Sports: Football & Track
Born: November 25, 1929
Died: March 16, 1979
Town: Cape May, New Jersey
Clifton Junior Anderson was born November 25, 1929, in Cape May, NJ, to Mary and Howard Anderson. He mostly went by Cliff, but over the years he acquired the nicknames “Doc” ad “Cappy,” as well. Cliff’s father passed away when he was eight years old, at the age of 51. The Anderson family hailed from Delaware, where they had settled in the early 1800s.
Cliff was an extraordinary athlete and an excellent student. He was a rock-solid six-footer with great speed and coordination and stunning upper-body strength. He played football in the fall and competed for the Cape May High School track team in the spring. In an era when athletic scholarships for African Americans typically came from historically black colleges, Cliff attracted attention from several major university programs. He was recruited by Clyde Smith, the new football coach at the Indiana University and decided that would be his next stop.
The Hoosiers had black players dating back to the 1890s, but the team and the campus were overwhelmingly white. Cliff was encouraged by the fact that George Taliaferro, an African-American quarterback from Georgia, had starred for Illinois I the 1940s. Taliaferro went on to become the first black player drafted by an NFL team. Three other black players—Sam Winston, Milford Marshall and Bobby Robertson —were also recruited by Coach Smith, who was hired to rebuild the football program in the postwar era.
Cliff saw limited action as a freshman in 1948 and barely earned a mention in the 1949 preseason previews. Now 6’2” and over 200 pounds, he demonstrated excellent blocking skills and soft hands to go along with his speed and quickness. When the season began, Cliff, wearing number 86, was a starting end in a run-first offense. He set new Big 10 records with 21 receptions and 329 receiving yards despite the fact the Hoosiers were winless in conference play and won just once in nine tries overall. Even so, Cliff received an Honorable Mention All-America nod, totaling 28 catches and 458 yards for the season and was voted to the all-conference team.
Despite his sudden gridiron fame, Cliff was best known for his work on the track team. In 1950, he won the Big 10 shot put title with a throw of 53’9”. A year later, he won the Big 10 discus championship with a throw of 153’3”. He was a first-team track All-American in 1951.
Indiana improved slightly in 1950 and Cliff caught 20 passes. The highlight of the year was an upset of Notre Dame. In 1951, the Hoosiers opened the season with another upset of the Fighting Irish and then beat Pitt a week later. After that the wheels came off and the team lost seven in a row—although the final four games were close, including 30-26 loss to #1 Michigan State. Cliff’s most noteworthy play as a senior was snaring a 51-yard bomb from Nick Ashburner, which set a new mark for the longest scoring pass in school history.
Cliff continued to excel for the Hoosier track squad in 1952 and was expected to be the star of a planned meet between Midwest and West Coast teams that spring. But he pulled out because of a work commitment. He was already married and it was time to start his post-graduate life.
There was another employment possibility looming on the horizon. That January, when the NFL held its college draft, the Chicago Cardinals had drafted Cliff in the 25th round. As the 291st player selected in a 12-team league, the odds of making the club were ling to say the least. In addition to that obstacle was the fact that the Cardinals had not had a black player on the roster for more than a generation. On the bright side, that would change in 1952 whether Cliff made the club or not, as the club had drafted future Hall of Famer Ollie Matson, as well as Wally Triplett, a halfback out of Penn State.
All three ended up making the Opening Day roster, with Cliff starting at left end. The team’s primary receiver was Don Stonesifer, but Cliff was an occasional target for quarterbacks Charley Trippi and Frank Tripucka, reeling in 11 passes and scoring two touchdowns—one against the Giants and another against the Eagles. In an era when many players stayed on the field on offense and defense, Cliff was only utilized when Chicago had the ball. Despite his size and speed, he was not a great tackler.
In 1953, Cliff opened the season with the Cardinals but with roster sizes being trimmed in September he was the odd man out and Chicago waived him. The Giants, who had been impressed with his play the previous year, snapped him up in October. In New York’s November visit to Chicago, Cliff caught a key pass from Charley Conerly to set up a touchdown by Kyle Rote on the next play in a 23–20 victory over the Cardinals.
Rote was Cliff’s favorite teammate. Later, he name his son Kyle. And Kyle named his son Kyle, too. Kyle Anderson (Cliff’s grandson) would become a basketball legend for Bob Hurley’s St. Anthony’s team in Jersey City and play for many years in the NBA.
The Giants receiving corps was not a strength in 1953, so Cliff saw plenty of action. He suited up for eight games and started four, reeling in 16 passes for 258 yards and a very respectable 16.1 yards per reception. At season’s end, the consensus was that Cliff would take an important step forward as a player in 1954, especially where his run-blocking was concerned.
Cliff and Bob Schnelker figured to be the starting ends when the Giants began camp at Willamette University that summer and coach Jim Lee Howell—a former end himself—drilled his receivers relentlessly. Unfortunately, Cliff went down with a knee injury in August, which ultimately ended his pro career after just 21 games.
After his playing days, Cliff got into coaching. He was named the head coach of the Shaw University Bears—a historically black college in Raleigh, NC—in 1957 and had his team in the running for a conference championship in 1958 before injuries ruined their season. Following the 1959 season, Cliff resigned for an opportunity to work at Maryland State University under Skip McCain—a legendary football coach and the school’s athletic director.
Cliff coached the track team at Maryland State (which later became Maryland–Eastern Shore) and rose to national prominence during the 1960s and ’70s. His prize pupil was Charlie Mays, a long-jumper and middle-distance runner who was twice named AAU Track & Field Athlete of the Year and competed in the 1968 Olympics. Mays, who became a sporting goods dealer and later a politician in Jersey City, founded the Black Athletes Hall of Fame in 1977. As an assistant coach for the Maryland State football team, Cliff helped develop several future NFL stars, including Emerson Boozer, Art Shell and Bill Thompson. The 1960 team went undefeated.
Cliff’s health began to decline in the late-1970s and he passed away in 1979 at the age of 49. He lived long enough to see his son Kyle develop into a fine high-school basketball player in Cape May, but did not live to see him become a star for Glassboro State in the early 1980s. The track and Lower Cape May High School is named in Cliff’s memory.