December 26, 1955: Otto Graham Goes Out a Winner

December 26, 1955: The NFL Championship Game is played at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. It was moved up a day, because, that year, December 25 fell on a Sunday, and the NFL refused to play on Christmas Day until 1971.

The Cleveland Browns were playing in a league championship game for the 10th straight year: The 1st 4 in the All-America Football Conference (1946-49), winning all 4 of those; and the last 6 in the NFL, having beaten the Los Angeles Rams in 1950, lost to the Rams in 1951, lost to the Detroit Lions in 1952 and 1953, and beaten the Lions in 1954. Now, they were playing the Rams again.

Quarterback Otto Graham had been there for all of those games. Under head coach Paul Brown, an offensive genius, he had been, in terms of results, the most successful quarterback in pro football history. (Sure, Tom Brady later got teams into 10 championship games under the Super Bowl name, all within the NFL. But Graham did 10 in a row, and matched Brady with 7 wins. And Graham never had to cheat.)

Graham had retired after the 1954 Championship Game, but Brown talked him into returning for 1 more season. He led the Browns to a 9-2-1 record. They opened with a loss to the Washington Redskins, but shrugged it off to beat the San Francisco 49ers away, the Philadelphia Eagles at home, the Redskins away, the Green Bay Packers at home, the Chicago Cardinals away, and the New York Giants at home.

In addition to Graham, the Browns still had receiver Dante Lavelli, center Frank Gatski, tackle and placekicker Lou Groza, and defensive end Len Ford, who would all be elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. So would Brown. So would linebacker Chuck Noll, albeit as the later head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers.

The Browns lost to the Eagles in Philadelphia, then beat the Steelers at home. They could only manage a tie with the Giants in New York, then won away to Pittsburgh, and closed by beating the Cardinals at home.

The Rams were coached by Sid Gillman, whose innovations in the passing game had begun to rival those of Paul Brown. They had finished 8-3-1, with 2 of their losses inflicted by the Chicago Bears. They still finished ahead of the Bears, who went 8-4.

The Rams still had several of the players who beat the Browns in the 1951 title game, including quarterback Norm Van Brocklin and his top 2 receivers, Tom Fears and Elroy "Crazy Legs" Hirsch, all of whom would be elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. So would Gillman, and linebacker Les Richter. Running back Paul "Tank" Younger and defensive tackle Gene "Big Daddy" Lipscomb have not yet been elected to the Hall, but should be.

And, this being an odd-numbered year, the Western Division winners would have the home-field advantage. And the Coliseum was the only stadium in the NFL that seated more than the Browns' Cleveland Municipal Stadium, so 87,695 fans came out, supporting the blue and gold, rather than the orange and white.

Groza kicked a 43-yard field goal to give the Browns a 3-0 lead at the end of the 1st quarter. The 2nd quarter featured several big plays, including Don Paul intercepting Van Brocklin, and returning it 65 yards for a touchdown, to make it 10-0 Browns; Van Brocklin throwing a 67-yard touchdown pass to Volney "Skeet" Quinlan, closing the Rams to within 10-7; and Graham throwing a 50-yard touchdown pass to Lavelli, giving the Browns a 17-7 halftime lead.

Graham himself ran the ball in for 2 touchdowns in the 3rd quarter, and the Browns led, 31-7. In the 4th quarter, Graham's last touchdown pass was 35 yards to Ray Renfro. Ron Waller scored from 4 yards out to give the Rams a consolation score, and the Browns won, 38-14.

It was the 7th league championship, the 3rd in the NFL, for Graham and Paul Brown. It would be the last. Graham retired again, and, this time, stuck with it. Brown led the Browns until 1962, before being fired by new owner Art Modell. He later founded the Cincinnati Bengals.

Gillman would further develop his passing ideas, and lea the San Diego Chargers to the 1963 AFL Championship. Bill Walsh, who served as an assistant on the Bengals under Brown, and also under on the Oakland Raiders under Al Davis, who had been an assistant on the Chargers under Gillman, would coach the San Francisco 49ers to 3 Super Bowl wins.

Under the new regime, the Browns won the Championship in 1964 -- and haven't reached a world championship game since. The Rams would fare little better, not reaching another until Super Bowl XIV in the 1979 season, and losing. They moved to St. Louis in 1995, won Super Bowl XXXIV in the 1999 season, lost Super Bowl XXXVI in the 2001 season, moved back to Los Angeles in 2016, and have lost Super Bowl LIII in the 2018 season and won Super Bowl LVI in the 2021 season.

Graham started his professional career wearing Number 60, from 1946 to 1951. From 1952 onward, he wore Number 14. The Browns retired that number, and also named him to their Ring of Honor. He was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in its 3rd class, in 1965.

He later served as head coach and general manager of the Washington Redskins, and as head coach and athletic director at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy. In 1999, he was ranked 7th on The Sporting News' list of the 100 Greatest Football Players, trailing only Joe Montana and Johnny Unitas among quarterbacks. He died in 2003.

In 2010, the NFL Network ranked Graham 16th on its list of the 100 Greatest Players, among quarterbacks trailing only Montana, Unitas, Peyton Manning and the even earlier Sammy Baugh, but not yet Tom Brady. He was named to the NFL's 50th Anniversary Team in 1969, its 75th Anniversary Team in 1994, and its 100th Anniversary Team in 2019. Also in 2019, a statue of Graham was dedicated outside Huntington Bank Field in Cleveland.

*

December 26, 1955 was, as suggested, a Monday. Evan Bayh, who would follow his father Birch Bayh in being elected U.S. Senator from Indiana, was born on this day.

Baseball was out of season. No college football bowl games were played. There were no games scheduled in the NHL. There were 3 games played in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks beat the Philadelphia Warriors, 108-97 at the Philadelphia Civic Center.

* The Rochester Royals beat their arch-rivals, the Syracuse Nationals, 93-91 at the Rochester Community War Memorial (now the Blue Cross Arena) in Rochester, New York.

* And the Fort Wayne Pistons beat the St. Louis Hawks, 83-67 at the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

In Britain, the day after Christmas is Boxing Day, and it's a day for major soccer matches. Arsenal and Birmingham-area team Wolverhampton Wanderers played to a draw, 3-3 at the Arsenal Stadium, a.k.a. Highbury, in North London.

December 24, 1994: The Rams and Raiders Abandon Los Angeles

December 24, 1994: The Kansas City Chiefs defeat their arch-rivals, the Los Angeles Raiders, 19-9, before 64,130 fans -- a big crowd, but hardly a sellout at the 93,000 seat Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

The Coliseum had been the home of the Raiders since moving from Oakland before the 1982 season, and the home of the Los Angels Rams from 1946 to 1979. The Rams had moved 38 miles southeast to Anaheim Stadium (now Angel Stadium of Anaheim). On this same day, they played there, and lost to the Washington Redskins, 24-21. The crowd was 25,705, a pathetically small one for a stadium whose football capacity was 69,000.

Before the next season opened, the Los Angeles metropolitan area dropped from 2 NFL teams to none: Al Davis took the Raiders back to Oakland, and Rams owner Georgia Frontiere took the team to her hometown of St. Louis. The Rams' move also killed the famous Los Angeles-San Francisco rivalry with the 49ers, whose run of success the preceding few years hurt the Rams as much as anything: For about 15 years before it, the Rams had dominated the division that became the NFC West.

It took the Rams a while to get going in St. Louis, building "The Greatest Show on Turf," winning Super Bowl XXXIV, and losing Super Bowl XXXVI, before falling apart again. After the 2015 season, with Stan Kroenke having bought the team from Mrs. Frontiere's estate, the Rams moved back to Los Angeles, playing 4 seasons at the Coliseum before Kroenke's SoFi Stadium was built in Inglewood, on the site of the Hollywood Park racetrack, across from The Forum. The NBA's Los Angeles Clippers have begun building their new arena, the Intuit Dome, on the same campus.

The Raiders' return to Oakland was shaky. They fell victim to the Tuck Rule Game in the 2001 season, then won the 2002 AFC Championship, but lost Super Bowl XXXVII. Al Davis died in 2011, and his son Mark Davis inherited the team. He never liked Oakland, and tried to go back to Los Angeles, before making a deal to move to Las Vegas for the 2020 season.

