriots. Between the five of them the family has played in 384 NFL games.
Wayne Millner (1913-1976)
Born in Boston; Salem High School
The Hall of Fame end and defensive end was drafted by the Redskins in 1936, their final year in Boston. In the 1937 NFL championship game the Salem native had nine receptions for 160 yards and two touchdown for Washington to defeat the Bears in Chicago 28-21.
Walt Slater (1920-2012)
Born in Providence
Drafted by the Eagles in 1946, the tailback/quarterback/defensive back/punt and kickoff returner from the University of Tennessee also played for the Steelers.
January 31, 1968: Day Two of the 1968 NFL/AFL Draft
Day Two was better than Day One for the Pats, though to be honest there was nowhere to go but up after the previous day's total cluster of a missed opportunity. Five of the eight players selected by the Pats would end playing for the team. CB
Daryl Johnson only played for three seasons before bolting for the WFL, but was impactful enough to make the All-Decade Team of the 1960s. LB
Jim Cheyunski (12th round) was a five-year starter for the Pats before being traded to Buffalo. CB
John Outlaw (10th round) spent four seasons with the Patriots before he too moved on in another bad trade.
Art McMahon (15th round) was a Patriot defensive back from 1968 to 1972. LB Ed Koontz (six games) and OT Paul Feldhausen (two games) were also part of that draft.
January 31, 1973: Day Two of the 1973 NFL Draft
By today's standards the second day of the draft was equivalent to the signing of undrafted rookies, as it consisted of rounds 8-17. In the 12th round the Pats added
Bruce Barnes from UCLA, who handled the punting duties for two years. In the 14th round with the 342nd pick
Chuck Fairbanks selected a player he saw up close at Oklahoma, nose tackle
Ray Hamilton . Sugar Bear went on to play in 134 games for the Patriots and is a very deserving member of the Pats All-Decade Team of the 1970s.
January 31, 2000:
RLKAG
Remembering the Ray Lewis Controversy | Grantland
But despite his on-field accomplishments, Lewis’s legacy will be tainted by the events of January 31, 2000, for some. Early that morning in Atlanta, a brawl broke out, two were found dead, and Lewis, along with two others, was charged with murder the next day.
In a bit of ironic tone-deafness, when you google '
January 31 Ray Lewis' you also find that one year ago on this same date the former Raven was hosting something called the Century Celebration, sponsored by the Seminole Hard Rock Casino, with tickets ranging from $500 to $2,750.
