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It was perhaps the most important game in pro football history – Super Bowl III in Miami between the AFL’s New York Jets and NFL powerhouse Baltimore Colts, and with those 2 clubs meeting on this week’s schedule, it is an obvious pick to be chosen as this week’s throwback feature. I have featured this game in other posts regarding past Super Bowls, usually during the week of the ultimate title game, but to my actual surprise, have never given it the TBT treatment. The story of this game is pro football legend today, and the reason is because of a brash young quarterback who stood the sport on it’s collective ear.

To set up the story, let’s look at the games that got the 2 teams to this contest. The Colts were an NFL behemoth in the ’68 season. They had run roughshod through the league and finished 13-1, including running off 8 consecutive wins to finish the regular season after their lone loss, 30-20, to the Cleveland Browns. After dispatching Minnesota in the divisional playoff, they found themselves facing the Browns again in the title game.  This time, they dismantled Cleveland 34-0 and after the result of the AFL championship was decided, sportswriters and analysts everywhere predicted that the “Super Bowl” would be a laugher. In that AFL game, the underdog New York Jets, guided by the passing of their stellar quarterback Joe Namath, rallied in the final quarter to upset the previous year’s champs, the Oakland Raiders, 27-23. Oakland had beaten the Jets 43-32 earlier that year in the infamous “Heidi” game and were favored for a repeat trip to the Super Bowl.

So after 2 resounding victories for Vince Lombardi’s Packers, the third big game was expected to be even more of a one-sided rout, since it was a match between an NFL juggernaut and a club that wasn’t even seen as the best the AFL had to offer. This was reflected in the pre-game betting odds, with the Colts being installed as anywhere from 18 to 23 point favorites. Sportswriters and pundits spent the week ridiculing the Jets, and finally Namath, fed up with it all, stopped the sports world in it’s tracks when he boldly stated “We’re a better team than Baltimore. We’re going to win the game. I guarantee it.” Of course this set off a media feeding frenzy and the ridicule got even louder and more boisterous. Namath in particular, who at the time was disliked by the buttoned-up, conservative media for his unconventional look, (his white shoes, wearing a mink coat on the sidelines while injured, etc.) and his supposed wild lifestyle, took the brunt of the jokes and insults.

Then there was the actual game. Namath wasn’t particularly great, but he engineered a surgical attack mixing the run and the pass to befuddle the Baltimore defense. Running back Matt Snell, who was the unsung hero for the Jets, continually exposed a weakness on the Colts’ left side and scored the game’s first touchdown on a 4 yard run, and did yeoman’s work for the game with 121 yards on 30 carries. Namath used his  quick release to frustrate coach Don Shula’s Baltimore defense, connecting on short and intermediate throws to his backs and to wide receiver George Sauer, who caught 8 passes for 133 yards. Namath’s favorite target, future Hall of Famer Don Maynard, did not catch a pass on the day, but Namath shrewdly used the rest of his team’s weapons to lead 3 field goal drives and build up a 16-0 lead. The Jets’ defense surprisingly shut down Colts’ MVP quarterback Earl Morrall, intercepting him 3 times, including 1 by former Colt Johnny Sample, and holding him to 6 of 17 passing for a paltry 71 yards. Shula, in a sign of desperation,  eventually benched Morrall and turned to legendary John Unitas, his aging and now often injured backup. Unitas led one scoring drive but couldn’t complete the comeback, also throwing a pick.

Matt Snell, Super Bowl III’s unsung hero

When the final gun sounded, the Jets had themselves a stunning 16-7 conquest of their personal Goliath. The win sent feelings of pride throughout the other organizations in the AFL, as their league had finally shown that they were indeed an equal force to their established big brother. The next year, in the final Super Bowl played before the 2 leagues were officially merged into one, the Kansas City Chiefs, humiliated by Lombardi’s Packers in the initial title game, defeated a favored Minnesota Viking squad to end any argument that the AFL had reached parity. Incidentally, Lombardi, the smartest man in pro football at the time, was in the stands at Super Bowl III. Beforehand, he issued a warning to the Colts about Namath, saying the Colts had better not get caught up in the press clippings and underestimate him as he was “a perfect passer”.