With the Raiders having balked in their negotiations, it was the San Diego Chargers who moved for the 2017 season, spending 3 season at Dignity Health Sports Park in suburban Carson, California, before moving into SoFi as tenants of the Rams.

*

December 24, 1994 was a Saturday. No college football bowl games were played. Baseball was out of season. The NBA had no games scheduled. And the NHL team owners were locking out the players. So the only games played on the day were in the NFL.

At the time, the NFL preferred not to play games on Christmas Day, even when it fell on a Sunday. That changed the next year. This time, the only game played on Sunday, December 25 was the Miami Dolphins' 27-20 win over the Detroit Lions at Joe Robbie Stadium (now Hard Rock Stadium) in Miami Gardens, Florida, and that was in prime time. The next night, on ABC Monday Night Football, the Minnesota Vikings beat the San Francisco 49ers, 21-14 at the Metrodome in Minneapolis. The rest of the NFL slate, including the 2 L.A. farewells, was played on the afternoon of Saturday, December 24:

* The New York Giants beat the Dallas Cowboys, 15-10 at Giants Stadium in the Meadowlands.

* The Atlanta Falcons beat the Arizona Cardinals, 10-6 at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta.

* The Green Bay Packers beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 34-19 at Tampa Stadium.

* The New Orleans Saints beat the Denver Broncos, 30-28 at the Superdome in New Orleans.

* The New York Jets lost to the Houston Oilers, 24-10 at the Astrodome in Houston.

* The Cleveland Browns beat the Seattle Seahawks, 35-9 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium.

* The Cincinnati Bengals beat the Philadelphia Eagles, 33-30 at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati.

* The Indianapolis Colts beat the Buffalo Bills, 10-9 at the RCA Dome in Indianapolis.

* The New England Patriots beat the Chicago Bears, 13-3 at Soldier Field in Chicago.

* And the San Diego Chargers beat the Pittsburgh Steelers, 37-34 at Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego.

December 24, 1950: The Cleveland Browns Make Their Point

The winning field goal, kicked by Groza, then wearing Number 50.

He would later switch to 76, which the Browns retired for him.

Note the snow on the field.

December 24, 1950: The NFL Championship Game is held at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. The weather was bitterly cold, but the action was hot.

In 1945, the Cleveland Rams had won the NFL Championship, but had low attendance. Team owner Dan Reeves (no relation to the later NFL coach of the same name) moved them to Los Angeles, where they became a runaway success at the box office, and on the field as well. In 1949, they won the NFL Western Division, and reached the NFL Championship Game. But, contrary to the image of sunny Southern California, a rainstorm hit the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, and the Rams lost to the Philadelphia Eagles.

They played the 1950 season as if on a benzedrine kick, with the most potent offense the NFL has ever seen. The "Greatest Show On Turf" that the St. Louis version of the Rams had half a century later had noting on this bunch.

Alternating quarterbacks between Bob Waterfield and Norm Van Brocklin, their runners included former Army Heisman Trophy winner Glenn Davis, Verda Thomas Smith (known as V.T. or "Vitamin"), Dick Hoerner, early black star "Deacon" Dan Towler, and one of the earliest NFL players from a "historically black" school, Paul "Tank" Younger of Grambling State University in Louisiana. Waterfield and Van Brocklin could throw to any of them, and to receivers Tom Fears and Elroy Hirsch, who was so fast, he was nicknamed "Crazy Legs."

The Rams went 9-3, and one of the losses was a 56-20 embarrassment against the Eagles. The other 2 losses came against the Chicago Bears. But on October 22, 1950, the Rams answered this question: "What would happen if the best offense in NFL history played the worst defense in NFL history?" The Rams ended up scoring more points per game in a season than any other, and the Baltimore Colts ended up allowing more per game than any other. Result: Rams 70, Colts 27. To this day, it's still the 3rd-highest-scoring single-game performance in NFL history. In addition, they hung 65 point on the Detroit Lions, 51 and 45 on the Green Bay Packers, 45 and 43 on the New York Yanks (not "Yankees"), and 35 on the San Francisco 49ers.

But the Cleveland Browns could match them for firepower. After winning the All-America Football Conference in all 4 seasons of its existence, 1946 to 1949, the Browns were invited to join the NFL from it, as were the 49ers and the Colts. The opening game of the 1950 season was against the defending Champion Eagles, in Philadelphia, and the Browns embarrassed the allegedly superior league's top team, 35-10.

Head coach Paul Brown was an offensive genius, and he built a team to carry out that genius: Quarterback Otto Graham, running back Marion Motley, and ends Mac Speedie and Dante Lavelli were weapons that any team would be lucky to have. Blocking for them were guard Bill Willis and tackles Lou Groza and Mike McCormack. All of these men would join Brown in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Motley and Willis were the men who provided the premiering AAFC with its racial integration, as the Rams' Kenny Washington and Woody Strode had done for the NFL. Alas, by 1950, neither Washington nor Strode was still with the Rams, but Younger and Towler were.

The Browns went 10-2, their only losses to the New York Giants, by a total of 10 points. In addition to the 35 they scored on the Eagles, they scored 45 each on the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Washington Redskins, 34 each on the 49ers and the Chicago Cardinals, and 31 on the Colts.

The Rams and the Browns won their respective Divisions, and, as it was the Eastern Division Champion's turn to host the NFL Championship Game, they met in Cleveland on a frigid Christmas Eve on the shore of Lake Erie. It was the team that did make it in Cleveland vs. the one that didn't in spite of bringing the city a title. It was also the 1st game back in Cleveland for the Rams, as the NFL did not yet allow crossover games from one Division to the other, except in the Championship Game.

The Rams wasted no time: On their 1st play from scrimmage, Waterfield passed to Davis, and he went 82 yards for a 7-0 Ram lead. The Browns responded with their own touchdown, but the Rams came back with another, leading 14-7 at the end of the 1st quarter.

The Browns scored a touchdown in the 2nd quarter, but a high snap caused Groza, also the team's main kicker, to miss the extra point. Waterfield, also the Rams' main kicker, attempted a field goal as the half ran out, from only 15 yards, but the stiff wind blasting in off the lake stopped it, and it was 14-13 Los Angeles.

In the 3rd quarter, Graham threw a 39-yard touchdown pass to Lavelli, giving the Browns a 20-14 lead. But the Rams scored 2 touchdowns, and it was 28-20 Rams after 3 quarters. With 10 minutes to go, the Browns faced 3 4th-down conversion attempts, and made them all. Graham threw another touchdown pass, and it was 28-27 Rams.

With 1:49 left, the Browns got the ball on their own 31-yard line. Graham threw for 1st downs, and ran for 2 of them himself. With 28 seconds left, Groza was sent on to attempt a 16-yard field goal. It was perfect, and it was 30-28 Cleveland. The Rams had 1 more chance, but could do nothing with it. The Browns had won, in their 1st season in the League, and, by staying in the city, gave Cleveland its 1st pro football championship defenders since the 1924 Cleveland Bulldogs.

Paul Brown called it the best game he ever saw, and never changed his mind. NFL Commissioner Bert Bell, who had orchestrated the sort-of-merger between the NFL and the AAFC, called the Browns "the greatest team ever to play football." The Browns may have dominated an inferior league, but now, they had won the superior one. They had made their point.

But it is more than that: By being the winning coach, Paul Brown, having coached Ohio State in 1942, became 1st head coach ever to win both a college football National Championship and an NFL Championship. It would take until the Super Bowl era before that happened again: Jimmy Johnson, with 1987 Miami and the 1993 and 1994 Dallas Cowboys; Barry Switzer, 1974, 1975 and 1985 Oklahoma and the 1996 Cowboys; and Pete Carroll, 2003 and 2004 USC and the 2014 Seattle Seahawks.

In 1981, historian John Thorn left his comfort zone, baseball, and published Pro Football's 10 Greatest Games. He included this game.

