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Two old American Football League Western Division rivals, the San Diego Chargers and Oakland Raiders, meet on this week’s NFL schedule. A game between these two clubs, played on September 10, 1978, is this week’s Thursday Throwback feature game. Like many of the featured games in this series so far, it became legendary because of it’s ending. Also like many of the games in the Thursday Throwback posts, it features the Raiders. Al Davis’ Pride and Poise boys have been a part of many of the most remarkable pro football games over the years, and have been featured here for the “Immaculate Reception” game versus the Steelers, the “Ghost To The Post” game against the Colts and the “Heidi” contest against the Jets. And like that “Ghost To The Post” contest, one of this game’s key players was Raider tight end Dave Casper. The Chargers held a 20-14 lead with only 10 seconds left on the clock and the ball on the San Diego 14 yard line, in possession of Oakland. Quarterback Ken “The Snake” Stabler, who was never known for his artistic grasp on the position but was always a gamer, took the snap and dropped back to pass. He was eventually swarmed by Charger linebacker Woodrow Lowe and as he was about to be sacked, “fumbled” the ball forward. It rolled toward the San Diego goal line, and Raider back Pete Banaszak attempted to pick it up but he knocked it forward also. Casper was the next player to encounter the ball, and he finished the job of getting it into the end zone by tipping it toward the goal line before eventually recovering it for the winning touchdown. Despite howls of protest from the Chargers, the officials ruled the play a Raider touchdown because they claimed they couldn’t determine if the Oakland players intentionally batted the ball forward. Of course, following the game, Stabler said he fumbled on purpose out of desperation, and both Banaszak and Casper admitted they intentionally moved the ball forward. The controversy over the play forced the NFL to change the rules regarding “forward” fumbles. Now only the fumbling player can recover the ball and advance it. If one of his teammates recovers, the ball is returned to the spot of the fumble. Also, most likely under today’s rules Stabler’s original “forward” fumble would be considered an incomplete forward pass.

The game became known in NFL lore as “The Holy Roller” game, although in San Diego Charger fans’ lore, it’s called “The Immaculate Deception”, ironically the same name Raider fans have for Franco Harris’ touchdown in Pittsburgh’s “Immaculate Reception” win over Oakland.

Raiders’ Dave Casper celebrates controversial “Holy Roller” winning touchdown.

With the Dallas Cowboys and Green Bay Packers slated to meet in this week’s NFL schedule, the Thursday Throwback feature of the week was a no-brainer. It’s one of the most storied games in NFL history, and it was played between these two teams on New Year’s Eve, 1967, for the NFL Championship. It remains the game played in the most extreme weather conditions of any game in league history. It was 15 degrees below zero at the start of the game, with a wind chill factor of 48 below, and of course, got even colder as the day went on. The game was a rematch of the 1966 title game, played in Dallas, and won by the Packers. The teams were arguably the two best clubs in pro football at the time, coached by future Hall of Fame legends Vince Lombardi and Tom Landry. Green Bay had a heating system installed beneath the Lambeau Field playing surface, but it broke down overnight due to the extreme conditions, and when the tarp was removed from the field the morning of the game, it left moisture that flash-froze and created a surface of hard ice that got worse as the day went on. The terrible conditions, combined with the thrilling ending to the game, forever immortalized the title contest as “The Ice Bowl.” Landry’s Cowboys came into the game determined to extract revenge for their loss in the previous year’s title game, but the Packers got off to a great start, scoring on a pair of touchdown throws from Bart Starr to his favorite target, Boyd Dowler. The Cowboys, considering the weather conditions and the fact that they fell into the early hole, could’ve easily folded up their collective tent, but instead, they forced a pair of turnovers. On the first, Willie Townes sacked Starr, forcing a fumble that George Andrie recovered and returned for a touchdown. Then, Willie Wood fumbled a punt, setting up a Dallas field goal. The momentum began to shift to the Cowboys, but two sustained drives in the third quarter by Dallas ended badly, first on a sack/fumble of QB Don Meredith, then on a missed field goal. Landry’s troops finally broke through on the first play of the fourth quarter, using a trick play. Dan Reeves took a handoff on a sweep from Meredith, then pulled up and tossed a perfect halfback option pass to Lance Rentzel for a score, giving Dallas its’ first lead of the day at 17-14. They held that lead until a little under five minutes remained in the game, when Starr began a length of the field drive, featuring some big plays from Dowler and running back Chuck Mercein. Starr executed the drive under ridiculous conditions. He had already been sacked eight times on the rock-hard field, and the wind chill factor, at this point of the late afternoon, had reached 70 below zero. Green Bay reached the one yard line, but failed to run into the end zone on two consecutive plays as back Donny Anderson slipped on the icy field both times. Starr then called his final timeout, and went to the sideline to confer with Lombardi. He suggested to his coach that he thought he could get enough traction to score on a quarterback sneak, and Lombardi told him, “then run it and let’s get the hell out of here!” Starr did, and wound up following a great lead block from guard Jerry Kramer into the end zone for the winning score in a 21-17 Packer victory. The CBS television crew covering the game was told to look for a roll out pass, since an unsuccessful running play would allow time to expire before the Packers could try a tying field goal. However, the end zone camera covering the play froze in place, and wound up capturing a perfect shot of Kramer’s block and Starr’s lunge into the end zone.

