The episode delves into the riveting saga of the 1959 NFL Championship, wherein the Indianapolis Colts faced off against the New York Giants in a highly anticipated rematch following their dramatic clash the previous year. We recount the intricate dynamics of both teams during the season, highlighting the Colts' tumultuous journey marked by injuries yet culminating in a strong finish, and the Giants' formidable defense that had established their prowess in the league. With Baltimore transformed into a hub of fervent support, the atmosphere during the championship game was electric, as the city rallied behind its team, culminating in a memorable victory for the Colts. This episode not only celebrates the triumph of the Colts but also encapsulates the fervor and cultural significance of football in Baltimore during this era. We reflect on how this championship solidified the Colts' status as a premier franchise and etched a lasting legacy in the annals of NFL history.

Jim Johnson joins us once again to discuss the Baltimore Title run.

Long-time passionate Washington Redskin fan who was in the first wave chased off by Dan Snyder. I continue to study the rich history of that franchise, and write about Baltimore football history (colts and Ravens) for Baltimore Sports and Life. Formerly covered college basketball and football (mainly ACC) on the Internet in late 90's thru mid 2000's., frequently popping up on sports radio shows in Baltimore and beyond (20ish different shows).

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You know, there's nothing greater in sports, including football, when two teams vie for the championship and have a drag out knockdown game that goes into overtime only to have the next year be a rematch.

Number two.

It's all coming up with Jim in just a moment.

This is the Pigskin Daily History Dispatch, a podcast that covers the anniversaries of American football events throughout history.

Your host, Darren Hayes is podcasting from America's North Shore to bring you the memories of the gridiron one day at a time.

So we have Jim Johnson back with us.

You remember him from our last episode on this championship series.

If you haven't listened that yet, go back and take a listen to it as soon as you get done with this episode because it's a great episode on a lot of history going on there.

But we have a great episode tonight as we talk about the next season, the 59 season in a championship game by these same Colts.

And Jim has got his Johnny Unitis jersey on and ready to talk about the 59 season of the National Football League.

Well, and you know, it was, it came down again to the Colts and the Giants and the excitement was, you know, the city of Baltimore was beside itself and you know, the city of New York was kind of annoyed because they lost to these upstarts.

So both of them were focused and, you know, they both again turned in solid years.

The Colts were kind of up and down the first half of the year, but they were, and Unitis was hurt and missed a couple of games and they struggled while he was out, but he came back strong.

They won their last five in a row, wound up finishing with the same record they had the year before, nine wins and three losses.

The Giants were even better.

Giants were 10 and 2 and their numbers, they again gave up the fewest points in the league and again the Colts scored the most points in the league by about 90 over the Giants, who had lost Lombardi as their offensive coordinator.

But they still had Tom Landry's defense and they were still a formidable team, but also as were the Colts and the Bears.

Gave them a bit of a run, but yeah, they fell back at 8 and 4.

And the packers had their first winning record in, like, forever.

So the teams were bunched in the west, Whereas the Giants, unlike 58, the Giants ran away with the east and they won it by three games over Cleveland and Philadelphia.

So very much, very much up for grabs is what it looked like that championship game was going to be, even though this time, because of the rotation, it.

It was in Baltimore.

And Baltimore had its first professional championship game and the city went nuts.

Everything was blue and white, Colts colors, and, you know, the tickets were impossible to get.

There were no 10 or 15,000 tickets available in Baltimore for that game.

Like there were Yankee Stadium.

They packed that house.

They had close to 60,000 people.

And they wound up getting a little nervous in that game because the Giants defense hung pretty tough for most of that game.

And you point out that the Giants, you know, had the lowest scoring, a lot of the fewest points with their defense that year.

Imagine this, their second game, they lost to Philadelphia, 49, 21.

They gave up 60 points in their first two games and took a shellacking from Philadelphia to Recover the other 10 games to have the lowest scoring.

That's kind of an amazing feat in itself right there.

When you, when you let a 49 burger get scored on you, it's hard to, to say you have the lowest scoring defense.

Yeah.

So I think that looking at the math, they gave up 171.

So that means for those last 10 games, they must have only allowed about 11 a game, which even in a lower scoring era like that, it's pretty darn good.

Yeah, that definitely is.

But I saw that game jump out of me when I saw the Eagles loss.

So.

Okay, so.

So we're in Baltimore.

You know, the fans are going crazy.

This is like.

And I'm just checking here, I have all the attendances of these championship games.

This is like the, the second highest attendance of a game.

I'm sorry, third highest attendance of a game.

And the National Football League for a championship up to that point.

Topping was the, the Browns at the rams back in 55, they had 80, almost 86,000.

But this game's right up there, especially for the east coast is a big game.