The same teams faced each other again the following year. But in 1951, at the Coliseum, the Rams beat the Browns for Los Angeles' 1st major league sports championship. They would play each other again in 1955, with the Browns winning in L.A. It would be Graham's last game, as he retired. The Browns had been to the AAFC or NFL Championship Game every year for 10 straight years. After missing in 1956, they made it 11 out of 12 in 1957. They beat the Detroit Lions in 1954, but lost to them in 1952, '53 and '57.

The fact that the Browns', the Lions', and the Chicago (now Arizona) Cardinals' titles came before the advent of the Super Bowl means that they get discounted: Even before the distance of time became what it is now, NFL fans have come to regard any title won before the Super Bowl, NFL or AFL, as not a "real" championship. This is unfair: A title is a title.

UPDATE: The Browns have a Ring of Honor. From their founding era, they have honored head coach Paul Brown, quarterback Otto Graham, running back Marion Motley; receivers Dante Lavelli, Mac Speedie and Bobby Mitchell; center Frank Gatski, guard Bill Willis, tackle and placekicker Lou Groza, tackle Mike McCormack and defensive end Len Ford.

From their 1964 NFL Championship, they have honored running backs Jim Brown and Leroy Kelly, receiver Paul Warfield and guard Gene Hickerson. From the 1980s, they have honored guard Joe DeLamielleure, tight end Ozzie Newsome, and linebacker Clay Matthews Jr. It says something about how the Browns have been run since their re-establishment in 1999 that they have honored just 1 player in that period, offensive tackle Joe Thomas.

Motley, Willis, Lavelli, Groza, Warfield, Hickerson, founding owner Arthur "Mickey" McBride, 1940s running back Tony Adamle, 1950s guard Chuck Noll, 1950s defensive tackle Bob Gain, 1950s linebacker Sam Palumbo (a Cleveland native), 1970s running backs Greg Pruitt and Mike Pruitt (not related to each other), 1970s offensive tackle Doug Dieken, 1980s head coach Sam Rutigliano, 1980s quarterback Bernie Kosar, 1980s running back Kevin Mack, 1980s defensive tackle Bob Golic, 1980s linebacker Tom Cousineau, and 1999-2002 re-establishing owner Al Lerner have been elected to the Greater Cleveland Sports Hall of Fame.

*

December 24, 1950 was a Sunday. It was the end of the football season. No college games were played on this day. Baseball was out of season. No NBA games were played. And only 1 NHL game was played: The New York Rangers beat the Chicago Black Hawks, 6-1 at the old Madison Square Garden. Nick Mickoski had 4 goals and an assist for the Broadway Blueshirts.

December 23, 1951: The 1st Title for Los Angeles

"Crazy Legs" (left) and "Deacon Dan"

December 23, 1951: The City of Los Angeles, and all of the State of California, gets its 1st World Championship in a major league sport.

It wasn't won by the Dodgers: They were 6 years away. It wasn't the Lakers, either: They were 9 years away.

In 1945, the Cleveland Rams won the NFL Championship. But they barely drew enough fans to fill the Cleveland Indians' 22,000-seat League Park. They got to host the NFL Championship Game, and they put it in the 86,000-seat Cleveland Municipal Stadium. But it was the coldest Championship Game in American football history, 8 degrees above zero Fahrenheit -- the 1967 "Ice Bowl" was an NFL Championship Game, but not a world championship -- and only 32,178 fans paid their way into the big stadium on the shore of Lake Erie.

Dan Reeves -- no relation to the later football coach of the same name -- lost $64,000 owning the Rams in the 1945 season. And, with the war over, a new league was being formed, the All-America Football Conference. And they would have a Cleveland team, soon to be named the Browns. Reeves knew that it would be folly to stay in Cleveland.

So he went to the previously untapped market of Los Angeles, and moved the Rams there. It worked: With quarterback Bob Waterfield winning games, the minds of male fans, and the hearts of female fans -- he was married to actress Jane Russell -- and an offense that included the 1st black players in the NFL in 12 years, Kenny Washington and Woody Strode, the Rams averaged 42,475 fans per game at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

It took the Rams until 1949 to reach the Championship Game again. In a rare Southern California rainstorm, they lost to the Philadelphia Eagles at the Coliseum. They got back to the title game in 1950, but had to go back where they came from, playing their replacements, the Cleveland Browns, at a once-again-frigid Municipal Stadium, and lost on a last-minute field goal by Lou Groza.

Washington bowed out due to injury, and Strode was making more money as an actor. But, under head coach Joe Stydahar, one of the Chicago Bears' 1940s "Monsters of the Midway," the Rams got better. They got a 2nd great quarterback, Norm Van Brocklin. Their running backs included 2 black stars, Paul "Tank" Younger and "Deacon" Dan Towler, a Heisman Trophy winner in Glenn Davis, and Verda Thomas Smith, known as "V.T." or "Vitamin" Smith. And in Tom Fears and Elroy "Crazy Legs" Hirsch, Waterfield and Van Brocklin had the 2 best receivers in the NFL.

They went 8-4. They scored 52 and 48 points in their 2 games against the New York Yanks (that's correct: Not "Yankees," and the team folded after the season), hung 45 on the Chicago Cardinals, 42 on the Bears, and another 42 on the Green Bay Packers. But a not-so-good defense meant that they lost regular-season games to the Browns, the Washington Redskins, the Detroit Lions, and the team that was now firmly established as their regional arch-rivals, the San Francisco 49ers.

But it was enough to win the NFL Western Division, by half a game over the 49ers and the Lions, both of whom went 7-4-1; and a full game over the Bears, who went 7-5. And, since it was an odd-numbered year, it was the Western Division Champion's turn to host the NFL Championship Game. It was their 3rd straight season making the Game, and, this time, the weather would not be a problem: It was a beautiful Sunday afternoon at the Coliseum, and 59,475 fans came out, the most that had yet seen an NFL Championship Game.

It should have been more: While it was the 1st one broadcast coast-to-coast, on the DuMont Network, it was blacked out in Southern California: If you lived there at the time, and you didn't buy a ticket, you had to listen on the radio.

It was a rematch with the Browns. Paul Brown's even more powerful offense, led by quarterback Otto Graham, had lost their season opener to the 49ers, but had won the next 11 straight, and were favored going in, even on the road.

But Groza missed a field goal on their opening drive, and Waterfield led the Rams down the field, resulting in a 1-yard touchdown run by Dick Hoerner early in the 2nd quarter. Groza kicked a 52-yard field goal, at the time the longest in NFL Championship Game history, and Waterfield threw 2 interceptions. Though leading, 7-3, Stydahar, replaced Waterfield with Van Brocklin. Before halftime, Graham threw a 17-yard touchdown pass to Dub Jones, and the Browns took a 10-7 lead.

In the 3rd quarter, Larry Brink hit Graham and forced a fumble. Andy Robustelli, later a Hall of Fame defensive end for the New York Giants, picked it up on the Browns' 24, and returned it to their 2 before being stopped. Towler ran the ball in, and it was 14-10 Los Angeles.

It was Graham's turn to throw 2 interceptions, and Waterfield kicked a field goal to make it 17-10. But Graham recovered, and led a 70-yard drive ending with Ken Carpenter's 5-yard touchdown run, tying the game at 17-17.

But the Rams struck right back, with Van Brocklin finding Fears, who hauled a pass in for a 73-yard touchdown. The Rams won, 24-17, and had their 1st title in Los Angeles. While the Los Angeles Angels and the Hollywood Stars had won Pennants, that was in the Pacific Coast League. Despite the PCL's pretensions, it was not major league. By this point, there was no longer any question that the NFL was, and the Rams were Champions.

The Browns returned to the NFL Championship Game in 1952, losing to the Lions; 1953, losing to the Lions; 1954, beating the Lions; and 1955, beating the Rams. Despite having some good teams over the years, the Rams didn't reach another NFL championship game, under any name, until the 1979 season, when they lost Super Bowl XIV to the Pittsburgh Steelers.

They moved to St. Louis for the 1995 season, and selfish choice by team ownership, and won Super Bowl XXXIV, beating the Tennessee Titans, in 2000; and lost Super Bowl XXXVI to the New England Patriots in 2002. Once the novelty of "The Greatest Show On Turf" wore off, and the team began to be broken up, they stopped drawing fans in St. Louis. A new owner moved them back to Los Angeles for the 2016 season.