Things were brutal in both locker rooms following the game. Starr and linebacker Ray Nitschke developed frostbite, as did several Dallas players. Nitschke’s toes turned purple and his toenails fell off. Other Packer players suffered from flu-like symptoms. Tom Brookshier conducted post-game interviews in the jubilant Green Bay locker room, but the other game analyst, Frank Gifford, requested permission to interview players in the losing locker room – a practice unheard of in that era. Gifford wound up interviewing  Meredith. The exhausted losing quarterback, in an emotion-choked voice, expressed pride in his teammates’ play, and said, in a figurative sense, that he felt the Cowboys did not really lose the game because the effort expended was its own reward – a great perspective to have after a game for the ages, where both teams contributed to making the day an unforgettable one in NFL history.

Bart Starr follows Jerry Kramer’s block for the Ice Bowl’s winning touchdown

Two old American Football League rivals, the New York Jets and Oakland Raiders, hook up on this week’s NFL schedule, and that makes this week’s Thursday Throwback feature an easy choice. It was a game played between these 2 teams on November 17, 1968 that turned into one of the most famous games in pro football history, that affectionately became known as “The Heidi Game”. The reason for the moniker is that the game had an unbelievable ending, but that ending was missed by the nation’s television viewers because network executives made the dubious decision to switch over to the network movie – Heidi – at it’s scheduled time of 7 PM, even though the game hadn’t ended yet. The Joe Namath-led Jets held a 32-29 lead when the game was pre-empted, and the entire East coast audience missed the ending, as the Raiders rallied to score 2 touchdowns to pull out a 43-32 win. It was an exciting game, as expected, between a pair of AFL powerhouses. After the Jets went ahead, Oakland’s Daryle Lamonica completed an apparent TD pass to Charlie Smith that was called back due to a penalty, prompting Jet defensive back Johnny Sample to taunt Lamonica, saying “Nice try, Lamonica, better luck next year.” However, the “Mad Bomber” was far from finished, as he led a drive down the field culminating in a 43 yard scoring pass to Smith to give Oakland a 36-32 lead. The Jets then fumbled the ensuing kickoff, and Raider special teamer Preston Ridlehuber scooped it up and ran it into the end zone to up Oakland’s lead to 43- 32 and secure the victory.

