Graham Kislingbury

I got an email this afternoon from Bob Ramsdell of Albany who had read my story (”The King of Kezar”) about NFL great Bob St. Clair in Sunday’s paper. Ramsdell gave me permission to forward the email to St. Clair, who played for the Niners in the 1950s and early ’60s.
I sent it on to St. Clair, but I also want to share Ramsdell’s email here. He has some great memories of the 49ers.

“I have been a lifelong fan of the 49ers. I saw two preseason games in Sacramento. I was working at CalTrans at the time and 6 of us went to the game. We happened to be sitting next to Bruno Banducci who had retired. You could tell he wanted to be back there with the others the way he was yelling to them what to do. He had been famous for faking an injury near the end of the game to give the other guys a breather.

“The only real game I saw in Kezar Stadium was a game with the LA Rams in the late forties. Bob Waterfield was QB and Glenn Davis was on the team. I think Matt Hazeltine was on the 49ers. One Ram play, V.T. (Vitamin) Smith ran back a kickoff for 95 yards.

“I was going to Yuba College in 1949 when there was a program put on by four 49ers, Frankie Albert, Gordy Soltau and two others. They showed highlight clips. Once in a while it would show them coming off the field and having some Christopher’s Milk, sort of like what Bob St. Clair is doing now. Frankie showed me how to throw the bullet pass he was famous for.

“A few years ago, I bought a book “Giants and Heroes” by Diane Tittle DeLaet, which is an excellent book about her father. I had sent her a quote from a book of outrageous quotes and she liked the one about George Halas. She autographed the book for me and had Y. A. autograph it too. He put down “Nothing is Easy.” She also liked my mention that I had breakfast with Y. A. Tittle once at Stateline Nevada where I happened to be working. “Colonel Slick” is a very recognizable man!

“I have read a lot about the 1951 team with all the Hall of Famers on it. A girl I had known for many years got married to Ed Brown of the Chicago Bears. A good friend of mine, Greg Cosmos, has a Super Bowl ring from being the Equipment Manager for the 49ers. He got another ring from the Denver Broncos. He was equipment manager for Sam Wyche at Cleveland and Tampa Bay. I emailed your story to him yesterday…

“Thank you the great stories and pictures. On the website there were additional pictures and I greatly enjoyed the pictures of the old (Kezar) stadium. In 1940 I lived for the summer on Stanyan Street and used to go to the playground near the stadium.”

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