UPDATE: The Rams reached Super Bowl LIII, losing to the Patriots; and Super Bowl LVI, beating the Cincinnati Bengals. That game the Rams 4 NFL Championships: 2 in Los Angeles, 1 in Cleveland, and 1 in St. Louis.

The Rams do not have a team Hall of Fame, but they have several members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame:

* From their 1951 NFL Champions: Founding owner Dan Reeves (no relation to the later Denver and Atlanta coach), head coach Joe Stydahar (elected mainly on the basis of his playing with the Chicago Bears), quarterback-defensive back-kicker Bob Waterfield, quarterback Norm Van Brocklin, receiver Elroy "Crazy Legs" Hirsch, and end Tom Fears.

* From later in the 1950s and in the 1960s: Reeves, head coach George Allen, running back Ollie Matson, defensive end David "Deacon" Jones, defensive tackle Merlin Olsen, and linebacker Les Richter. Jones, Olsen, defensive tackle Roosevelt "Rosey" Grier and defensive end Lamar Lundy formed the line known as "The Fearsome Foursome."

* From their 1979 NFC Championship: Guard Tom Mack, defensive end Jack Youngblood, and offensive tackle Jackie Slater.

* From their appearance in the 1985 NFC Championship Game: Slater, running back Eric Dickerson, and linebacker Kevin Greene. Slater and Greene would also play for the Rams in the 1989 NFC Championship Game.

* So far, no players from their Super Bowl LIII defeat have been honored -- and any players from their Super Bowl LVI win wouldn't be eligible yet, anyway.

The Rams have retired 8 uniform numbers: Waterfield's 7, Dickerson's 29, Olsen's 74, Jones' 75, Slater's 78, Youngblood's 85; and 2 players from their St. Louis era, the 28 of running back Marshall Faulk and the 80 of receiver Isaac Bruce.

*

December 23, 1951 was a Sunday. Baseball was out of season. There were 3 games played in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks beat the Syracuse Nationals, 75-72 at the Onondaga War Memorial (now the Upstate Medical University Arena) in Syracuse, New York.

* The Boston Celtics beat the Indianapolis Olympians, 91-88 in overtime at the Boston Garden.

* And the Fort Wayne Pistons beat the Minneapolis Lakers, 81-79 in the gymnasium at North Side High School in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Clearly, calling the NBA "major league" at this point was still a little premature.

Not so for the NHL, and its entire "Original Six" was in action:

* The New York Rangers beat the Chicago Black Hawks, 3-2 at the old Madison Square Garden.

* The Boston Bruins beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 4-2 at the Boston Garden. Yes, it hosted the NBA and the NHL on the same day.

* And the Detroit Red Wings beat the Montreal Canadiens, 4-0 at the Olympia Stadium in Detroit.

December 16, 1945: The Cleveland Rams' Championship Farewell

Number 24 is Jim Gillette, who scored the winning touchdown.

December 16, 1945: The NFL Championship Game is played. The winning team... moves to another city.

You know how, when the Cleveland Browns announced during the 1995 season that they were moving, their fans had such a fit, and talked about how loyal they were? Well, at the time, they were averaging 66,772 fans per home game, which, given the capacity of Cleveland Municipal Stadium, was an average of about 14,000 empty seats.

The Cleveland Rams would have gladly taken that. Founded in 1936, they had hoped to use Municipal Stadium for their home games, but ticket demand was usually so low, instead, they played at 22,000-seat League Park, or the even smaller Shaw Stadium, a high school facility.

In 1945, Adam Walsh was named head coach. He was the center on Notre Dame's 1924 National Championship team, leading the line known as the Seven Mules, so named because they blocked for the backfield known as the Four Horsemen. He saw to it that they drafted UCLA quarterback Bob Waterfield.

Bob Waterfield. Teammate Fred Gehrke,

a graphic artist, invented the modern helmet logo

by painting rams' horns on the helmets in 1948.

And they went 9-1, their best season yet. They played all their home games at League Park, and averaged just 19,402 fans. Granted, a lot of would-be fans were still overseas, as the end of World War II did not mean that every serviceman went home at once. Still, their away games did better: A crowd of 46,219 saw them beat the New York Giants at the Polo Grounds, 40,017 saw them beat the Detroit Lions at Briggs Stadium (later renamed Tiger Stadium), and 38,149 saw their only loss, to the Philadelphia Eagles at Shibe Park.

Since it was the Western Division Champion's turn to host the NFL Championship Game, Rams owner Dan Reeves -- no relation to the later coach of the same name -- booked Municipal Stadium for it, hoping for a big crowd. Certainly, he got the right opponent: The Eastern Division Champions were the Washington Redskins, with superstar quarterback Sammy Baugh, in their 5th Championship Game in the last 9 seasons. (They'd won in 1937 and 1942, and lost in 1940 and 1943.)

But the weather did not cooperate: At kickoff time, it was 8 degrees below zero, the coldest NFL Championship Game ever to that point. (That temperature has only been exceeded once, and that once with an asterisk: The 1967 NFL Championship Game, "The Ice Bowl," was not the World Championship Game.)

As a result, in the football-mad State of Ohio, where Ohio State had played to 4 crowds of 69,000 or more that season, only 32,178 fans paid their way into the big stadium on the shore of Lake Erie. In contrast, playing in Griffith Stadium, which barely seated 35,000 with added seating for football, the Redskins drew more than 32,178 fans in 9 of their 10 regular-season games, home and away.

From 1933 to 1973, the goalposts were on the goal line, not the end line. In the 1st quarter of this game, Baugh faded back from his own 5-yard line, into the end zone, and made a bad throw, which hit the goal post. Under the rule of the time, this was a safety for the Rams, who now led, 2-0. It would matter. 

Sammy Baugh

Each team scored a touchdown in the 2nd quarter. Baugh left the game due to bruised ribs, and Frank Filchock came into replace him. The backup to Slingin' Sammy was called Flingin' Frank, and he threw a 38-yard touchdown pass to Steve "Jack Rabbit" Bagarus. Waterfield threw a 37-yard touchdown pass to Jim Benton, and it was 9-7 Cleveland at the half.

In the 3rd quarter, Waterfield threw a 44-yard touchdown pass to Jim Gillette. However, Waterfield, also the Rams' placekicker, missed the extra point, and it was 15-7. Early in the 4th quarter, Filchock threw an 8-yard touchdown pass to Bob Seymour. Joe Aguirre kicked the extra point, and it was 15-14 in the Rams' favor.

Joe Aguirre

But Aguirre, nicknamed "Hot-Toe," blew 2 chances to win the title, missing 2 field goals in the 4th quarter. The 15-14 score held, and the difference wasn't just Aguirre's toe going cold, it was Baugh's end-zone goof.

Redskins owner George Preston Marshall, who had been the driving force behind several notable rule changes, led the NFL to change the rule for the 1946 season: A forward pass that strikes the goal post would now be ruled an incomplete pass. That rule held until the posts were moved back to the end line for the 1974 season, making such a play impossible: It would have required crossing the end line, which has always been a safety.

Reeves lost $64,000 owning the Rams in the 1945 season. And, with the war over, a new league was being formed, the All-America Football Conference. And they would have a Cleveland team, soon to be named the Browns. Reeves knew that it would be folly to stay in Cleveland.

So he went to the previously untapped market of Los Angeles, and moved the Rams there. Since football is only played once a week, teams taking trains to the West Coast and back was the same kind of problem it would have been for baseball teams before jet travel made it easier. Over a decade before baseball's Brooklyn Dodgers moved there, the Los Angeles Rams became the toast of the town, reaching 4 NFL Championship Games between 1949 and 1955, winning in 1951.

Ironically, Joe Aguirre also went west in 1946, kicking for the AAFC's Los Angeles Dons. They did well at the box office, but couldn't outdraw the Rams, and folded with the league. Aguirre went to the Canadian Football League, and was its leading scorer in 1950 and 1954. But he never won a title in any league.

