We find ourselves at a seminal juncture in the annals of the National Football League, as we delve into the developments surrounding the 1958 season, which culminated in what has been heralded as the greatest game ever played. This pivotal contest featured the Baltimore Colts and the New York Giants, two teams vying for supremacy in an era characterized by dramatic shifts in football dynamics. We are joined by esteemed historian Jim Johnson, who will provide insights into the Colts' journey throughout the season and the significance of their emergence in professional football. The discussion will illuminate the broader implications of this championship game, not merely as a sporting event but as a transformative moment that propelled the NFL toward national prominence. We invite you to engage with us as we explore the intricacies of this historic matchup and its lasting legacy in the world of American football.

Historian Jim Johnson joins us to recount the pivotal moments of the 1958 season.

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A pivotal moment in the annals of the National Football League is encapsulated within the 1958 Championship Game, an event that would forever alter the trajectory of professional football in America. This episode delves into the historical context surrounding this legendary match, known as the 'greatest game ever played,' where the Baltimore Colts faced off against the New York Giants. We explore the evolution of the NFL during the late 1950s, a period marked by a transition from a league dominated by defensive strategies to one that began to embrace the artistry of the passing game, epitomized by the remarkable talents of quarterback Johnny Unitas. The discussion further illuminates the dynamics between the competing franchises, highlighting the Colts' emergence as a formidable force in a league that had previously been overshadowed by teams such as the Cleveland Browns and the Detroit Lions. I take the listener through the nuances of the Colts' journey, their underdog status, and the profound impact of the game on the NFL's popularity, setting the stage for the modern era of football that we know today.

Coming up in just a moment.

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

Hello, my football friends.

This is Darren Hayes of pigskindispatch.com welcome once again to the Pig Pen, your portal to positive football history.

And we are really winding through this and having a blast doing it with having expert guests coming on from the team that represent the team that won the championship that season.

His name is Jim Johnson.

You may remember him from a couple years ago talking about some Redskins teams.

Jim, welcome back to the Pig Pen.

Great to be back with you, Darren.

Thanks for having me.

Yeah.

So, Jim, this is exciting.

You know, this is the Colts are right in your wheelhouse.

We know you like to talk about all the, the teams from your, your area, of course, the Baltimore teams.

Right.

And for your video viewers, I don't know how much of it's coming up here.

I have my Johnny Unitis jersey on.

Figure if I'm ever going to wear it, tonight's the night to do it.

Right?

Yeah.

Very appropriate, very appropriate.

Well, it was really an interesting period, Darren.

It was going into a transition and the late 50s, early 60s really just flipped over the entire NFL, I think.

And you know, the dominant teams in most of the 50s, as you well know, were the Cleveland Browns and the Detroit Lions, which, you know, to somebody who's not a student of history, sounds ridiculous to say that now, although the Lions have bounced back the last couple of years, but they were basically trading championships for most of that time.

And the only team that had kind of stuck their nose in there and won one was.

Was the New York Giants.

And they were the closest thing the NFL had to a marquee or even perhaps a glamour team at that point.

And the interesting thing was, as so much of the NFL was at that time, it was.

It was focused on defense.

And, you know, the 50s had been, you know, with the Los Angeles Rams and the Browns had been an offensive period, but it was getting.

It was shifting more into teams focusing on good defense in a ground game.

And the big defense of the time was the Giants defense.

And they were, I would think, the first really marquee defense, because the offensive players and teams had gotten all the attention before that.

But they were winning on defense.

They won the championship in 56, and that was the start of a pretty good run for them, which they made the playoffs, which meant they won their division.

Remember, there was.

There was one playoff game back in the day, and they made most of them over the course of the next eight, nine years, but they never won another one.

They were an early version of the Buffalo Bills in the early 90s to some extent, except without the exciting offense.

But having a good and popular team with stars in New York was a boon for the NFL.

They were still working to get TV exposure, become a national league, really.

They'd only been on the west coast for a few years, and at that time, New York was so important and so dominant to drawing attention to a sports league.

