Ivan Charles "Tucker" Frederickson (born January 12, 1943) is a former

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 ...

running back A running back (RB) is a member of the offensive backfield in gridiron football. The primary roles of a running back are to receive American football plays#Offensive terminology, handoffs from the quarterback to Rush (American football)#Offen ...

for the

New York Giants The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Giants compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East division. ...

of the

NFL 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 major ...

. He was an All-American in college, a

Heisman Trophy The Heisman Memorial Trophy (usually known colloquially as the Heisman Trophy or The Heisman) is awarded annually to the most outstanding player in college football. Winners epitomize great ability combined with diligence, perseverance, and hard ...

runner-up, the #1 pick of the 1965 NFL draft, and a Pro Bowl fullback with the Giants.

Biography

Frederickson graduated from South Broward High School in

Hollywood, Florida Hollywood is a city in southern Broward County, Florida, United States, located between Fort Lauderdale and Miami. As of July 1, 2019, Hollywood had a population of 154,817. Founded in 1925, the city grew rapidly in the 1950s and 1960s, and is now ...

. A

two-way player In sports that require a player to play on offense and defense (such as basketball and ice hockey), a two-way player refers to a player who excels at both. In sports where a player typically specializes on offense or defense (like American footb ...

, he then attended

Auburn University Auburn University (AU or Auburn) is a public land-grant research university in Auburn, Alabama. With more than 24,600 undergraduate students and a total enrollment of more than 30,000 with 1,330 faculty members, Auburn is the second largest uni ...

in Alabama, averaging 4.4 yards per carry on offense and leading the Tigers football team in interceptions as a safety on defense. In 1963, he won the Jacobs Award as the best blocking back in the

Southeastern Conference The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is an American college athletic conference whose member institutions are located primarily in the South Central and Southeastern United States. Its fourteen members include the flagship public universities of ...

. He won it again in 1964, and was sixth in the

race. Coach

Shug Jordan Zhug ( he, סְחוּג, s'ḥug), sahawiq (Yemeni Arabic: ) or bisbas ( Somali: ) is a hot sauce originating in Yemeni cuisine. In other countries of the Arabian Peninsula it is also called ma'booj ( ar, معبوج}). Etymology The word '' ...

called him "the most complete football player I've ever seen". He was an All-American in 1964. Frederickson was taken as the first overall pick in the

1965 NFL Draft The 1965 National Football League draft was held at the Summit Hotel in New York City on Saturday, November 28, 1964. The first player selected was Tucker Frederickson, back from Auburn, by the New York Giants. The draft was marked by the failur ...

by the New York Giants, playing six seasons for them before a knee injury forced his retirement in 1971. He was inducted in the

College Football Hall of Fame The College Football Hall of Fame is a hall of fame and interactive attraction devoted to college football. The National Football Foundation (NFF) founded the Hall in 1951 to immortalize the players and coaches of college football that were vote ...

in 1994. Frederickson is referred to by

Brian Piccolo Louis Brian Piccolo (October 31, 1943 – June 16, 1970) was an American professional football player, a halfback for the Chicago Bears of the National Football League (NFL) for four years. He died at age 26 from embryonal cell carcinoma, an a ...

(

James Caan James Edmund Caan ( ; March 26, 1940 – July 6, 2022) was an American actor. He came to prominence playing Sonny Corleone in ''The Godfather'' (1972) – a performance which earned him Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, Academy Award an ...

) as the man to beat in 1971's ''

Brian's Song ''Brian's Song'' is a 1971 ABC Movie of the Week that recounts the life of Brian Piccolo (James Caan), a Chicago Bears football player stricken with terminal cancer after turning pro in 1965, told through his friendship with teammate Gale Sayers ...

'' as both of them went to the same high school. In fact they went to different high schools, Frederickson to South Broward and Piccolo to Central Catholic (now St. Thomas Aquinas). Tucker went to the coveted Auburn University while Piccolo had to "settle" for Wake Forest.

External links

Hall of Fame Bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Frederickson, Tucker 1943 births Living people All-American college football players American football running backs National Football League first-overall draft picks Auburn Tigers football players New York Giants players Eastern Conference Pro Bowl players Players of American football from Florida