The New York Giants have been in existence for over a century and have a long, storied history. One of the best parts about being a Giants fan is that one can draw on that history and how the franchise has preserved it over the years.
Over the Memorial Day weekend, we remember two former Giants players who gave their lives for their country.
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In 2010, in accordance with the opening of MetLife Stadium, the Giants established their Ring of Honor with 30 of the franchise’s greatest names. One of those names was Al Blozis, an offensive tackle who played for Big Blue from 1942 to 1944 before finally being accepted by the United States Army after repeated rejections due to his size.
The 6-foot-6, 250-pound Blozis was a native of Garfield, New Jersey, who attended Georgetown. He was selected by the Giants in the fifth round of the 1942 NFL draft and became an all-star and an All-Pro. He was later named to the NFL’s All-1940s Team.
Blozis never made it back to the Giants. A second lieutenant who went from a desk job to the front lines in France during World War II, Blozis was confirmed as killed in action in the Vosges Mountains in France in January of 1945.
Later that year, Blozis was honored by the Giants. They retired his jersey number (32) and placed a plaque in his memory on the clubhouse wall in centerfield of the Giants’ home stadium, the Polo Grounds, located in upper Manhattan.
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Blozis’ plaque was joined by that of another Giants player, Jack Lummus, who was killed in action that year. Lummus played for the Giants in 1941 and left the team to join the Marines after the attack on Pearl Harbor. He was killed in action in the battle of Iwo Jima in March of 1945.
Lummus’ last words were reportedly, “Well, Doc, the New York Giants lost a mighty good end today.”
The Giants inducted Lummus into their Ring of Honor in 2015. They also have his plaque that hung in the Polo Grounds from 1945 to 1957 in a showcase in their Legacy Club at MetLife Stadium.
They do not have Blozis’ plaque, however. The Giants had moved from the Polo Grounds to Yankee Stadium after the 1955 season and left the plaques behind. After the New York Baseball Giants played their last game at the Polo Grounds before moving to San Francisco, angry fans stormed the field and ripped the plaques off the wall.
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There were seven plaques altogether. The Lummus and Blozis plaques, one honoring former New York City mayor Jimmy Walker and four commemorating baseball Giants legends John McGraw, Christy Mathewson, Ross Youngs, and Eddie Grant.
To this day, only one plaque still exists in the public domain, that of Lummus. We have former Giants owner Wellington Mara to thank for that. The plaque turned up in a sporting goods store on 42nd Street in Manhattan years later and was purchased by Mara for a reported $3,000.
This article originally appeared on Giants Wire: Remembering fallen New York Giants on the heels of Memorial Day