Joe Namath in action in the “Heidi” game

The decision to pre-empt the game was a public relations nightmare for NBC. The network switchboard was overwhelmed by calls from irate football fans after Heidi started, and the next day, national newscasters made a major story of the blunder. NBC’s Huntley – Brinkley Report aired the missed final minute of the game, complete with Curt Gowdy and Al DeRogatis’ play by play. CBS’ Harry Reasoner playfully announced the “result” of the game: “Heidi married the goat-herder.” In 2005, TV Guide named the game one of television’s most unexpected moments, and Jennifer Edwards, the movie’s star, in an interview, commented: “My gravestone is going to say, “she was a great moment in sports”. One positive thing did come out of the gaffe, however. At the time, the AFL was still considered the “ugly step-child” of pro football, an inferior product to the established NFL. The uproar caused by the “Heidi” incident opened some eyes as to just how popular the AFL had grown among the sports viewing public. A lot of the Throwback Thursday features I’ve posted this year have interesting follow-up stories, and this one was no exception. Even though they lost a heartbreaker on this day, Namath’s Jets got their revenge in the AFL championship game, as they beat the Raiders 27-23 to win the AFL title and earn a trip to the Super Bowl against the mighty Baltimore Colts, where they pulled off possibly the biggest upset in pro football history  by trouncing the Colts. After the AFL champs had been soundly beaten in the first 2 Super Bowls by Green Bay, Namath and the Jets made history in a game one sportswriter called “the day the AFL came of age.”

Heidi movie poster

Week 13 on the NFL schedule includes the league’s annual Thanksgiving Day games, and this year two old NFL rivals face off in the annual game in Detroit, the Lions and the Green Bay Packers. For this week’s Throwback Thursday feature, I decided to re-post an article about a game played between these two teams in 1962 that I had originally posted in 2010 as a “Classic Thanksgiving Game”. Here it is:

On Thanksgiving Day, November 22, 1962, the NFL staged its’ annual traditional game between the host Detroit Lions and the visiting Green Bay Packers, and the game was one of the most memorable ever played on the holiday. A year later, this particular date would forever become etched in history by the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, but in 1962 the Lions played one of the most inspired games in franchise history on the date – a game that lives on today in Lions’ team history as the “Turkey Day Massacre”. The Packers were the powerhouse team in the league at that time, having won the championship under coach Vince Lombardi in 1961. They entered the annual holiday game with a perfect 10-0 record, and had beaten the Lions 9-7 in Green Bay earlier in the season on a last-second field goal. That game had stuck in the Lions’ collective craw leading up to the Thanksgiving rematch, and the team was not the mediocrity they are in today’s NFL – they were 8-2 and second to the Packers in the Western Division at the time. Detroit’s defense, led by Roger Brown, Alex Karras and Joe Schmidt, played its’ best game of the season that day, harrassing and swarming Packer QB Bart Starr all game long, and sacking him 11 times for over 100 yards in losses. Brown, a 300 lb. defensive lineman, had 5 of the sacks himself, including one where he tackled Starr in the end zone for a safety. The Lions won 26-14, and although they won the battle that day, Green Bay won the war, as this turned out to be their only loss of the season. The Packers finished 13-1 and won their second consecutive NFL title, on their way to 5 championships in a 7 year period, a feat that earned the small Wisconsin town the nickname of “Titletown, USA”.

Lombardi didn’t easily forget this game, however. At the time, the annual holiday game was not only hosted by Detroit, but the annual opponent, from 1951 until 1963, was always the rival Packers. Lombardi lobbied the league complaining about having to travel to a road game on a short week every year, and how much of a disadvantage it was to his club, and eventually commissioner Pete Rozelle relented and the league began rotating the opponent for the Lions each year.

 Green Bay’s Bart Starr is swallowed up by a swarming Lions’ defense

One of the marquee games on the entire 2013 NFL schedule will be played this week, pitting the Denver Broncos and New England Patriots. It’s a dream matchup that league and television executives wish they could showcase every week – a battle between two future Hall of Fame quarterbacks in Peyton Manning and Tom Brady. In this week’s Thursday Throwback post, I’ll go back to 1960, to the first game played between these two franchises, and also the first regular season game played in the history of the American Football League. It was September 9, 1960, a Friday night, and the game was played at Boston University’s stadium. The Friday date was picked after a survey of Patriots’ season ticket holders showed that they preferred Friday night games over Saturday night. In fact, all Patriot home games that season were scheduled for Friday nights. They were known as the Boston Patriots at that time, and early on they became the first AFL team to score when Gino Cappelletti booted a 35 yard field goal in the first quarter. Being the inaugural game in the AFL’s history, there were many firsts achieved that night. The Broncos debuted their infamous uniforms that included vertically striped socks (see picture below), which they burned in a public ceremony at a later date, then revived a couple years ago, in the AFL’s 50th Anniversary season, as part of their throwback uniforms.  Boston’s Butch Songin threw the first pass, which was incomplete.  The league’s first touchdown came on a pass from Denver’s Frank Tripucka to Al Carmichael, covering 59 yards.

