67 Years Since The Epic 1958 NFL Title Game

Today marks the 67th anniversary of the so called “greatest game,” (true story a driver for someone I know, upon hearing “so called” in front of “greatest game” politely turned around and said “what do you mean so called?!!), played on another Sunday December 28th at Yankee Stadium, in which the Baltimore Colts won the title (23-17) vs the New York Giants in the NFL’s first overtime game.

Certainly that game, the third AFL/NFL Championship Game/Super Bowl Jets’ (16-7) win vs the near 3 TD favorite same Colts ten years 2 weeks and one day later and a rarely cited Cleveland Browns (30-28) win over the L.A. Rams (mention/thoughts of the Rams evokes 60 years friend “Ben E,” who sadly died days back in a car crash) in the 1950 NFL Title tilt, cementing the “4 of 4 titles,” in the All American Football Conference, Browns, as an NFL great.

One man, Weeb Ewbank was an integral part of all 3 epic football victories (please keep it in perspective as the Bronxville resident did not discover a cure for polio, but also does not get enough credit–again perspective, something desperately needed now), as head coach in both ’58 and ’68 and as an assistant on the great coach, Paul Brown’s staff in 1950.

Weeb Ewbank was on the winning side, as cited above in those 3 epic games with the pro football title at stake. His Browns with Weeb an aforementioned assistant under Paul Brown, for whom the team was named, lost title tilts in Ewbank’s last 3 seasons in that role (’51-’53) before winning the next 2 seasons, in “Automatic” and great, Otto Graham’s last 2 campaigns.

Ewbank made the “Hall” in ’78 and died on November 17, 1998 the 30th anniversary of the famed “Heidi Game.”

In that game the Oakland Raiders scored a pair of touchdowns after NBC switched from game coverage to the movie, “Heidi” and won (43-32) (apparently the line was Oak -7 plus, imagine having the Jets but also imagine a $$ line as 18 point “dogs” in that season’s AFL/NFL Championship Game/Super Bowl) vs Weeb’s Jets. In the subsequent, ’68 AFL title game at Shea Stadium, ’twas the Jets (27-23).

This season the Jets are (3-12), the Raiders (2-13) with today’s game vs the New York Giants likely to afford the losing team the top draft pick and then the inherent speculation. Next a post about the teams playoffs bound.