Well, and I bet you if they'd had a stadium as big as the LA Coliseum in Baltimore, they probably could have threatened that number because, you know, they're in, you know, this Baltimore as a city itself.

Was pretty much at it still at its peak.

They, they still had close to a million in population.

It was still a very successful city, steel and industrial town.

Very, a very blue collar town.

And the Colts came across as a bunch of blue collar guys and a blue collar team.

And you know, as we talked about a little bit on the last episode, they were just such a natural match for the city and they, they brought players in.

When they got the team at 53, they gradually brought players in that really fit that city and they lived there, they worked there because you know, it's hard to believe guys had to get part time jobs in the off season.

United worked in a, I think he worked like in a shipping area or something packing boxes.

And imagine the Golden Arm, you know, loading up boxes on a truck in the off season.

But you know that, that's where the money was at that point.

But you know, they, they would go down to the watering holes and they'd see Colts guys hanging out and they have a, have a drink with them and you know, it was just, it was so much the opposite of the glamor of New York.

And I think that that kind of difference in the culture of the cities still exists to some extent, but that, that kind of made the passion of the fans and filtered down into the players that really made that a, a brief but very intense rivalry between those two teams.

Yeah, it's interesting you say that.

You know, I've had Upton Bell on a couple of times and Upton Bell at this point, you know, his father famously is Bert Bell.

His grandfather was John C.

Bell who was with Walter Camp at the very beginning of football.

So this is, the Bell family has been around football and Upton's still going strong.

I just talked to a gentleman last night that does interviewing Upton.

So he's still taking interviews and still talking wrong.

Well, well into late 90s here.

But Upton was the, like a player personnel for the Colts back in this era.

And he always talked, has told me multiple times about, you know, just like you said, these guys were like family to each other.

They're going out, doing things together, go bowling, you know, go to the local watering hole, have a down a few suds or whatever, having family picnics, whatever.

These guys were together and that really does a lot for the teamwork.

And I don't think that, that they appreciated that like what we know now of, you know, teamwork makes the dream work type thing going on.

But the Colts were sort of way ahead of their time by making this happen and making everything click.

So yeah, they, you know, they didn't need any team building exercise.

They just did it.

You know, the players were attracted to the hang, as you mentioned, you know, hang out with each other.

You know, they rooted for each other, they supported each other and it just became very naturally and, and Upton and the front office staff did a great job of putting a real team together.

And a lot of them started their own little businesses in Baltimore.

And of course, one of those businesses turned out not to be so little.

Gino Marchetti and Alan Amici got together and started a little hamburger joint called Geno's, which then became a mid Atlantic chain and got bought out by Kentucky Fried Chicken and made especially Marchetti, I think he was the majority owner in that.

Made him very wealthy in his older age.

They had a lot of smart guys on that team.

We talk about the toughness of the blue collar, but they had some pretty smart, shrewd guys too, that were able to, to take their success and you know, on, on the field and turn it into good success off the field.

Yeah, so it means.

So we got a great team of the Colts coming against a great team of the Giants.

Now we talked last time, the, the Giants were having some stiff competition from the Browns playing in that Eastern Division or Eastern Conference I guess they call it at the time.

Is that the Same true for 59 or do they have any other competition?

No, they really didn't have much competition at all.

They, they won the division by three games, which in a 12 game season, pretty dominant.

You know, they went 10 and two and it was the Browns and Eagles going seven and five.

So now the Giants, you know, had to really scratch and claw for that division in 58, but they eased, they eased through it pretty well in 59.

It was.

The Colts had had a little bit of a battle they had to make.

They had to get a strong finish to clinch that division, but they were able to do it.

So they were the ones challenging 59.

Okay.

And it looks like they overcame the Bears by one game.

Bears are 8 and 4, Colts are 9 and 3 to win the Western Conference.

Bears again, just coming up short.

Yeah, yeah.

So, okay, so now we're in December, we're in the championship game as you described so well earlier.

What's happening in that game in Baltimore?

Well, it was a very defensive game for the first three quarters.

Lenny Moore caught a 60 yard touchdown pass from Unitis for the first score of the game.

And then the Colts offense for the balance of the first quarter into the fourth quarter did nothing and The Colts crowd watched Pat Summerall kick field goals and the Giants were actually ahead going into the fourth quarter nine to seven.

And I can imagine there were some very, very nervous fans in Memorial Stadium.

But then Unitis took over.

He actually scored what was the go ahead touchdown on a run.

He, although he never looked pretty running, he was effective when he could run the football.

And a touchdown pass to Jerry Richardson, who by the way, talking about restaurants, was one of the founders of, or I don't know if he was the founder, but he was one of the owners of the Hardee's chain.

So if you want a fast food, you need to hook up with these guys because they really had a fortune in it.

And then shortly after that they went up 21 to 9.

