Today, December 28, will mark the 65th anniversary of the 1958 NFL Championship, forever to be known as "The Greatest Game Ever Played."
This was the game which consummated the marriage between television and football. It marked the beginning of the NFL's popularity surge, and eventual rise to the top of the nation's sports market. An estimated 45 million people watched the national telecast that day, a number that could have been higher had it not been blacked out in the greater New York metropolitan area.
(It's interesting to note that the game, which began in relatively mild weather--"Mara Weather," as it was typically referred to--did not sell out. In fact, none of the Giant home games that year sold out, save for their mid-season clash with the then-undefeated Colts, which the Giants won, 24-21).
Like all epic contests, this one was not devoid of controversy. Had it not been, in fact, it would have been just another forgettable championship game. Facing a third-and-four on their own 40 late in the fourth quarter, Giant halfback Frank Gifford took a handoff and swept to his right. Colt defensive end Gino Marchetti, who had terrorized the Giants all afternoon, got off his block, grabbed Gifford by the waist and pulled him down just inches short of the first down. To his dying day, Gifford always insisted he made the first down, while Marchetti, who sustained a broken ankle on the play, was just as adamant that he had stopped Gifford short of the required yardage.
Needing less than a foot for the first down, Giant coach Jim Lee Howell elected to punt the ball away. Punter Don Chandler got off a beautiful kick which pinned the Colts on their own 14-yard-line with just over two minutes to go. Colt quarterback Johnny Unitas hit Lenny Moore with a crucial 11-yard pass to Lenny Moore on third down, then, after another incompletion, hit Raymond Berry with three consecutive passes, covering 62 yards to put the ball on the Giant 13. This set up a game-tying 20-yard field goal by Steve Myra (probably one of the worst kickers in NFL history) to tie the game with seven seconds left.
There was some confusion following the kick. Several Giant players moved toward the Colt sideline to congratulate them, figuring the game had ended in a tie. Suddenly, the officials were calling to each sideline to send out their captains for an overtime coin flip. It would be the first NFL championship to require an overtime period, and the only one until Super Bowl LI.
The Giants won the toss, but went three-and-out. Unitas marched the Colts 80 yards in 13 plays against a tired New York defense. The final play was almost anti-climatic as Colt fullback Alan Ameche burst through a huge hole at the one-yard line for the winning score, landing untouched in the end zone.
***Berry would finish the day with 12 catches for 178 yards. The 12 receptions would stand as a championship record for 55 years.
***The game would feature a total of 17 future Hall of Famers, including coach Weeb Ewbank, Unitas, Berry, Moore, Marchetti, Art Donovan and Jim Parker for the Colts. The Giants would eventually enshrine Tim Mara (owner), Wellington Mara (vice-president), Vince Lombardi (offensive coach), Tom Landry (defensive coach), Sam Huff, Gifford, Andy Robustelli, Roosevelt Brown, Emlen Tunnell, and Don Maynard.
The two teams would meet again the following year for the championship, this time at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. The Giants held a slim 9-7 lead heading into the fourth quarter, but the Colts ran off 24 straight points to win going away, 31-16.
The two teams' fortunes would never coincide again. The Colts would reach the championship again in 1964, losing to Cleveland, 27-0, then would rout the same Browns four years later, 34-0, in the '68 title game. The Giants would play in three straight championships from 1961-'63, but would be turned away each time, losing twice to Vince Lombardi's Packers, and once to the Chicago Bears. It would be 23 long years before the Giants would play in another championship.
Pro football was not born that day, but it certainly planted the seeds which would eventually lead to pro football overtaking Major League Baseball as the national pastime. It certainly didn't hurt that the game was played in New York in Yankee Stadium, perhaps the most hallowed sports venue in the world at that time.
