Sutton part of Brownsville’s rich football history
The Sutton brothers contributed to Brownsville’s rich football history. Seven brothers played for Brownsville and one, 91-year-old Paul “Buck” Sutton, is still living.
Sutton was a target of professional baseball. He was a very good right-handed pitcher for the Brownsville High School baseball team and also played basketball.
“In the fall of 1940. my brothers had a friend name Bill Brown,” Sutton stated. “Brown had a minor connection to the Cleveland Indians. He took me to Cleveland for a tryout. I was planning on going to college, but I went down and pitched batting practice at League Park. They didn’t offer me a contract after I pitched batting practice to George Susce. They were only interested in how hard you can throw. They said you’ve got a handicap, you’ve got small fingers. The fastball pitchers have long fingers, they asked if I was interested in going to the Piedmont League, I said no I’m going to college.”
Sutton was a highly-prized college recruit when he graduated from Brownsville in 1941.
“I went on several college visits,” Sutton said. “I got all kinds of mail. I visited Lafayette, William & Mary, Penn State, West Virginia and Duke was really after me. I visited them twice. I had a trip to Ohio State.”
“John “Shag” Wolosky and I went to Ohio State together,” Sutton recalled. “Paul Brown wanted us to come down together. Shag had an old Chevy and we had about three flat tires on the way down there. When we got there we went to a frat house and they said we’ll get you a ride to where you are going to sleep. Our ride showed up and it was a black guy with a car, he took us over to where we were going to sleep. They said how did you get here, we said some black guy picked us up and brought us over. They said do you know who that black guy was? We said no. They said that was Jesse Owens. It was 1941 and he was two credits short of his degree. They gave him a job meeting student athletes until he got his last two credits.”
Sutton wound up accepting a football scholarship to North Carolina State.
“North Carolina State showed up at my house before to talk to me,” Sutton said. “Then, it was on a Sunday, this car pulled up and it was assistant coach Herman Hickman and the coaching staff from NC State with a member of the alumni that had money. They came in and talked to me and my father. They said Mr. Sutton can we go in the other room? They talked and when they came out my Dad says if you go to North Carolina State this member of the alumni is going to send me $50 every month that you’re down there. I said I don’t care where I go as long as I’m going to play football. He said the guys got a contract and we’re going to sign it. I’ll get the money and they will take good care of you.”
In 1941, Sutton played freshman football for the Wolfpack. Sutton missed the 1942 campaign after he was injured in a mining accident. He tallied 27 points in 1943, but suffered a severe knee injury in a 75-0 loss to Duke in November of that year. That was the last game he played for the Wolfpack, who finished with a 3-6 record in 1943.
“After my freshman year I came home,” Sutton explained. “Isabella mine was looking for a pitcher. There were no jobs anywhere. You had a lot of old time players that couldn’t find a job anywhere and they took a job in the coal mine. They came to my house and asked me if I wanted a job. They gave me the job with one condition that I pitch for their baseball team.
“I went in the mine and only lasted for about 16 or 18 days, before a beam slipped. I was riding a coal car and I smacked my head on the beam. I was seriously hurt, I couldn’t do a thing for over a year. In 1943, North Carolina State took me to the Duke University Hospital. The coach said I could play. The first four or five games I played two or three minutes at a time. Then I played more and had a big game against North Carolina before I got hurt against Duke.”
Sutton tried to enlist in the Army, but they wouldn’t take him with his teammates because of the head injury.
“I was the only one they wouldn’t take,” Sutton said. “I was upset, but they said my hand and eye coordination was off. I did 10 pushups for the doctor. He asked me to write my name and the first four letters were all on top of each other. He said I had no coordination. I went home, and then got out of Brownsville and went to Detroit.”
He didn’t stay in Detroit long after he collapsed on the Ford plant assembly line and spent three days in the hospital. He moved to Buffalo with his Sabra and her husband Jimmy Boyland. Football wasn’t done with Sutton yet.
“In 1946 I got a call from the New York Giants, who wanted to send me a contract,” Sutton said. “I told them I had head problems and a bad knee. The Steelers called and they wanted me to play. They had me come to Pittsburgh and they would have a doctor look at me. They had a doctor look at me and he said I needed a special brace. The Giants and Steelers both sent me a contract for $275 a game. I went to Steelers camp in Hershey, Pa. I kept asking about the brace, I was their about three weeks. My knee was flying out when I got hit and I was dizzy. I kept asking for the brace. They said it was on the way. I gave them another week and it still didn’t come, so I went back to work in Buffalo.
“I did coach Little League baseball for 50 years. It’s been an interesting life that’s for sure.”
Sutton worked for the railroad as a brakeman for 23 years and then as a passenger conductor for seven years. He married Virginia Burton in 1946. She died in 1983. They had three children, one son Paul died at age 51. His son Jim and daughter Mary are still living.