And, you know, obviously baseball had the Yankees and Dodgers and Giants for so many years now.

The New York Football Giants, as they still are known on occasion.

Right.

Drew some of that attention away.

And they had gotten basically the seal of approval when they moved.

A lot of people don't realize they played at the old Polo Grounds for many, many years.

And in the 50s, they moved into Yankee Stadium, which was the big time.

You know, as far as a pro sports stadium, I don't think you got any more bigger time than going to Yankee Stadium.

So, you know, they were the team to beat.

But then you had this kind of spunky team in Baltimore that was kind of sneaking up on people.

They got the Orioles in 54, but Baltimore really hadn't made a mark on anything.

The Orioles were still building and were years away from being good.

And excuse me, 57, but they had this young quarterback named Johnny Unitis who had gotten the job by default, and nobody really knew much about him yet.

But even back then, the quarterbacks had the marquee level.

Yeah, I mean, it's absolutely.

And I think the rise of that Colts team who just a few years earlier, that the franchise didn't exist.

I mean, this is the second generation of the Baltimore Colts into the NFL.

This isn't the same Colts franchise that came from the afc.

So it's kind of refreshing to see a team that spawned and grew that quickly to go to the highest point of the most famous league at that time, you know, and, you know, take its championship.

So that's kind of cool.

So, you know, the.

And one of the players on that team was a very familiar name, Artie Donovan.

And he wrote in his autobiography a little bit about they didn't win very many games, but boy, did they have a lot of fun because nobody, you know, it was just, well, you know what?

We're not going to win, so we might as well just go ahead and enjoy ourselves.

But, you know, they.

When they got into Baltimore, they gradually built a team.

They had solid ownership and they had an intense interest from the fans.

Baltimore was a.

You know, I'm still not clear what happened to the first franchise that things went so poorly for it, but they.

I think they just needed good management, good ownership and building the new stadium.

At that time, they were finishing up Memorial Stadium.

You know, the city went nuts over the Colts.

And as successful as the Orioles have been through, through that time, Darren Baltimore was first and foremost a Coltstown.

I mean, that the Colts were deep, deep in the heart and deep in the community, no coincidence there in Baltimore.

And there was a very, very strong bond that built very quickly.

And then by the time that that had solidified.

The team was really good.

And that obviously helped.

Yeah, most definitely.

And what you say, like you say they accumulated so much talent from, you know, nobody really knew about these guys, including Unitis, who, you know, I'm sad to say, as a Western Pennsylvania was, you know, shipped off by the Steelers.

He would even make the team that in his first year and he was.

A Pittsburgh guy of the NFL, as if he'd stayed with the Steelers, huh?

Yeah, yeah.

And well, they also got rid of Len Dawson and Jack Kemp and kept Ted Marchebrota at the same time.

So.

Oh, it's not good to see.

Right, right, right, right.

So, you know, so the major competition, you know, for the Colts because the, the Colts were oddly enough at that time in those few years they were in the Western Division of all things.

And who, who were the competition in the west for the Colts?

Well, the west was not very strong at that time.

The they, you know, you figured the Lions were going to be because if I'm remembering this correctly, they were the defending champions from 57 and you know, they, they fell back into the pack and the Bears emerged as their primary competition.

But there is, they really did not have, especially down the stretch of the season, they, it was not a tight race.

The Colts were very much in control of that race from mid season on.

They, they had a game with the Bears around mid season.

They.

That they won and got some distance between them and yeah, they pretty well cruised to the Western Division championship.

And it's kind of odd that the Bears rose or not.

Not odd, but maybe, maybe it shouldn't be a mystery, but Patty Driscoll, who had been a star for them for years, was their coach the previous few years where they on some bad seasons or mediocre seasons, I guess.

But 58, George Hallis takes back the reins again for like the fourth or fifth time of coaching the Bears and owner and they rise up again to play some, some good ball and you know, make a little run of it again with the Colts, you know, eventually dominate.

So it's kind of.

Kind of an odd little story too.

Yeah.

No one ever said how it wasn't a good coach, did they?