The Redskins got old in a hurry. And Marshall's policy of refusing to sign black players held the team back in the 1950s. Marshall's eventually fatal illness and incapacity held the team back in the 1960s. It would be 27 years before the team reached another championship game, under any name.

*

December 16, 1945 was a Sunday. Baseball was out of season. The NBA hadn't been founded yet. There were 2 games played in the NHL. The Boston Bruins beat the New York Rangers, 8-7 at the Boston Garden. And the Montreal Canadiens and the Chicago Black Hawks played to a tie, 4-4 at Chicago Stadium.

December 11, 1978: The Lufthansa Heist

December 11, 1978: The largest robbery on American soil to that point is committed at John F. Kennedy International Airport in Queens, New York City. 

Members of the Lucchese crime family robbed Lufthansa Cargo Building 261, belonging to Lufthansa, the largest airline in Germany, taking $5 million in cash and $875,000 worth of jewelry. The $5,875,000 heist would be worth about $26.4 million in 2022 money. The story was told in the film Goodfellas, but, with most of the names changed, the story is true.

Organized crime in New York is led by the so-called Five Families: Lucchese, Gambino, Genovese, Colombo and Bonanno. Jimmy "the Gent" Burke was a Lucchese associate, but, being of Irish descent, he could never be a "soldier," or a "made man," in the "family." But, as the top hijacker of trucks and their cargo in New York in the 1960s and '70s, he sure made them a lot of money. He had previously done so at JFK Airport, at the Air France terminal on April 7, 1967, netting $420,000 worth of cash and cargo (about $3.7 million today).

Having succeeded in the Lufthansa heist, Burke was paranoid about it. He was afraid that, if his guys spent too much of the loot too soon, it would attract the attention of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. (As the crime was on the grounds of an airport, it was in the FBI's jurisdiction, not the New York Police Department's.)

But it was 2 weeks before Christmas, and, in anticipation of getting their share of the loot, some of the guys in Burke's crew began spending like crazy, especially on their wives and/or mistresses. One of them bought a brand-new top-of-the-line Cadillac, which, parked in front of a known Lucchese Family hideout in Queens, might as well have been spray-painted with the words "UNMARKED MOB CAR." And some of them were getting antsy, and demanded their share before Burke was ready to give the shares out.

So all through 1979, members of Burke's crew started dying. The guy who bought the car, and his wife, were found shot to death inside the car. One member of the crew, Henry Hill, got busted for cocaine trafficking in 1980, and it may have saved his life, because Jimmy had told him to go down to Florida to perform a contract killing. That made Henry suspicious, because Jimmy had never asked him to do a "hit" before. He was sure that if he went down, he would never come back up alive. So he made preparations to go into hiding, but the Feds got him first.

The first time Henry got arrested, as a teenager, he kept his mouth shut, earning the respect of Burke, Burke's boss Paul Vario, and everybody else who called Vario his boss. This time, with a wife and 2 kids to think about, he spilled his guts.

Ironically, most of the guys he ratted on were charged with things other than the Lufthansa heist. Burke, the mastermind, was charged for his role in the 1978-79 Boston College basketball point-shaving scandal. While serving time for that, he was convicted of a murder, and that had nothing to do with the Lufthansa heist or its aftermath, either. He was doomed to die in prison, and did, in 1996. So did Paul Vario, in 1988.

Hill was involved in the planning of the Lufthansa heist, but did not actually participate in it, only finding out it was successful by listening to the radio the next morning. (He did participate in the Air France robbery at JFK in 1967.)

He and his family went into the FBI's Witness Protection Program, going from the life of a millionaire gangster to, as he put it, "living like a schnook." Nicholas Pileggi wrote the book Wiseguy based on Hill's story, and quoted Hill, half-Italian and half-Irish (and thus also ineligible to be a made man, as you have to be full Italian, preferably full Sicilian but that's negotiable), as having to endure indignities like ordering spaghetti marinara and getting egg noodles with ketchup.

In 1990, Martin Scorsese released the film Goodfellas, based on Pileggi's book. The two of them wrote the screenplay together, and it has been hailed as one of the best movies ever made, not just one of the best gangster movies. Hill was played by Ray Liotta. Hill and his wife Karen, played by Lorraine Bracco, were the only people whose names weren't changed for the movie. (Although the guy who bought the Cadillac, and paid for it with his life and his wife's? He was played by a guy named Johnny Williams, and his nickname was Johnny Roastbeef. Scorcese liked the nickname so much, he named the character "Johnny Roastbeef," too.) As of December 11, 2022, Williams is still alive.

Jimmy Burke, who was still alive but in prison when the movie came out, became Jimmy Conway, and was played by Robert De Niro. Vario became Paul Cicero, and was played by Paul Sorvino. Tommy DeSimone, involved in both heists, became Tommy DeVito, and was played by Joe Pesci. In real life, DeSimone was not funny. In fact, Pesci may have toned the character down.

The real Hill couldn't stay out of trouble, and was busted for drugs again, and served time, and was kicked out of the Witness Protection Program. Karen divorced him, and she and their kids were allowed to stay in the Program.

Henry Hill was a schnook. Still, the Mob never did kill him. He did that to himself: He may have gotten off drugs, but he continued to drink like there was no tomorrow, and died in 2012, a day after his 69th birthday.

The money and the jewels from the Lufthansa heist have never been found.

One more thing: That great single-shot sequence of Henry and Karen going through the kitchen to the main room of New York's legendary Copacabana Club, to the tune of "Then He Kissed Me" by The Crystals? Well, the Copa has since been moved to new addresses, but is still in business. The original building, at 10 East 60th Street, is still there, and Scorcese had the interior made up to look like it did in 1963 when that song came out.

And I wish somebody had done a similar filming sequence at the old Yankee Stadium, from Subway tunnel to gate to seat, before it was torn down.

*

December 11, 1978 was a Monday. It was the off-season for baseball, and there were no games played that night in the NBA, the NHL or the WHA. But, that night, on ABC's Monday Night Football, the Cincinnati Bengals beat the Los Angeles Rams, 20-19 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

December 9, 1984: Eric Dickerson Becomes the Single-Season Rushing Leader

December 9, 1984: The Los Angeles Rams beat the Houston Oilers, 27-16 at Anaheim Stadium -- now named Angel Stadium of Anaheim -- in the Los Angeles suburb of Anaheim, California. Eric Dickerson rushes for 215 yards, including 2 runs ending in touchdowns. In so doing, he finishes the game with 2,007 yards rushing on the season. This breaks the NFL's single-season rushing record, 2,003, set by O.J. Simpson of the Buffalo Bills in 1973.

The Rams played 1 more game in that regular season, traveling to face their arch-rivals, the San Francisco 49ers. Dickerson added 98 yards to his total, raising it to 2,105. (The 49ers won, 19-16 at Candlestick Park.)

This remains the NFL record. In 1985, Herschel Walker ran for 2,411 yards for the New Jersey Generals of the United States Football League. But, just as Dickerson needed a 15th game to surpass Simpson (O.J. still holds the record for most rushing yards in the 1st 14 games of a season), Walker played an 18-game season. What's more, the USFL was not highly regarded. Dickerson himself said, "The difference is, I did it in the majors, and he did it in the minors." The next year, Walker came to the NFL, with the Dallas Cowboys. His peak total in the NFL was 1,514 yards, in 1988.

There have now been 8 2,000-yard rushing seasons in NFL history. Since Simpson and Dickerson: Barry Sanders had 2,053 for the 1997 Detroit Lions, Terrell Davis had 2,008 for the 1998 Denver Broncos, Jamal Lewis had 2,006 for the 2003 Baltimore Ravens, Chris Johnson had 2,006 for the 2009 Tennessee Titans, Adrian Peterson had 2,097 for the 2012 Minnesota Vikings, and Derrick Henry had 2,027 for the 2020 Titans.

For comparison's sake: The highest single-game total for Jim Brown, who held the single-season record before Simpson, at 1,863 in 1963, was 237; Walter Payton, the 1st man to rush for more yards in a game than Simpson (275), and eventually surpassed Brown as the NFL's all-time rushing leader, topped out at 1,852 yards in a season; and Emmitt Smith, who surpassed Payton and remains the all-time rushing leader, topped out at 237 for a game and 1,773 for a season.

