Ex-Giants running back (and N.J. Pop Warner coach) dead

Great running backs have played for the Giants in the past, from Frank Gifford to Tiki Barber. Humble Randy Minniear was aware that he was not one of them. The fullback, though, had an excellent sense of humor.

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In 2021, Minniear declared, “I was the greatest benchwarmer of all time,” on the Thursday Night Tailgate podcast. “Not one was stolen in five years while I was down there on the end of the bench by the water bucket.”

A web obituary states that Minnear passed away on August 13 at the age of 79. The cause of death was not stated.

Minnear, who was chosen from Purdue in the 20th round of the 1966 NFL Draft, remembered his first day in New York.

“I remember thinking, ‘OK, what do I do now?'” as I stood in front of Kennedy Airport. In 2018, Minniear told the Indianapolis Star. I informed the man standing there with his small daughter that I was a rookie with the Giants and that I had to attend a luncheon at 1 p.m. He dropped me off at the front door after driving me directly downtown.

Fran Tarkenton, the Hall of Fame quarterback with whom Minnear played in 1968 and 1969, quipped that Tarkenton “would almost kill you.”

Fran Tarkenton, the Hall of Fame quarterback, “would almost kill you running pass patterns because you’d have to change your pass pattern and run from one side of the field to the other while he was back there scrambling all over the place,” Minnear, a 1968 and 1969 player, joked. He was intelligent, industrious, and endowed with a charisma that I found endearing.

Minniear went straight into a full-time trading position at the age of 28, having already blown out his knee and splintered his shin with the Browns. He had spent the off-seasons with the Giants, working part-time on the trading desk after earning a teaching degree from Purdue. He had a successful 40-year Wall Street career.

“I began studying economics by reading as much as I could,” he remarked. “Playing football didn’t bring in much money back then.”

The Yankees, Reds, and Twins attempted to persuade Minniear to pitch in the major leagues prior to his decision to play football.

Minniear spent a total of 38 years on the executive board before taking on the role of chairman of the NFL Alumni Association board for 21 years. Before moving to Indianapolis and taking a position as the baseball and football coach at Brown County High School, he was actively involved in the local Pop Warner programs while residing in New Jersey.

Minniear was inducted into the Indiana Football Hall of Fame two months ago, and he was inducted into the Indianapolis Public Schools Hall of Fame in 2015.