Roosevelt "Rosey" Brown Jr. (October 20, 1932 – June 9, 2004) was an American professional football player who was an offensive tackle in the National Football League (NFL) for the New York Giants from 1953 to 1965. He previously played college football for Morgan State University. After being selected with the 321st pick in the 1953 NFL Draft, he appeared in 162 games for the Giants, missing only four games in a 13-year career. In his prime, between 1956 and 1963, he helped lead the Giants to six division championships and the 1956 NFL Championship Game. He was selected as a first-team All-NFL player eight consecutive years and was also selected to play in the Pro Bowl nine times. After retiring as a player, Brown remained with the Giants as an assistant coach and later as a scout. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1974, was named to the NFL's 75th Anniversary All-Time Team in 1994 and was named to the NFL's 100th Anniversary All-Time Team in 2019. He was also included on the NFL's 1950s All-Decade Team and ''The Sporting News list of the 100 Greatest Football Players. Early years Brown was born in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 1932. Brown recalled his youth as follows: I was always a big boy. When I was 6, my mother put me in school and I took a test. I must have passed it because they put me in third grade. No first grade and no second grade. That meant I graduated from high school when I was 15 and from college at 19. When I played my first game for the Giants, in 1953, I was still 19. He attended Jefferson High School, the African American high school in Charlottesville. He played trombone in the school's band, having been forbidden to play football after his older brother was injured playing the sport and died. The school's football coach, Robert W. Smith, ultimately persuaded the 180-pound Brown to play football, though he did so initially without his father's knowledge. Coach Smith said, "The band director almost wanted to fight me for him. He said that 'Rosey' would be a great trumpet player, and I said he'd be a great blocker. I just couldn't see a 210 pound kid playing the trumpet." Morgan State After graduating from high school, Brown attended Morgan State College, a historically black college in