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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