1959-1960

by george cronin on Apr 5, 2008 7:28 AM EDT

[EDITOR'S NOTE: George Cronin, one of the senior members of Big Blue View Nation, has been entertaining us throughout the off-season with stories of yesteryear. His posts appear each Saturday.]

Before the 1959 season, Vince Lombardi departed for Green Bay with the blessings of the Maras, who thought it was a loan and expected to get Vinny back after Howell retired.

The Giants ended the season with a 10-2 record. For the third time in four seasons, Charlie Conerly (who entered the league as a 27-year-old rookie after service in the Pacific with the-Marines during WWII) quarterbacked the team to a championship game. He received the MVP that year.

They met the 9-3 Colts again. Today, people remember the Colts primarily for their explosive offense, but their defense was just as awesome. They led the league in interceptions with 40, almost twice as many as the runner-up Bears (with 22.) The fierce rush of two Hall Of Fame linemen (Marchetti and Donovan) helped the secondary and Big Daddy Lipscomb was no slouch, either.

The game was blacked out in the NYC Metropolitan area, so had I to trek to Hartford, CT to watch it.

In the first quarter, Unitas hit Lenny Moore with a bomb to put Baltimore up, 7-0. Summerall brought the Giants closer with an FG. He kicked another in the 2nd, and at the half the Giants trailed, 7-6.

The G-Men went ahead in the third on another Summerall FG. Things fell apart in the fourth when Unitas ran for a TD and threw for another. The Colts scored again on a Johnny Sample interception (my most vivid --and disappointing-- memory of that game.) Conerly's pass for a TD was too little too late, and the Giants lost the championship game to the Colts for the second year in a row, 31-16.

After the game, Landry was hired to coach the expansion Cowboys, and Howell, citing burnout, tried to retire. After the Maras failed to induce Lombardi to return, they peruaded Jim Lee to stick around for one more year.

In '60, age and injury forced Conerly to the bench. George Shaw (the guy Unitas replaced in Baltimore) took over as QB. Big Blue went 6-4-2, Howell retired and Allie Sherman became the coach.

Allie had been the QB at Brooklyn College (like Joe Paterno). He played five seasons of pro ball with the Eagles as a QB and DB (the Steagles in '43), led the league in yards per passing attempt in' 46 (8 yards on 17 tosses) and the Eagles to the championship game in '47.

He coached as an assistant with the Giants from '49-53, then became a head coach in the CFL before returning to the Giants as a scout in '57 and later as an assistant again. As a player he went 5-foot-8 and weighed 168. Can you imagine a guy like that playing pro ball today?

On Sherman's insistence, the Giants acquired YA Tittle (a 13-year vet unloaded by the 49ers to make way for John Brodie) for Lou Cordileone, an All-American offensive lineman and the Giants' first-round draft pick out of Clemson. (Born in my home town, I remember Lou as an unstoppable FB and awesome defensive player at St. Michael's in Union City, NJ.)

They also traded for Del Shofner of the Rams, thus paving the way for perhaps the most famous QB-WR combo in Big Blue's history.

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Comments

How they could have"loaned " Lombardi

expecting him to come back is mind boggling.Guess hindsight is 20/20. Maybe we could get Green Bay to "loan" us A.J. Hawk just to be fair.

by big blue wrecking crew on Apr 5, 2008 11:08 AM EDT reply actions

More on Maras-Lombardi

Later, when George Allen was Defensive Coordinator for the Bears, George Halas wouldn't free him from his contract so he could take over as HC of the Rams. Halas ran the Bears like a business, unlike the Maras and the Rooneys in Pittsburgh, who considered their teams as members of their families. Ditka said, "Halas throws nickels around like manhole covers."

by george cronin on Apr 5, 2008 2:35 PM EDT up reply actions

Things were different then.

They didn't have to let him go to Green Bay, so...
Yeah, it wasn't too smart, but then the Giants have always been a good team to work for, even if they weren't the best business men. They had a sense of fairness. E.g., if a guy didn't want to play for them, they'd let him go (like Dryer and Chandler.) The Maras were also the guys who made sure TV revenue was shared equally among all teams, which in the end was a good business decision since it helped make teams from small cities more competetive. Anyway, it was a big misunderstanding and caused a huge breach between Lombardi and the Maras. When they tried to get him back, Lombardi said he couldn't because he'd be letting down too many people in GB (Remember, Lombardi had a personal friendship with Wellington Mara going back to their college days at Fordham and Mara was the guy who brought him on board as Giants Offensive Coordinator.)

by george cronin on Apr 5, 2008 2:22 PM EDT reply actions

Lombardi

George, whatever reasons Lombardi gave Mara, it remains that he did eventually go to the arch-rival Skins when he left Green Bay. That must have really stung.

by django48 on Apr 7, 2008 3:49 PM EDT up reply actions

Well

at least we root for the organization with the history of class and courtesy.

by big blue wrecking crew on Apr 5, 2008 4:59 PM EDT reply actions

Exactly

I've always been proud to be a Giants fan and could always accept, if not always approve, the Maras tribalistic code of giving priority to keeping things in the family, like hiring Big Red as coach or putting Andy Robustelli in the front office. Things have been much more business-like since George Young came along, but the organization hasn't deteriorated to even a semblance of the rampant barbarism seen in places like Dallas, Washington, Oakland, or, frankly, most of the rest of the NFL.

by george cronin on Apr 5, 2008 5:49 PM EDT reply actions

The Maras

If you were a true fan, you really had no choice but to accept that tribalistic code. It wasn't easy, though. It was the Maras' (especially Wellington's) adherence to that code which led directly to the lean years of 1964-1980. The Wellington-Tim Jr. feud following the infamous 1978 "Miracle at the Meadowlands" caused Pete Rozelle to step in and suggest Young as a G.M. candidate. The rest, as they say, is history. Nostalgia or not, I have no desire to go back there. I can't believe that any fan ever would.

