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It’s the last week of the NFL’s 18 game regular season schedule, and the final Throwback Thursday post for the 2024 season. With the Buffalo Bills facing the New England Patriots on the docket, we’ve chosen a “playoff” game from 1963 between these 2 clubs as our feature for the week. At the time in the AFL there weren’t any playoff games other than the league championship, but this contest was necessitated by the fact that the 2 teams tied for the Eastern Division lead with 7-6-1 records. Played on a snowy field at Buffalo’s War Memorial Stadium on a cold wintry December 28, 1963, it wasn’t much of a contest as the visiting Patriots earned a 26-8 victory. Also, the story of this game for me is that I didn’t get to see it, since I was in a school Christmas play that day at the Catholic elementary school I attended back then.

I was 10 years old at the time, and what I remember is that each class would put on a short performance, either singing Christmas songs or doing short skits. The nun in charge of our class decided to have us act out nursery rhymes, and I got the dubious role of playing Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater. I don’t remember if I had lines or if another classmate read the rhyme as I acted it out but my part involved pulling a wagon decorated to look like a pumpkin holding my wife’s hand, and then giving her a quick smooch before depositing her into the pumpkin. Of course this was a source of great laughter for the other boys in my class. The girl who played my wife was a shy classmate who we boys made fun of because of her long jet black hair. We had cruelly nicknamed her “Tarpit”. I guess we were typical insecure brats back then who did things like that, but this is just another example of why I say that if time travel is ever made possible in my lifetime I would surely go back in time and beat the crap out of little me. The shy little girl got her revenge eventually. Although she is now deceased, she grew up to be an absolutely gorgeous woman. Rest in peace, Mary Jane, I’m sure you were a beautiful person inside and out.

Ok, back to the actual game. After my part in the play was complete, I was allowed to go sit with the audience and watch the rest of the performances. What I found out when I sat down was that there were a number of small transistor radios among the parents tuned into the game. It wasn’t a very happy audience, as the Patriots dominated the first half. Gino Cappelletti booted 3 field goals and the star of the game, Boston halfback Larry Garron, grabbed a Babe Parilli pass and raced 59 yards for a touchdown, giving his team a 16-0 lead at the break. We didn’t have much in the way of music classes back then, but one of my classmates, Norm Skiba, was a talented drummer, and he did a drum solo performance which was excellent, but the ovation he got when he finished was more than he probably would’ve gotten if it wasn’t perfectly timed with a Daryle Lamonica to Elbert Dubenion Buffalo touchdown pass of 93 yards which, coupled with a successful 2 point conversion, cut the Bills’ deficit to 16-8. Unfortunately that was all the Bills could manage. Parilli and Garron connected again on a 17 yard scoring throw, and Cappelletti added another three pointer to account for the final 26-8 score. The win gave the Patriots the Eastern Division crown, and the right to get slaughtered in the AFL title game the following week by the clearly superior San Diego Chargers 51-10.

Pats’ Larry Garron high-steps Bills’ defender (UPI Photo)

The Indianapolis Colts and New York Giants battle on this week’s schedule of NFL games, and we’ll highlight a matchup of these 2 old franchises for this week’s Throwback Thursday feature. It was the 1959 NFL Championship. A rematch of the ’58 title game, won by the Colts in the first sudden death contest in league history that has been labeled “The Greatest Game Ever Played”. Would this contest provide the same dramatics?

It was played on December 27, 1959 at Baltimore’s Memorial Stadium, and to say it was decided in the final quarter would be an understatement. The Colts were defending champions, of course, but the Giants were also a proud franchise, having won the title as recently as the 1956 season and reaching the championship for the second year in a row. The biggest fireworks of the early part of this contest came in the first quarter on a 60 yard touchdown hookup from the Colts’ John Unitas to Lenny Moore. The rest of the first 3 quarters were a defensive battle, with New York managing a Pat Summerall field goal in each quarter to fashion a slight 9-7 lead going into the fourth. Finally, Unitas, who had basically invented the “2 minute drill” in the previous year’s title game, began to solve the Giants’ defense and engineered a pair of scoring drives to break open the close game. He finished one by scrambling 4 yards to paydirt on his own, then threw a 12 yard touchdown pass to split end and future Carolina Panthers’ owner Jerry Richardson for the second one as Baltimore gained a 28-9 lead. Kicker Steve Myhra added a field goal to total, while New York finally found the end zone late in the game as QB Charlie Conerly tossed 32 yards to Bob Schnelker to provide the final score of 31-16, giving Unitas and the Colts their second straight championship.