*

December 9, 1984 was a Sunday. These other NFL games were played that day:

* The New York Giants lost to the football version of the St. Louis Cardinals, 31-21 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis.

* The Philadelphia Eagles beat the New England Patriots, 27-17 at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia.

* The Tampa Bay Buccaneers beat the Atlanta Falcons, 23-6 at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium.

* The Cincinnati Bengals beat the New Orleans Saints, 24-21 at the Superdome in New Orleans.

* The Washington Redskins beat their arch-rivals, the Dallas Cowboys, 30-28 at Texas Stadium in the Dallas suburb of Irving, Texas.

* The Pittsburgh Steelers beat their arch-rivals, the Cleveland Browns, 23-20 at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh.

* The Miami Dolphins beat the Indianapolis Colts, 35-17 at the Hoosier Dome in Indianapolis.

* The Green Bay Packers beat their arch-rivals, the Chicago Bears, 20-14 at Soldier Field in Chicago.

* The Denver Broncos beat the San Diego Chargers, 16-13 at Mile High Stadium in Denver.

* The San Francisco 49ers beat the Minnesota Vikings, 51-7 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. The Niners finished 15-1 in the regular season, and went on to win the Super Bowl.

* The Kansas City Chiefs beat the Seattle Seahawks, 34-7 at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City.

* The day before, the New York Jets beat the Buffalo Bills, 21-17 at Giants Stadium in the Meadowlands.

* And the next night, on ABC Monday Night Football, the Los Angeles Raiders beat the Detroit Lions, 24-3 at the Silverdome in the Detroit suburb of Pontiac, Michigan.

There were 5 games played in the NBA that day:

* The New York Knicks lost to the Philadelphia 76ers, 110-94 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia.

* The Boston Celtics beat the Atlanta Hawks, 128-127 at the Boston Garden. Larry Bird scored 48 points.

* The Utah Jazz beat the Kansas City Kings, 123-120 at the Salt Palace in Salt Lake City, Utah. Adrian Dantley scored 38 points.

* The Los Angeles Clippers beat the San Antonio Spurs, 126-123 at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena.

* And the Seattle SuperSonics beat the Houston Rockets, 96-90 at the Seattle Center Coliseum.

And there were 4 games played in the NHL:

* The Washington Capitals beat the Detroit Red Wings, 4-0 at the Capital Centre in the Washington suburb of Landover, Maryland.

* The Quebec Nordiques and the Buffalo Sabres played to a tie, 4-4 at the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium.

* In an "Original Six" matchup, the Chicago Black Hawks beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 7-2 at the Chicago Stadium.

* And the Winnipeg Jets beat the Minnesota North Stars, 4-2 at the Winnipeg Arena.

November 26, 1989: Flipper Anderson Has 336 Receiving Yards

November 26, 1989: The Los Angeles Rams beat the New Orleans Saints, 20-17 at the Superdome in New Orleans. Mike Lansford kicks a field goal to win the game in overtime. Jim Everett of the Rams passes for 454 yards, a record 336 of them to Flipper Anderson.

Willie Lee Anderson Jr. was born in 1965 in Philadelphia, and grew up across the Delaware River in Paulsboro, Gloucester County, New Jersey. He got his nickname from his first baby sitter: "She said that when my mother dropped me off, I would cry like a dolphin. She started calling me 'Flipper,'" after the TV show of the same name about a dolphin.

He went across the country to UCLA, where he caught passes from future Hall-of-Famer Troy Aikman. But the Miami Dolphins weren't interested in him. The Rams were, and drafted him in the 2nd round. This was easily the best game of his career, although 40 of those receiving yards came in overtime. So he got 296 yards in regulation.

The 1st big receiving-yards game in NFL history came in 1945, when the Rams were in their last season in Cleveland, on their way to the NFL Championship, and Bob Waterfield threw to Jim Benton for 303 yards. That record stood for 40 years. In 1985, Stephone Paige caught 309 yards worth of passes from Todd Blackledge. Anderson broke that record, which still stands, but Paige still held the record for receiving yards in regulation.

Until 2013, when Calvin Johnson caught 329 yards worth of passes from Matthew Stafford, to help the Detroit Lions beat the Dallas Cowboys. That now stands as the regulation record, but he couldn't quite break the overall record set by Anderson.

That game was Anderson's best as a pro. But it is not the game for which he is most remembered. Six weeks later, the Rams went into the Meadowlands for an NFC Divisional Playoff against the New York Giants, and Everett burned the G-Men with a 30-yard pass to Anderson just 1:06 into overtime to win it for the Rams. In the New York Tri-State Area, it is known as "The Flipper Anderson Game."

Anderson remained with the Rams until 1994, their last season in Los Angeles before beginning their 21-season exile in St. Louis. He played for the Indianapolis Colts in 1995, and the Washington Redskins in 1996, before closing his career with the Denver Broncos in 1997, winning Super Bowl XXXII in his last game.

He now lives in the suburbs of Atlanta, and is a high school basketball referee. I wonder how many fans yell at him, "Hey, ref! You sure you're officiating in the right sport?"

*

November 26, 1989 was a Sunday. These other NFL games were played:

* The New York Jets beat the Atlanta Falcons, 27-7 at Giants Stadium in the Meadowlands.

* The Washington Redskins beat the Chicago Bears, 38-14 at Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium in Washington.

* The Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Miami Dolphins, 34-14 at Joe Robbie Stadium (now Hard Rock Stadium) in Miami Gardens, Florida.

* The Buffalo Bills beat the Cincinnati Bengals, 24-7 at Rich Stadium (later Ralph Wilson Stadium) in the Buffalo suburb of Orchard Park, New York.

* The Indianapolis Colts beat the San Diego Chargers, 10-6 at the Hoosier Dome in Indianapolis.

* The Green Bay Packers beat the Minnesota Vikings, 20-19 at Milwaukee County Stadium.

* The Kansas City Chiefs beat the Houston Oilers, 34-0 at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City.

* The Denver Broncos beat the Seattle Seahawks, 41-14 at Mile High Stadium in Denver.

* The Tampa Bay Buccaneers beat the Phoenix Cardinals, 14-13 at Sun Devil Stadium in the Phoenix suburb of Tempe, Arizona.

* The Los Angeles Raiders beat the New England Patriots, 24-21 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

* Three days earlier, on Thanksgiving, the Detroit Lions beat the Cleveland Browns, 13-10 at the Silverdome in the Detroit suburb of Pontiac, Michigan.

* Also on Thanksgiving, the Philadelphia Eagles beat the Dallas Cowboys, 27-0 at Texas Stadium in the Dallas suburb of Irving, Texas.

* And the next night, on ABC Monday Night Football, the New York Giants lost to the San Francisco 49ers, 34-24 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco.

There were 3 games in the NBA that day:

* The Los Angeles Clippers beat the Chicago Bulls, 120-96 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Ron Harper scored 36 points.

* The Los Angeles Lakers beat the San Antonio Spurs, 132-112 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California.

* And the Portland Trail Blazers beat the Detroit Lions, 102-82 at the Portland Memorial Coliseum.

And there were 4 games played in the NHL:

* The New York Rangers beat the Quebec Nordiques, 3-1 at Madison Square Garden.

* The Buffalo Sabres beat the Hartford Whalers, 4-2 at the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium.

* The Minnesota North Stars beat the Chicago Blackhawks, 5-3 at the Metropolitan Sports Center in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota.

* And the Los Angeles Kings and the Vancouver Canucks played to a tie, 3-3 at the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver.

November 17, 1991: The Mike Utley Game

November 17, 1991: The Detroit Lions beat the Los Angeles Rams, 21-10 at the Pontiac Silverdome. But guard Mike Utley breaks his neck on a freak play, landing on his head on the artificial turf.

The Seattle native, who was in his 3rd season in the NFL, regained the use of his arms and hands, and returned to the Silverdome a year later, as honorary captain for their annual Thanksgiving game – just 3 days before Dennis Byrd of the Jets had his temporarily paralyzing injury.

