Albert Charles Blozis (January 5, 1919 – January 31, 1945) was an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...

player and

track and field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping eve ...

athlete who died fighting in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. He played offensive tackle for the New York Giants in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

(NFL)

Biography

Early life

Albert Charles Blozis, known as "Al", was born on January 5, 1919, in Garfield, New Jersey to Lithuanian immigrants.Chapter 6: The Greatrest Hoya Of Them All
/ref> He attended William L. Dickinson High School in Jersey City, New Jersey, where he became well known for his skill in the

discus throw The discus throw (), also known as disc throw, is a track and field event in which an athlete throws a heavy disc—called a discus—in an attempt to mark a farther distance than their competitors. It is an ancient sport, as demonstrated by th ...

and shot put.Thomas, Robert McG., Jr
"Two Giants Were Heroes Far From Playing Field"
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'', January 26, 1991. Accessed September 25, 2009. "Blozis, who was born in Garfield, New Jersey, and was a star athlete at Dickinson High School in Jersey City before going to Georgetown on a track scholarship, was regarded as the strongest player in professional football and had the physique to prove it." At

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private research university in the Georgetown (Washington, D.C.), Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789 as Georg ...

, he won AAU and

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

indoor and outdoor shot titles three years in a row from 1940 to 1942. He had a best put of . In 2015, Blozis was inducted into the

National Track and Field Hall of Fame The National Track and Field Hall of Fame is a museum operated by The Armory Foundation in conjunction with USA Track & Field. It is located within the Armory Foundation (the former Fort Washington Avenue Armory) at 216 Fort Washington Avenue, ...

Professional football career

Blozis was drafted in the fifth round of the

1942 NFL Draft The 1942 National Football League Draft was held on December 22, 1941, at the Palmer House Hotel in Chicago. Two members of the draft class have been inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, Bill Dudley, the first overall selection by the P ...

and played offensive tackle for the New York Giants of the

in 1942 and 1943 before entering the

military A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct ...

. He was also able to play three games in 1944 while on furlough.

World War II and death

In a 1991 news story, ''The New York Times'' wrote, "Curiously, the very size that made him so intimidating on the football field kept him out of the military until late 1943, when, after repeated attempts, Blozis finally persuaded the Army to waive its size limit and accept him. It took further persuading to get from a desk job to the front lines." Blozis was inducted into the United States Army on December 9, 1943. He was first assigned to duty as a physical instructor at

Walter Reed General Hospital The Walter Reed Army Medical Center (WRAMC)known as Walter Reed General Hospital (WRGH) until 1951was the U.S. Army's flagship medical center from 1909 to 2011. Located on in the District of Columbia, it served more than 150,000 active and reti ...

and then went through officer training at Fort Benning, where he set the army's

hand-grenade A grenade is an explosive weapon typically thrown by hand (also called hand grenade), but can also refer to a shell (explosive projectile) shot from the muzzle of a rifle (as a rifle grenade) or a grenade launcher. A modern hand grenade genera ...

-throwing record with a toss of 94 yards, 2 feet, 6.5 inches. He was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the 28th Infantry Division. On January 31, 1945, his

platoon A platoon is a military unit typically composed of two or more squads, sections, or patrols. Platoon organization varies depending on the country and the branch, but a platoon can be composed of 50 people, although specific platoons may rang ...

was in the

Vosges Mountains The Vosges ( , ; german: Vogesen ; Franconian and gsw, Vogese) are a range of low mountains in Eastern France, near its border with Germany. Together with the Palatine Forest to the north on the German side of the border, they form a single ...

of France scouting enemy lines. When two of his men, a sergeant and a private, failed to return from a patrol, he went in search of them alone. He never returned. Blozis was first listed as missing, but in April 1945, his death was confirmed. His remains were buried at the Lorraine American Cemetery and Memorial in

Saint-Avold Saint-Avold (; ; Lorraine Franconian: ''Sänt Avuur'') is a commune in the Moselle department in Grand Est in north-eastern France. It is situated twenty-eight miles (45 km) east of Metz, France and seventeen miles (27 km) southwest o ...

, Moselle.

Honors

The New York Giants retired the number 32 that Blozis had worn. A second Giants player, Jack Lummus, also died in World War II. In April 1946, ''True Comics''True Comics, Chicago, No. 48, April 1946 featured a story about Blozis entitled ''The Human Howitzer''.The Human Howitzer
/ref> The United States Army honored Blozis by naming an athletic center in

Frankfurt Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , " Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on it ...

, Germany after him. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1986. An apartment building in Jersey City, Al Blozis Hall, is named in his honor.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Blozis, Al 1919 births 1945 deaths American football tackles American male discus throwers American male shot putters United States Army personnel killed in World War II American people of Lithuanian descent Burials at Lorraine American Cemetery and Memorial College Football Hall of Fame inductees Georgetown Hoyas football players National Football League players with retired numbers New York Giants players People from Garfield, New Jersey Players of American football from Jersey City, New Jersey Sportspeople from Jersey City, New Jersey William L. Dickinson High School alumni United States Army officers Military personnel from New Jersey Missing in action of World War II