Twine!!!!!!!!!!!

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It's about time.

I can recall being a little kid and buying a pack of AFL football cards. One of the cards in that first pack was Houston Antwine's. I remember laughing like hell at his name, which struck me silly when I was 8 years old.

Later, when I started to watch the actual games, I started to notice that he seemed to be in on every tackle. He was All-AFL for the history of the league, so it's nice to know he's good enough for our HOF.

I don't even think he was 6 feet tall, but he was about 4 feet wide. Built like a fire hydrant. He was extremely quick, slippery and strong. Nobody could block him for long. He was similar to Aaron Donald in playing style.

Congratulations, 'Twine.
 
We need to hear more about players like this. There need to be more stories told. I love hearing tales about the old classics that I don't know much about. I came on board in 1982 so all I know about players like Antwine is what I've read in books or read online sporadically. Someone needs to write a comprehensive history of the club from day one to the present....imagine the number of volumes it would take to tell all of the good stories about all the interesting players and coaches over the years.
 
Annihilus said:
We need to hear more about players like this. There need to be more stories told. I love hearing tales about the old classics that I don't know much about. I came on board in 1982 so all I know about players like Antwine is what I've read in books or read online sporadically. Someone needs to write a comprehensive history of the club from day one to the present....imagine the number of volumes it would take to tell all of the good stories about all the interesting players and coaches over the years.
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A guy named Larry Donaldson wrote one called Stadium Stories: New England Patriots and it is a nice, little book that has some good ones going back to the beginning of the franchise, but the best part of the book was that it came with a CD that had, I think, 4 players telling the author stories of the old days.

I can't find the CD and haven't heard it in quite some time so I might have some of the details hosed up, but there was one story about Antwine in there which was related by the great Larry Eisenhauer that I remember.

Apparently, Twine had a part-time job as a limousine driver and Eisenhauer and he conspired one day to have a little fun and it went something like this:

The Players were at practice one day and all lined up doing old-school calistenics when out of nowhere a long, black limousine arrives at the practice facility and drives slowly out onto the field as the curious players stopped their jumping jacks to try and figure out what the hell was going on. The caddy stops and the driver jumps out and opens the back door and from behind the tinted glass steps Houston Antwine in full uniform.

He cooly joins his teammates in line as gales of laughter wash over the field.

Way to make an entrance.
 
Hawg73 said:
A guy named Larry Donaldson wrote one called Stadium Stories: New England Patriots and it is a nice, little book that has some good ones going back to the beginning of the franchise, but the best part of the book was that it came with a CD that had, I think, 4 players telling the author stories of the old days.

I can't find the CD and haven't heard it in quite some time so I might have some of the details hosed up, but there was one story about Antwine in there which was related by the great Larry Eisenhauer that I remember.

Apparently, Twine had a part-time job as a limousine driver and Eisenhauer and he conspired one day to have a little fun and it went something like this:

The Players were at practice one day and all lined up doing old-school calistenics when out of nowhere a long, black limousine arrives at the practice facility and drives slowly out onto the field as the curious players stopped their jumping jacks to try and figure out what the hell was going on. The caddy stops and the driver jumps out and opens the back door and from behind the tinted glass steps Houston Antwine in full uniform.

He cooly joins his teammates in line as gales of laughter wash over the field.

Way to make an entrance.
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That's exactly what I'm talking about (of course, some longer stories would be nice, too). I'd read those kinds of stories all day :)
 
I did business with Eisenhauer years back. He's long retired now but he had some absolutely epic stories, most of which I can't retell in enough detail to make a cogent post. Suffice to say those guys were lunatics and anytime Eisenhauer started the stories he had an audience listening closely. The limo story fits right in the theme though.
Another ex-Pat friend of mine played for GB, HOU, NO, he was only with the Pats 1 season but he has a Forrest Gregg story that was hilarious and I ain't posting that here because I don't want to hijack the thread.
 
patswin said:
I did business with Eisenhauer years back. He's long retired now but he had some absolutely epic stories, most of which I can't retell in enough detail to make a cogent post. Suffice to say those guys were lunatics and anytime Eisenhauer started the stories he had an audience listening closely. The limo story fits right in the theme though.
Another ex-Pat friend of mine played for GB, HOU, NO, he was only with the Pats 1 season but he has a Forrest Gregg story that was hilarious and I ain't posting that here because I don't want to hijack the thread.
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Nobody is going to accuse you of hijacking the thread. It's perfectly fine.