An All-American at Washington State University, Utley was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame. As of November 17, 2022, he is 55 years old, and still raising money for spinal cord research. He's even gone skydiving. Told he shouldn't, he said, "What am I going to do, break my neck?"

*

November 17, 1991 was a Sunday. These other games were played in the NFL:

* The New York Giants beat the Dallas Cowboys, 22-9 at Giants Stadium in the Meadowlands.

* The New York Jets beat the New England Patriots, 28-21 at Foxboro Stadium in the Boston suburb of Foxboro, Massachusetts.

* The Philadelphia Eagles beat the Cincinnati Bengals, 17-10 at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia.

* The Atlanta Falcons beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 43-7 at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium.

* The Houston Oilers beat the Cleveland Browns, 28-24 at the Astrodome in Houston.

* The Washington Redskins beat the Pittsburgh Steelers, 41-14 at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh.

* The Chicago Bears beat the Indianapolis Colts, 31-17 at the Hoosier Dome in Indianapolis.

* The Minnesota Vikings beat the Green Bay Packers, 35-21 at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wisconsin.

* The Denver Broncos beat their arch-rivals, the Kansas City Chiefs, 24-20 at the Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City.

* The San Diego Chargers beat the New Orleans Saints, 24-21 at the Superdome in New Orleans.

* The Los Angeles Raiders beat the Seattle Seahawks, 31-7 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

* The San Francisco 49ers beat the Phoenix Cardinals, 14-10 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco.

* And the next night, on ABC Monday Night Football, the Buffalo Bills beat the Miami Dolphins, 41-27 at Joe Robbie Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida.

Baseball was out of season. There were 2 games in the NBA. The Seattle SuperSonics beat the Minnesota Timberwolves, 101-91 at the Target Center in Minneapolis. And the Los Angeles Lakers beat the Atlanta Hawks, 111-89 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California.

And there were 3 games in the NHL:

* The Winnipeg Jets beat the Philadelphia Flyers, 2-1 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia.

* The Hartford Whalers beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 3-1 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.

* And the Chicago Blackhawks beat the St. Louis Blues, 5-1 at the Chicago Stadium.

October 30, 1978: "Turkeys Away" on "WKRP in Cincinnati"

Left to right: Gordon Jump, Frank Bonner, Gary Sandy

October 30, 1978: WKRP in Cincinnati airs the episode "Turkeys Away." Why they aired a Thanksgiving-themed episode on the night before Halloween, I don't know.

The situation comedy, which had debuted on CBS on September 16, was created by Hugh Wilson (who also wrote the opening theme song, sung by Steve Carlisle, and directed the Police Academy movies), and was based upon his experiences working in advertising sales at an Atlanta Top 40 station, with the Gary Sandy character of Andy Travis based on himself. (This was before the country singer Randy Travis became famous.)

Andy has been hired to revitalize a struggling AM radio station, by its general manager, Arthur Carlson (played by Gordon Jump), known to the station's smarmy advertising director, Herb Tarlek (Frank Bonner), as "Big Guy." As program director, Andy changed the station's format from what had been known as "beautiful music" (or, to its detractors, "elevator music") to rock and roll -- to the great dismay of the station's actual owner, Carlson's fabulously wealthy and incredibly stodgy mother Lillian, a.k.a. "Mama Carlson" (Sylvia Sidney in the pilot, Carol Bruce thereafter).

She really messed Arthur up: Her domineering way of raising him left him indecisive, and, while reasonably intelligent, and certainly good-natured, was as unsuited to running a big-city radio station in the rock and roll era as M*A*S*H's Henry Blake, a good doctor, had been to running an Army hospital during a war. This was emphasized in the show's 2nd season, when, in an episode built around a real life concert tragedy in Cincinnati, he mentioned that he'd never been to a rock concert before, and, then, in the aftermath, not yet knowing about the tragedy, told his employees he was amazed at the energy of it.

The fact that he always wore three-piece suits and had a wood-paneled office deepened this impression of hopeless squareness. So he heavily depended on Andy, Herb, and the station's receptionist, the surprisingly smart blonde bombshell Jennifer Marlowe (Loni Anderson), whom Herb constantly hits on, to no avail.

The news director is Les Nessman (Richard Sanders). He was the kind of man that made Mark Twain say, 100 years earlier, "When the end of the world comes, I want to be in Cincinnati, because it's always 20 years behind the times." Les is not a good journalist, but he has perfect diction (which matters for radio), he dresses neatly (which doesn't), and he is enthusiastic about delivering the farm reports (which matters for the Midwest). There are no offices, except for Arthur's. But, in the bullpen where everyone has their desks, Les has put masking tape around his desk, to simulate an office, and insists that visitors knock on an imaginary door before he says, "Come in."

If Arthur is a square, then Les is so square, he's a cube. Les is Mama Carlson's kind of guy. The disc jockeys are not. Les and Herb refer to themselves and Mr. Carlson as "the suits," and to Andy and the rest as "the dungarees." One of "the dungarees" was Bailey Quarters (Jan Smithers), originally in charge of billing, but, with a journalism degree, she becomes an on-air reporter, and turns out to be better than Les. Les is smart enough to know it, behind the times enough to hate it, but enough of a gentleman to treat her well.

While some of the other deejays are mentioned, two are featured on the show. John Caravella (Howard Hesseman) is the morning host, a rocker using the stage name Dr. Johnny Fever. Along with Anderson's Jennifer, he became the show's breakout character. Gordon Sims (Tim Reid) is the smooth-talking, soulful evening DJ, using the name Venus Flytrap. Despite being at the opposite end of the day as Johnny, they are often seen together. Despite their racial and stylistic differences, they are close friends, and sometimes broadcast together.

Not seen often are Arthur's wife Carmen (Allyn Ann McLerie), their son Arthur Jr. (Sparky Marcus), and Herb's wife Lucille (Edie McClurg) and their children Herb III (N.P. Schoch) and Bunny (Stacy Heather Tolkin).

The show didn't start off with good ratings, but, as with policemen and ABC's Barney Miller, real-life radio business people spread the word that WKRP was the 1st TV show that told about what their business was really like.

"Turkeys Away," the 7th episode, is the episode that really got people to watch. Mr. Carlson wants to be more involved in promoting the station. So he and Herb come up with what they think is a great idea for Thanksgiving Day. They have Les do a live report from a local shopping center, not knowing what he's going to be reporting on. They have set things up with the shopping center's manager, and a helicopter hovers overhead. Arthur and Herb are inside, and they begin dropping turkeys out.

Not frozen turkeys, for free, which would get those who got to them to be grateful to the station and listen to them. Live turkeys. Spoiler alert: Wild turkeys can fly, but domesticated, farm-produced turkeys, bred for human consumption and loaded with fat, can't. (Even if they had dropped wrapped-up frozen turkeys out, they would have bruised upon landing, and probably wouldn't have been edible.)

And so, the live turkeys went splat on the asphalt of the parking lot. Except for those who got sucked into the copter's rotor, spreading feathers and giblets everywhere. Shocked at all this, Les uses Herbert Morrison's line from the Hindenburg disaster broadcast of 41 years earlier, which he would have been old enough to remember: "Oh, the humanity!"

Richard Sanders as Les Nessman

Back at the station, "the dungarees" are listening, and there's little they can say, and nothing they can do. When Arthur and Herb return, covered in feathers -- a 1970s sitcom didn't dare show them with blood and guts on them -- there's little they can say, either. Finally, the Big Guy says, "As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly!"

The show lasted for 5 years, and is still fondly remembered. A sequel series, The New WKRP in Cincinnati, ran in syndication from 1991 to 1993. It featured some of the original characters, while the others were each brought back as guest stars at least once.

Cincinnati did have, and still has, a radio and a TV station with the call letters WKRC. CBS owns it now, but didn't when WKRP was running. (WKRC's AM frequency is 550.) In 2008, an unrelated independent TV station in Cincinnati, WBQC-LD, took advantage of local nostalgia for the sitcom, promoting its conversion to digital broadcasting by rebranding as "WKRP-TV in Cincinnati."

