1964 Philadelphia football card of former pro football fullback Bill “Boom Boom” Brown, who played for 14 seasons in the NFL, all but 1 of them for the Minnesota Vikings. He was a four-time Pro Bowler and three-time All Pro, and also a member of the Vikings’ Ring of Honor. He earned his nickname with a violent, reckless style of running. Former NFL quarterback Rich Gannon is his son-in-law. Brown died in 2018 at the age of 80.
When former Cleveland Browns’ founder/coach Paul Brown was awarded a pro franchise for Cincinnati in 1968, and then plunked into the AFC Central Division with those Browns as part of the 1970 merger, an automatic rivalry was destined to happen between the 2 Ohio cities. They renew that rivalry as AFC North opponents on this week’s NFL schedule, so we look back at a contest played between them on December 3, 1989 for this week’s Throwback Thursday feature. It was a week 13 contest and both clubs were fighting to stay alive in the AFC playoff race. In the cold environment of Cleveland’s old Municipal Stadium, the defenses took command of the game early, and battled through a scoreless first quarter.
Bengal running back James Brooks finally broke the standoff with a one yard touchdown run in the second quarter. After making some adjustments at halftime, Bengal signal caller Boomer Esaison lit up the scoreboard with touchdown throws of 38 yards to Tim McGee and 9 yards to Rodney Holman. The throw to McGee involved some trickery, as it was the result of a successful flea flicker. With the playing conditions deteriorating and the defenses still forcing things, that gave Cincinnati what amounted to an insurmountable 21-0 lead. That score held up as the final tally, and the Bengals kept their slim playoff hopes alive with the win.
That Ohio rivalry was, and still is, a heated one for both players and fans. In fact, the following week, the Bengals had a home game against Seattle, and things weren’t going real well for the home team. Between blowing a lead and some questionable officiating calls, the fans began to get restless and started to pelt the field with snow balls. Bengal coach Sam Wyche took it upon himself to try and calm the crowd down. He grabbed a microphone and proclaimed “If you see anyone throwing things on the field get them out of here. You don’t live in Cleveland, you live in Cincinnati!” Ah, yes, a little more fuel to the fire that is the Battle of Ohio rivalry.
The late Sam Wyche, former Bengals’ head coach
Logo of a college football team, used from 1965 until 1972, the Memphis Tigers. The school’s gridiron program first played in 1912 and they are currently members of the American Athletic Conference. They have racked up 8 conference titles as members of various leagues over the years. Former Tigers who have gone on to play pro football include Harry Schuh, Steven Gostkowski, Paxton Lynch, DeAngelo Williams, Tony Pollard, Antonio Gibson, Dick Hudson, Dontari Poe, Derrick Burroughs, Ken Irvin and Hall of Famer Isaac Bruce.
1986 Topps football card of former pro football running back James Brooks, who enjoyed an 11 year career in the NFL, mostly with the San Diego Chargers and Cincinnati Bengals. He was a four-time Pro Bowler during his time with the Bengals. In what is an indictment of how college football works, Brooks was able to graduate from Auburn despite being illiterate. He served 3 months of a 6 month jail term in 1999 for failure to pay child support.
The Pittsburgh Steelers and Atlanta Falcons clash on this week’s schedule, and for our Thursday Throwback we’ll feature a game played between these 2 teams in the Falcons’ inaugural season, on December 18, 1966. The Steelers were a suffering through a typical dismal season for them in the 1960s, while the Falcons, of course, were an expansion team still cutting their teeth. To properly gauge the moods of the 2 clubs going into this game, let’s look at where they were entering this final regular season game for both. Pittsburgh was 4-8-1 and closing out another losing year, while Atlanta was just beginning to build some momentum, having won 2 games in a row to raise their record to 3-10. They saw an opportunity to finish the year on the high of a 3 game winning streak.
The Steelers, however sorry of a team they were, reacted like a kid whose buddies bullied him, then some new kid moves in and tries to join in on the bullying. There was no way they were going to let that happen. As bad as the Steelers were in the 1960s, they at least always had a reputation for playing tough defense, even to the point of being dirty. That defense took a vacation day in this game, however, as did the Atlanta defensive unit. It started out quietly enough as the only first quarter scoring was a pair of Mike Clark field goals for Piitsburgh. The Steelers then exploded in the second quarter. Quarterback Bill Nelsen hit Gary Ballman on a 12 yard touchdown pass and Amos Bullocks ran 13 yards for a score and suddenly the Steelers were up 20-0. Atlanta put together a drive to try and stay close, finishing it up with a 1 yard Junior Coffey touchdown run. Pittsburgh score again on a short run by Cannonball Butler, with Clark missing the extra point. Clark then redeemed himself with another short field goal and the Steelers had themselves a commanding 29-7 halftime lead.
