During his fifteen-year career as a starting defensive lineman for the 49ers, Charlie Krueger–the “Textbook Tackle”–was coached for several years by Dick Nolan. During practices and especially during training camp, Nolan’s son Mike would tag along. While the rest of the team ignored him, Charlie, who had no children of his own, would look after the boy and play with him in between drills.
Years later, in his eighties and long retired, Charlie had only two items of football memorabilia on display in his home. One of them was an autographed photo of 49ers head coach Mike Nolan, who remembered a grizzled veteran who looked after him…
On cards and especially in photos, Charlie looked like a man who’d been, to quote my mom, “ridden hard and put up wet”. Or, to steal the description of longtime Yankee Hank Bauer, he had a face that looked like a closed fist. Either way, Charlie took a beating.
He was far smoother in his love life. He was out with friends when he made a nasty comment about Kurt Herbert Adler, the head of the San Francisco Opera. (Editor’s note: Why a 49ers defensive lineman would say anything related to criticizing West Coast opera, I have no clue. It happened. Just roll with it.) One of his friends informed Charlie that Adler’s daughter Kris was sitting at the adjoining table. While clumsily attempting to apologize, something clicked. Within a year they were married.
Oddly, in retirement Kris was a bigger football fan than Charlie. While he was reading on Sunday afternoons, she was watching 49ers games on TV and updating him on scores. Yes, Charlie found the perfect football wife.
The 49ers retired his #70 jersey, though he later had to sue them for misdiagnosing and mistreating knee injuries that would cripple him in old age. But he did it to make sure that no other player wouldn’t suffer the same fate.
That’s the kind of guy who would play with the coach’s kid.