Hopefully we can talk more about those "bad" years. Like it or not, that's part of the history too.

by django48 on Apr 7, 2008 5:35 PM EDT up reply actions

There are at least a few BBVers who

remember those days as well as I. Personally, I don't want to relive those times. If someone else wants to, fine. I'll stand on the sidelines and kibitz.
As for the Maras, for a while, their way of doing business worked out okay for them in terms of hiring from within their extended family of players (Steve Owen, Jim Lee Howell, Tom Landry, etc.) and friends (Lombardi.) When they finally got rid of Sherman in the middle of a season and put Webster in charge (a greatly undeappreciated RB in his day), the team celelbtrated with a huge victory in his first game (of course, that didn't last.)
You're right, it's better to have a more business-like approach. I still believe that the Giants are the best organization in the NFL to work for.

by george cronin on Apr 8, 2008 7:17 AM EDT up reply actions

Many of the eulogies to Wellington

emphasized his contributions to the league as a whole, such as revenue sharing, etc. In hindsight, though, it seems that he frequently put the interests of the league ahead of the interests of the team. For instance, when the Giants signed Larry Csonka away from the Dolphins, Mara voluntarily gave up three draft picks, this at a time when there was no compensation for free agent signings. I remember thinking on more than one occasion that more savvy owners would regularly pick our pockets.

I agree that today's Giants are a top-drawer organization from top to bottom. I probably appreciate it more when I think back to all those years of frustration and futility.

by django48 on Apr 8, 2008 2:32 PM EDT up reply actions

you the man george

keep up the good work.

by SBakerTheTouchdownMaker on Apr 5, 2008 8:20 PM EDT reply actions

I second that!

by Mr Met @ Big Blue View on Apr 7, 2008 1:04 PM EDT up reply actions

George - can you talk about the fued

between Sam Huff and Ali Sherman, at some point? I heard Sam talking about it on the radio the week before the game against the Packers - it sounds like there was a lot going on between those two.

by Mr Met @ Big Blue View on Apr 7, 2008 4:24 PM EDT reply actions

Fued. Feud. Food. Whatever.

by Mr Met @ Big Blue View on Apr 7, 2008 4:24 PM EDT up reply actions

The feud was simple:

Huff hated Sherman because he traded away the league's best defense, including Huff. Huff never forgave him. Huff had trobles with Otto Graham in Washington, too, and eventually retired rather than play for him. When Lombardi got there, one of his first moves was to bring back Huff, the first true MLB and the man who defined the positionn.
There's a story that during his first year in Washington during the last seconds of a game the Redskins were winning by a huge amount (they scored more than seventy points), Huff--always a leader--kept the defense on the bench so the 'skins could rub it in more by kicking a field goal. Apparently, Otto was clueless as a coach.

by george cronin on Apr 8, 2008 7:05 AM EDT up reply actions

70+ points?

I think I remember that game. It was against the Giants in the late 60s. If it's the one I'm thinking of, the Giants scored over 40. It was the highest scoring game in league history and probably still is. The other thing I remember is that it was probably the only game in NFL history - if not the only organized football game ever - where the kickers for the opposing teams were brothers (Pete & Charlie Gogolak).

On second thought, maybe we're thinking about different games. I believe that George Allen coached the Skins in the one I'm referring to.

by django48 on Apr 8, 2008 2:46 PM EDT up reply actions

The game I referred to was in '66, 2 years after

Sam went to the 'skins. Final score: 72-41. In an earlier game that year, the Rams scored 55 on the pathetic Giants defense. I believe 72 is still the record for most points scored in a game.

by george cronin on Apr 8, 2008 3:10 PM EDT reply actions

As is 113 total points by both teams.

by django48 on Apr 8, 2008 3:37 PM EDT up reply actions

That's the one.

I remember exactly where I was, in a car driving to Pennsylvania. The games were broadcast on WNEW-AM in those days. It was a station with a fairly powerful signal during the day, but it was required to crank down its signal strength after sundown so as not to interfere with other stations close on the dial.

I recall Charlie Gogolak being sent out to kick the final FG, shortly before we lost the signal.

Wasn't it Allen who coached that Skins team?

by django48 on Apr 8, 2008 4:52 PM EDT up reply actions

Allen didn't get to the

'skins until'69 or '70

by george cronin on Apr 8, 2008 8:14 PM EDT reply actions

Actually Allen didn't become head coach until 1971

Graham was 1966-1968, followed by Lombardi.

What did we do in the days before Wikipedia?

by django48 on Apr 9, 2008 10:22 AM EDT up reply actions

Memory plays tricks

I would have said Lombardi had been there longer, probably because some of the losses to his 'skins teams stay with me like a nightmare. They had a running back Lombardi made into a force by recognizing the guy had a disability (hearing, I think.) Lombardi taught him how to compensate. We coudln't stop him, particularly in the red zone. I can still see some of the TDs he ground out by sheer will power. The guy was small but could really bust. His name was Larry something. 57, help me out. You gave it to me a while back and already I've forgotten.

by george cronin on Apr 9, 2008 11:19 AM EDT reply actions