Former Giants running back Randy Minniear dead at 79

Randy Minniear, a Giants operating again within the late Nineteen Sixties, died Aug. 13 at 79, according to an online obituary.

No reason behind demise was given.

After taking part in fullback at Purdue, he was chosen by the Giants within the twentieth spherical of the 1966 NFL Draft and would first play in 1967, when Earl Morrall was the quarterback.

“They charge him as the best backup quarterback of all time,” Minniear instructed the Thursday Night Tailgate podcast in 2021. “And that’s one of many issues they are saying about me. I used to be the best benchwarmer of all time. I’ll let you know this, whereas I used to be down there on the top of the bench by the water bucket not one was stolen in 5 years.”

He additionally performed with Corridor of Fame quarterback Fran Tarkenton in 1968 and 1969.

“He’d nearly kill you operating cross patterns since you’d have to vary your cross sample and run from one facet of the sphere to the opposite whereas he was again there scrambling far and wide. However he might throw, good, hard-worker and he simply had a aptitude about him that I simply beloved,” Minniear stated in 2021.

Minniear, who scored 4 touchdowns in 19 video games with the Giants, additionally beloved taking part in at Yankee Stadium.

“Completely unbelievable. I obtained a thrill, despite the fact that I used to be there for 4 years, each time I walked from our locker room we shared with the Yankees and I walked down that wood ramp into the dugout and also you go searching and suppose, ‘Oh my gosh,’” he stated, including, “I don’t suppose there’s something just like the previous Yankee Stadium. It was the joys of a lifetime to play in that.”

His final landing as a Big got here in opposition to Vince Lombardi’s Washington workforce in 1969, although the Giants misplaced 20-14.

Minniear performed with the Browns in 1970 earlier than retiring.

After his taking part in days, he spent almost 40 years engaged on Wall Avenue earlier than transferring to Indianapolis and serving as soccer and baseball coach at Brown County Excessive College.

In 2015, he was inducted into the Indianapolis Public Colleges Corridor of Fame and two months in the past Minniear was inducted into the Indiana Soccer Corridor of Fame.