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Robert Theodore Trumpy Jr. (born March 6, 1945) is an American former football tight end who played for the Cincinnati Bengals in the American Football League (AFL) and National Football League (NFL), from 1968 through 1977. He was a two-time NFL Pro Bowler and a two-time AFL All-Star. Following his playing career, Trumpy spent many years as a broadcast color analyst, calling four Super Bowls. He was given the Pete Rozelle Radio-Television Award by the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2014.
 Trumpy c. 1969 | |||||||||
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| Position: | Tight end | ||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||
| Born: | March 6, 1945 Tremont, Illinois, U.S. | ||||||||
| Height: | 6 ft 6 in (1.98 m) | ||||||||
| Weight: | 228 lb (103 kg) | ||||||||
| Career information | |||||||||
| High school: | Springfield (Springfield, Illinois) | ||||||||
| College: | Illinois (1963–1964) Utah (1965–1967) | ||||||||
| NFL draft: | 1968 / round: 12 / pick: 301 | ||||||||
| Career history | |||||||||
| Career highlights and awards | |||||||||
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| Career AFL/NFL statistics | |||||||||
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Trumpy was born on March 6, 1945.[1] His family moved from Tremont, Illinois to Springfield, Illinois, when his father Robert Sr. had a job transfer. Trumpy began attending Springfield High School as a sophomore, after first attending Tremont High School, where he played multiple sports. He was all-state in football and basketball.[2][3] He was on Springfield's state championship basketball team, and he was team captain as a senior, as well as being named all-state.[3]
He played in four different state tournaments that took place at the University of Illinois during this time, two in basketball and two in track, where he won the 1963 state meet in long jump[2] and tied for fifth in high jump.
He was inducted into the Basketball Museum of Illinois Hall of Fame in 1983.[3] In 1991, he was among the first inductees into the Springfield Sports Hall of Fame, and in 1996 he was inducted into the Springfield High Hall of Fame in 1996.[2]
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After graduation in 1963, Trumpy played college football at Illinois.[2] Since freshmen were not allowed to play on the varsity team, his first season was in 1964 as a wide receiver, where he caught 28 passes for 428 yards and 2 touchdowns[4] before missing the last two games of the season with a knee injury. Trumpy then transferred to the University of Utah, which required him to miss the 1965 season. In 1966, he converted to tight end, catching 9 passes for 159 yards and 2 scores.[4] After graduation, Trumpy was drafted by the U.S. Navy and spent 180 days in it during the Vietnam War.[5]
After being discharged from the Navy, Trumpy worked briefly as a bill collector before being selected by the AFL's Bengals in the 12th round (301st overall) of the 1968 Common Draft.[6] Despite his low draft selection, Trumpy worked hard in the offseason and managed to earn the starting tight end spot in the team's lineup. He didn't disappoint in his rookie season, recording 37 receptions for 639 yards and three touchdowns,[1] and earning a place on the AFL Western Division All-Star team.[1]
In Cincinnati, Trumpy played under hall of fame coach Paul Brown, head coach Tiger Johnson, and offensive coach Bill Walsh, another hall of fame coach and offensive innovator.[7]
In 1969, averaged 22.6 yards per catch, on 37 passes for 835 yards and nine touchdowns.[7][1] Trumpy was selected first team AFL All-League tight end by numerous entities, including the Associated Press (AP), Pro Football Weekly, the Newspaper Enterprise Association (NEA), and United Press International (UPI), and second team by The Sporting News and the Professional Football Writers of America.[1] He was again selected to the AFL All-Star team.[1] In a November 1969 game against the Houston Oilers, Trumpy became the first Bengals tight end to record three touchdown receptions in a single game, helping his team to a 31–31 tie.[8]
In 1970, with the Bengals now part of the National Football League following the AFL-NFL merger, The Sporting News and AP selected him first team AFC All-Conference.[1]
1977
Trumpy continued to play for the Bengals until 1977, earning two trips to the Pro Bowl in 1970 and 1973. In his final season, he caught only 18 passes for 251 yards and one touchdown,[1] but his touchdown was one of the most memorable plays of his career. In a November 20 game against the Miami Dolphins during a driving rainstorm, Trumpy caught a 29-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Ken Anderson on a flea flicker play that involved three players handling the ball before it was thrown to him.[9] First, Anderson handed the ball off to running back Archie Griffin, who then pitched the ball to receiver John McDaniel running in the opposite direction. McDaniel then handed the ball back to Anderson, setting up his 29-yard touchdown pass to Trumpy. The Bengals went on to defeat the Dolphins 23–17, knocking them out of playoff contention. "It was magic", said Trumpy about the play,
Don Shula (the Dolphins coach at the time) reminds me of that play every time I see him. He called it 'triple pass' because 3 people touched it before I caught it, but Shula called it the reverse pass. He'll see me and say 'That damn reverse pass. I remember that.'
