On the first day of Boston Patriots training camp in 1963, starting halfback Larry Garron made it a point to walk over to rookie receiver Art Graham.
“He said, ‘Hi, I’m Larry Garron. Welcome to the team,’ ” recalled Graham, who had starred at Boston College. “I never forgot his kindness.”
Mr. Garron’s selflessness and warmth were evident countless times over the years — to his martial arts students, to his students at Bunker Hill Community College, and to youngsters in the Framingham Pop Warner football program that he founded with Patriots teammates Ron Burton and Charlie Long.
“I respected his amazing talent and his character,” said Patriots legend Gino Cappelletti, another former teammate. “He was an important member of those early Patriot teams. He took great pride in the success of the Patriots through the years and that he had been a part of that journey.”
Advertisement
Mr. Garron, a former team Most Valuable Player whose 85-yard touchdown run in Buffalo in 1961 is still a Patriots record, died of cardiac arrest Sept. 13 at his home in Framingham. A four-time American Football League All-Star, he was 82.
A three-sport athlete at Western Illinois University, and a star on its 1959 undefeated-untied football team coached by Lou Saban, Mr. Garron joined the original Patriots team the following season. The team had hired Saban as head coach.
“Looking back, I do feel I was a pioneer,” Mr. Garron told the Globe in 1999. “We were in a league that we helped get off the ground. We and the league survived, so there is a special bond you feel when thinking back on those days.”
Mr. Garron suffered through injuries and tonsillitis his rookie season, but he never gave up. He worked out at the South End Boys Club, put on weight, came back the following season, and played until 1968.
Advertisement
His 2,981 rushing yards rank ninth all-time in the Patriots’ record book. He ran for 14 career touchdowns, caught 185 passes for 2,502 yards and 26 touchdowns, and scored on two kick returns. In the 1968 AFL All-Star Game, he caught a pass from New York Jets quarterback Joe Namath and slipped past the defense for 26 yards to set up the East’s winning score.
“I like to receive. It’s a challenge — one on one — to see if you can outsmart the other fellow,” Mr. Garron told the Globe in 1967.
Patriots quarterback Babe Parilli, in the same story, called him “one of the best backs at catching passes I have played with.”
In the 1963 Eastern Division tie-breaking championship game at Buffalo, Mr. Garron caught two touchdown passes from Parilli, and Cappelletti added four field goals in a 26-8 victory. In the AFL championship game, however, the Patriots were blown out by San Diego, 51-10. The Patriots’ only touchdown was scored by Mr. Garron.
A quiet leader on the field, Mr. Garron proved to be the same off the field in January 1965, prior to the AFL All-Star Game in New Orleans. As one of the spokesmen for the All-Stars who were black, Mr. Garron protested that they were refused rides in taxis, entrance to movies and nightclubs, and the use of public facilities in that city.
“We found out that we would be nothing but confined,” Mr. Garron told the Globe that week after the players boycotted the game, which was moved to Houston.
Advertisement
Mr. Garron’s son Andre of Bedford, N.H., who played for the Kansas City Chiefs, said the boycott was “a significant moment in the fight for civil rights. I can’t imagine the pressure those players and my dad felt. He often said you don’t have to be the loudest voice in the room to be a leader.”
Born in Marks, Miss., Mr. Garron was the oldest of 10 children and a son of Lawrence Garron Sr., a police officer, and the former Savannah Sykes.
The Garrons moved to Argo, Ill., and when Mr. Garron’s parents separated, his mother worked at the local Corn Products Refinery to support the family while Mr. Garron kept an eye on his siblings and made sure that household chores were done.
“Larry was my first hero,” said his brother Troy of Halifax. “He knew where he was going in life and how to get there.”
Mr. Garron arrived at Western Illinois with $50 in his pocket, but he was money in the bank for the Leathernecks football team.
“If you stopped Larry, you stopped their offense,” said Chuck Shonta, a Patriots teammate of Mr. Garron who previously played against him on defense for Eastern Michigan University. “Unfortunately, they beat us for the conference championship largely because of him. Larry was a natural runner who could stop on a dime and he was a humble guy who always gave credit to others.”
Advertisement
Mr. Garron met LaBerta Harris when he was a high school sports star in Argo and she was on the track team at nearby Lions Township High. They married in 1959.
Their three sons — Andre, John of Waltham, and Arnold of Bedford, N.H. — all played high school football in Framingham. Andre and Arnold went on to star at the University of New Hampshire.
LaBerta, who once tossed passes in the backyard to her husband while he recovered from a football injury, died in 1998.
Mr. Garron, who left Western Illinois to turn pro after his junior year, received a bachelor’s degree from Boston State College and a master’s from Cambridge College.
He went on to teach marketing, writing, economics, and management courses at Bunker Hill Community College and also attained the highest degree in World Martial Arts, teaching the discipline at his academies in Southborough and Framingham.
In 2006, he married Evelyn Nahme, a hairdresser and polarity therapist in Framingham.
“Larry never had a negative opinion of anyone,” she said. “He accepted everyone for who they were, gave them the freedom to be themselves, and was the greatest listener — ever. I feel blessed he picked me.”
In addition to his wife, sons, and brother, Mr. Garron leaves a daughter, Dawn Dellasanta of Milford; four other brothers, Donald of Sanford, N.C., Norris and Chester, both of Framingham, and Solomon of Woburn; a sister, Verlean Hinton of Enfield, Conn.; 11 grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.
Advertisement
A funeral service will be held at 10 a.m. Friday in Greater Framingham Community Church.
Mr. Garron was an inductee to the Western Illinois University Athletic Hall of Fame and was selected to the Patriots All-Decade team of the 1960s.
“He always tried to set the right course for us,” Andre said, “and urged us to go after what you want with everything you have.”
Marvin Pave can be reached at marvin.pave@rcn.com.