Super Bowl III – Namath’s shining hour

It’s already week 10 of the NFL season, and on this week’s slate of games there is a matchup of a pair of old American Football League rivals, the Kansas City Chiefs and Denver Broncos. Our Throwback Thursday time machine will travel back to October 29, 1967 for this week’s TBT feature, when these Western Division clubs clashed. The Chiefs were defending AFL champions, having beaten Buffalo in the 1966 title game to advance to the initial AFL-NFL Championship game. Maybe the pounding they took from Green Bay in that game affected their psyche, or maybe it was the first case ever of “Super Bowl hangover”, but after starting the ’67 season with a pair of victories, the Chiefs had now suddenly lost 3 of 4 contests to fall to 3-3 for the year.

Facing a downtrodden Denver team coming into the game with a 1-6 record, this was a perfect opportunity for the Chiefs to right the ship and get their season back on track. They wasted little time in doing that. Fullback Curtis McClinton scored on a 1 yard plunge and Len Dawson hit tight end Fred Arbanas with a 14 yard touchdown pass to end the first quarter with his club ahead 14-0. In the second quarter, Dawson found his favorite target, Otis Taylor, on a 30 yard TD throw, then coach Hank Stram unleashed his slippery little back, Mike Garrett, who proceeded to gash the Bronco defense for touchdown runs of 20 and 8 yards. The rout was on as the score was now 35-0, but Denver stemmed the tide with a Steve Tensi to Al Denson scoring bomb of 48 yards to make it 35-7. Dawson matched that before the half with a 5 yard TD toss to Gene Thomas to up the lead to 42-7.

In the third quarter, the Broncos showed some fight, slowing down the K.C. attack and providing the only scoring of the period when they tackled Johnny Robinson in the end zone for a safety after he had intercepted a Tensi pass and tried to run with it. The final quarter went the Chiefs’ way again, as they added a Jan Stenerud field goal and a 15 yard touchdown run by backup halfback Bert Coan, putting the final touches on a 52-9 romp. Statistically, Garrett enjoyed a fine day with 20 carries for 101 yards and the 2 TDs, along with 37 receiving yards. Denson was a bright spot for Denver with 4 catches for 107 and his team’s lone touchdown. The win turned the Chiefs’ fortunes back in the right direction, and they went on to finish 9-5 for the year. However, despite being defending champs, it wasn’t good enough to qualify for the playoffs (there were no wild cards in that era) as the Oakland Raiders dominated the AFL Western Division with a stellar 13-1 record. Denver finished in it’s familiar spot – in the Western Division cellar – with a 3-11 record.

Chiefs’ back Mike Garrett

There is a matchup of the Chicago Bears and Arizona Cardinals on this week’s NFL schedule, and our Throwback Thursday time machine will take us back to November 29, 1959 for a game between these 2 old franchises. The Bears were an NFL powerhouse in the 1940s but despite declining on the field in the ’50s, they were still the favorites of fans of the city. At the time the Cardinals were also based in the Windy City, but played second fiddle to the Bears to the point that team owners decided to move to St. Louis for the 1960 season. This game is significant because it was the last home game the Cardinals would play in Chicago. Coach George Halas’ Monsters of The Midway would give their cross-town neighbors a rude sendoff, winning 31-7 in a game that was decided early.

