Ex-Giants Great Conerly Dies At 74

Charlie Conerly, the quarterback who led the New York Giants to the 1956 National Football League championship and held virtually all of the club’s career passing records until Phil Simms surpassed them, died Tuesday in a Memphis, Tenn., hospital. He was 74.

Conerly, who lived in Clarksdale, Miss., not far from Memphis, died of heart failure after a long illness, according to his wife, Perian. He had been hospitalized since Sept. 19, his birthday, when he underwent triple-bypass heart surgery.

With silver-streaked black hair and a ruggedly handsome face that later would be seen in the “Marlboro man” cigarette advertisements, Conerly was the quiet leader of the Giants team that popularized pro football in New York in 1956 with an 8-3-1 record and a 47-7 rout of the Chicago Bears in the NFL championship game at Yankee Stadium.

“The next year the Giants had a sellout every game because of what we did in 1956,” Frank Gifford, a teammate, once said. “Charlie was the biggest reason for that.”

Conerly, Gifford, Kyle Rote, Alex Webster, Roosevelt Brown, Andy Robustelli, Sam Huff, Emlen Tunnell, Jim Patton and Pat Summerall were suddenly the toast of New York football fans.

Those Giants teams also finished first in the Eastern Conference in 1958 and 1959 before losing both championship games to the Baltimore Colts.

In the 1958 title game, Conerly collaborated with Gifford on a 15-yard touchdown pass for a 17-14 lead late in the fourth quarter. But the Colts forced overtime on Johnny Unitas’s passes to Raymond Berry that positioned Steve Myhra’s tying field goal, then won on Alan Ameche’s 1-yard touchdown in what some people still consider to be pro football’s most historic game.

In 1959 Conerly, then 38 years old, was the NFL’s top-ranked passer, but the Giants lost the title game in Baltimore, 31-16. At age 40 in 1961, his final season, he was the backup to Y.A. Tittle.