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Larry Price remembers one of his first glimpses of then-All Pro end David "Deacon" Jones and the Los Angeles Rams’ defensive line known as the "Fearsome Foursome."
It came through the ear hole of his helmet that had been sent spinning during the team’s 1967 training camp.
"I started thinking about a different career the second day that I was there," said Price, who was a rookie free-agent offensive lineman from the University of Hawaii. "I thought whoever named them the ‘Fearsome Foursome’ sure knew what he was talking about."
Jones a Pro Football Hall of Famer, who had been the penultimate living member of one of the greatest defensive lines ever assembled, died Tuesday at age 74.
Jones lived near Fullerton, Calif., where Price, who would become UH head coach (1974-76) and KSSK radio personality, first hesitantly encountered him at training camp.
"He (Jones) was something else," Price said. "I mean they all were. You had Lamar Lundy, Rosey Grier, Merlin Olsen and him. He (Jones) was about 6 feet, 5 inches, 270 pounds and just as fast as anybody at that size could possibly be. If you had to pull and go his way — and I was a 6 foot, 1 inch, 245-pound pulling guard — your chances of ever going around him were pretty slim."
"I thought he was indestructible," said Price, terming him "one of those 1 percent (of the most gifted) guys."
It was Jones who coined and popularized the term quarterback "sack" before the NFL made it an official statistical category. He was credited with 16 of them in 1967, an 11-1-2 season in which the Rams had the NFL’s top defense.
Price said the first part of camp, which the rookies had to themselves, was "OK." But then the veterans reported and the "Fearsome Foursome" was on the other side of the line of scrimmage.
"You didn’t have to be there very long to know that you didn’t belong there," Price said.
George Allen, the head coach, "would tell us, ‘OK, button up your chin straps, they (the D-Line) are upset.’ "
Price appeared in a couple of exhibition games, which, he said, were a "picnic" compared to scrimmaging against the "Fearsome Foursome."
One day in practice when Grier blew past him and flattened quarterback Roman Gabriel, Price said an assistant coach offered advice. "He said, ‘If you are going to miss a block, then you have to grab him and we’ll take the 15 yards penalty, if they catch you.’ So, the next play Rosey Grier was throwing me around and I grabbed his arm. He just stopped dead in his tracks and told me, ‘You’re holding me.’ I said, ‘The coach told me to.’ "
Price said Grier glared at him and replied, "If you do that again, I’m going to break off your arm and beat you to death with the bloody end.’
"So, I went back to the huddle and when the coach asked what we were discussing, I said, ‘He is going to kill me if I do what you told me to do.’ "
Not long afterward, Don King, the new UH head football coach, contacted Price to ask if he had made up his mind whether to accept an offer to become one of his assistants.
Price said, "(I told him), they just made up my mind for me."
Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.