Robert Leslie Suci (April 7, 1939 – December 21, 2015) 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 with ...

player. He played

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

for

Michigan State University Michigan State University (Michigan State, MSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the fi ...

. He also played professional football in the

American Football League The American Football League (AFL) was a major professional American football league that operated for ten seasons from 1960 until 1970, when it merged with the older National Football League (NFL), and became the American Football Conference. ...

for the

Houston Oilers The Houston Oilers were a professional American football team that played in Houston from its founding in 1960 to 1996 before relocating to Memphis, and later Nashville, Tennessee becoming the Tennessee Titans. The Oilers began play in 1960 as ...

in 1962 and the

Boston Patriots Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- most ...

in 1963. He appeared in 20 AFL games and returned 25 punts for 233 yards (9.3 yds/return) and 17 kickoffs for 360 yards (21.2 yds/return). In 1963, he led the AFL with 272 interception return yards and two interceptions returned for touchdowns, including a 98-yard return. His 272 interception return yards in 1963 ranks as the ninth best single-season total in NFL history. He died in 2015 in

Grand Blanc, Michigan Grand Blanc is a city in Genesee County in the U.S. state of Michigan and a suburb of Flint. The population was 7,784 as of the 2020 US Census. History The unincorporated village of Grand Blanc, or Grumlaw, was a former Indian campground firs ...

, where he lived.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Suci, Bob 1939 births 2015 deaths American football defensive backs Michigan State Spartans football players Houston Oilers players Boston Patriots players Players of American football from Flint, Michigan People from Grand Blanc, Michigan American Football League players