Former Giants TE Ken McAfee passes at 77

From Boston.com
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By Globe Staff July 10, 2007
Kenneth A. MacAfee, a key component of the dominant New York Giants teams of the mid-1950s and a player credited with being the first tight end in the NFL, died July 4 in Brockton. He was 77.

Mr. MacAfee, a Brockton resident, had collapsed while playing golf and was believed to have suffered a heart attack.

Mr. MacAfee was a sprinter at Boston University and a football player at the University of Alabama, leading the Crimson Tide in receiving in 1951. After a standout year as a receiver for the Giants in his rookie year, he found his role was about to change.

Vince Lombardi, then offensive coordinator for the Giants, moved Mr. MacAfee from outside, or split, end, to tight end.

"When Vince told me I was a tight end, I didn't even know what he was talking about," Mr. MacAfee told the Globe in 1979. "I was primarily a blocker."

"Pro football back then was always single-wing formations, so Dad didn't know what to think about this new position, but he went along with Vince," his son, Kenneth Jr., told the Globe in 2003. His son had been a star tight end for the University of Notre Dame and a college Hall of Famer. "It worked out for him. A year later, the Giants won the NFL championship."

With such star players as Frank Gifford, Sam Huff, Emlen Tunnell, Rosey Grier, Mel Triplett, Pat Summerall, and Roosevelt Brown, the Giants were a leading team in NFL in the mid and late 1950s. They won the 1956 title game over the Bears, 47-7, and battled the Baltimore Colts in what many observers believe was the greatest NFL game ever played, the 1958 title game in which they lost in sudden death, 23-17.

Many of his memories, however, centered on being part of a close team, he said. "We were really one big happy family," Mr. MacAfee said. "If one guy went out at night for a beer, 32 others went with him. That's the way it was."

Life in the NFL took its toll.
"I got to see my dad sit down to watch TV and crack every joint in his body, I mean ankles and toes and knuckles," his son said in the 2003 interview. "I saw what pro football could do to a person's body."

Mr. MacAfee spent his offseasons in a variety of jobs, including working as mason contractor, with a men's clothing manufacturer, and at the old Haffenreffer Brewery in Jamaica Plain.
"I don't know if the players were any more dedicated then or now," Mr. MacAfee had said. "But today's player doesn't have to work, and we did, just to keep the family and the mortgage going."
The 1958 title game was the last he played with the Giants. In 1959, his last season, he split the year with the Philadelphia Eagles and the Washington Redskins.

His football salary never exceeded $10,000. After retiring from football, he worked in sales with the F.C. Phillips Co. in Stoughton and Warehouse Equipment Inc. in Braintree.
Mr. MacAfee grew up in Brockton and graduated from Oliver Ames High School. He served in the Marines during the Korean War.

In addition to his son, of Needham, Mr. MacAfee leaves his wife Diane E. (Lockwood); three sisters, Norma Baer, Nancy Sciore, and Martha Gomes; and two grandchildren.
A wake and prayer service have been held.