I remember we had an old thread talking about mythical 1950's seasonal MVPs, and Soltau had a very strong case for being the retroactive 1952 NFL MVP. Who knew?Ronfitch wrote:Gordie ... born in Duluth, MN. No surprise here.
Gordie Soltau kicked as well, twice leading the league in scoring and the 49ers' scoring leader in eight of the nine seasons he played and retired at the team's scoring leader. He accounted for 26 of the 49ers' 44 points in a 44-17 win over the Rams in their first meeting in 1951 (the next week, the Rams beat the 49ers and went on to win the NFL championship ... as we will all read about in the upcoming PRFA book about the '51 Rams).
From https://www.mercurynews.com/2014/10/28/ ... at-age-89/:
“'One of my favorite stories — probably the least known — was that Dad made more than 200 unassisted tackles after he kicked off,' Mark Soltau said. 'He was so good at it, several teams put bounties on him to knock him out of the game. Nobody kept a stat then; he meticulously kept his own and was very proud of it.'"
Question, just for fun
Re: Question, just for fun
-
rhickok1109
- Posts: 1477
- Joined: Sun Oct 12, 2014 8:57 am
Re: Question, just for fun
He was also one of the founding members of the NFLPA. I met him at the HOF in 1973. He was there with his former teammate, Hugh McElhenny, who was the front man for a group trying to get an NFL franchise for Seattle.Ronfitch wrote:Gordie ... born in Duluth, MN. No surprise here.Bryan wrote:Alyn Beals was effectively replaced by Gordie Soltau as another very good/high scoring 49er end that is forgotten.JWL wrote:Alyn Beals
Gordie Soltau kicked as well, twice leading the league in scoring and the 49ers' scoring leader in eight of the nine seasons he played and retired at the team's scoring leader. He accounted for 26 of the 49ers' 44 points in a 44-17 win over the Rams in their first meeting in 1951 (the next week, the Rams beat the 49ers and went on to win the NFL championship ... as we will all read about in the upcoming PRFA book about the '51 Rams).
From https://www.mercurynews.com/2014/10/28/ ... at-age-89/:
“'One of my favorite stories — probably the least known — was that Dad made more than 200 unassisted tackles after he kicked off,' Mark Soltau said. 'He was so good at it, several teams put bounties on him to knock him out of the game. Nobody kept a stat then; he meticulously kept his own and was very proud of it.'"
Re: Question, just for fun
Bryan wrote:Alyn Beals was effectively replaced by Gordie Soltau as another very good/high scoring 49er end that is forgotten.JWL wrote:Alyn Beals
Actually, I believe that it was Billy Wilson that replaced Beals in 1951 at right end. Beals started in 1950, but only caught 22 passes. With the former NFL teams all being up for the teams coming into the league from the AAFC in 1950, and the 49ers not having very good pass protection that year (all rookie starting tackles), the entire 49ers passing game suffered.