To Rocky, My Friend ...
A young Rocky Both, at middle in the photo at left, was thrilled to have his photograph autographed by one of his sports idols, Bob Long ’64, a former Shocker athlete who was a wide receiver with the Green Bay Packers at the time he signed “To Rocky, my friend.”
Both fs ’75 would follow in his idol’s gridiron cleats, suiting up as a WSU football player himself.
Their paths crossed again this past October, when Both was one of more than 100 guests in attendance at Long’s WSUAA-sponsored Distinguished Alumni Speaker Series lecture held on campus.
Long — who posted a seven-year pro career with the Packers, Atlanta Falcons, Washington Redskins and the Los Angles Rams before retiring in 1970 — shared with Both and the rest of the lecture crowd his recollections of experiences as both a collegiate and an NFL player. A number of his stories featured one of his own idols, legendary coach Vince Lombardi. Long was the only active player to play under Lombardi at both Green Bay and Washington.
At WSU, Long was among the many football players who worked at the Pizza Hut on 17th Street. As a franchisee, he then brought Pizza Hut to northern Wisconsin in 1968. In 1991, Long suffered a stroke, but recovered and continues to make personal appearances and give speeches through his family’s company, Long’s Fundraising, which raises money for various charities, clubs and organizations. Fundamental to many of his life’s pursuits are ideas and principles learned from Lombardi.
In a copy of what was to be Lombardi’s final speech, given in 1970, Long has this passage marked: “I believe that man’s greatest hour — his greatest fulfillment, his finest fulfillment — is that moment when he has worked his heart out for a good cause and lies exhausted but victorious on the field of battle — whenever, wherever, that field of battle may be.”
