Floyd Douglas Little was born on July 4th, 1942 in New Haven, Connecticut. Fast-forward 69 years, seven months, and one day. Little is in attendance at the second annual NFLPA Legends Brunch on a panel with Warren Moon, Rod Woodson, Fred Biletnikoff, and Cornelius Bennett, some of the best to ever set foot on an NFL playing field.
There’s little chance he ever could have predicted he’d be sitting amongst “legends” back in his days in New Haven, but the journey that fell in between has immortalized him in both the College and Pro Football Hall of Fames. But that’s a story for later.
As Little was nearing young adulthood, the decision was made that he would attend Bordentown Military Institute in New Jersey, a now defunct private high school. During his years at Bordentown, the future Hall of Famer began his storied career as a running back. Little garnered enough to be recruited by several universities, eventually choosing Syracuse in 1963.
He went on to be a three-time All-American, the only running back in the school’s history ever to reach that trifecta. In 1967, the NFL and AFL were holding the first joint draft between the two leagues after their merger the prior year. The AFL’s Denver Broncos selected Little with the sixth overall selection, and they never regretted that choice, as it to this day might still be recognized as their best ever draft pick.
“I only played for one team,” he said. “The Broncos drafted me in the ’67 draft, and they never let me leave. I had opportunities, but I was pretty loyal to the Denver audience and the fans. It was really necessary for me to stay and by me staying it save a franchise, and now I’m called ‘The Franchise’. And I like that name.”
Little was a team captain from day one, through the end of his nine-year NFL career and eventual retirement with the team that drafted him. He amassed 6,323 yards and 43 touchdowns over the course of that career, and he credits his drive for his success as an athlete.
“It’s believing in yourself and being focused,” Little said of what made him the great player that he was. “I was always told that I wasn’t big enough, smart enough, strong enough, or fast enough to play football. Period. There’s a lot of things that you can measure in life, but you can’t measure what’s in your heart. I know where it lies. It’s not at my feet. It’s not at my head. For me to compete, it’s to have that belief in me that I can.”
He cited one his mottos, GPS, explaining that it doesn’t stand for global positioning system as you might think. Instead, he says, it means grace, passion, and skill. “All of us have been graced or blessed and many of us won’t ever find out what that is,” Little said. “We also have a passion, and in order for us to fulfill our grace we have to really utilize that passion and develop the skill to impart that passion.”
While this might come as a surprise, it actually isn’t football that sets Floyd Little as a “legend”. In 1974, he earned three distinguished community service honors for his work off the field, just a few of the thirty such awards he received between 1968 and 1982. But his philanthropic work didn’t stop then. Today, he sponsors the Floyd Little Scholarship.
“It’s for someone who is less fortunate, doesn’t have all of the skills, and is not the smartest person in the classroom, but has the best attitude and a tremendous desire to succeed,” he said. “I’ve dedicated everything that I can to that scholarship to find the person or persons that I think can come out and have a chance to succeed. Those are the kinds of people that can really rise to the top, because they’ve been given an opportunity to compete.”
As a result of everything Little has contributed both on and off the football field, he is now a member of seven Hall of Fames, a two time AFL all-star, three-time NFL Pro Bowler, the namesake of New England’s largest scholastic athletics facility, and the first ever Denver Bronco to have his jersey, #44, retired. He now has another number, 257, which is stitched onto his new Hall of Fame coat.
That number run consecutively amongst the six other inductees in 2010, including Jerry Rice, Emmitt Smith, Russ Grimm, Rickey Jackson, John Randle, and Dick LeBeau. Not bad company by any means. And it’s thanks to that sixth overall draft selective in 1967 that Little made it to Canton two years ago.
“I enjoyed playing in Denver,” he said. “I had a great career there. And I’m a Hall of Famer as a result. So who could complain?”
