You should have seen Eddie LeBaron hit a tennis ball
He is a member of the College Football Hall of Fame and was a four-time NFL Pro Bowl selection — and he received his law degree at the same time he was quarterback for the Washington Redskins. He graduated sixth in his class from George Washington University.
In the Korean War, he was a combat officer. He won two Purple Hearts and the Bronze Star.
He was a football broadcaster for CBS.
He was general manager of the Atlanta Falcons.
Eddie LeBaron stood all of 5 feet 7 inches tall. Although the Redskins listed him at 5-9 in their official program.
Johnny Unitas, Bart Starr, Norm Van Brocklin, Y.A. Tittle, Bobby Layne. These were LeBaron’s contemporaries.
“The greatest little football player that ever lived was Eddie LeBaron,” said Chuck Bednarik, the rugged former Philadelphia Eagles two-way player who died on March 21.
And now Eddie LeBaron is gone, too. He died Wednesday at age 85 at an assisted living center in Stockton, Calif., where he once had played football at the University of Pacific — College of Pacific then — under the coaching legend Amos Alonzo Stagg.
To historians and to tough-as-nails Chuck Bednarik, he was all of the things listed above.
He also was club champion in golf and tennis at the Desert Inn and Las Vegas Country Club. His son, Wayne, played quarterback for Valley High School.
Eddie LeBaron was a securities attorney in Las Vegas, from 1969 through 1977, before the Falcons called and brought him back to the NFL as their general manager.
When Joseph W. Brown of the Fennemore Craig law firm called and left a voice mail message after learning that LeBaron had died, he indicated Eddie was a lot of things to a lot of people.
To Joe Brown, he was mostly a friend.
“He was just the nicest guy ... humble,” said Brown, a former appointee of President Ronald Reagan to the State Justice Institute and the U.S. Foreign Claims Settlement Commission who has served on the boards of myriad business and civic organizations.
“There wasn’t a single thing (he’d say) to let you know he had been an athlete.”
Brown said he remembered being invited to LeBaron’s home; he expected it would be a shrine to all that he had accomplished as a football player and as a war hero and as an attorney.
“There wasn’t a damn thing in his house, either,” Brown said.
Brown said he asked Eddie’s wife, Doralee — the two were married 60 years and had three children — about her husband’s lack of pretentiousness. She said all of Eddie’s stuff was in a closet.
Maybe he should have been like Christian Laettner and made a hammock of his laurels upon which to rest.
But that was not Eddie LeBaron’s style.
Joe Brown said he considered Eddie a good pal who did not thump his chest or stick it out. But he did know only one speed, Brown said. He said I should have seen him hit a tennis ball.
When Eddie died the other day, the Review-Journal put his football picture up on the guest book of an obituary page. There were 44 messages as of Monday morning. Many were about football, about LeBaron having been the first quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys, along with Dandy Don Meredith. Some were about him having been a Marine.
This is what Don McKenna of Tucson, Ariz., wrote:
Eddie LeBaron and I share what was a horrible day. Sept. 11, 1951.
Hill 673. North Korea.
On that day, I told him how much the men in his platoon admired him. He was platoon leader of 2nd Platoon, Baker Company, 7th Marine Regiment.
My 1st platoon had made the initial try to take this hill. A highly unsuccessful attempt.
My role as a Pfc. Rifleman was over from the try to take the hill. The corpsman told me I was to be evacuated and I was reluctant to leave.
He called Lt. LeBaron over and asked for help. Eddie LeBaron simply picked me up, baby style, and carried me down the trail to the helicopter pad.
There was no discussion.
Once there he instructed two huge Marines to be sure I was placed on the helicopter and he left to return to his platoon.
‘Yes, sir’ was the answer.
His men did admire him. He was a true leader of Marines.
That is not a title that can be earned without merit.
In 1955, the “Littlest General,” which is what LeBaron was sometimes called by the sportswriters of his day, guided the Washington Redskins to an 8-4 record. That was Washington’s first winning season since 1948. The next one wouldn’t come until 1969.
The obituaries written last week said the teams Eddie LeBaron played for weren’t very good.
Don McKenna of Tucson, Ariz., might beg to disagree.
Las Vegas Review-Journal sports columnist Ron Kantowski can be reached at rkantowski@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0352. Follow him on Twitter: @ronkantowski.