That's how big Parker played at OSU and Baltimore. Considered one of the Top 20 players of all time. He was 6-3 273 at a time when DL were often 70, 80, even, 90 pounds lighter than that.
Here's a summary of an article, published by the Baltimore Sun, at the time of his passing:
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Colts great 'blocked out the sun' and rushers, too
[Jim Parker at his package goods store]
After retirement, Jim Parker tended to his package goods store in West Baltimore until a stroke in 1999 made him close it. (Sun staff)
Mike KlingamanSun Staff
His crushing blocks launched Lenny Moore's runs and saved John Unitas' skin.
Jim Parker, the Hall of Famer who anchored the Baltimore Colts' offensive line during the club's glory years, died yesterday of congestive heart failure and kidney disease at the Lorien Nursing Home in Columbia. He was 71.
A mainstay on the Colts' National Football League championship teams of 1958 and 1959, Parker was a superb blocker. He carved out paths for runners and guarded Unitas, his stoop-shouldered quarterback, with the ferocity of an embassy Marine.
"As Johnny's protector, Jim was second to none," said Moore, the Hall of Famer who ran amok in Parker's wake. "If Jim got through the line, I'd be right on his hip because I knew he'd clear out the area."
A first-round draft pick in 1957 from Ohio State, Parker played 11 years with the Colts. He made All-Pro eight straight times - four at guard and four at tackle.
"Anyplace he played on that line, Jim kicked tail," John Mackey, the Colts' Hall of Fame tight end, recalled several years ago. "John [Unitas] never worried about his blind side; Parker was good enough to annihilate the best defensive end."
At 6 feet 3 and 273 pounds, Parker was, at the time, the biggest player ever drafted by Baltimore. "He blocked out the sun," said Ernie Accorsi, former Colts general manager.
A two-time All-American, Parker led Ohio State to a Rose Bowl victory in 1954. His senior year, he won the Outland Award as the nation's premier college lineman, a trophy he cherished to the end in his home in Columbia.
"When I'm gone, I'd like to be known as the best offensive lineman that ever lived," Parker told The Sun in a 2000 interview. "I set that goal as a college freshman, but I didn't get bodacious about it until later.
"You don't broadcast goals 'til it's all over."
Born James Thomas Parker in 1934, he grew up in Macon, Ga., picking peaches and cotton on the family farm. At 13, he took up football. Parker weighed all of 105 pounds at the time.
"I got the living hell beat out of me the first day of practice," he recalled later. "So my daddy bought a case of oatmeal and a case of grits and had me eat it three times a day."
Four years later, Parker had gained nearly 100 pounds and a college football scholarship. At Ohio State, where few blacks lived on campus, he stayed at the home of the late Woody Hayes, the Buckeyes' head coach, who would introduce Parker at his induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1973.
"Physically, Jim was in a class by himself," Hayes said at that ceremony. "Attitude-wise, he was even greater. You only had to tell him once.
[MOD Edit: Fixed your link. It no worky before.]
