December 19, 1976: An AFC Divisional Playoff is played at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. The Baltimore Colts hosted the Pittsburgh Steelers, winners of the last 2 Super Bowls, eliminating the Colts on the way to winning the previous season.
The game is no contest. Terry Bradshaw completed 14 of 18 passes for 267 yards and 3 touchdowns. Don't ask me how the NFL's "passer rating" system works, because I have no idea, and I certainly don't know why a rating of 158.3 is considered a "perfect score." But Bradshaw had the 1st such rating since the system's debut. And Franco Harris ran for 132 yards, and caught 3 passes for 24 yards, despite leaving the game with an injury early in the 2nd half.
The game ended with the Steelers winning, 40-14, and many fans had left early. It's a good thing they did: Less that 10 minutes after the game ended, a small propeller-driven airplane, a Piper PA-28 Cherokee, crashed into the mostly-empty upper deck in the south end zone, what would be behind home plate in the stadium's baseball configuration. Had there still been fans there, it could have been catastrophic.
The plane was wrecked, but there wasn't much damage to the stadium. The crash happened about halfway up the upper deck, where the seats gave way to aluminum benches. About 30 seats were wrecked, but that was it. Given that it was the last home game of the season (the Colts would have traveled to Oakland for the AFC Championship Game had they won this one), and the seats wouldn't be necessary again until early April of the next year, it wasn't hard to get them replaced in time.
The pilot was Donald Kroner, 33, and he sustained cuts and bruises, but only spent 1 night in a hospital. He spent more time in jail. He had previously spent 4 years grounded for psychiatric reasons, and had been arrested just 5 days before the game, on charges of reckless flying, littering, and making a bomb threat against the Iron Horse Restaurant owned by former Colt linebacker, Bill Pellington. He had recently been thrown out of it for being abusive.
Kroner was not that bad of a pilot: He managed to fly his plane between the light towers of the north end zone (center field in the baseball configuration). Fans who witnessed the crash said that it looked like he was trying to make an emergency landing on the field. He was only 10 feet off the ground at the 50-yard line, but he suddenly accelerated and climbed, the engine stalling just before smashing into the upper deck. The stall may have prevented a fuel explosion that could have injured people and caused additional damage to the stadium.
Kroner, of German descent, liked to call himself the Blue Max, after a military decoration given to German soldiers up until World War I. Indeed, his plane was white with blue trim, which, of course, were also the Colts' colors.
Kroner was sentenced to 2 years in prison, for "malicious destruction of property" and "violation of aviation ordinances." He ended up serving only 3 months. He was jailed again in 1980, for stealing 2 Greyhound buses from Dulles International Airport in the Virginia suburbs of Washington.
He died in 2013, at age 70, 37 years after the crash, 29 years after the Colts were moved to Indianapolis, 17 years after they were replaced by the Baltimore Ravens, 15 years after the opening of the new M&T Bank Stadium, and 11 years after Memorial Stadium was demolished -- without his "help." He is a footnote in the history of the team that could, legitimately, be called football's answer to baseball's Brooklyn Dodgers, a team once celebrated as heroes of the working class who brought glory to their place, and were then heartlessly moved, before being replaced.
In 1972, flying a Piper Cherokee in a competition, Prince William of Gloucester, a 1st cousin of Queen Elizabeth II of Britain, was killed in a crash.
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December 19, 1976 was a Sunday. There was 1 other Playoff game in the NFL that day: The Los Angeles Rams beat the Dallas Cowboys, 14-12 at Texas Stadium in the Dallas suburb of Irving, Texas.
The college bowl games were underway, but none were played on this day. There were 6 games in the NBA:
* The New York Knicks lost to the Boston Celtics, 94-87 at Madison Square Garden.
* The Detroit Pistons beat the New Orleans Jazz, 125-110 at the Superdome in New Orleans. Bob Lanier had 34 points and 15 rebounds.
* The Cleveland Cavaliers beat the San Antonio Spurs, 106-105 at The Coliseum in the Cleveland suburb of Richfield, Ohio.
* The Milwaukee Bucks beat the Atlanta Hawks, 126-109 at the Milwaukee Exposition, Convention Center and Arena, or "The MECCA." Since 2014, it has been named the UW-Panther Arena. Swen Nater had 30 points and 33 rebounds.
* The Los Angeles Lakers beat the Kansas City Kings, 103-92 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California.
* And the Buffalo Braves beat the Seattle SuperSonics, 99-98 at the Seattle Center Coliseum.
There were 5 games in the NHL:
* The New York Rangers beat the Cleveland Barons, 3-2 at Madison Square Garden.
* The Boston Bruins beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 6-3 at the Boston Garden.
* The Philadelphia Flyers beat the Colorado Rockies, 4-3 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia.
* The Buffalo Sabres beat the Detroit Red Wings, 6-1 at the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium.
* And the St. Louis Blues beat their arch-rivals, the Chicago Black Hawks, 6-4 at the Chicago Stadium.
And there were 4 games in the World Hockey Association:
* The Indianapolis Racers beat the Birmingham Bulls, 3-2 in overtime at the Market Square Arena in Indianapolis.
* The Edmonton Oilers beat the Cincinnati Stingers, 4-2 at the Northlands Coliseum in Edmonton.
* The Houston Aeros beat the Phoenix Roadrunners, 6-4 at the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix.
* And the San Diego Mariners beat the Quebec Nordiques, 5-3 at the San Diego Sports Arena (now the Pechanga Arena).
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