Richard Joseph Christy (November 24, 1935 – July 8, 1966) was a
collegiate and professional
football player.
At St. James High School, Christy was twice named 1st Team All-Scholastic by the Philadelphia Bulletin (1952 & 1953). He also led St. James to the Philadelphia City Football Championship in 1953. The Christy was a star halfback at
North Carolina State University (NC State) from 1955 to 1957, leading them to the 1957
Atlantic Coast Conference championship in his senior year. With the league title on the line in the season's final game, Dick Christy scored all 29 points in a 29-26 win over the
University of South Carolina to clinch the championship for his Wolfpack. Christy scored the dramatic winning points on a field goal on the last play of the game.
At the conclusion of the 1957 season, Christy was 1st team All-ACC and was an AP and UP 1st team
All-American. He was also honored as the 1957 ACC Player of the Year in football and as the 1957–58 ACC Athlete of the Year for all sports. His number 40 jersey was retired in 1997 by NC State.
Christy was selected in the third round of the
1958 NFL Draft
The 1958 National Football League draft had its first four rounds held on December 2, 1957, and its final twenty-six rounds on January 28, 1958. Both sessions were held at the Warwick Hotel in Philadelphia.
This was the 12th and final year in ...
(27th overall) by the
Green Bay Packers. Hobbled in the
College All-Star game in mid-August, he was traded to the
Pittsburgh Steelers before the start of the season.
He later played in the new
American Football League. Christy was an AFL
All-Star for the
New York Titans in
1962
Events January
* January 1 – Western Samoa becomes independent from New Zealand.
* January 3 – Pope John XXIII excommunicates Fidel Castro for preaching communism.
* January 8 – Harmelen train disaster: 93 die in the wor ...
, renamed the
Jets in 1963. He was cut by the Jets in September
1964
Events January
* January 1 – The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is dissolved.
* January 5 - In the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches since the fifteenth century, Pope Paul VI and Patriarc ...
.
In March 1966, Christy became the first signing of the
Wilmington Clippers of the
Atlantic Coast Football League
The Atlantic Coast Football League (ACFL) was a professional american football minor league that operated from 1962 to 1973. Until 1969, many of its franchises had working agreements with NFL and AFL teams to serve as farm clubs. The league paid ...
.
Christy died in a one-vehicle automobile accident in 1966 at age 30 in
Chester, Pennsylvania
Chester is a city in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, United States. Located within the Philadelphia Metropolitan Area, it is the only city in Delaware County and had a population of 32,605 as of the 2020 census.
Incorporated in 1682, Chester i ...
.
He was named to the ACC Silver Anniversary football team in 1978. The Dick Christy Award was created by NC State to honor the football team's most valuable players in games against South Carolina. In 2016, Christy was inducted into the NC State Athletic Hall of Fame.
See also
*
Other American Football League players
References
External links
North Carolina State Athletics Program spotlight: Dick Christy
*
1935 births
1966 deaths
Players of American football from Philadelphia
American football running backs
NC State Wolfpack football players
Pittsburgh Steelers players
Boston Patriots players
New York Titans (AFL) players
New York Jets players
American Football League players
American Football League All-Star players
Road incident deaths in Pennsylvania
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