Introduction from The Sports Time Traveler™
This is my final article on the 1963 football season. And what a season it was.
You can view all my articles on the 1963 football season in one place on my website:
In today’s article I share my experience traveling back in time to take in the final 2 games, one on each coast, on the same day, Sunday, January 5, 1964.
On the east coast, in the Orange Bowl in Miami at 2pm ET on CBS it was the Green Bay Packers vs. the Cleveland Browns in what was called “The Playoff Bowl.” This was a game for 3rd place in the NFL that was played only in the years 1960 - 1969. It was created by the NFL after the AFL started up in 1960 to provide a showcase of the NFL’s superiority. The 2nd place team from the Eastern Division was pitted against the 2nd place team from the Western Division.
On the west coast, in Balboa Stadium in San Diego at 4:30pm ET on ABC it was the San Diego Chargers and Boston Patriots playing for the AFL Championship. This game was originally scheduled to be played on Sunday, December 29th, but when JFK was assassinated the entire AFL schedule was delayed a week, while the NFL kept their schedule intact and played on 11/24/63 - see my article on that at this link:
The Sports Time Traveler™on The Sports History Network
I’m excited to share that the The Sports Time Traveler™ podcasts can now be found on the Sports History Network at this link:
And now here are my articles on the 2 games from January 5, 1964. The date of the story is January 6, 1964 when I read the newspaper articles.
THE PLAYOFF BOWL - Packers vs. Browns
MIAMI - January 6, 1964
Yesterday at the Orange Bowl it was the Packers vs. the Browns in the 4th edition of the NFL Playoff Bowl.
It’s a bittersweet appearance for the Packers who are the 2-time defending NFL champions, now relegated to playing for 3rd place in the league in this game. The Packers beat every team they played this season except for one, the Chicago Bears who knocked them off twice in stunning fashion by a combined score of 36 - 10.
Playing here was also a small consolation for the Cleveland Browns, a team that clearly had title thoughts back in October when they were the only team in the NFL to get off to a 6 - 0 start. But a 4 - 4 finish, including a critical blowout loss to the Lions in week 13, saw them finish a game behind the Giants in the Eastern Division.
All the pre-game press focused on the 2 great running backs Jim Taylor of the Packers who had rushed for 1,018 yards, and the incomparable Jim Brown of the Browns, who broke his own single season rushing record with 1,863 yards.
But right from the get go it was not a game for the rushers. 54,921 fans watched Green Bay drive 72 yards after the opening kickoff and cap it off with an 18 yard TD pass by Bart Starr.
The Browns on their first drive got all the way to Packers 1 yard line. And there they stalled. On 4 consecutive running plays the Packers won the goal line stand and took the ball on downs.
Then came the play of the game.
Green Bay had to run a play from their own 1 yard line. Here was the description of that play from Bill Braucher in the Green Bay Press-Gazette, “Taylor rammed the middle and was swarmed by Browns. But there was a catch. Taylor didn’t have the football. Instead Starr had faded back, spotted (Tom) Moore outlegging the drawn-in defense and led him with a lob. Moore seized it at the 15 and continued full tilt down the sidelines with the blushing Cleveland secondary in vain pursuit.”
It was a 99 yard TD pass, tying the longest scoring pass in NFL history, and it put the Packers in front 14 - 0 in the 1st quarter.
After a Browns field goal, Starr engineered another magnificent drive of 83 yards, ending with yet another TD pass, his 3rd of the first half. The Packers were up 21 - 3.
The game was effectively over.
It was 28 - 10 at halftime and reached 38 - 10 early in the 4th quarter before 2 late Browns TDs made the final score look closer than it was at 40 - 23.
With the Browns behind the entire game, QB Frank Ryan had to pass 28 times and while he was effective, completing 18 for 310 yards, with 2 TDs and 1 interception, it took away rushing attempts by the great Jim Brown. Brown only carried the ball 11 times, his 2nd lowest total of the season, and gained just 56 yards. That was still over 5 yards per carry. But he ended the game well short of his average of 133 yards per game during the season.
SPECIAL TRIBUTE to Jim Brown
I interrupt this article for a special tribute to Jim Brown who passed away in 2023.
Playing his entire career prior to the Super Bowl era, Jim Brown does not get the recognition he deserves.
Jim Brown is my pick for the GOAT - the Greatest of All Time in the NFL.
Consider this, Jim Brown remains the only NFL player to ever average more than 100 yards rushing per game for his entire career.
Here are the top 5 all-time rushers in yards per game:
Jim Brown 104.3 yards per game
Barry Sanders 99.8
Terrell Davis 97.5
Eric Dickerson 90.8
Walter Payton 88.0
In addition, Brown is the only player in history with 1,500+ rushing attempts to post a career average of over 5 yards per carry.
Brown would have had even more yardage, but he often ran out of running space by scoring touchdowns.
Among the 5 all-time leaders above in rushing yards per game, only Jim Brown had greater than 4% of his rushes resulting in touchdowns.
Besides the mind boggling stats, Jim Brown was nearly impossible to bring down. His ability to break tackles is unmatched by any runner today.
