By ELLIOTT DENMAN PRESS STAFF WRITER

They called him "the Hoya Hercules." He tore up Georgetown football foes as easily as he shredded records in the shot put and discus throw. He went on to become a giant of all New York Giants, an All-Pro tackle selection by his second NFL season. Exactly 50 years and one day ago, he said goodbye to his coaches, teammates and fans.' If there had been a 1940 Olympic Games, he'd have been a leading gold medal candidate. If there had been Super Bowls in the early 1940s, he might have led the Giants to one of them. That was Al Blozis for you a man's man, an athlete's athlete, an American's American. Alfred C. Blozis, a second lieutenant, gave his life for his country in January 1945 in the fierce fighting that enveloped the snow-covered Vosges Mountains in France. A half-century after his death, he needs to be remembered. Lest we forget, Al Blozis was a great of greats, a New Jersey native who climbed every sports pinnacle available to him. In the lineup of this state's immortals, he's right up there.

His life story was so good it often read like fiction. Hollywood should have taken an interest, but didn't. All these years later, The Al Blozis Story demands re telling. "Al Blozis was one of the greatest high school athletes New Jersey ever had," said Al Rogers of Clearwater, Fla., himself a Garden State track standout in the late 1930s. Rogers excelled in the 440 and sprints for Neptune, Blozis in the weights for Dickinson High of Jersey City. Both went on to Georgetown University. "He could do anything," Rogers said. "He was a superb swimmer, he could high jump over 6 feet." But his greatest scholastic deeds came in the shot put, where he was the first U.S. schoolboy to exceed 60 feet, and in the discus, which he often threatened to throw out of sight. Blozis grew into a 6-foot-6, 250-pound giant, yet Rogers recalls "he never lifted a weight in his life; it was all natural ability. "On top of everything, he was such a nice guy. It breaks my heart that they never named that stadium (Giants Stadium) after him." "Al Blozis of the Giants rates as one of the finest tackles in the league right now, and his brilliant play indicates he may become one of the all-time best in pro history," it was written in a 1943 Giants' program. "The tremendous tackle has improved so rapidly in his second pro season that he has earned the plaudits of all the coaches who have seen his dynamic attacking and defensive manners. "Only last week, (Hall of Fame QB-to-be) Sid Luckman of the Bears was moved to say, 'That Blozis was roaring in there, bothering me all day. He played one whale of a game.' Blozis is truly a Giant. His extraordinary height gives him an advantage over opposing passers and punters and his expansive reach is the despair of tacklers. Many a passer has confessed that Blozis, skyrocketing in front of him, was the most difficult obstacle of the day's work." It was Blozis' size that initially kept him from military duty, too. Too big, they told him time after time as he sought to enlist. By the fall of 1944, though, Blozis had twisted a few arms, had himself transferred to infantry, and was sent off to Officer's Candidate School in Fort Benning, Ga. World War II was now in its final year. Of course, Allied forces were determined to see it over as quickly as possible. No American serviceman was more determined than Blozis. He'd soon make his stand in combat but not before his last stand as a Giant. Armed with his second lieutenant's bars, and a brief leave before going overseas, he did what came naturally he headed for the Polo Grounds, where he was able to play the final three games of the 1944 season. With Blozis in the lineup, the Giants sewed up the Eastern championship by knocking out the Washington Redskins twice (16-13 at home, 31-0 in D.C.). His final game with the Giants, though, was a tough-luck 14-7 loss to the Green Bay Packers in the NFL Championship game at the Polo Grounds. On Dec. 19, 1944, two days later, 2nd Lt. Al Blozis was on his way to Europe. After the loss to the Packers, he shook hands with Arthur Daley of The New York Times and said, "Thanks for all the nice things you've written about me. I'll be grateful as long as I. live." Daley later wrote, "It was, although neither of us realized it, a final farewell."