The Bears’ played their home games in that era at Wrigley Field, the venerable old ballpark that is still home to baseball’s Cubs to this day. This matchup took place at the Cardinals’ home base of Soldier Field, for the last time of course with the move to St. Louis pending. The attendance was a bit over 48,000, but with the indifference of Cardinal fans at that point, the betting here is it was mostly a Bears’ fan crowd. The Bears’ Ed Brown had what was a typical outing at that time for a quarterback. He completed only 12 of 27 passes for a meager 188 yards, a 44% completion percentage that would be unacceptable to today’s efficiency driven signal callers, and a surprisingly below average performance in what was a one-sided game. Brown made his completions matter, however. He threw touchdown passes of 76 and 12 yards to Willard Dewveall in the first half, and John Aveni’s 24 yard field goal put Halas’ forces up 17-0 at the break. Dewveall was the statistical star of the game with 3 catches for 105 yards and the 2 TD.

Rick Casares’ 28 yard touchdown rumble put the lead at an insurmountable 24-0 in the third quarter, but the Cardinals managed one final score in their soon to be abandoned home stadium as QB King Hill tossed a 25 yard TD pass to Perry Richards. Hill had an even more miserable passing day than Brown. He was 7 of 21 (33%) for only 102 yards while being intercepted twice. Merrill Douglas’ 2 yard scoring run gave the Bears their final 31-7 advantage, and the Cardinals’ stay in Chicago, which had begun in 1920 as one of the original NFL franchises (and as an independent athletic team since 1898) came to an end. The Bidwell family, Cardinal owners, kept the club in the Gateway city until 1987, then after a stadium dispute moved them again to their current home in Arizona.

Cardinals/Bears program from 11/29/1959

On November 10, 1963 the Dallas Cowboys and San Francisco 49ers hooked up in a contest at San Francisco’s Kezar Stadium. With the Cowboys and Niners matched up on this week’s NFL schedule, that’s the game we’ll highlight for this week’s Throwback Thursday post. Both clubs were in the midst of dismal losing seasons as they entered this week 9 game, with Dallas owning only 2 wins and San Fran only a single one, having gotten their coach fired earlier in the year and now being led by interim coach Jack Christiansen.  Cowboy coach Tom Landry was in his fourth year at the helm, and would eventually build the franchise into a consistent winner, but they hadn’t quite reached “America’s Team” level yet. In fact, they regressed from where they had finished in 1962. A few weeks prior to this game, Landry made a decision that in upcoming seasons would turn the team’s fortunes around. He scrapped his quarterback shuffle plan between Eddie LeBaron and Don Meredith and installed Meredith as full time starter.

San Francisco, meanwhile, had lost starting quarterback John Brodie to a season-ending injury in October, and were being led by veteran journeyman Lamar McHan. The 2 signal callers matched each other in the first half. Meredith sandwiched touchdown passes of 15 and 24 yards to the Cowboys’ best receiver, Frank Clarke, around a 27 yard McHan to Don Lisbon scoring toss. Meredith continued his hot first half, throwing his third TD pass to Billy Howton from 15 yards out. 49er kicker Tommy Davis cut Dallas’ lead to 21-10 at halftime with a late field goal. It was McHan’s turn to shine in the second half. He led a pair of third quarter touchdown drives, ending in a 1 yard plunge by J.D. Smith and a second scoring pass to his running back Lisbon from 46 yards out. The Niners now found themselves with a 24-21 lead. McHan completed the comeback with a 20 yard scoring strike to future actor Bernie Casey, while Dallas could only muster a late field goal and wound up on the short end of a 31-24 final score.

Bernie Casey, Gargoyle and Nerd mentor

Despite the loss, Meredith had an amazing day. He completed 30 of 48 passes for 460 yards and 3 TDs (in the NFL’s 3 yards and a cloud of dust era), while 3 of his receivers, Clarke, Howton and Lee Folkins, each amassed over 100 yards. Despite 1963 being a disappointing year, making Meredith the full time starter paid dividends for coach Landry in upcoming years. The Cowboys became consistent winners and Meredith led them to the NFL title game twice, where they lost heartbreakers to Green Bay. Landry ran into the same problem in the early 1970s when he platooned Craig Morton and Roger Staubach as his QBs, only to finally reach the pinnacle of the sport with 2 Super Bowl wins going with Staubach full time.

Meredith pitches out