Used from 1965 until 1995, this is the logo of a college football team that resides in the Big Sky Conference, the Montana State Bobcats. Born in 1897, their program has claimed 16 Big Sky titles and 3 national championships at lower levels. They have been sending players on to pro football since the NFL’s inception, and that list of Bobcat alumni includes Cory Widmer, Jan Stenerud, Sam McCullum, Bill Kollar, Ron East, Jon Borchardt, Michael Person and Bob Schmitz.
1955 Bowman football card of former pro football end Billy Howton, who played a total of 12 seasons with 3 different teams. His greatest success came in his 7 year stint in Green Bay, where he was the top receiver on losing teams in the 1950s. When Vince Lombardi took over the Packers he traded Howton to Cleveland, and although he denied it many thought the reason for the trade was Howton’s involvement with the players’ union. He planned on retiring after the 1959 season, but the expansion Dallas Cowboys talked him out of it and the Texas native spent 4 more successful years there before retiring in 1963.
It’s week 9 of the NFL season, and a matchup on this week’s schedule has the Miami Dolphins squaring off with the Chicago Bears. For our weekly Throwback Thursday feature we’ll land on a game played between these clubs on December 2, 1985. This was a magical season for the Bears. It culminated in a dominating Super Bowl win over New England and along the way introduced America to a wild cast of characters. There was brash coach Mike Ditka and his salty defensive coordinator Buddy Ryan. There was the defiant punk quarterback, Jim McMahon, who taunted commissioner Pete Rozelle by wearing a headband with a corporate logo on it from Adidas, a violation of the league’s strict dress code. After being fined for the violation, he wore a headband that said “Rozelle” on it the next week. He also mooned a helicopter flying over a Bears’ practice during Super Bowl week. The defensive unit was loaded with crazy characters. They included wild-eyed middle linebacker Mike Singletary, future pro wrestler Steve McMichael, and most notably, the lovable William “The Refrigerator” Perry, a plump giant who captured the nation’s affection when Ditka lined him up on offense and allowed him to score touchdowns at the goal line. The players also made a video called the “Super Bowl Shuffle” in which they danced and rapped their way to a Grammy.
Chicago’s wild bunch finished the regular season with a dominating 15-1 record, then shut out 2 playoff opponents before demolishing the Patriots 46-10 in the big game. The game we’re featuring, on that December Monday night, was the only blemish on their record. The Dolphins, of course, are the only NFL team to ever accomplish the feat of going through an entire season undefeated, which they did in 1972 when they went 17-0 overall and won their first Super Bowl. On this night, there were members of that undefeated team on hand for the game, and of course, coach Don Shula, who orchestrated the perfect season, was still coaching the Dolphins. So in effect the Dolphins, and young third year quarterback Dan Marino, were protecting the legacy of the ’72 team in facing the 12-0 Bears.
Marino and the Dolphins never appeared intimidated at all by the vaunted Chicago defense. Marino opened the scoring with a 33 yard touchdown pass to veteran Nat Moore. The Bears then tied the game when quarterback Steve Fuller, who started in place of McMahon who was nursing a shoulder injury, ran in from a yard out. Miami’s defense held the Bears to a field goal while racking up 24 points prior to halftime to lead at the break by an astonishing 31-10. The scoring outburst included a field goal, a pair of 1 yard runs by Ron Davenport, and another Marino to Moore touchdown pass, this time a short 6 yarder. Fuller valiantly tried to bring his team back into the game in the third quarter. He scored himself on another 1 yard run and threw a 19 yard scoring pass to Ken Margerum, but Marino countered those with a 42 yard bomb to Mark Clayton for his third touchdown pass of the game. The scoring ended after the third quarter, and Miami’s 38-24 lead held up as the final score.
The Dolphin defense did a number on Fuller and the Bears with 6 sacks and 3 interceptions, but the real surprise of the night was the ease with which Marino was able to carve up the Bear defense. The loss didn’t faze the Bears much as they didn’t lose another game the rest of the season, but on this night, Shula and the rest of those proud 1972 Dolphins were able to pop the champagne bottles and celebrate, as their mark of the only club to attain perfection remained intact.
Marino throws avoiding Bears’ Richard Dent
Logo of a professional football team that plays in the East Division of the Canadian Football League, the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. Established in 1950, the franchise has won a total of 8 Grey Cup championships over the years. The Ti-Cats have 35 former players in the CFL Hall of Fame. That list includes Angelo Mosca, Damon Allen, Darren Flutie, Dieter Brock, Tom Clements, Tony Gabriel, Ron Lancaster and Bernie Custis, who is credited with being the first black quarterback in CFL history as he quarterbacked Hamilton in 1951.
1985 Topps football card of former pro football quarterback Steve Fuller, who played 7 seasons in the NFL for 3 different teams. He was a member of the 1985 Chicago Bears’ Super Bowl team, and appeared with teammates in the “Super Bowl Shuffle” video that won a Grammy. His college jersey number (4) is retired by his alma mater, Clemson. In his retirement, Fuller has served as a head coach and offensive coordinator at the high school level.
It’s already week 8 of the NFL season, and in contrast to our post from a couple of weeks ago that featured a game from just 8 months prior, this week our Throwback Thursday time machine will travel a long way back into the league’s history, to November 4, 1945 for a contest played between two Pennsylvania clubs, the Philadelphia Eagles and Pittsburgh Steelers, who also are matched up on this week’s schedule. The explanation of why this game is significant requires some historical background. In 1943, in the midst of World War II, a lot of NFL players enlisted in the military to serve the country. As a result, the Eagles and Steelers found themselves in a position of lacking enough players to field teams. The owners of the 2 franchises made the mutual decision to combine rosters and field a single team, temporarily for the ’43 season, that the league record book would officially deem the “Phil-Pitt Combine” but would take on the unofficial moniker as the “Steagles”.