Johnny Sample, who became more famous when he followed we view Eubank to the jets, ran an interception in for 42 yards to make it 28 to 9.

And it was basically over at that point.

The Giants got a late touch down and Colts added a field goal.

So it was 31, 16.

They look at the score and figured, ah, Colts had an easy game.

But no, it was no easy game.

They dominated the fourth quarter though.

So they, they outscored the giants 24 to 7 in the fourth quarter.

A team that was, as we mentioned for the last part of the season averaged only 11 points a game.

They allowed got torched for 24 points, although seven of them was on a defensive score.

But still they really showed the championship medal and probably benefited a little bit from the home field advantage they enjoyed with that rabid crowd and were able to pull out the game.

And by the way, I don't know, Darren, if you ever saw the movie Diner that was set in Baltimore, it had, was it Paul Reiser, Mickey Rourke, Steve Guttenberg, Tim Daly, a lot of guys in their first movie roles.

It was December 27th and in order to get married, the, the potential spouse had to pass a quiz on the Baltimore Colts.

And everything was centered around this game.

So, so that game was kind of immortalized in that movie, was one of Barry Levinson's first movies.

Barry Levinson, a native Baltimorean who had lived through that game and it put them.

It was a very entertaining movie.

But yeah, and the bridal party wore blue and white.

And somebody made a comment about it in the movie and someone said could be worse, could be Steelers colors.

Hey, hey now hey, yeah, sorry about that.

But a sentiment which still exists in Baltimore, let me tell you.

I, I have never heard of that movie.

I'll have to catch that on Netflix or something and watch it.

Would definitely enjoy.

I think it came out in 80s three somewhere.

82, 83.

Very entertaining movie.

Yeah, I'll have to check that out.

So.

All right, so we have Baltimore winning two championships in a row of the franchise's first National Football League championships and doing it consecutive years.

That's a pretty big feat and, you know, pretty amazing.

Well, and you know, again, we touched on this after the 58 championship, but now back to back championship.

You know, it really established the Colts as a marquee franchise in the National Football League and it established Baltimore as a championship city.

And that was the first of only three championship games the city has ever hosted.

So this was a big deal.

Instead of having the big run at the end of the season, they.

They were 6 and 2 at one point and tied for first in the division.

And they lost their last four games and wound up finishing 6 and 6 and never.

It took a coaching change to bring in some young guy named Shula to get him back to where they would win their division in 64.

And then of course, that great 68 team.

Yeah, just.

Just an amazing run and great to see a city come to live with the franchise and, you know, have a great run for another decade and a half of good football of, well, and.

One of the big mistakes that we view bank made and Alan Amici wrote about this in his autobiography in.

I think it was at a banquet or something after the 59 season.

Everybody was celebrating and you know, Eubank pulled him over and said, hey, don't you think it's time for you to retire?

And he hadn't been thinking about it, but it's like, well, the coach says I'm going to retire.

I guess I should retire.

And you know me.

She was a lot more than just scoring, stumbling into the end zone and scoring that overtime touchdown.

He was that guy that could convert third and two and get the tough yards.

Lenny Moore was not a guy who was going to get 20, 25 carries and run between the tackles, he, he was the big play guy and the two of them complemented each other very well.

They never really replaced Amici effectively.

So without Mechi to get those, those tough yards to put more pressure on Unitis in the passing game and you know, if you want to put more pressure on somebody, put it on Johnny Unitis.

Right.

Now back, back in that day, they weren't a sign of moral failure like they are now, but that's still a lot of interceptions.

And in that losing streak they had to end the season, you know, that hurt them and they, they never really got that, that, that inside guy grinding running yards really until Tom Matty in the, in the late 60s though.

And guess what?

They, they didn't want another championship until then.

Yeah.

So.

Well, Jim, is a, another great job of recapping a season and a championship for your Baltimore Colts here and it's, you know, really exciting to talk about these great history.

Do you have any final thoughts on this 59 season and 59 team?

So this 59 championship was, was a great moment, not just for the Baltimore Colts history, the only time they've ever gone back to back championships, but it was a great moment for the city.

And with the championship game being there, it was just a great celebration, a great end of the decade.

And you know, little did they know it was kind of the end of an era because it would be five more years before they got back to a championship and then they got wiped out.

So you know, but that will always be a, you know, really a treasured moment for those that lived it and then got to celebrate with the players in their local watering holes.

You know, you don't get that anymore without fighting through security, you know, so it was really a special time for that city, no question.

Jim, we really thank you for sharing this, your knowledge and your passion for this the Baltimore areas sports and football, especially these Baltimore Colts teams.

These last two episodes and really added a lot to, to the texture of our series here and we appreciate you.

Well, thanks a lot, Darren.

I really enjoyed talking with you about it.

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