Boxing? Last week it was pro wrestling.”īefore that, a riot control agency that Charlie would call The Untouchables. “If we would just settle down and realize all that athletics is behind him. anybody who’ll listen to his big plans,” sighed Stanley Wysocki, a brick mason by trade. “He’s on the phone with everybody all over the country. The Wysockis see this as, sadly, just another of Charlie’s flamboyant fantasies. Nothing, I figured, could stop Charlie Wysocki. He was articulate, confident and appreciative of the cards life had dealt. More important, Charlie owned that spark of charisma. That December evening in Orlando Stadium he carried the ball 39 times - still a Tangerine/Citrus Bowl record - for 159 yards to win Offensive Player of the Game honors for Maryland in a losing effort against Florida. A bond developed, and Stanley and Pat Wysocki officially adopted the lad who later would blossom into a University of Maryland star halfback.Ī durable, determined runner, Charlie rumbled to Maryland’s single-season and career rushing records. There he discovered love and discipline and that Sunday mornings also were for worship, not just hangovers. Then he was befriended by a white, junior-high teammate, Steve Wysocki, who invited him home one evening. He became a regular on the police blotter at 14. He was a bright and engaging young man who seemed destined to lead not merely some NFL offense but perhaps even the next generation.īorn Charlie DeGraffenreid, the 12th of 14 children in an impoverished black family on the wrong side of Wilkes-Barre, Pa., he was a Disney script that came to life. Or he’d be conducting a press conference on behalf of some council appointed by the White House or announcing the formation of his own company.Īfter all, Charlie was a warm and wonderful story of breaking down both class barriers and racial barriers. When last we parted moments after the 1980 Tangerine Bowl, I figured the next time I’d bump into Charlie would be in the Super Bowl locker room or maybe the board room of a bank. Charlie Wysocki called the other day from a most unexpected place.
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