Frank Gifford

Knocked unconscious by Chuck Bednarik in a game against the Philadelphia Eagles on November 20, 1960, Gifford spent ten days in the hospital and announced his retirement. After making a surprising recovery, he returned to the Giants' lineup as a flanker. He played for three more seasons and retired as a professional athlete a second time in 1964. By that date Gifford had worked for several years as a broadcast journalist, a role he took on full-time with CBS in 1965. In 1971 he joined the team of Howard Cosell and Don Meredith on ABC's Monday Night Football, a position he retained through 1998. Inducted in to the College Football Hall of Fame in 1976 and the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1977, Gifford nonetheless became better known to a younger generation for his work on Monday Night Football and other sports programs, including several Summer and Winter Olympic Games. In 1977 Gifford received an Emmy Award as Outstanding Sports Personality from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.