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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

A pair of old NFL and NFC East opponents, the New York Giants and Philadelphia Eagles, square off on the league’s week 7 schedule, and we’ll harken back to a game played between these 2 rivals on November 26, 1972, at Yankee Stadium. It was a clash of 2 clubs at opposite ends of the spectrum. Philly had managed only 2 wins and a tie through 10 weeks of the season, while the Giants, at 6-4, were chasing both Washington and Dallas in the NFC East race. Eagle coach Ed Khayat had taken the reins early in the 1971 season after Jerry Williams was fired and the team won 6 games to finish that year, earning Khayat the full time position for ’72. Unfortunately the success didn’t carry over and Khayat was fired after the season ended.

New York had traded quarterback Fran Tarkenton back to the Minnesota Vikings prior to the ’72 season and their current field general was former Eagle Norm Snead. Snead directed a well-balanced attack in this contest that saw the Giants rack up 503 total yards, 246 on the ground and 257 through the air, in a blowout 62-10 win that was the largest margin of victory in team history. In the first quarter Snead threw a 15 yard touchdown pass to Bob Tucker and Ron Johnson rumbled 35 yards for a score to put New York up 14-0. The Eagles could only muster a Tom Dempsey field goal, and Snead continued his aerial attack in the second stanza with scoring throws of 5 yards to Joe Orduna and 29 yards to Tucker. Pete Gogolak added a 25 yard field goal in between the touchdowns and the Giants were now comfortably in front 31-3. The Eagles struck lightning when their QB, John Reaves, found Harold Jackson for a 77 yard score. Snead countered that before the half ended with a drive ending in a 1 yard TD plunge by Johnson, putting New York ahead 38-10.

Giants’ coach Alex Webster called off the dogs somewhat in the second half when he replaced Snead with backup Randy Johnson, but it didn’t make much difference. Gogolak added a field goal and the second string signal caller fired a pair of touchdown passes, of 32 and 63 yards, to Don Hermann against the hapless Eagle defense, then wrapped up the scoring himself with a 1 yard YD run to account for the final 62-10 score. Statistically, the 2 New York quarterbacks combined for 5 touchdown passes, Tucker had 8 receptions for 100 yards and Hermann 2 catches for 95 with both scoring a pair of touchdowns. Ron Johnson carried 22 times for 123 yards and also scored twice. The lone bright spot for the Eagles was Harold Jackson with 5 catches for 152 yards and his long touchdown. The Giants fell short of making the playoffs, losing 2 of their final 3 games, while Philly never won another and finished in the NFC East basement.

Giants-Eagles highlights from 11/26/72

On December 6, 1987, a game was played between 2 clubs who meet on this week’s NFL schedule – the New Orleans Saints and Tampa Bay Buccaneers. That game will be our feature for this week’s Throwback Thursday. Coach Jim Mora’s Saints, at 8-3, were fighting for a playoff spot while the Bucs were languishing in a losing season. New Orleans looked to take the fight out of their opponent as quarterback Bobby Hebert and tight end John Tice hooked up on a pair of short touchdown passes in the first quarter to jump out to a 14-0 lead. Bucs’ QB Vinny Testaverde worked his way into the end zone from a yard out to give Tampa their first score. New Orleans, obviously proving to be the better team, started the second quarter the same as they did the first. This time their running game finished drives, as Rueben Mayes scored on a 7 yard run and Dalton Hilliard pranced in from 3 yards out. The Bucs managed a field goal before the half to cut the Saints’ lead to 28-10, but the game appeared to be all but over when New Orleans added 2 more scores – a 40 yard Morten Andersen field goal and a 2 yard Mayes rushing TD, to move ahead 38-10.

Tampa Bay was not about to roll over and play dead yet, however. Testaverde found Mark Carrier for a 37 yard touchdown pass, and Donald Igwebuike booted a 43 yard field goal to cut the deficit to 38-20 after 3 quarters. Andersen stemmed the tide with another field goal but Testaverde went back to work and tossed a 12 yard touchdown pass to Bruce Hill. Now leading 41-27, Andersen finished the Saints’ scoring with another three pointer. Still not finished battling, the Bucs drove to another touchdown behind Testaverde, this one completed by a 2 yard Bobby Howard run. A loss is a loss, and the defeat lowered Tampa’s season record to 4-8, but the team’s effort to shorten the final score to 44-34 was valiant. Testaverde wound up throwing for 369 yards, while Carrier had a career day with 8 receptions for 212 yards and his TD.  This Saints’ victory officially qualified them for the playoffs for the first time in franchise history, but they wound up being blown out 44-10 in the wild card round by Minnesota.

Coach Jim Mora, architect of the Saints’ first playoff team