"Blozis, Famed Athlete, Is Missing in Action," the Times headline said on Feb. 20, 1945. "Lt. Al Blozis has been reported missing in action in the European theater, it was learned today from his parents, who stated they had received a telegram from the War Department to that effect," the article said. By April 9, further details were available. "Blozis died a hero's death, according to reports," the Times said. "Detailing a party to scout the lines, his men were caught in enemy fire and a sergeant and a private failed to return. Blozis set out to look for his men over the snow-covered terrain and never came back." For Blozis, serving as platoon leader of Company A, 110th Infantry Regiment, it was his first real taste of war. He'd be declared missing in action Jan. 31, 1945. His body was never found. But his achievements are still there in the archives. Eventually, he gained a height waiver and was allowed to join the Army. Only trouble was that the Army put him in Special Services and stationed him at Walter Reed Hospital in Washington, a world away from the real action being waged in Europe, Asia and Africa. At Dickinson High School in Jersey City, decades of latter-day athletes have competed in the Al Blozis Memorial Gymnasium. Its centerpiece is the memorial plaque dedicated in his honor. This is the same plaque that had been on display in the Polo Grounds until the old ballpark met the wreckers' ball in 1955. Then-Giants' president Tim Mara arranged for its installation in the Dickinson gymnasium. An Army gymnasium in Frankfurt, Germany, is also named for Blozis. Another Giant, Baylor University graduate Lt. Jack Lummus, would give his life on Iwo Jima, and he, too, was memorialized at the Polo Grounds. "Blozis and Lummus typified the finest tradition of skill and sportsmanship on the gridiron; they were equally proficient in the grim business of war," a December 1945 Giants' program said. "Al Blozis was a legend in high school sports and then in college," said Ed Grant of Madison, who has published New Jersey Track magazine for over three decades and covered track and field since the 1940s. "He was just a great all-around athlete. He was still learning (the tackle position) in the pros. There's no doubt in my mind he would have won at the Olympics. He was unbeaten (in the shot put) for three years. He was just a kid, really, when he was killed." Grant remembers attending the Metropolitan Amateur Athletic Union Senior Championships at Jersey City's Lincoln Park. "The meet drew over 10,000 (spectators.) Blozis, of course, was the main attraction," Grant said. "I thought I was pretty good . . . until I met Blozis," remembers John "Jack" Servis of Princeton Township, then a contemporary of the Dickinson star on the New Jersey scholastic circuit and now coaching at Law-renceville School. "When I saw this big, broad-shouldered guy lobbing the shot out 50 feet from a stand (at the front of the circle), I knew it had to be him." Servis' quick conclusion: "My God, this guy is incredible." "I could beat him occasionally in the discus, but in the shot put there was nobody who could ever beat him. I was just glad he was competing in his division, and I was in my mine." (In a day long before a Meet of Champions.) Servis and Blozis were offered scholarships to Georgetown. Blozis happily accepted; Servis went on to Blair Academy and put off college until heading to Cornell after the war. ; Blozis was the first son (and one of three children) of Mr. and Mrs. Anthony Blozis, who were born in Lithuania. It's often said that Blozis could have been an even better football player than he was at Georgetown if he hadn't been so concerned about keeping out of harm's way, and healthy for track. Only after he'd given up track, it's said, did he really let loose in football. Still, Blozis-era Georgetown teams once reeled off 23 straight victories, and went to an Orange Bowl (dropping a 14-7 decision to Mississippi State in 1941). Blozis was an honorable mention All-America tackle in 1941 and a first team All-America in '42. As a Georgetown weight thrower, Blozis was simply the best. In collegiate competition, he won everything in sight, starting with nine IC4A (indoor and outdoor) crowns in the shot and discus, and capped by three NCAA shot titles, 1940-41-42, and an NCAA record that would last nine years. In one Madison Square Garden meet, he demolished records in the 8-, 12- and 16-pound shot events as those nearby ran for cover. In National AAU Championships, he reigned again, indoors and outdoors, through six straight U.S. title meets, 1940-41-42. He broke flocks of records but some never got into the books through technicalities. Grant remembers Blozis beating the world out door record in a war relief meet at the Polo Grounds, but losing that record because the shot circle was set up on the pitcher's mound (and elevated). His medals and awards among them a Bronze Star "for meritorious achievement in ground operations against the enemy" are now on display near athletic director Frank Rien-zo's office at Georgetown's McDon-ough Gymnasium. A life-size photo of Blozis is found at a nearby stairwell. In 1986, he was named to the College Football Hall of Fame. With no Olympics to look ahead to (as an amateur athlete), Blozis leaped at the chance to sign a Giants' contract. His '42 season was a learning experience as the team went 5-5-1. By '43, he was as good as they come, gaining All-Pro recognition for a 6-3-1 team that went as far as an Eastern Division playoff game with the Redskins, a 28-0 loss. With part-timer Blozis for inspiration, the '44 Giants went 8-1-1, before dropping the title game to the Green Bay Packers, a team they'd beaten 24-0 four weeks earlier. J "I only wish I could have seen hira play more often, because he was one of the great ones," Giants' president Wellington Mara said last week. Mara, however, was quite busy himself in the war effort, serving with distinction a$ a Navy lieutenant commander in the Atlantic and South Pacific theaters, j "(Giants' coach) Steve Owen always said he could have been the best tackle the Giants ever had, and I believe that," said Mara. "He had all the requisites, he was tremendous …" j A half-century and a day after his last game, Al Blozis remains a larger-than-life Giant.

Alfred C Blozis