Hall of Famer Jim Ringo dies

GREEN BAY, Wis. - Jim Ringo, a Hall of Fame center who played 15 seasons for the Green Bay Packers and the Eagles, died yesterday morning after a short illness. He was two days shy of his 76th birthday.

Former Packers teammate Willie Davis said Ringo had been battling Alzheimer's.

"One minute, you're reliving an experience," said Davis, who was inducted into the Hall of Fame with Ringo in 1981. "And the next minute, he'd be asking, 'Who's this?' "

The Packers drafted Ringo out of Syracuse in the seventh round in 1953, and he became one of the league's best centers despite being just over 200 pounds.

"As Vince Lombardi once observed, Jim epitomized the toughness and determination needed to not only play the center position but to become one of the game's most dominant offensive linemen of his era," said Steve Perry, president/executive director of the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Ringo played for Green Bay through 1963, but a contract dispute led Ringo and Lombardi to part ways. According to Packers folklore, Ringo had the audacity to bring along an agent to negotiate a contract - and Lombardi traded him to Philadelphia on the spot.

"The story goes that Jim came in with a representative to visit with Coach Lombardi about his contract," Packers historian Lee Remmel said. "Vince excused himself, came back, and said, 'You now are a member of the Philadelphia Eagles.' "

Whether the story is true or not, Ringo played for the Eagles from 1964 to '67 on a line with fellow Hall of Famer Bob Brown. Ringo was voted to 10 Pro Bowls (three as an Eagle) and to the NFL's All-Decade Team of the 1960s. He started a then-record 182 consecutive games from 1954 to '67.

Ringo later went into coaching. He replaced Buffalo coach Lou Saban during the 1976 season, and the Bills lost their last nine games. He returned the following year, and the Bills went 3-11. Ringo was fired after the season and replaced by Chuck Knox.

Funeral arrangements are pending at Rupell Funeral Home in Phillipsburg, N.J.