After WKRP was canceled, Gordon Jump went against type, and played a child molester on a "very special" two-part episode of Diff'rent Strokes, replaced Jesse White as the "lonely" repairman in commercials for Maytag dishwashers, and returned to star on The New WKRP. He died in 2003.

Frank Bonner played, of all things, a priest, teaching at a Catholic high school on New York's Long Island, on the sitcom Just the Ten of Us. He was part of the main cast of The New WKRP, and then turned to directing. He died in 2021. Howard Hesseman went on to star as a high school history teacher in Brooklyn in the ABC sitcom Head of the Class, and died in 2022.

As of October 30, 2022, Gary Sandy, Loni Anderson, Richard Sanders, Tim Reid and Jan Smithers are still alive. Sandy has mostly done stage work since. Anderson paired up with former Wonder Woman star Lynda Carter for the series Partners in Crime, and was part of the main casts of the sitcoms Easy Street and Nurses.

Sanders was part of the main cast of The New WKRP, and has been a "character actor" since. Reid starred on Sister, Sister and, with his wife Daphne Maxwell, Frank's Place; and played recurring characters on Simon & Simon and That '70s Show. Smithers has not acted since 1987, although she attended a reunion of the surviving WKRP actors in 2014.

UPDATE: Loni Anderson died in 2025.

*

October 30, 1978 was a Monday. Actor Matthew Morrison, famed for his starring role on Glee, was born.

Baseball season had ended 13 days earlier, when the New York Yankees beat the Los Angeles Dodgers to win the World Series. On ABC Monday Night Football, the Atlanta Falcons, with a defense known as "The Gritz Blitz," beat the Los Angeles Rams, 15-7 at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium.

The NBA, NHL and World Hockey Association seasons were underway, but, since they were all then struggling for attention, and didn't want to compete for TV ratings with Monday Night Football, no games were scheduled by any of them.

October 26, 1970: The Comic Strip "Doonesbury" Premieres

October 26, 1970: The comic strip Doonesbury premieres in national syndication. It was an adaptation of a strip that Garry Trudeau had been drawing for The Yale Daily News for 2 years, titled Bull Tales.

Set at fictional Walden College, like the real Yale in Connecticut, it featured an ensemble cast. The most commonly appearing ones have been:

* Michael J. Doonesbury, native of Tulsa, Oklahoma. Introduced in the first strip. Goes on to live at "the Walden Commune." In the 1980s, turns "Yuppie," becoming an advertising man and then co-founder of a software start-up.

* B.D., based very loosely on Yale's real-life quarterback, Brian Dowling, but written as a right-wing counterpart to the liberal Mike Doonesbury. Also introduced in the first strip.

He was always seen wearing a helmet: First, a football helmet, even when away from the field; then, an Army helmet, as he served in the Vietnam War; then, a policeman's helmet, as he became a motorcycle patrolman; then an Army helmet again, as he went back in for the Persian Gulf War; a football helmet again, as he became Walden's head coach; finally, again, an Army helmet, as he served in the Iraq War, until 2004, when -- by which point he would have been around 55 years old -- he lost a leg in combat, and the helmet was removed, showing him with short hair, dark but white at the temples.

* Barbara Ann Boopstein, a.k.a. Boopsie, debuting in 1971. She married B.D.

* Mark Slackmeyer, introduced about a month into the strip. A campus revolutionary who became the voice of the college radio station, and then a disc jockey. In the 1990s, he came out of the closet as gay.

* Zonker Harris, debuting in 1971. A stereotypical hippie who founded the Walden Commune. He won $23 million in the lottery, allowing him to pursue any hobby he wanted, which would include studying medicine in Haiti.

* Joanie Caucus, debuting in 1972. After leaving her 1st husband, she runs the day care center at the Commune, while studying for her law degree. She later serves as Chief of Staff to liberal Republican Congresswoman Lacey Davenport, based on the real-life Representative Millicent Fenwick of New Jersey.

* Rick Redfern, debuting in 1976. A reporter for The Washington Post, based on Bob Woodward. Marries Joanie. Together, they have a son, Jeff. After the Republican landslide of 1984, he laments that, one day, Newt Gingrich might be one of the country's leaders -- correctly, as it turned out. He tells his wife, "Joanie, if anything happens to me, you must tell our child about Adlai Stevenson!" After the Post lays him off in the 2000s, he becomes a freelance blogger.

* J.J. Caucus, debuting in 1973, but her name, short for "Joan Junior," was not mentioned until 1979. Joanie's daughter from her 1st marriage, she was engaged to Zeke, but married Mike (yes, there was an age difference, which will come up again). A performance artist who eventually became a practitioner of "modern art," she eventually divorced Mike, and married Zeke in 2001.

* Uncle Duke, debuted 1974, journalist and all-around mysterious figure. "Uncle by courtesy" of Zonker. Based on journalist Hunter S. Thompson, who created a character based on himself, Raoul Duke.

* Zeke Brenner, debuting in 1977, former former caretaker for Uncle Duke. Married J.J. in 2001.

* Rev. Scott Sloan, debuting in 1972, based on the Rev. William Sloane Coffin, activist chaplain at Yale, where Trudeau met him.

* Lacey Davenport, introduced 1974, Republican Congresswoman. Based on real-life Congresswoman Millicent Fenwick of New Jersey. Died in 1998, but has since reappeared as a ghost.

* Andy Lippincott, introduced 1976. Law school classmate of Joanie's. He became the 1st major comic strip character to be gay, and the 1st to be diagnosed with AIDS. Died in 1990, but has since reappeared as a ghost. (Mark Slackmeyer didn't come out until after Andy died.)

* Roland Hedley, introduced in 1974, journalist.

* Jimmy Thudpucker, introduced 1975. Rock star and friend of the others.

* Alexandra "Alex" Doonesbury, born in 1988, daughter of Mike and J.J., a scientific genius who graduated early from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

* Jeff Redfern, born in 1982, son of Joanie and Rick. Worked for the CIA, then wrote novels. 

* Zipper Harris, introduced in 1998. Zonker's nephew, and Jeff's roommate at Walden. He and Zonker run a legal marijuana farm in Colorado. 

* Kim Rosenthal, born 1975, later reappeared as an adult. "The last orphan out of Vietnam," adopted and raised by a Jewish American couple. She dropped out of a program towards a doctorate in computer science at MIT, because it was "too easy." Becomes Mike Doonesbury's 2nd wife, and thus Alex's stepmother. Alex gets along with her considerably better than her stepfather Zeke, whom she calls "Uncle Stupidhead."

* Leo "Toggle" DeLuca, a radio technician who served under B.D. in Iraq. Lost an eye and suffered brain trauma in combat. B.D. advocated for him as a veteran, and got him a job as an engineer in a recording studio. Married Alex in 2012, and they have 3 children.

* Samantha, a.k.a. Sam, daughter of B.D. and Boopsie, born in 1992. Became a social media influencer. In 2018, came out as "gender-fluid."

In the Summer of 1974, Trudeau drew President Richard Nixon literally building a stone wall around the White House. Timing is everything, though: The strip was scheduled to run on August 12, 1974. Three days earlier, Nixon resigned.

A few days later, Trudeau drew the wall coming down, and the Sun shining on the White House, now that Nixon was gone and Gerald Ford was in.

As of October 26, 2022, Trudeau still draws the strip, and is still married to journalist Jane Pauley.

*

October 26, 1970 was a Monday. The baseball season had ended 11 days earlier, when the Baltimore Orioles won the World Series over the Cincinnati Reds in 5 games.

On the brand-new TV series ABC Monday Night Football, the Minnesota Vikings beat the Los Angeles Rams, 13-3 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota.

There were no games played in the NHL. But there were 2 games played in the NBA. The Cincinnati Royals beat the Atlanta Hawks, 126-107 at the Cincinnati Gardens. And the Detroit Pistons beat the Seattle SuperSonics, 142-111 at Cobo Hall (now Huntington Place) in Detroit. Dave Bing scored 35 points for the Pistons.

There was 1 game played in the American Basketball Association. The Virginia Squires beat the Memphis Sounds, 120-103 at the Mid-South Coliseum in Memphis.