Football: Former Nisswa resident named to top 100 list

NEW YORK — Greg Larson wore his New York Giants No. 53 jersey 179 times between 1961 and 1973.

It still stands as the most games played by a Giants offensive lineman in team history. According to the Giants website, of the 1,800 players who appeared in at least one game for New York, only eight have played more than Larson. He is one of only 32 players who played their entire career with the Giants.

Longevity and talent were two reasons Larson was named to the Giants Top 100 Players list. Larson landed at No. 62.

Unfortunately, the former Minnesota Gopher and owner of Greg Larsons Sports in Brainerd couldn’t celebrate. The 84-year-old former Nisswa resident passed away June 20 at SummerWood Presbyterian Senior Living in Plymouth with his wife of 63 years, Joey.

From the Giants Website, Larson was a sixth-round draft choice out of Minnesota, where he was a team captain and helped lead the Golden Gophers to a national championship in 1960. He joined the Giants in a pivotal 1961 season, when Allie Sherman took over as head coach and the organization obtained quarterback Y.A. Tittle (from the San Francisco 49ers) and end Del Shofner (from the Los Angeles Rams) in trades. The Giants reached the NFL Championship Game in the next three seasons. Larson helped block for Tittle as he set numerous franchise and league records. Tittle’s 36 touchdown passes and 104.8 passer rating in 1961 remain the most in a single season in Giants history. The Giants teams of 1962, 1963, and 1967 own the top three spots in most touchdowns scored in franchise history.

Contributed by Larson family

Larson’s daughter Karin and his sons Bart, Michael and Chris and wife Joey attended the Top 100 ceremony Sept. 6-8.

“The ceremony was a blast,” Greg Larson’s son Michael Larson said. “It was so much fun. We stayed in a hotel with all of the other Giants’ Top 100 players and their families. There were families of players from the 40s and 50s there. It was just amazing. We stayed in the same hotel as Lawrence Taylor and everyone. Eli Manning and just everyone.”

Michael Larson and his mother Joey were invited into the Commissioner’s Club Suite at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey. Larson said when they met Giants owner John Mara, who is the son of former owner Wellington Mara, he recognized his mother and talked about his father using his old nickname of Egor. Larson said Mara was 13 when Larson played for the Giants and he remembered No. 53. He called him his favorite player when he was young.

“All the players that showed up, whenever I or one of my family members would approach them for a picture, they would say, ‘Oh yea. You’re part of the Giants family,’” Michael Larson said. “It was just a big family atmosphere. At the hotel, people were getting together. It was just so much fun.”

After graduating from the University of Minnesota with a business degree, Greg Larson was drafted by the AFL San Diego Chargers and the NFL New York Giants. Larson decided to accept the Giants’ offer. In his 13-year career, he only missed three games despite enduring seven football-related surgeries, including two on each knee. He was named to the Pro Bowl in 1968, and retired from football in 1973.

It may have been fitting that the Top 100 celebration took place during the week of the Giants vs. Minnesota Vikings football game. Michael Larson admitted he had a quiet clap going on his head as he’s a Vikings fan first and a Giants fan second.

Bart Larson, the oldest of the sons, was announced on the field during halftime of the football game.

“We met so many people,” Michael Larson said. “The whole Giants organization treated us like we were players — family. They have a saying, ‘Once a Giant. Always a Giant.’ It was unbelievably well done and an experience of a lifetime.”

Contributed by Larson family

Greg Larson attended Roosevelt High School where he played football, basketball and track, earning basketball state titles in his junior and senior years. Larson was inducted into the Roosevelt High School Hall of Fame. At the University of Minnesota, he was an unrecruited walk-on football player. After his stand-out freshman year playing offense and defense, the University offered him a full scholarship. Larson was a three-year letterwinner. He was named team captain and All-Big 10 selection when the Gophers won the 1960 National Championship. He was enshrined into the M Club Hall of Fame in 2010.

Greg moved his family to the Brainerd lakes area in 1974 and bought Sports Supply, a regional sporting goods business, before starting over with GLSports.

Contributed by Larson family

JEREMY MILLSOP may be reached at 218-855-5856 or jeremy.millsop@brainerddispatch.com. Follow on Twitter at www.twitter.com/jeremymillsop.