Possibly the most entertaining NFL player that ever talked publicly has to be Art Donovan. The funny Defensive lineman always had an entertaining story to tell, but his family background and personal story are fascinating as well.
Art Donovan Jr
What made Art Donovan such a great football player?Art Donovan
Art Donovan may be the most interesting storyteller in all of football history. There are numerous YouTube clips of Donovan speaking with late-night hosts like Carson, Letterman, and others spinning yarns of his observances of everyday life and his takes on them. They are really quite funny as Art had a sense of humor that would even make the Monalisa go into a full grin.
Donovan’s real-life story may be even more intriguing than the anecdotes he yucked it up with on late-night TV. Here are some facts and a few of many interesting tidbits on the jovial Defensive Tackle.
Good Athletic Patriotic Bloodlines
Art according to the Pro Football History was born in June of 1924. His father, Art Sr., was a famous boxing official who was in the ring for 14 Title fights including many of Champion Joe Louis's bouts. His patriotism interrupted his career as he fought for the US Army on the Mexican border and in France during World War I.
Art Sr. received his knowledge and love of boxing from his Pop, Mike Donovan who was a legendary middle-weight champion fighter back in the early twentieth century. Mike joined the Union Army at the age of 15 and fought in battles of the Civil War. He learned some valuable lessons while serving and one of them was hand to hand fighting, so after the war he used these skills as an income source, boxing per The Guardian.com. He gained some notoriety in the sport to as he eventually had some memorable battles against a heavyweight contender named John L Sullivan, who went on to become one of the most celebrated fighters of his time. Mike D. was so good that President Theodore Roosevelt even solicited the prize fighter to train him in the art of pulugism to stay in shape with rigorous exercise that it provides. Both his grandfather Mike and father Art Sr. have been inducted into the Boxing Hall of Fame.
Eventhough Art Jr. was in the family of some boxing royalty, the call of the gridiron was his guiding light. He was a smashing success at Mount Saint Michael Academy in the Bronx, and the college recruiters were looking at the youngster quite a bit. He finally chose Notre Dame in 1943 and after just one semester a different spirit came calling. Like his father and grandfather before him, patriotic duty took the young man from the college dorm and into the field of battle, only Ar Jr. did it with the US Marine Corp.
War stories
Donovan served in the Pacific theatre fighting the Japanese as an anti-aircraft gunner. He served on the USS San Jacinto at the same time another famous young man was also bravely serving his country on the same ship, future President of the United States, George H. W. Bush.
Art served his country well, and had more than one encounter with kamikaze pilots that in some cases, he said caught fire as you shot them down and exploded in pieces on the deck of the ship. How did the devilish Marine keep his mind off of the dangers of his duties? Well in one case he got caught stealing.
Donovan was landside during the incident, and after he made off with his booty, he hid it under his tent. A day or two later his lieutenant found the stolen goods during a routine inspection. It wasn’t money, gold or jewels that Donovan stole, it was a case of the canned meat, Spam. The dialog of the encounter as told in the Pro Football History article goes like this;
“Where did you get the Spam?” his lieutenant asked. “I found it on the side of the road,” said Donovan. Astonished at Donovan’s response, his superior sent him to the regimental headquarters for further inquisition.
A colonel there was the next to question Donovan about the stolen mystery meat. The question of why he took the food rations arose in this round of questioning, even so far to see if he did it to take to the enemy! Donovan swore up and down he took it for his own consumption. The colonel looked at him with with disbelief and basically told him that no one likes that stuff, and if this was true he had a choice to make either eat all 30 pounds of the Spam or he would be sent to the brig. SInce that is what he had intended anyway, Donovan accepted the challenge of consuming the case of preserved pork.
“I got up in the middle of the night and made Spam sandwiches,” Donovan said. “I heated it over a Bunsen burner. I had the cook dip it in batter and deep-fry it.”
The big man avoided penance in the slammer by doing one of his favorite self proclaimed hobbies, eating and it onl took him nine days to complete the task.
Back to school and off to work
After the war, Art returned home and decided not to go back to Notre Dame, but instead enrolled at Boston College. He had a nice collegiate career with the Eagles playing the position of tackle on both sides of the ball. His dominating play earned him induction into the school’s Sports Hall of Fame in 1970. He also made it to the second team of the All-New England football prestige and this got him noticed by the NFL.
In 1950, the original Baltimore Colts selected Donovan in the third round of a special NFL draft. That Colts franchise folded at the end of the 1950 season. Art rights then became the property of the New York Yanks and when they dissolved he was sent to theDallas Texans. Guess what they didn’t make it long either.
"I helped kill three teams," Donovan said in later in one of his conversations.
Finally in 1953 he found a home when a new version of the Baltimore Colts arose from the ashes. Donovan became an integral part of the Defensive line on the team and helped them to rise as one of the NFL’s top teams.
Donovan was a large man for this era tipping the scales at 275 for most of his playing days. He had at times played even heavier and still surprisingly had great quickness of the ball for a big man. Donovan on one of his interviews recalled that the Colts brass had gave him an ultimatum of being no heavier than 275 when he reported for training camp. Art said he worked hard in his offseason conditioning, often lifting 24 ounce weights with the words Schlitz marked on the side of them. Donovan added that he had to rehydrate as he worked out with these, so he drank them.
Art was a funny man off the field, but make no mistake he was tough. Teammate Geno Marchetti was quoted as recanting this, "One game, he and [San Francisco 49ers tackle] Don Campora were going at it, calling each other an s.o.b. All of a sudden, Artie gave him a shot and I looked over there and Artie had a whole handful of the guy's teeth. The referee came over but didn't do anything because when Campora tried to tell him what Artie had done, he couldn't talk right."
We could go on and on with Art Donovan as he was a great player who ended up gaining enshrinement in the Pro Football Hall of Fame for his accomplished 12 year career of pro ball. In a future episode we will cover more of this jovial giant of football’s yesteryear.
Credits
The banner photo is courtesy of Wikimedia Commons Public Domain collection of Art Donovan Jr in 2010.
A Very Special thanks to information obtained from the following brilliant internet sites mentioned above including the Pro Football History site and the Guardian.