It was Deja Vu for the Big Blue, and part of a frustrating stretch of years for the Giants. After winning the ’56 title and faltering in 1957, they reached the league’s final game 4 more times in the next 5 years, only to lose all 4 games. After coach Weeb Ewbank’s Colts and Unitas defeated them twice, they ran into Vince Lombardi’s Green Bay Packers in 1961 and ’62 and absorbed 2 more losses.

Colts’ Unitas scans the field

Week 16 of the 2024 NFL schedule finds 2 old league rivals, the Chicago Bears and Detroit Lions, meeting with the clubs going in opposite directions. The Lions are quite possibly the best team in the league, while the Bears are struggling with a rookie quarterback and have already fired their head coach. Circumstances were different, but not completely, when this week’s featured Throwback Thursday game was played between the 2 teams. It was on November 11, 1951 at Chicago’s Wrigley Field, and the Bears, a powerhouse at the time, had won 5 of their first 6 games. Detroit was a good team looking for respect, sporting a 3-2-1 mark. However, the Bears ruled the series between the clubs, having beaten the Lions 11 consecutive times.

This record didn’t sit well with one Lion player in particular – their extremely competitive quarterback Bobby Layne. Layne’s 26 yard touchdown pass to Dorne Dibble gave the Lions a 7-0 first quarter lead. The Bears squared the score with a 54 yard Steve Romanik to John Hoffman pass to open the second stanza, but Layne caught fire for the rest of the half. He led a trio of scoring drives, first managing a short Doak Walker field goal, then finding Leon Hart, along with Dibble his favorite target of the day, on scoring throws of 17 and 9 yards. Detroit’s second quarter surge left them with a 24-7 halftime advantage.

Chicago switched to Johnny Lujack at quarterback in the second half, and he delivered the first score of the half when he tossed a 10 yard touchdown pass to Gene Shroeder. The Lions kept the heat on, however, upping their lead to 31-14 when Pat Harder rushed 3 yards to paydirt to close out the third period. Determined to continue their dominance over their Western Division rivals, the Bears scored next with a Lujack 7 yard pass to Jim Keane, but the Lions, just as determined to break the losing streak to George Halas’ forces, kept up the fight. Layne and Harder supplied the needed push. A Layne to Harder 15 yard touchdown pass and a Harder field goal completed Detroit’s scoring, giving them a comfortable 41-21 lead. Chicago’s George Gulyanics scored from 4 yards out to make the final margin 41-28, but Layne and the Lions finally earned a victory over the Bears after 11 unsuccessful tries. Detroit managed to surpass the Bears in the final standings for the ’51 season with a 7-4-1 record to Chicago’s 7-5. Unfortunately they still fell short of the Western Division crown to the Los Angeles Rams, who finished 8-4.

Detroit’s feisty QB Bobby Layne

The Denver Broncos and Indianapolis Colts clash on this week’s NFL slate of games, and for this week’s Throwback Thursday feature we will revisit a game played between these 2 AFC rivals on January 11, 2015. It was a divisional round playoff contest, and Denver’s Mile High Stadium was it’s location. The story line of this game was the clash of quarterbacks. Peyton Manning meeting his former team, now led by brash young gunslinger Andrew Luck.

Manning got the party started by leading a first quarter drive that ended with a 1 yard touchdown toss to Demaryius Thomas. The Colts fought back to take the lead 14-7 in the second quarter with touchdowns from Dan Herron on a 6 yard run and Dwayne Allen on a 3 yard pass from Luck. Denver’s Connor Barth cut that lead to 14-10 with a 45 yard field goal in the waning seconds of the half. The Indy defense clamped down on Manning in the second half, and upped their lead to 21-10 with the only score of the third quarter, a 15 yard Luck to Hakeem Nicks touchdown pass. Manning’s frustrations continued throughout the remainder of the game, and the only scoring the Broncos could muster was another Barth field goal. Adam Vinatieri matched that for the Colts, and that was all the scoring they needed to secure a 24-13 win and a trip to the AFC Championship game the following week, where the mighty New England Patriots awaited them.

The loss by Manning robbed  America of another classic battle between him and the Patriots’ Tom Brady. Instead it was Luck who got the privilege. Typically, Luck ran out of luck as he and the Colts were schooled by Brady and Bill Belichick in a 45-7 rout in the title game.

Dejected Peyton Manning after playoff loss to Colts