And when you're the owner, I guess you can coach whenever you feel like it too, right?

Yeah, most definitely.

Okay, so how about in the East?

Who were the competition level there in the East?

The Giants.

Well, it was a similar situation except this one actually played out where, you know, talked a Few minutes ago about Detroit and Cleveland being the dominant teams.

And you know, everyone expected Cleveland to be the primary contender along with the Giants in the east.

And that's exactly how it played out.

And they were tooth and nail dogfight the whole year through.

And in fact, you know, back in those days with the one playoff game, the championship game, they always had a week in between the end of the regular season and the championship game in case there was a tie.

Because when you have a 12 game season, you got a pretty good chance you're going to have a tie.

And they didn't have all the tiebreaker formulas figured out like they do in a computer now.

Right.

So that year Pat Summerall.

Yes, Pat Summerall kicked a field goal that got the Giants into a playoff game with Cleveland.

They tied for the eastern championship and then the Giants prevailed in what must have been a thrilling 10 nothing Eastern Division playoff game.

Which didn't exactly set the tone for what the championship game was going to be, but it got him in there.

So.

And that's just how those two teams played.

You know, it was even in the early days of that rivalry, it was, you know, Jim Brown versus Sam Huff and boy, they had some wars and you know, they had, I guess three of them that year.

They played each other twice in the regular season.

So it was some fierce football.

Yeah, most certainly.

And you know, speaking of Jim Brown, he was on fire that year.

12 game season.

So you can tell what a dominant force that he was there.

And I don't even think that was his biggest season.

But he had a great season for the Browns that year.

Well, he did.

And you know, obviously Jim Brown was an amazing football player and you wonder how many yards he could have had if he had played until he, his body told him to stop instead of his acting career.

Yeah, that's for sure.

That's for sure.

Okay, so we have all the makings for a great championship game.

You have, you know, this Colts team that's overcome and, and won their division.

And now you have the Giants that are fought it out tooth and nail, like you said, with the Browns, and they won and overcome.

So how does the championship game play out?

Well, the Giants were favored because they were the known quantity.

The Colts were kind of coming out of nowhere to a lot of people.

And the game was in Yankee Stadium back then they just rotated between the eastern and western division champions hosting it.

And it was the Giants turn, but something that worked against the Giants.

And if you look at the film after Alan Amici.

Well, I don't want to spoil the result here for those that know it, but at the end of the game, there were thousands of Colts fans that charged the field, which was kind of strange because a lot of people look at that and figure the game must have been in Baltimore.

But one thing that happened during that time was there is a newspaper strike in New York City.

And that was the biggest hype machine of these games was the newspapers printing.

And they were out for, I think, maybe two weeks.

So without the hype, they didn't actually sell as many tickets as they thought.

And they had estimates between 10 to 15,000 people come up on the trains from Baltimore.

And I guess they were all in the lower deck because they were able to do storm the field after the game.

It was quite a sight.

So definitely still a home field advantage for the Giants.

But Baltimore was extremely well represented in that crowd at Yankee Stadium.

Yeah, this is, you know, you know, my father in law who was.

He was ill for a while and probably like 10, 15 years ago, that's when they did the colorization and had it very famously on espn and it was sort of the debut of the color.

My father in law was, you know, bedridden at the time.

But that was his game, you know, that was.

The Giants were his team.

And he remembered that game as a kid so vividly, I don't think he attended it, but, you know, just listen on the radio or however he took it in.

And, you know, that was kind of neat to watch that with somebody that from that, you know, enjoyed that era of football, you know, long before I was around.

And it was kind of fun to watch.

And he, you know, sort of built it up for me.

And just like you said, it was kind of an exciting thing.

You know, be at Yankee Stadium, big game, December, you know, the holiday season's going and there's some.

Some good football getting played.

Yeah, there was.

And I might be jumping ahead here, but I'm afraid I'll forget to tell the story that the fans almost didn't see the end of that game.

I don't know if you've heard that story.

No.

The end of the regulation of the championship game, people almost didn't get to see it because there had been.

