College career
He played college football for the Boston College Eagles. [7] He was a wide receiver on the football team for three years (1960-62). [8] As a sophomore he caught 14 passes for 221 yards, and as a junior he had 15 receptions for 225 yards and two touchdowns. [9] [10] Graham was named team captain as a senior in 1962. [11]
His senior year was his best season at Boston College. He had 41 receptions for 823 yards and seven touchdowns. [12] Graham's 823 receiving yards were fourth highest nationally, his 20.1 yards per reception fifth best nationally, and his 41 receptions tied for ninth most nationally. [13] At the time, his 41 receptions also set a Boston College single season reception record. [14] Boston College's starting quarterback in 1962 was future NFL quarterback Jack Concannon, [15] who had a 53.6% pass completion rate and tied for the most touchdown passes in the nation (15). [12] [13]
The Associated Press (AP) named Graham to its All-East Football Team in 1961 and 1962. [16] [17] In 1962, the AP selected Graham first-team All-New England at end, [18] and United Press International (UPI) selected him to its All-New England Football Team as well. [19] He was also named a Catholic All-American at end in 1962. [20] He was selected to play in the East-West Shrine Game in 1962. [21] When he graduated, in addition to holding the school's single season pass reception record he also held the school record for total career receptions. [17]
Graham was an outfielder on Boston College's baseball team. In 1961, his team won the New England baseball championship and played in the 1961 College World Series. [14] He hit a home run against the eventual champion University of Southern California Trojan team. [22] [23] Graham was also a reserve on Boston College's 1961-62 basketball team. [24]
Professional career
The Boston Patriots selected Graham in the first round of the 1963 AFL draft, with the seventh overall pick. [25] The Cleveland Browns selected him in the 11th round of the 1963 NFL draft, 149th overall. [26] The Patriots quickly offered Graham a $10,000 signing bonus, but Graham considered playing with the Browns, believing he was a better receiver than their first-round draft pick. He ultimately chose the Patriots. [27]
Patriots coach Mike Holovak had been Boston College's head football coach from 1951 to 1959. [28] [29] Patriots president and owner Bill Sullivan stated that a number of NFL teams would have taken Graham in the first round of the 1963 NFL draft, but the NFL teams assumed Graham would join Holovak, who both coached and played at Boston College. [11]
As a rookie in 1963, Graham averaged a team record 26.2 yards per reception, with 550 yards on 21 receptions and five touchdowns. [30] [27] He replaced All-Star receiver Jim Colclough (another Boston College graduate) as a starting receiver after the season's first game. Colclough had not played well, but was hampered by a hamstring injury. In the Patriots opening 1963 game, Graham had two receptions for 48 yards, including a 33-yard touchdown pass from Babe Parilli. In an early October game against the New York Jets, he had six receptions for 156 yards and two touchdowns. He had touchdown receptions of 40, 57 and 77 yards that year, the latter setting a team record. [31] [32] [33] [27] During the season, however, Graham's playing time was limited by his own injuries. He only started two games. [34] [11] [35] [30] [32]
He was named the Patriots' Rookie of the Year in 1963. [27] In the Patriots 26–8 playoff victory over the Buffalo Bills, Graham had a 22-yard pass reception and two punt returns for 34 yards (including a 28-yard return). [36] He had two receptions for 68 yards in the Patriots 51–10 loss to the San Diego Chargers in the 1963 AFL Championship Game. [37]
In 1964, Graham started 12 games at receiver, with 45 receptions for 720 yards and six touchdowns. [38] He missed two games while injured in 1964. [39] Graham’s career-best game came on November 6, 1964, in a Patriots 25–24 victory over the Houston Oilers, when Graham caught eight passes for 167 yards. The Oilers were ahead 24–22 with 32 seconds left in the game, but the Patriots' Gino Cappelletti kicked a field goal with one second remaining for the victory. [40] [41] On November 29, 1964, Graham caught an 80-yard touchdown pass from Babe Parilli in the Patriots 34–17 win over the Oilers. [42]
Graham also had an impact on special teams in 1964. In a September 13, 1964 game against the Oakland Raiders he made a game-saving tackle on a punt return. Graham had been the first man down the field in punt coverage, and had to turn around and chase the Raiders' Hoot Gibson who had fielded the punt. Gibson had run the punt back 52 yards when Graham caught him and prevented a touchdown. [43] Graham duplicated this feat the following week against the San Diego Chargers in preserving a win for the Patriots, 33–28. With just minutes to go in the game, future Hall of Famer Lance Alworth [44] had returned a punt 43 yards, with Graham racing behind him. Graham dove and grabbed Alworth's ankle from behind at the Patriots five-yard line, preventing a touchdown. The Chargers could not score a touchdown on the ensuing series, and lost the game after only kicking a field goal. [45] [46] Chargers' star running back Keith Lincoln could understand Graham catching Gibson a week earlier, but was stunned Graham could catch the fast Alworth, and praised Graham as a great athlete. [45]
The Patriots finished 10–3–1 in 1964, but fell to 4–8–2 in 1965. [38] [47] Graham only started six games in 1965, and was described as injury prone. He had 25 receptions for 316 yards, averaging a career-low 12.6 yards per catch. [47] [48] [1] He started 13 games in 1966, and had a career-high 51 receptions, to go along with 673 receiving yards and four touchdown catches. [1] The Patriots finished the season 8–4–2. [49]
In a tie-game against the Kansas City Chiefs on November 20, 1966, Graham had a record-setting 11 receptions for 134 yards and two touchdowns (21 and 38 yards). [50] Graham had been in a car accident less than a week before the game, and it was unclear if he would even be able to put on a helmet and play because of the stitches in his head. [51] The 11 receptions stood as a Patriots team record until broken by Ben Coates in November 1994 with 12 (the current Patriots record is 16, jointly held by Wes Welker and Troy Brown). [51] [52] [53] Graham's 11 receptions came against a 1966 Chiefs team that had the best record in the AFL and went on to play in the first Super Bowl. They had a defense that included future Hall of Famers Buck Buchanan, Bobby Bell, and Johnny Robinson; and first-team AFL All-Decade Team defensive end Jerry Mays. [54] [55] [56] [57] [58] [59] [60]
In a 20–14 win over the Miami Dolphins on November 27, 1966, Graham caught a 22-yard touchdown pass, even though he was only wearing one shoe when he reached the end zone. Dolphins' cornerback Dick Westmoreland had tried to tackle Graham, and as Graham escaped the tackle Westmoreland was left holding Graham's shoe. [61] (It would take another 20 years before the Patriots would win another game played in Miami, Florida, in a January 1986 playoff game, after losing 18 consecutive times in Miami.) [62] [61]
The Patriots regressed to 3–10–1 in 1967. Graham started 12 games and had 41 receptions for 606 yards and four touchdowns. [63] His 79-yard touchdown reception against the Denver Broncos, in the first quarter of the first game of the 1967 AFL season, was the longest pass reception in the AFL that year. [64] [65] In 1968, Graham had injuries going into the season and was placed on the injured waiver list during the season. [66] [67] He started only six games and had the lowest reception (16) and yardage (242) totals of his career, in what would be his final season. [1]
The Patriots cut Graham in early September 1969, in what coach Clive Rush called "'a most difficult decision'". At the time, along with his 11 reception game, Graham's 51 receptions in 1966 were still a team record. [68] Overall, he played six years for the Patriots, starting 51 games. He had 199 receptions for 3,107 yards and 20 touchdowns. [1]
