Rich Caster, former Jets Pro Bowler, dead at 75

Wealthy Caster, who performed 13 seasons within the NFL together with eight with the Jets, died Friday, according to the Clarion Ledger.

Caster was 75 and had been battling Parkinson’s illness.

The tight finish/extensive receiver was named to 3 Professional Bowls — all with the Jets — in 1972, 1974 and 1975.

Former Jackson State faculty teammate James Hartfield confirmed Caster’s dying to the Clarion Ledger, telling the paper, “I’m actually unhappy to listen to about his passing. He was an important individual and [a] nice extensive receiver.”

Because the information of Caster’s passing, those that know him recalled the hulking tight finish as a delicate big who was as form of an individual off the sphere as he was dominant on it.

“Wealthy was like my idol,” former Jets extensive receiver Wesley Walker informed The Publish by telephone. “Richie Caster will at all times be my No. 88.”

Walker, who was chosen by the Jets in 1977 and performed with them till 1989, recalled figuring out little or no about his new group however remembered watching a “Monday Night time Soccer” recreation that the Jets had been taking part in in.

One of many guys that stood out to him was Caster.

“I keep in mind this huge, quick tight finish Richie Caster,” Walker mentioned. “He was like this prototype, tall, [6-foot-5], 260 [pounds], and he may run. I at all times revered him and idolized him. Once I met him, him and Jerome Barkum took me underneath their wing. … [Caster] is that this huge man, and I keep in mind telling all people on a regular basis, he’s this huge, enormous man, however he’s this teddy bear.

“And if I used to be that dimension, I’d simply be a imply dude. I’d have killed someone simply from dimension alone, however he was this mild soul.”

Caster, drafted by the Jets within the second spherical in 1970, was with the franchise via 1977 and is tenth in franchise historical past with 4,434 yards.

He’s additionally seventh in group historical past with 36 landing receptions.

“He at all times performed exhausting,” Jets nice Marty Lyons informed The Publish about Caster. “If you watched highlights, he was at all times on the market for each play catching the ball or blocking. I believe he lived his life the identical approach, one hundred pc behind all the things he did. I do know he’ll be missed by all of us.”

Caster went on to play three seasons with the Houston Oilers and cut up his closing two NFL seasons with New Orleans and Washington, capping his profession with the Tremendous Bowl-champion Redskins in 1982.

He completed his NFL profession with 322 receptions, 5,515 yards and 45 touchdowns.

However what seemed to be Caster’s final legacy from those that knew him greatest was the person who he was.

Lyons recalled how the previous Jets nice would at all times present up for his Marty Lyons Basis occasions and the way concerned he was in the neighborhood.

And each Lyons and Walker described Caster’s means to attach with these round him.

“I believe the large factor is that if we didn’t see one another for months, once we did it was similar to we’d seen one another yesterday,” Lyons mentioned.

Walker added: “He was simply this man that you can discuss to and he at all times put you in your house if he felt you didn’t do proper. … He was very correct and so clever, and simply had this fashion of speaking to you and I simply miss our conversations.”