Take 2 minutes to honor the memory of Jim Brown by watching this video of his 5 greatest plays:
And now back to 1964 for our 2nd game.
THE AFL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME - Patriots vs. Chargers
SAN DIEGO - January 6, 1964
At 4:30pm ET yesterday, the ABC television network broadcast the AFL Championship Game between the Boston Patriots and the San Diego Chargers that was played in front of a near capacity crowd of 30,127 fans at Balboa Stadium in San Diego.
The game was the 3rd championship game of the week to feature a great offense against a great defense.
Great defense had beaten great offense in both of those contests.
Last Sunday, the brutal Bears defense shut down the offensive juggernaut of the Giants in winning the NFL Championship 14 - 10.
Then on New Year’s Day, in the Cotton Bowl, the de facto national championship game of college football, it was the Texas defense halting Heisman Trophy QB Roger Staubach and all the other Navy backs. Navy had total rushing yards in the game of MINUS 14 in the 28 - 6 yard rout by the Longhorns over the Midshipmen.
In yesterday’s battle it was the Boston Patriots that had the stellar defense.
The Patriots led the AFL in fewest yards allowed.
Their defensive unit was anchored by 2nd year middle linebacker Nick Buoniconti. Buoniconti had been drafted in the 13th round, but in his 2nd season he blossomed into the leading defender in the AFL.
In the MVP voting by the UPI, Nick Buoniconti was 5th in the league, but 1st among all defensive players.
In an article in the Los Angeles Times on Friday before the game, Braven Dyer recounted an interview with Chargers head coach Sid Gillman who said, “There are very few teams in the National Football League that are better defensively than the Boston Patriots… we had a real rough time with them this year.”
During the regular season every one of the 8 AFL teams played each other twice. And while the Chargers came out on top in both games against the Patriots they were close, low scoring contests won by San Diego 17 - 13 and 7 - 6.
Those were 2 of the 3 lowest scoring totals of the year for the high powered Chargers, who led the league in points scored and total yards.
They had a balanced offense, throwing nearly as many times as they ran. Their running backs were devastating to defenses. Paul Lowe ran for 1,010 yards and averaged 5.7 yards per carry. Keith Lincoln ran for 826 yards on 6.5 yards per carry.
And their wide receiver, Lance Alworth, was one of the best in the business, catching 61 passes for 1,205 yards and 11 touchdowns. That performance had earned him the UPI’s selection for AFL MVP.
The question of which would prevail - offense or defense - was settled on the 4th play of the game.
Watch at the 12 second mark of the video below as Chargers running back Keith Lincoln dashes 54 yards. A moment later San Diego took a 7 - 0 lead just 89 seconds into the game.
Only 7 players later, the Chargers had the ball again. At the 40 second mark on the video watch as Keith Lincoln goes for 67 yards and gets into the end zone.
It’s 14 - 0 Chargers early in the 1st quarter.
On the Chargers next possession it was running back Paul Lowe’s turn. He took a hand off 58 yards for a TD. That made the score 21 - 7 at the end of the 1st quarter. You can watch Lowe’s big run at the 1:23 mark on the tape.
At the 2:00 mark on the tape watch as Lincoln goes for another long run of 44 yards.
The Chargers extended the lead to 31 - 10 at halftime, and there was no stopping them in the 2nd half.
At the 3:15 on the tape watch as Chargers QB Tobin Rote goes to the air for a 48 yard TD pass to wide receiver Lance Alworth. This 3rd quarter score made it 38 - 10. Alworth, had been a 1st round draft pick of the San Francisco 49ers in 1962, but elected to go to the Chargers instead. And now he was both an MVP and on the way to being an AFL champion in just his 2nd season.
The Chargers outscored the Patriots 20 - 0 in the 2nd half to win the AFL title 51 - 10.
San Diego ran up a stunning total of 610 yards of offense.
It was the first time all season any team had more than 400 yards of offense against the Patriots.
Keith Lincoln finished the game with 329 yards from scrimmage including 206 rushing and 123 receiving. It was the greatest game of his career.
Mike Holovak, the Patriots coach told Braven Dyer, “You have to give credit to the Chargers. They were better prepared, played better and just outhit us.”
In the Boston Globe, Patriots linebacker and defensive captain, Tommy Addison, told Will McDonough, “Today, they were the best football team I ever played against.”
Chargers coach Sid Gillman, who had previously coached the NFL’s Los Angeles Rams for 5 seasons, told Dyer in the Los Angeles Times, “This is about as good a team as I ever had. Unquestionably it has the greatest balance. Rote is about as good a quarterback as ever took the ball from center.”
In the New York Times, Gillman was asked, “Do you think it would be a contest if you played the National Football League champions?” Gillman replied, “I definitely think it would be a contest. We have some great teams in this league.”
POSTSCRIPT
The 1963 AFL Championship is the ONLY major professional sports title ever won by a team in San Diego. This is in spite of the fact that San Diego has been in the top 10 in population in U.S cities since 1980.
That’s all for football from the 1963 season. I enjoyed this experience so much that I’m determined to travel back 60 years again in the fall to follow the 1964 football season.
Thanks for reading.
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