Versatile Bronco back Gene Mingo

When Gene Mingo kicked the extra point on that TD, he didn’t just make AFL history by splitting the uprights for the league’s first point after, he became the first African-American placekicker in pro football history. Have there been any since then? Actually, yes. Cookie Gilchrist played fullback and kicked for the AFL Buffalo Bills in the same era as Mingo, and Donald Igwebuike kicked for Tampa Bay in the late ’80s. He wasn’t really African American, however, just African. He was born in Nigeria. In an era when kickers were also football players, Mingo also recorded the first AFL punt return touchdown when he ran back a Patriot punt 76 yards for a score. He missed the extra point after that TD, however. Austin “Goose” Gonsoulin came up with the league’s first interception, and had 2 in the game. Most importantly, the Broncos won the game, 13-10, logging the first win in AFL history. The Broncos, nowadays, are a model franchise in the NFL. They reached a Super Bowl in the 1970s led by their “Orange Crush” defense, won a pair of titles in the John Elway era in the ’90s, and are enjoying success currently with Manning leading the way. They posted the worst record of all of the original eight AFL teams, however, in the ten year history of that league before the merger. But at least they can boast that they won the AFL’s first game ever.

Program from the first AFL game ever played

It’s common knowledge among football fans that the greatest comeback of all time in the NFL came in 1992, when the Buffalo Bills overcame a 35-3 deficit in the third quarter to overtake the Houston Oilers, 38-35 in a playoff game. NFL Films even christened the game with that title in their Greatest Games series. A much less ballyhooed game was a contest played on December 7, 1980 at Candlestick Park between the San Francisco 49ers and New Orleans Saints that was the second greatest comeback in NFL history, or the greatest comeback in regular season history. The 49ers and Saints were NFC West division rivals back then, and were young teams headed in opposite directions. San Francisco was a young team on the rise, although they entered the game with a 5-8 record. The Saints, meanwhile, were winless at 0-13, and going nowhere.  New Orleans, despite its’ dismal record, was hot early in the game, and built a 35-7 halftime lead on the strength of three Archie Manning touchdown passes and a couple of short TD runs by Jack Holmes. Then the Niners’ young quarterback, Joe Montana, mounted the tremendous comeback by his team, throwing for a pair of TDs and running for another, to tie the game and send it into overtime, where Ray Wersching won it 38-35 with a field goal. One of Montana’s key targets of that era, Freddie Solomon, also had a big day, catching one of the scoring throws and returning a punt 57 yards for another touchdown.

Years later, the 49ers always considered this game a springboard for their future success, as they dominated the rest of the decade, winning Super Bowls behind Montana and coach Bill Walsh, and over time being hailed as the “Team of The Eighties”. “Joe Cool” Montana, like Frank Reich of the Bills did prior to leading that historic playoff comeback, gave a premonition performance in his college days similar to the Saints game. In the Cotton Bowl in 1979, he led Notre Dame to a furious fourth quarter comeback against the University of Houston, as the Fighting Irish overcame a 22 point deficit to win, just as Reich had done in his college days at the University of Maryland. What’s even more amazing is that Montana was suffering from the flu in that Cotton Bowl clash, earning the game the nickname of  “The Chicken Soup Game.” So how did the two teams fare the rest of that 1980 season? The Saints avoided the ultimate embarrassment of going winless by beating the New York Jets the next week, and finished 1-15. The big comeback may have been a springboard for future San Francisco success, but the “spring” didn’t come immediately. The 49ers dropped their final two games, to Atlanta and Buffalo, and wound up 6-10.

Joe Montana