Randy Minniear, a Giants running back in the late 1960s, died Aug. 13 at 79, according to an online obituary.
No cause of death was given.
After playing fullback at Purdue, he was selected by the Giants in the 20th round of the 1966 NFL Draft and would first play in 1967, when Earl Morrall was the quarterback.
“They rate him as the greatest backup quarterback of all time,” Minniear told the Thursday Night Tailgate podcast in 2021. “And that’s one of the things they say about me. I was the greatest benchwarmer of all time. I will tell you this, while I was down there on the end of the bench by the water bucket not one was stolen in five years.”
He also played with Hall of Fame quarterback Fran Tarkenton in 1968 and 1969.
“He’d 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. But he could throw, smart, hard-worker and he just had a flair about him that I just loved,” Minniear said in 2021.
Minniear, who scored four touchdowns in 19 games with the Giants, also loved playing at Yankee Stadium.
“Absolutely incredible. I got a thrill, even though I was there for four years, every time I walked from our locker room we shared with the Yankees and I walked down that wooden ramp into the dugout and you look around and think, ‘Oh my gosh,’” he said, adding, “I don’t think there’s anything like the old Yankee Stadium. It was the thrill of a lifetime to play in that.”
His last touchdown as a Giant came against Vince Lombardi’s Washington team in 1969, though the Giants lost 20-14.
Minniear played with the Browns in 1970 before retiring.
After his playing days, he spent nearly 40 years working on Wall Street before moving to Indianapolis and serving as football and baseball coach at Brown County High School.
In 2015, he was inducted into the Indianapolis Public Schools Hall of Fame and two months ago Minniear was inducted into the Indiana Football Hall of Fame.