And I think the story is maybe a rat chewed through it or something, but the cable that was bringing the signal out from the stadium got cut and they lost the signal at the network.

So some brilliant guy on the production crew said, told one of the.

Probably one of the young guys who could run, said, run out on the field, stall, run around, let him chase you around.

Give us a few minutes to fix this thing.

Because there was no, you know, nothing built into just, okay, wait a minute, we got to stop the game for tv because it was still a relatively new thing for the NFL game.

So he did his job very well.

And they were able to get the broadcast on.

I think they may have missed it couple of plays, but they were fortunately able because it was late in the fourth quarter when this happened.

But fortunately they were able to get the, you know, get the end of regulation in and the overtime.

Boy, wouldn't that have been something, right?

Yeah, most definitely.

But they don't.

We don't even know what would have happened, you know, if this happened 10, 15 years earlier, because I don't think they had anything in place for overtime games at that time back in the late 30s, because there were some close ones where came down like a last second play or last few minutes of scoring.

But I think the NFL figured out, hey, we may have some tie games here probably sometime after World War II, when they made a bunch of other changes with substitution, everything.

And this is the first time we get to see, you know, overtime in a big game in the NFL.

Right.

And a lot of the players said after the game they weren't really sure what would happen.

They thought, oh, do we tie?

You know, they just didn't know.

So, yeah, this was brand, brand new.

So why don't you tell us a little bit about, you know, the scoring during the game?

What gets us to the tie game?

I want to say this, and this might be bordering on controversial, but, yeah, it is.

This game is called the greatest game ever played, and I think it is the most important game ever played.

It wasn't necessarily that great of a game.

Okay, it was.

It was dramatic.

But, you know, there.

There was not a lot going on throughout.

A lot of it.

The Colts had gone out to a 14 to three halftime lead, you know, United, throwing a touchdown pass.

Alan Amici had scored a touchdown.

They were pretty well in control.

But the Giants defense really took over in the second half, and they had forged ahead 17 to 14 late in the game.

And that's when the nation really got introduced to Johnny Unitis, because he put on a drive that fans got to see time and time again after that.

And he.

The kind of thing he had been doing all season for the Colts is they move down the field very methodically.

Pass, pass, run, pass.

Just a mix.

Because, remember, back Then quarterbacks were calling their own plays and Unit has had a great way of using all his weapons and mixing his weapons very well.

And he mixed the run in the pass, didn't panic, didn't rush and got them in field goal range.

And Steve Myra, a name who is not familiar to a lot of people, but because kickers were not that big a deal back then like they are now, he was able to punch in a 20 yard field goal on the last play of regulation to force the overtime.

But it was a very dramatic two minute drill as it's now known.

And I don't think they even had a name for it back in 58, but it was again something that Unitas became known for.

If nothing else, he was the guy you wanted to run your team in the two minute drill.

And he showed it to an enraptured nationwide audience against one of the great defenses of that generation, the Giants defense.

Yeah, that had to be tremendous to be there in the stands and to witness this.

And I guess you could almost say maybe is it fair to say that Johnny Unitis is sort of that the model that later quarterbacks, you know, the Brady's and you know, all the, all the greats, Joe Montana's, these great comebacks of these running a two minute drill and four minute drills, he might be the model for that, that set offenses ahead at the end of halves.

Possibly just with that, I couldn't agree more with that.

I think United's was the model for a lot of quarterbacks in the 60s and 70s.

You know, he, he was the model of so much of the modern professional quarterback.

And in that way in particular, I think again that was kind of his signature was the two minute drill.

So you have a lot of things going on here and we said, you know, earlier that you know, this is a watershed moment.

They call it the greatest game ever played.

And you, like you said it wasn't, it wasn't the greatest game on the field being played, but there's so many things, it was almost like everything came to a head.

And at this point in this December in Yankee Stadium with, you know, the unit is coming to, to be and becoming who Johnny Unitis is known as now, the legend, you know, the being played at Yankee Stadium, an overtime game in a championship game, just all the images and television starting to capture, you know, the games on film a little bit better than they ever had before.