That takes us back to this week’s featured contest. The November, 1945 game would be the first time the clubs met as separate rivals again after their combined efforts a couple of seasons earlier. The Eagles were a contending franchise in the ’40s, and played in 4 title games later in the decade, winning a pair. As for most of their existence prior to the 1970s, the Steelers were awful. Ben Agajanian, whose career would stretch all the way into the 1960s with the AFL, put Pittsburgh on the board first with a field goal, but that’s all they would muster on the day. Eagle QB Roy Zimmerman zipped a pair of touchdown throws to end Jack Ferrante of 26 and 65 yards, and Philly was up 13-3 at halftime. The Eagles came out determined in the second half also, and took control of the game. Future Hall of Famer Steve Van Buren scampered 20 yards for a score and Zimmerman found Fred Meyer from 27 yards out to up the lead to 26-3 entering the final quarter. With the comfortable lead in hand, Philadelphia coach Greasy Neale turned to his running game. The result was 3 rushing TDs from 3 different backs. Jack Banta scored from 22 yards out with Mel Bleeker following up with a 14 yard jaunt. Abe Karnofsky added the icing to the cake with a 19 yard run for the final score, and the Steelers left town with their tails between their legs, on the wrong end of a 45-3 rout.
Despite the one-sided score, the players on each side must have still had a little love and respect for each other, as the entire 60 minutes was played without a single penalty being assessed on either side.
The Phil-Pitt “Steagles” from 1943
Logo of a defunct football team that played a single season in the National Football League, the Phil-Pitt Steagles. As a result of losing many players to military service during World War II, the Pittsburgh Steelers and Philadelphia Eagles franchises temporarily merged to form one team to compete in the NFL in 1943. Since the remaining players had to have draft deferments to be able to stay out of the military and play, the combined team players that were left included Tony Bova, who was blind in one eye and partially blind in the other, Ed Michaels and Ray Graves,who were both deaf, and John Butler, who had poor eyesight and bad knees. The team still managed a winning record for the year at 5-4-1.
1948 Bowman football card of former pro football end Jack Ferrante, who played 8 seasons in the NFL for the Philadelphia Eagles. Nicknamed “Black Jack”, he played on the Eagles’ back-to-back championship teams of 1948 and 1949, and was named to the league’s All Decade team for the 1940s. He worked as a salesman for a brewing company after his playing days ended, retiring from that job in 1977. Ferrante passed away in 2006 at the age of 90.
It’s week 7 of the National Football League’s schedule, and a key matchup between AFC and NFC clubs will take place, featuring the San Francisco 49ers and Kansas City Chiefs. Joe Montana, who guided the Niners to 4 Super Bowl titles, didn’t finish his career in the city by the bay, however. He was traded to Kansas City to open up the starting quarterback position for Steve Young. On September 11, 1994, Montana and the Chiefs hosted Joe Cool’s former team for the first time since the trade took place, and that is the game we will highlight for this week’s Throwback Thursday post.
It was early in the ’94 season, week 2 to be exact, and both teams were coming off opening day wins. Montana gave the Chiefs an early lead when he found Joe Valerio open from a yard out for the only score of the first quarter. In the second quarter Montana’s replacement, Steve Young, found his rhythm and guided the Niners on a pair of touchdown drives. The first culminated on a 5 yard Young to Brent Jones TD toss, with Marc Logan finishing off the other with a one yard run. Kansas City gained a bit of momentum before the half ended when they pinned the 49ers deep in their own territory. The Chiefs’ All Pro linebacker, the dangerous Derrick Thomas, trapped Young in his own end zone for a safety, cutting the San Fran lead to 14-9.
The Chiefs’ defense carried that momentum into the second half as they shut down Young and the 49er offense in the third quarter. Montana, as he was always sure to do, came out hot in the second half. He engineered 2 third quarter scoring drives. The first ended with Joe Cool finding tight end Keith Cash for an 8 yard touchdown. He then completed a 2 point conversion pass to J.J. Birden to put the Chiefs up 17-14. Another future Hall of Famer, running back Marcus Allen, upped the K.C. lead to 24-14 with a 4 yard run for a score. Both defenses stiffened in the final stanza, with the only scoring coming on a Doug Brien field goal for San Francisco. That left Young on the short end of a 24-17 final tally, giving Montana a small measure of revenge on the club that traded him to open up the starting job for Young.
The long NFL season took different turns for these clubs as the year progressed. Montana managed to push the Chiefs into a second place AFC West finish and a wild card berth, only to lose that wild card game to Miami. Montana decided to retire after that game. San Francisco had better luck. They plowed through the rest of their schedule, winning the NFC West title and sweeping their playoff matchups all the way to the Super Bowl XXIX, where Young won the game’s MVP award with a dominating performance in a 49-26 thrashing of the San Diego Chargers.
Young, Montana meet as rivals
Logo of a college football team that plays in the Mid-American Conference, the Akron Zips. The school played it’s first season in 1891 and has appeared in 3 bowl games and won 1 conference title. Former Zips who have gone on to play pro football include Chase Blackburn, Victor Greene, Charlie Frye, Dwight Smith, Domenik Hixon, Reggie Corner and Hall of Famer Jason Taylor.