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Kindle Notes & Highlights
by
Mark Bowden
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July 4 - July 13, 2019
There was not a flashy or celebratory bone in his body, just as there was no outward sign of defeat. On the sidelines after he had thrown a touchdown or an interception, his demeanor was the same.
In the ESPN Sports Century tribute to John Unitas, Bill Curry, who was the starting center in the final great years of Unitas’ career, said the same thing.
Raymond would grab the quarterback before the team huddled and deliver intelligence,
Berry did that because once the team was in the huddle, Unitas was in charge. No one else was to speak.
backed by the owner and some of his friends, Marchetti and Ameche would open a chain of fast-food restaurants in the Baltimore area modeled after the then-growing phenomenon of McDonald’s. The defensive end visited some of that booming chain’s outlets in the middle of the night, shining a flashlight through the windows to scrutinize the layout and the design. He and Ameche would make millions with a regional knockoff hamburger chain called Gino’s.
For fans coming from Pennsylvania to see the Colts, Loch Raven Boulevard was the best route to Memorial Stadium. On the southwest corner of Loch Raven Boulevard and Taylor Avenue, fans, like me, witnessed an interesting transformation. A Gino's, featuring Kentucky Fried Chicken, occupied the corner for many years, but before Gino's took over, it was Ameche's Powerhouse.
Baltimore lost two meaningless games on the West Coast at the end of the schedule, finishing with a record of nine and three, and arrived at the championship game healthy, rested, and ready.
The games were meaningless because the Colts had made an astonishing second half comeback against the San Francisco 49ers in Week 10. Trailing 27-7, the Colts scored 35 points in the final 30 minutes to clinch the Western Conference title.
The commissioner had argued to the traditionalists that you could not end a championship game and a season on a tie. The only purpose was to crown a champ.
Sometime in the second decade of the 21st Century I broadcast the PIAA Class AA Field Hockey State Championship Game. This is high school field hockey in Pennsylvania. Regulation ended in a 1-1 tie. Two fifteen minute overtime periods were played without a score. There was nothing in the rules about how to resolve such a situation and so the teams were crowned co-champions. This was very unsatisfactory to everyone. A year later a rule was in place; no championship game would ever end in a tie again.
John shouted “tails,” but the coin dropped—all four men stooped to see—heads.
According to one account, a sportswriter declared that it was the only bad call Unitas made all day.
from the Giants’ thirty-three-yard line,
From the Colts' 33 yard line. There is a Chinese proverb that says a masterpiece is not without flaws. This may be the only flaw in what has been the best book I have read about this game.
“Unitas to Berry,” came the public address announcement. “First down.”
The public address announcer was the long-time voice of Yankee Stadium, Bob Sheppard, who compared Unitas with General George Patton sweeping across Europe.
But Weeb was not about to wager victory for a second time on the unreliable leg of Steve Myhra.
And if the Colts did not gain another yard, the field goal attempt would be 8 yards longer than the tying field goal
He threw for one touchdown,
The Colts' only touchdown came while Unitas was quarterback, a one yard, fourth down run by Jerry Hill.
John played for a few more years,
Unitas was the Colts' starting quarterback in Super Bowl V two years later. He threw a touchdown pass to John Mackey but was later injured and came out for Earl Morrall who led the Colts to a 16-13 victory over Tom Landry's Dallas Cowboys.
He died of a heart attack, working out on a treadmill, in 2002.
John Unitas died on the first anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, September 11, 2002.
Big Daddy Lipscomb went, in an overdose of heroin, in 1963, which was puzzling to many of his old teammates who remembered his outsized fear of needles whenever the team doctor scheduled inoculations.
John Unitas, in his autobiography, wrote of his suspicions, adding that the injection was in the right arm and that Lipscomb was so right handed that it would have been impossible for him to inject the lethal dose.
