How an NFL Quarterback Saved a Vietnam POW’s Life, and Sanity: Interview with Jack Fellowes

The Story of How an NFL Quarterback Saved a Vietnam POW’s Life

An interview with Jack Fellowes about his time as a Vietnam Prisoner of War, and how Earl Morrall kept him going - by sports writer Norman L. Macht

The Vietnam War played a huge role in the social makeup of the United States

Quarterback Earl Morrall played for six NFL teams over 21 seasons (1956-1976), including three with the New York Giants. Captain Jack Fellowes was a Navy pilot who was shot down and captured in Vietnam in 1966.

This is his story.

I was a POW in Vietnam from 1966 to 1973.  I spent seven years in a lot of “Hanoi Hiltons.” The name of the game was to try to think of things that would not put you where you were.

So I would think of anything. I used to go through baseball lineups, like the Red Sox in the 1946 World Series. I grew up in Arizona, where I would listen to USC and UCLA football games on the radio, and I would replay those football games in my mind.

One day an old television program crossed my mind called “What’s My Line?” Earl Morrall had just been traded to the New York Giants, and they were talking about something on the panel, and I’m recalling Kitty Carlisle saying, “Well, the Giants are saved now, because they got a new quarterback Earl Morrall.” Except when I got to that part, I couldn’t remember the name of the player she was talking about.

For the next two and a half years, I was going batty trying to remember who was that quarterback that she had mentioned on that program.

I even remembered seeing him play once and being very impressed. But the name? It wouldn’t come to me.

Then one day I was with some Air Force prisoners We were singing songs and trying to remember the lyrics.

The song, “Lucky Old Sun,” came up and I was singing it mentally trying to remember the words and suddenly it came to me – Earl Morrall – just like that. I jumped up and danced around the room and the group of Air Force guys said, “What the hell’s the matter with you?”

I said, “I’m not crazy. I remember his name.”

Of course, to most people, that sort of thing is not very exciting, but it was exciting to me.

It’s fascinating, because here he was a football player, didn’t know me from Adam, and I certainly don’t know him, but his name was very important to me. After 1969, when it finally came to me in that song, I’ve never forgotten it, of course.

I was a captive for another four years after that. It was always awful. But we made some good days, because we passed jokes to each other, but I don’t think it was worth a darn. It just wasn’t fun.

You sit there for so long and you think your mind’s going to atrophy, but it doesn’t. There’s so much back there. It just made me feel good that I remembered Earl Morrall’s name. It kept me going.

I give Earl credit for keeping me going for the first three years because I forgot his name. He doesn’t know that I forgot it. But the next four years, boy, was solid. I knew I could remember these things. He was a kind of a turning point, to be perfectly honest with you.

This guy saved my life. Trying to remember Earl Morrall’s name had kept me from going crazy.

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