Career statistics
Trumpy finished his 10-year career with 298 receptions for 4,600 yards and 35 touchdowns in 128 games.[1] His 4,600 receiving yards, 35 touchdown receptions, and 15.4 yards per catch average are the most ever by a Bengals tight end (as of 2018).[7]
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While not a hall of fame player, Trumpy went on to have a hall of fame broadcasting career. He called four Super Bowls, four Pro Bowls, six Hall-of-Fame Games in football, as well as three Ryder Cups and three Olympics.[7][10]
Trumpy had his first broadcast experience in 1964, working with Coley Cowan on a WTAX in a Springfield radio broadcast of a basketball tournament in Springfield.[2]
Upon retiring he joined WCKY radio as a sports talk host.[7]
Trumpy expanded into NFL broadcasting in 1978, when he joined NBC as a color analyst for telecasts of AFC games, working primarily with Sam Nover through 1980, then with Bob Costas[11] (1981-1983) and Don Criqui (1984–1988).[12] Trumpy and Criqui also served as NBC Radio's lead NFL announcers in from 1985 to 1986, calling Monday Night Football and Super Bowls XX and XXI.[10]
In 1992, Trumpy replaced Bill Walsh as NBC's lead NFL analyst, teaming with Dick Enberg until 1995 (when NBC went to a three-man booth with Paul Maguire and Phil Simms replacing him). The team of Enberg and Trumpy called Super Bowls XXVII (1993) and XXVIII (1994).[10] He would then be paired with Tom Hammond (1995–1996) and Charlie Jones (1997) until NBC lost the AFC package to CBS following the 1997 season.
Trumpy hosted a weeknight sports talk show on WLW-AM in Cincinnati, Ohio (1980–1989), and was Ohio Sports Broadcaster of the Year four times.[2] He left the show to be able to work more assignments at NBC Sports, including PGA Tour golf and the Olympics.[13] He was replaced on the sports talk show by Cris Collinsworth.
On the night of November 10, 1983, while he was hosting his talk show on WLW, the first call that he received was from a despondent woman who said that she wanted to commit suicide. Trumpy spoke to the woman (and, later, her son) for more than two hours until the son gave him their address. He then spoke to the woman and her son for several more minutes after that until his station manager took him off the air. Police in Forest Park, Ohio went to the address that the son had given and took the woman to a local hospital. Trumpy received praise for his actions from the Forest Park police and suicide prevention counselors.[14] He later said that he had to go to therapy because of the incident.[15]
Trumpy was an analyst for Sunday Night Football on Westwood One radio from 2000 to 2007[2] (save for the 2005 season, when he was replaced by John Riggins), and also called playoff games for the network. He was most frequently paired with Joel Meyers on the Sunday night games.
During the first round of the 2006-07 NFL playoffs, Trumpy and Enberg were in the broadcast booth together for the first time since the 1994 AFC Championship Game, covering the Colts-Chiefs game for Westwood One. They were paired again for the Patriots-Chargers game the following weekend.
Trumpy was named the 2014 recipient of the Pete Rozelle Radio-Television Award, given by the Pro Football Hall of Fame for lifetime achievement in NFL broadcasting.[7]
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Trumpy is married to his wife Pat, and together they have two sons (Matthew and Jason) and six grandchildren (Josh, Jackson, Conner, Kelli, Lauren, Morgan). The couple lives in the Cincinnati suburb of Glendale, Ohio. He is a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity.
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