The Baltimore Colts surprised the New York Giants 23-17 in “sudden death” on the NFL championship sport at Yankee Stadium earlier than a mesmerized nationwide television audience on this present day in historical past, Dec. 28, 1958.
The occasion has gone down in American sports activities lore as “the greatest game ever played.”
The dramatic title tilt helped popularize pro football at a time when it ranked behind baseball and faculty soccer — even boxing and horse racing — within the nationwide sporting consciousness.
“The game captured the collective attention of the nation and as a result, pro football exploded across the country in the following years,” writes the Professional Soccer Corridor of Fame.
“By the mid-1960s, professional football became the nation’s favorite sport to watch and has remained on top ever since.”
American quarterback Johnny Unitas (left) of the Baltimore Colts is proven as he is about to throw a cross throughout a play in “sudden death” additional time of the NFL Championship sport in opposition to the New York Giants, Yankee Stadium, New York, Dec. 28, 1958. The Colts gained 23-17. (Robert Riger/Getty Photos)
The nationally televised spectacle was highlighted by two dramatic late scoring drives engineered by an unheralded 25-year-old Colts quarterback named Johnny Unitas.
The sports activities thriller capped an extended Christmas weekend for thousands and thousands of Individuals who have been tuning into professional soccer for the primary time.
The 1958 NFL championship is remembered in American sports activities lore as “the greatest game ever played.”
They witnessed the primary additional time sport in professional soccer historical past; one of many first NFL video games broadcast nationally; and an unbelievable galaxy of soccer legends on the sphere and on the sidelines.
Amongst them: New York Giants stars Frank Gifford, Sam Huff and Pat Summerall; and Colts icons Raymond Berry, Artwork Donovan and Lenny Moore.
A complete of 17 future Corridor of Famers participated within the sport as gamers, coaches or executives.
The Giants teaching workers included assistants Tom Landry and Vince Lombardi.
New York Giants star Frank Gifford (no. 16) in motion, speeding vs. Baltimore Colts, Bronx, New York, on Dec. 28, 1958. (Hy Peskin/Sports activities Illustrated through Getty Photos)
No star shined brighter than that of Unitas, who emerged from the sport an American legend.
A sandlot gunslinger taking part in for $7 every week simply three years earlier, he marched the Colts from their very own 14-yard line within the last two minutes to arrange a game-tying 20-yard discipline objective with seven seconds left to play in regulation.
“It was one of the most dramatic two minutes in the history of any sport,” former NFL government, broadcaster and soccer historian Upton Bell instructed Fox Information Digital.
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“People in those days knew you couldn’t put together a scoring drive in two minutes.”
Bell’s father, the late Bert Bell, was the NFL commissioner at the time.
Without the “sudden death,” the 1958 NFL championship game would have ended in a 17-17 tie.
The senior Bell had convinced team owners just a few years earlier to adopt a “sudden death” format in the event of a tie in the league championship game.
In “sudden death,” the first team to score wins.
Without it, the 1958 NFL championship game would have ended in a 17-17 tie.
Bert Bell, commissioner of the National Football League, is shown at a press conference in Philadelphia on April 4, 1947. Bell was commissioner of the NFL from 1946 until his death in 1959. (Getty Images)
“I don’t suppose lots of people realized traditionally on the time what sudden demise meant,” stated Bell, who was within the stands for the sport.
“Many players on the field didn’t understand. People around me were ready to go home, thinking the game ended as a tie.”
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The Giants failed to attain on the opening drive of additional time.
Unitas then led the Colts 80 yards on 13 performs for the game-winning rating.
An estimated 45 million Individuals gathered across the tv for the ultimate minutes of unprecedented sports activities drama.
They watched as Colts operating again Alan “The Horse” Ameche crashed over the objective line from one yard out for the profitable rating.
An estimated 45 million Individuals gathered across the tv for the ultimate minutes of unprecedented sports activities drama.
The large viewership shattered all recognized tv audiences for soccer that had come earlier than.
Mayhem ensued on the sphere, as a way of witnessing historical past rushed over the 64,000 followers in attendance.
Unitas accomplished 26 of 40 passes for 349 yards — startling numbers in that period. His teammate Berry caught 12 passes for 178 yards.
Berry’s 12 receptions stood as an NFL championship sport/Tremendous Bowl report for 55 years.
Baltimore Colts quarterback Johnny Unitas is mobbed by well-wishers as he heads for the dressing room after main the Colts to a 23-17 win over the New York Giants within the first “sudden death” additional time in Nationwide Soccer historical past. Unitas set a report of 349 yards gained on passes in a title sport. (Getty Photos)
The beforehand unknown sports activities time period “sudden death” entered the American vernacular that day, stated Bell.
It is nonetheless generally utilized in all sports activities to explain a contest that ends on the following rating by both workforce.
Commissioner Bell, a professional soccer pioneer, broke down and cried after the sport, realizing he had witnessed a landmark second for a league that usually struggled to outlive since its 1920 founding.
“A master cinematographer could not have lit the scene more dramatically.”
The sport benefited from low ambient lighting and the sharply completely different white jerseys of the Colts and darkish blue jerseys of the Giants.
It gave the sport a stark, thrilling palette that popped on black-and-white tv.
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“Many of the viewers just beginning to tune in were not regular watchers of pro football and they were seeing something starkly different than the traditional college games played on sunny autumn afternoons,” writer Mark Bowden wrote in his 2008 ebook, “The Best Game Ever: Giants vs. Colts, 1958, and the Birth of the Modern NFL.”
He added, “This was more like mortal combat from some dark underworld. A master cinematographer could not have lit the scene more dramatically.”
Tom Brady and the New England Patriots beat the Atlanta Falcons in additional time in Tremendous Bowl LI in February 2017. It joined the 1958 NFL championship sport as the one title contest in league historical past that went into additional time. (Deal with Sport)
The large curiosity within the sport fueled the creation of the rival American Soccer League the next yr.
Eight AFL groups took the sphere for the primary time in 1960.
The 2 leagues merged in 1966 with the creation of the primary AFL-NFL championship sport, an occasion now recognized world wide as the Super Bowl.
A behemoth of American sports activities tradition, the Tremendous Bowl was made potential by the drama of the 1958 NFL title sport.
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A 2019 ballot of dozens of soccer consultants confirmed the standing of the 1958 NFL championship contest as “the greatest game ever played.”
The second biggest sport on the checklist: the unbelievable 34-28 comeback win by Tom Brady and the New England Patriots over the Atlanta Falcons in Tremendous Bowl LI.
It was the one different NFL championship sport that went into additional time.
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