October 17, 1965: The New York Giants beat the Philadelphia Eagles, 35-27 at Yankee Stadium. In the 2nd quarter, Earl Morrall of the Giants threw an 89-yard touchdown pass to Homer Jones. Running into the end zone, slammed the ball down into the grass. He thus invented the "spike."
The reason the main score of American football is called a "touchdown" is based on what players actually did under such circumstances: If they ran in without being tackled, they simply put the ball down on the ground, touching it down. Either that, or they handed the ball to an official. There was no celebration. It would have been considered "showboating" or "hotdogging," and as being too individualistic in this most team-oriented of sports.
By the 1960s, with artistic expression beginning to flower in various fields, the desire to celebrate began to exceed the fear of seeming different. At some point, Paul Hornung of the Green Bay Packers began celebrating touchdowns by throwing the ball into the stands. As a quarterback turned running back, this seemed natural for him. Detractors suggested he first looked for a beautiful woman to throw it to, and, as it fit his playboy image -- which head coach Vince Lombardi tolerated, because Hornung worked so hard, in practice and in games -- he confirmed it.
In 1963, Commissioner Pete Rozelle found out that Hornung, and also Alex Karras of the Detroit Lions, had been gambling, though not on their own sport like Pete Rose would later be found to have done. They confessed immediately, and told Rozelle what they knew, allowing Rozelle to cooperate with law enforcement. With this cooperation, Rozelle suspended them indefinitely, but lifted the suspensions after 1 season. He also told Hornung not to throw the ball into the stands anymore, or else he'd be fined. He never did it again.
Jones was a rookie in 1964, the year Hornung and Karras were reinstated. But, quickly becoming one of the top receivers in the game, despite the Giants having their 1st sub-.500 season in 11 years, he came to the conclusion that the means for expressing how good he felt upon scoring a touchdown were limited. So he created his own. He discovered that there was no rule against "spiking" the ball, as he called it. And, since it didn't cost the home team a ball, like throwing it into the stands did, no rule against it has ever been passed.
So spikes eventually became more elaborate. Eventually, the "touchdown dance" was created. Billy Johnson, a receiver for the Houston Oilers, started doing it in the mid-1970s. Across Texas, Butch Johnson of the Dallas Cowboys, a Los Angeles native, created his own dance, the California Quake.
In the early 1980s, the Washington Redskins' receiving corps, led by Art Monk and Charlie Brown, became known as the Fun Bunch, and would do a collective "high five" in the end zone. Seeing 4 or 5 men, sometimes including a bulky tight end like Don Warren or Clint Didier, all try to slap each other's hands looked a little silly, but that group of receivers went to 4 Super Bowls, winning 3, with it.
Eventually, defensive players got into the act, with "sack dances," pioneered by Mark Gastineau of the New York Jets. His got a bit out of control, and after such a performance precipitated a brawl in a 1983 game with the Los Angeles Rams, the NFL declared that the officials could use their discretion in deciding whether a celebration -- offensive or defensive -- went too far, and thus consider it "unsportsmanlike conduct," and thus assess a 15-yard penalty on the ensuing kickoff.
In their 1988 AFC Championship season, the Cincinnati Bengals had running back Elbert "Ickey" Woods with his "Ickey Shuffle." In the early 1990s, Atlanta Falcons cornerback Deion Sanders introduced the high-step into the end zone on interception breakaways, and receivers soon began to copy him. In 1993, Packer safety LeRoy Butler returned an interception for a touchdown, and his momentum caused him to jump into the stands at Lambeau Field. Receiver Robert Brooks liked it, and did it on purpose after his next touchdown, making them the inventors of the Lambeau Leap.
In 1970, the Giants cut Homer Jones, and he signed with the Cleveland Browns. In the 1st game ever played as part of ABC Monday Night Football, he returned the 2nd-half kickoff for a touchdown, and spiked the ball, making it the 1st time a nationwide audience had seen it. The Browns won, 31-21.
Jones was cut after the season, and retired. He made 2 Pro Bowls, and still holds the NFL career record with 22.3 yards per catch.
UPDATE: He died in 2023, at the age of 82.
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October 17, 1965 was a Sunday. These other games were played in the NFL:
* The Baltimore Colts beat their neighbors, the Washington Redskins, 38-7 at District of Columbia Stadium (later Robert F. Kennedy Stadium) in Washington.
* The football version of the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Pittsburgh Steelers, 20-7 at Pitt Stadium in Pittsburgh.
* The Green Bay Packers beat the Detroit Lions, 31-21 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit.
* The Chicago Bears beat the Minnesota Vikings, 45-37 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota.
* The Cleveland Browns beat the Dallas Cowboys, 23-17 at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas.
* And the San Francisco 49ers beat their arch-rivals, the Los Angeles Rams, 45-21 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
There were 3 games in the American Football League:
* The Boston Patriots and the San Diego Chargers played to a tie, 13-13 at Fenway Park in Boston.
* The Buffalo Bills beat the Kansas City Chiefs, 23-7 at Kansas City Municipal Stadium.
* And the Denver Broncos beat the Houston Oilers, 28-17 at Bears Stadium (later Mile High Stadium) in Denver.
Baseball season had ended 3 days earlier, when the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Minnesota Twins in Game 7 of the World Series. The NHL season started 6 days later. There was 1 game in the NBA: The Cincinnati Royals beat the Baltimore Bullets, 144-124 at the Cincinnati Gardens. Oscar Robertson scored 37 points for the Royals.
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