Former Equipment Manager Tom Gray Recognized in Canton

HOBSON: Bengals president Mike Brown says back then, the equipment room was kind of a gathering place because Tom was a popular figure.

TRUMPY: Yes, yes, absolutely, it was. Yes. When Tim Krumrie broke his leg in the Super Bowl, I was already retired. Go to training camp the next summer, and as you remember, Krumrie didn’t miss a game even with that badly broken leg. And when I walked into Tom Gray’s office, there was Krumrie sitting there talking to him. I said, ‘Timmy, you’re sitting in my seat.’ And he says, ‘Now my seat.’ Tom Gray always attracted a crowd.

HOBSON: What was it about him?

TRUMPY: His connection with Paul. I think that was a part of it. He just loved being around the players, and eventually I had the guts to smoke in front of him. He smoked too, so we would sit there and he would put up a mirror so nobody could see us smoking when they walked into his office down at Spinney Field, and we would just sit there and shoot the breeze. He was all for us, and I was in love with him. If you’re my first ally, we’re buddies forever.

CONNELLY: Lou Weiland had a little bar down the street from Spinney on Gest Street. Tom never had to buy his lunch, because the players would always, if they’re going out to get themselves sandwiches, they would always ask Tom, well, what kind of sandwich do you want? They would always bring him a sandwich back. It was definitely a gathering place. Tom kind of ruled it like the Chief Justice of the equipment room.

My first year, when I was an assistant trainer (1976), we got back from Tampa one preseason game at like two or three in the morning, and Tom had arranged for three-way coneys to be delivered at 2:30 to Spinney. He was just one of those guys who without asking, he sort of knew what to do. He knew what was going to be needed.

And it’s one of those positions where you have to prepare. You can’t go into a game in Denver and not prepare for snow. You have…