If you say 18 to me as a jersey number, my answer is the first person who pops into my feeble brain. Since I grew up in LA, those names will belong to the teams I grew up rooting for. Not many people would have thought of Jim Gilliam when it came to 19, but that’s who I think of. (Oops, ended the sentence with a preposition….one of the stupidest English rules). So when you say 18, I think of 2 athletes. One is the shortstop who played for the Dodgers in the 70’s when they had an infield that stayed together for years: Steve Garvey at first, Davey Lopes at second, Ron Cey at third, and Bill Russell at short.
Before I think of Russell, however, another name pops in first: Roman Gabriel, the star quarterback of the LA Rams. He had a stellar career at North Carolina State and he is now in the College Football Hall of Fame. What’s interesting about the start of his career in 1962 is that the pro football league was split back then into the AFL and the NFL.. They had not merged yet. Oakland had the #1 pick in the AFL and they drafted Gabriel. The Rams had the #2 pick in the NFL and they selected him, as well. Thankfully, he signed with the Rams and went on to have a great career. (Ernie Davis, the running back out of Syracuse, was the #1 pick by the Redskins and he was traded immediately to the Browns. He unfortunately was diagnosed with Leukemia and never played a down in the NFL, and he sadly passed away in 1963 at the young age of 23). Gabriel won several awards in his career. He made the pro bowl 4 times, he won the NFL MVP in 1969, and led the league in passing in 1973 to win comeback player of the year, but he was with the Eagles then having played for the Rams from 1962-1972.
One other funny note about Gabriel. He had a child with his first wife and named him “Ram Allen Gabriel”. I’m assuming that his middle name refers to George Allen, the head coach for the Rams who first made Gabriel his starting QB. If I would have had a kid, I could have named him Dodger Alston Jones. Or does Dodger Lasorda Jones sound better?
You can think of any 18 you want, like the great Peyton Manning, but when I think of 18, I picture Gabriel in 1969 throwing a TD pass while having three defenders hanging on him and trying to bring him down unsuccessfully. He was da man!
17 is next, and one of the hardest numbers for my mind to click on. You’ll find out Monday, who I came up with (Dang…another sentence ending with a preposition).
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