And getting more people outside the stadium involved in, in the game as well and taken in, I mean it's just tremendous.

And it really put the NFL on a course to really accelerate in their viewership and their popularity and to really catch up eventually with college football.

Well, yeah, this was the first big National Football League event, as it turned out, and the watershed moment for them on TV.

I think if.

If this game had been 31 to nothing, there's things that may have eventually happened, but not as quickly as they did.

I'm firmly convinced of that, because the attention that swelled up from that game got investors interested in putting their money into football, which, you know, back then, there was still not a lot of money floating around in professional football.

Now, all of a sudden, in a year and a little over a year and a half after that game, you have a whole new professional football league.

And, you know, that really birthed the modern football structure that we're so used to now.

Afc, nfc.

Yeah.

And some of the names that came out of this game, you know, not only the players, and we've talked about, you know, Summerall and Unitis and, you know, Sam Huff playing in this game, but these coaching staffs are.

I mean, they're legendary.

These are like the Mount Rushmore of coaches for the NFL at that period.

And maybe you could tell us a little bit about who was coaching these teams.

Yeah, the.

The coaches, especially on the Giants side, the.

Everybody will recognize the names of the offensive and defensive coordinator.

Vince Lombardi was the offensive coordinator for the Giants, and Tom Landry was the defensive coordinator for the Giants.

So I don't know if you'd ever looked at a.

A more awesome pair of coordinators on a team at one time.

Of course, nobody knew that then.

And, you know, it's worth mentioning that Lombardi's offense wasn't all that great, even though they.

They had, you know, a couple of hall of Famers on the offense, like Frank Gifford.

Of course, everybody remembers, but, you know, that's one of the great what ifs.

Their head coach, by the way, is named Jim Lee Howell, which is a name very unfamiliar to a lot of people, and he was winding down his career.

Lombardi really wanted that head coaching job, but he felt that Jim Lee Howell was not ready to retire.

He coached two more years, the Giants, and then he was concerned that Landry was kind of their favorite anyway, because, let's face it, his defense, Lander's defense, was carrying that team.

So one of the great what ifs you look at, again to go to that phrase is, you know, what if either one of those coordinators had wound up coaching the Giants and, you know, for especially the long, incredible run that Landry had?

You know, you just have to wonder what would have happened with the Cowboys.

Maybe Lombardi would have got the.

You know, you can have a lot of fun with that if you have some time to kill and just want to, you know, get into that kind of game.

Yeah, but it, I mean, I think some of the reasons that they got their jobs in Dallas and Green Bay, respectively, is, might be the success they had in making this, you know, well, they won the championship in 56, but this 58 game being so popular and now their names are coming to the forefront and it really helped spread the, the popularity and the, the power surge of the NFL to other places that, you know, Dallas didn't have a team at the time.

And you said, you know, Green Bay was kind of on the lower side of things as far as winning in that era.

And so now you've sort of spread the wealth out in the coaching ranks and it really helped make the NFL popular, too.

So again, something again stems from this 58 season.

Well, yeah, because you look by the mid-60s, Dallas and Green Bay are two of the marquee teams in the league.

So that was pretty amazing.

And let's not give short shift to the Colts head coach.

Another familiar name.

We view Eubank also in the hall of Fame, although partially because of what he did 10 years later against the Colts.

But that, that's for another show.

Right, Right.

So, yeah, I was going to mention that, too.

Great, great coaching on the other side as well with we view bank.

So, Jim, this has been a great.

And do you have any last thoughts that you want to say about this 58 season?

Well, you know, it just as you said, I go back to it being an inflection point for the league.

If anybody wants to go to a point where the, the beginning of modern football emerged, this is the game and not, I wouldn't even say the season.

I was 11 days old when that game was played, so memory's a little fuzzy of that.

But yeah, that right there was the, the, the birth of the modern NFL.

And I think it's done pretty well for itself ever since then, don't you?

Yeah, I think they hit a winner there.

Winter Winter chicken dinner.

Yes, indeed.

Be happy to do that, Darren.

Looking forward to it.

Thanks.

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