Wealthy Caster, who performed 13 seasons within the NFL together with eight with the Jets, died Friday, in keeping with the Clarion Ledger.
Caster was 75 and had been battling Parkinson’s illness.
The tight finish/large receiver was named to a few Professional Bowls — all with the Jets — in 1972, 1974 and 1975.
Former Jackson State school teammate James Hartfield confirmed Caster’s loss of life to the Clarion Ledger, telling the paper, “I’m actually unhappy to listen to about his passing. He was a fantastic particular person and [a] nice large receiver.”
Because the information of Caster’s passing, those that know him recalled the hulking tight finish as a mild big who was as sort of an individual off the sphere as he was dominant on it.
“Wealthy was like my idol,” former Jets large receiver Wesley Walker informed The Put up by telephone. “Richie Caster will all the time 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 staff however remembered watching a “Monday Evening Soccer” recreation that the Jets have been taking part in in.
One of many guys that stood out to him was Caster.
“I bear in mind this huge, quick tight finish Richie Caster,” Walker stated. “He was like this prototype, tall, [6-foot-5], 260 [pounds], and he might run. I all the time revered him and idolized him. After I met him, him and Jerome Barkum took me underneath their wing. … [Caster] is that this huge man, and I bear in mind telling everyone on a regular basis, he’s this huge, enormous man, however he’s this teddy bear.
“And if I used to be that measurement, I’d simply be a imply dude. I’d have killed any individual simply from measurement alone, however he was this mild soul.”
Caster, drafted by the Jets within the second spherical in 1970, was with the franchise by 1977 and is tenth in franchise historical past with 4,434 yards.
He’s additionally seventh in staff historical past with 36 landing receptions.
“He all the time performed laborious,” Jets nice Marty Lyons informed The Put up about Caster. “While you watched highlights, he was all the time on the market for each play catching the ball or blocking. I believe he lived his life the identical approach, one hundred pc behind the whole lot 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 last 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 all the time 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 skill to attach with these round him.
“I believe the massive factor is that if we didn’t see one another for months, after we did it was similar to we’d seen one another yesterday,” Lyons stated.
Walker added: “He was simply this man that you could possibly speak to and he all the time put you in your home 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.”