There was another flurry of scoring in the third quarter. Falcon QB Randy Johnson connected on a 53 yard pass to running back Preston Ridlehuber for a TD to open the quarter, but the Steelers took over again from there. Buter scored again, winding up a drive with another touchdown. Then Nelsen took the longer, faster route by connecting with Roy Jefferson on a 68 yard touchdown bomb. When Clendon Thomas scooped up an Atlanta fumble and returned it 23 yards to the end zone, the Steel City club now found themselves ahead of the expansion bunch 50-14. Pittsburgh’s defense went back into vacation mode after that. Johnson and Ridlehuber connected again for a score, this time from 19 yards out, but the Steeler offense matched that when Willie Asbury scampered into the end zone from 2 yards out. Falcon coach Norb Hecker, who had been plucked from Vince Lombardi’s Green Bay staff to guide the new team, sent young Dennis Claridge in to mop up the game at quarterback. Claridge, who came from the Packers along with Hecker, lit up the scoreboard with a pair of touchdown throws, of 62 and 12 yards, to four year vet Taz Anderson, ringing up the final tally at 57-33 in favor of Pittsburgh.
It was a typical showing for a team wrapping up it’s inaugural season up against a perennial losing team trying to at least show it could bully somebody else instead of being bullied. Both Hecker and Steeler mentor Bill Austin would last until the 1968 season before being fired, while Claridge, despite showing promise in this game, never stayed in the league beyond the ’66 season.
Game program from Falcons/Steelers 1966 clash
Logo of a future Division II college football team that plays in the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, the Edward Waters University Tigers. The HBCU school is building a new stadium that meets NCAA standards in order to make the move. As tiny as the school is, it sent one player, Jim “Cannonball” Butler, on to play in the NFL, while another, Samuel Charles, played for the Iowa Barnstormers of the Arena League. Another famous Tiger gridiron alumnus achieved success in baseball – former Negro League legend Buck O’Neil.
1966 Philadelphia football card of former pro football halfback Jim “Cannonball” Butler, who played 8 seasons in the NFL in the 1960s and early 1970s for 3 teams. His best years were the 4 he spent with the Atlanta Falcons, where he led the team in rushing each year and earned a Pro Bowl nod in 1969. He came out of retirement in 1974 and made a brief appearance in the World Football League with the Birmingham Americans. Butler passed away in 2014 from complications of dementia.
On September 26, 1976 the San Diego Chargers and St. Louis Cardinals met, and they play each other again on this week’s NFL schedule, with both clubs calling different cities home. We highlight this matchup as our Throwback Thursday feature because the Cardinals’ coach, Don Coryell, would find himself as the head man of the Chargers a couple of years later. It was week 3 of the ’76 season and both teams entered the contest unbeaten at 2-0. Coryell had a top quarterback leading his offense in Jim Hart, and Hart played a pretty good game, but it was San Diego’s young signal caller, Dan Fouts, who dominated the action. He led a drive that ended with a Don Woods touchdown run to start the scoring, but Hart brought the Cardinals back with a 14 yard touchdown toss to J.V. Cain and a field goal drive. Since the Chargers had missed their extra point St.Louis now led 10-6.
Fouts and the Chargers took command in the second quarter. Rickey Young’s short scoring run started a 27 point avalanche, with Fouts throwing 3 touchdown passes. He found Charlie Joiner for a 30 yard score, then threw twice to Dwight McDonald for touchdowns from 44 and 18 yards out. Another extra point was missed, but it hardly mattered. San Diego now led 33-10 at the half. When Hart hit Wayne Morris with an 11 yard TD it looked as though the Cards might have some life, but Fouts snuffed that out by leading another field goal drive and throwing his fourth touchdown pass of the day, a short 1 yarder to Pat Curran. Morris added another touchdown for St. Louis but the outcome had been decided by then. The final result was a 43-24 beatdown by San Diego.
The seasons went in opposite directions for these 2 teams after this game. San Diego would stumble to a 6-8 record. The Cardinals went 10-4 but still wound up third in the NFC East, and had the dubious distinction of being the only 10 win club to not qualify for the playoffs in the 14 game season era. It was the first time in 3 years that they missed the playoffs. Ultimately, the Cardinals fired Coryell and in the middle of the 1978 season San Diego fired their coach, Tommy Prothro, and replaced him with Coryell, who had cut his teeth as a coach at San Diego State in the 1960s and early ’70s. He took Fouts and Joiner and added pieces like Chuck Muncie, John Jefferson and Kellen Winslow and created the “Air Coryell” offensive attack that the Chargers used successfully for the 9 years that he coached there.
Future Hall of Fame QB Dan Fouts
With this being Thanksgiving week, we’ll highlight a logo for an annual tradition, NFL football in Dallas. The league has had it’s annual game on that day in Detroit since 1934, but added the additional game in Dallas in 1966, and it’s become the second part of the annual Turkey Day celebration ever since, with a couple of exceptions in the 1970s when St. Louis hosted the second game. The NFL also plays a night game on Thanksgiving now. The Cowboys’ all-time record on the holiday is 31-22-1.
1982 Topps football card of former pro football quarterback Dan Fouts, who played his entire 15 year career for the San Diego Chargers. He was a four-time All Pro and six time Pro Bowler, and was named NFL offensive player of the year in 1982. Fouts was also named a member of the NFL’s All Decade team for the 1980s, and was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility in 1993. After retiring from the game he worked as an analyst for college and NFL games for Monday Night Football, CBS and the Westwood Radio Network. He also dabbled in acting, playing himself in the Adam Sandler movie The Waterboy.