Please share it here because I'm sure others are as curious as I am.
 
It's about time- I could never figure out why he was so overlooked in recent years, other than the fact that probably 95% of the current fan base never saw him play. But as one previous poster mentioned - he was in on most every tackle.

One comment I must pass on - I had an Air Force friend, back in 1971, say to me - (he was a staunch old NFL fan btw) we were discussing the merger and me being a Patriot fan - he said, "now there is one guy on that team that's great - Houston Antwine" He was so right.
 
Hawg73 said:
Nobody is going to accuse you of hijacking the thread. It's perfectly fine.

Please share it here because I'm sure others are as curious as I am.
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My coworker was Kevin H unt who was an offensive lineman out of Doane I believe it was. We worked together in the late 80's early 90's. You can look him up in the NFL database. Anyway... at one point Gregg was on the coaching staff of one of his teams, don't think he was a HC at the point. They were in training camp and Kevin said this guy was the biggest pr!ck you could imagine, and the players absolutely hated his guts. They'd be out practicing in the heat, and the team had one of those cherry picker trucks like utilities use, and the coach would be up in the air in that thing surveying the field with one of those hand held bullhorns screaming at the team. They were all sick of his shit. One day, a sudden thunderstorm blew in and they cleared the field, but before they did, someone disabled the cherry picker truck and they all headed to the locker room and left ol' Forrest up in the air in the bucket. With thunder and lightning approaching quickly. He's up there with the megaphone screaming in panic for someone to get him down. Apparently they left him up there for a while before someone relented and went back out there with the keys to the truck and let him down.
 
While I'm thinking about Kevin, he was a character in his own right. A bunch of us were playing in a business sponsored golf tournament and he and I were paired up. He hit a drive into the woods and decided to play the lie. Pulls out an iron and takes a wicked swing, the club head breaks off on a tree and ends up impaling itself in his bicep. Freaking blood everywhere. He wraps his arm in a cart towel and finishes the round. Should have seen the looks when we hit the clubhouse afterward. Bloody golf shirt, just nasty. So we get to drinking a bit and someone challenged him to a hot dog eating contest, which he won handily as well. I forget how many he ate, but it was a lot. they had one of those steamers sitting near the bar and pretty sure there was no hot dogs left at all afterward.
 
Mike R. has nominated Willie McGinest for the Pats HOF. Go Willie!!
 
patswin said:
My coworker was Kevin H unt who was an offensive lineman out of Doane I believe it was. We worked together in the late 80's early 90's. You can look him up in the NFL database. Anyway... at one point Gregg was on the coaching staff of one of his teams, don't think he was a HC at the point. They were in training camp and Kevin said this guy was the biggest pr!ck you could imagine, and the players absolutely hated his guts. They'd be out practicing in the heat, and the team had one of those cherry picker trucks like utilities use, and the coach would be up in the air in that thing surveying the field with one of those hand held bullhorns screaming at the team. They were all sick of his shit. One day, a sudden thunderstorm blew in and they cleared the field, but before they did, someone disabled the cherry picker truck and they all headed to the locker room and left ol' Forrest up in the air in the bucket. With thunder and lightning approaching quickly. He's up there with the megaphone screaming in panic for someone to get him down. Apparently they left him up there for a while before someone relented and went back out there with the keys to the truck and let him down.
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Good stuff. I had heard Gregg was a jerk and this story confirmed it.

:thumb:
 
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