No, not Richard Starkey. He would go on to other fame. Ralph Starkey was a 6-foot-3, 245-pound tackle out of West Virginia who the Giants took with the 89th overall selection in the eighth round of the 1954 NFL draft.
Starkey would never play a down for the Giants, or in the NFL for that matter. A knee injury ended his football career before it even started, but that was only the beginning of Starkey’s legacy.
Starkey, who passed away in 2010 at the age of 79, would go on to become a pillar of society in his hometown of Circleville, Ohio.
From the Circleville Herald:
After a knee injury in the 1950s ended his football career with the New York Giants, Starkey returned to Ohio to begin a career in the juvenile justice system. Employed by the state Department of Youth Services for more than 35 years, Starkey was instrumental in establishing good working relationships between the department and the juvenile courts, according to Linda Modry, deputy director of parole and community services.
“He made such an impression on people and was such a great leader that we still talk about him,” Modry said. “His style of working with the community was probably one of the bigger contributions he made because he really taught people how to work together and how to work on behalf of kids.”
Starkey held many positions in the DYS throughout his career, she said, and was instrumental in bringing the Circleville Juvenile Detention Facility to Pickaway County. In fact, she said, the school at the facility was named after Starkey since its inception.