We’ve often featured games played between division rivals in our Throwback Thursday posts, and this week’s will go back to the 1961 season to take a look at a game played between two longtime Eastern Division/NFC East rivals, the New York Giants and Washington Redskins, who play on this week’s NFL schedule. In 2013, we remembered a game played between these 2 clubs in 1966 that was one of the wildest ever, as the Redskins throttled the Giants 72-41 in what still stands as the highest scoring game in league history. The Giants were a doormat in that ’66 season as they finished with only one win all year. However, five years earlier, in the 1961 season, the New York club was a powerhouse. They were in the midst of a stretch that saw them reach the NFL title game 5 times in 6 seasons. Unfortunately, they lost all five of those games (in 1958 and ’59 to the Baltimore Colts, in ’61 and ’62 to Green Bay and in ’63 to the Chicago Bears). On this day, November 5, 1961, the two franchises entered the game at opposite ends of the spectrum. The Giants were 5-2 and leading the division, while the lowly ‘Skins had dropped all 7 of their contests.
The game turned out to be as big a mismatch as the teams’ records indicated it would be, as the Giants pounded their Eastern Division rivals 53-0. Prior to the ’61 season, the Giants had acquired veteran quarterback Y.A. Tittle from the San Francisco 49ers, where he had led a potent 49er offense that was dubbed the “Million Dollar Backfield”. Tittle was considered to be washed up when the trade was made, but apparently the Giants knew what they were doing. Not only did Tittle win the starting job, displacing Giant legend Charley Conerly, but he went on to win three NFL Most Valuable Player Awards in New York and lead the team to the title game in three consecutive years from 1961 to ’63. On this day, the game started ominously for the Redskins as their QB, Norm Snead, was tackled in the end zone for a safety by Dick Modzelewski to give the Giants a 2-0 lead. Then Tittle went to work, torching the Washington secondary for three touchdown passes, two to split end Del Shofner, before giving way to backup Lee Grosscup, who threw another scoring pass to Shofner. The Giant defense chipped in with a 51 yard interception return by Jim Patton for a score, while the hard-luck Snead was caught in the end zone again for another safety, this time by Jim Katcavage. Snead never did much in Washington but did have a long career, mostly as a journeyman QB, after the ‘Skins made a petty good trade of their own a couple years later, swapping Snead to the Philadelphia Eagles for Sonny Jurgensen, who went on to have a Hall of Fame career.
This wasn’t the only game in which Tittle tortured Washington. The following season he set an NFL record for most TD passes in a single game, seven, in a Giant rout that we’ll likely feature in a future Throwback Thursday post.
Giant quarterback Y.A. Tittle