May 22, 2002 – Paul Giel, a football and baseball all-American and former director of athletics at the University of Minnesota died on this date in Minneapolis. He was 70.
“Giel collapsed in his car while returning from the Minnesota Twins-Texas Rangers baseball game in the Metrodome to watch his 12-year-old grandson, Paul 3rd, play in a Little League game. Giel suffered a heart attack and was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.”
As a 5-foot-11-inch, 185-pound single-wing tailback for Minnesota from 1951 through 1953, Giel (pronounced GEEL) received an athletic scholarship that covered only tuition, so he worked in a brewery to earn money for room and board. Over three years, he ran and passed for 4,110 yards and 35 touchdowns. As a senior, he finished a close second to Johnny Lattner, the Notre Dame quarterback, in the voting for the Heisman Trophy as the year's outstanding college player. He was later elected to the National Football Foundation's College Hall of Fame.
The Canadian Football League offered Giel $75,000 over three years, and the Chicago Bears held his National Football League rights. Seven or eight baseball teams, including all three in New York -- the Giants, the Yankees and the Brooklyn Dodgers -- also wanted him.
Giel signed with the Giants for a $60,000 bonus, their highest ever at the time. He had a strong fastball, a good slider and an ordinary curveball and needed minor league seasoning, but the rules at the time required such so-called bonus babies to spend at least their first two years in the major leagues.
He had mixed feelings about that, telling The Daily Mirror: ‘I don't only want to sit around, just hoping. I want to play. I want to belong.’
He seldom played -- Giel appeared in 30 games in his first two seasons -- but he was excited anyway. A month after his major league career began, he told Arthur Daley, The New York Times columnist: 'This is wonderful. Every game's a Rose Bowl game. I still can't believe that Willie Mays is real. He just has to be a figment of someone's imagination.’
From 1954 to 1961, with two years off for active duty as an Army officer, Giel was a right-handed pitcher for the New York and San Francisco Giants, the Pittsburgh Pirates, the Minnesota Twins and the Kansas City Athletics. His career record was 11-9 in 102 games (11 starts), with a 5.39 earned run average.
Paul Robert Giel was born Feb. 29, 1932, in Winona, Minn.”
He was the University of Minnesota's athletic director from 1972 to 1988. “Among the coaches [Giel] hired were Lou Holtz in football and Herb Brooks in hockey. Until his death, he was the chief fund-raiser for the Minneapolis Heart Institute.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/26/sports/paul-giel-70-all-american-in-two-sports-and-pro-pitcher.html
“Giel collapsed in his car while returning from the Minnesota Twins-Texas Rangers baseball game in the Metrodome to watch his 12-year-old grandson, Paul 3rd, play in a Little League game. Giel suffered a heart attack and was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.”
As a 5-foot-11-inch, 185-pound single-wing tailback for Minnesota from 1951 through 1953, Giel (pronounced GEEL) received an athletic scholarship that covered only tuition, so he worked in a brewery to earn money for room and board. Over three years, he ran and passed for 4,110 yards and 35 touchdowns. As a senior, he finished a close second to Johnny Lattner, the Notre Dame quarterback, in the voting for the Heisman Trophy as the year's outstanding college player. He was later elected to the National Football Foundation's College Hall of Fame.
The Canadian Football League offered Giel $75,000 over three years, and the Chicago Bears held his National Football League rights. Seven or eight baseball teams, including all three in New York -- the Giants, the Yankees and the Brooklyn Dodgers -- also wanted him.
Giel signed with the Giants for a $60,000 bonus, their highest ever at the time. He had a strong fastball, a good slider and an ordinary curveball and needed minor league seasoning, but the rules at the time required such so-called bonus babies to spend at least their first two years in the major leagues.
He had mixed feelings about that, telling The Daily Mirror: ‘I don't only want to sit around, just hoping. I want to play. I want to belong.’
He seldom played -- Giel appeared in 30 games in his first two seasons -- but he was excited anyway. A month after his major league career began, he told Arthur Daley, The New York Times columnist: 'This is wonderful. Every game's a Rose Bowl game. I still can't believe that Willie Mays is real. He just has to be a figment of someone's imagination.’
From 1954 to 1961, with two years off for active duty as an Army officer, Giel was a right-handed pitcher for the New York and San Francisco Giants, the Pittsburgh Pirates, the Minnesota Twins and the Kansas City Athletics. His career record was 11-9 in 102 games (11 starts), with a 5.39 earned run average.
Paul Robert Giel was born Feb. 29, 1932, in Winona, Minn.”
He was the University of Minnesota's athletic director from 1972 to 1988. “Among the coaches [Giel] hired were Lou Holtz in football and Herb Brooks in hockey. Until his death, he was the chief fund-raiser for the Minneapolis Heart Institute.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/26/sports/paul-giel-70-all-american-in-two-sports-and-pro-pitcher.html
Paul Giel
http://www.hclib.org/pub/search/mplsphotos/mphotosaction.cfm?keyword=&subject=Baseball&Start=141
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