December 30, 1956: "De-FENSE!"

Sam Huff

December 30, 1956: The NFL Championship Game is played at Yankee Stadium. This was the 1st season in which the football version of the New York Giants played their home games there, after 31 seasons across the Harlem River, at the Polo Grounds, home of the baseball Giants.

The Giants selected linebacker Sam Huff of West Virginia in the 3rd round of the 1956 NFL Draft. He did not get along with head coach Jim Lee Howell, and quit. But before he could get on a plane to go home, the team's offensive coordinator caught him at the airport, and talked him into going back. That coach's name was Vince Lombardi.

The defensive coordinator was Tom Landry, who had been perhaps the 1st player in the two-platoon era to became a great defensive back without also playing on offense. He devised the 4-3 defense, with 2 tackles, 2 ends, and 3 linebackers, and dropped Huff to the position of middle linebacker, which did not previously exist. (Up to then, most teams used a 5-2 defense.)

Huff recalled, "Before, I always had my head down, looking right into the center's helmet. Now, I was standing up, and I could see everything, and I mean everything. I always had outstanding peripheral vision. It's one of the reasons I was so perfectly suited for the position."

The Giants had a good offense, with quarterback Charley Conerly; running backs Frank Gifford, Mel Triplett and Alex Webster; end Kyle Rote; and offensive tackle Roosevelt Brown. But, for the 1st time in NFL history, it was a defense that caught everybody's attention. Before the various Fearsome Foursomes (at least 3 teams had lines nicknamed that), before the No-Name Defense in Miami, before the Steel Curtain in Pittsburgh, before the Doomsday Defense in Dallas, before the Jets' New York Sack Exchange, and before the 46 Defense in Chicago, there was the Big Blue Wrecking Crew.

The tackles were Dick Modzelewski and Rosey Grier. The ends were Jim Katcavage and Andy Robustelli. The linebackers were Sam Huff, flanked by Bill Svoboda and Harland Svare. The cornerbacks were Ed Hughes and Dick Nolan. The safeties were Emlen Tunnell and Jimmy Patton. They were so good, a new chant rang around the rafters of the pre-renovation original Yankee Stadium: "De-FENSE! De-FENSE! De-FENSE!"

The pre-renovation old Yankee Stadium,

in its football configuration

Huff said, "Landry built the 4-3 defense around me. It revolutionized defense, and opened the door for all the variations of zones and man-to-man coverage, which are used in conjunction with it today."

Gifford, the 1st in a long line of great tailbacks at the University of Southern California, was the glamour boy on offense, but Huff became that on defense. And on December 30, 1956, with the field at Yankee Stadium frozen solid, the Giants played the NFL Championship Game against the Chicago Bears. They were a far cry from the "Monsters of the Midway" who had dominated the NFL in the 1940s.

Three weeks earlier, on December 9, the Bears were playing the Chicago Cardinals at Wrigley Field, in a game that would be depicted in an episode of the ABC sitcom Happy Days. Ed Brown, playing quarterback for the Bears, threw an interception. Richie Cunningham, played by Ron Howard, said he wanted the other quarterback put in. His friend Ralph Malph, played by Donny Most, said of that quarterback, "He's washed up. He's old. He's 30. He's got no future." Richie said, "George Blanda has 2 or 3 good years left."

The Bears won the game, 10-3. And, while Brown got the Bears into the Championship Game, Blanda kept on playing and playing and playing, until the 1975 AFC Championship Game, played 16 days before that episode of Happy Days aired.

Record-wise, the Bears were better, 9-2-1, compared to the Giants' 8-3-1. But the game was no contest. Especially since, echoing their 1934 Championship Game win over the Bears, the Giants wore sneakers instead of shoes with cleats, getting better traction on the frozen field. This would finally be outlawed -- too late for the Bears.

Tunnell returned Blanda's opening kickoff 53 yards. Just 3 plays later, Triplett ran 17 yards for a touchdown. On the Bears' 1t play from scrimmage, Brown fumbled a handoff, and the Giants recovered. On their next drive, Brown was intercepted by Jim Patton. Both times, Ben Agajanian kicked a field goal, and the Giants ended the 1st quarter up 13-0.

In the 2nd quarter, Alex Webster scored on a 3-yard touchdown run. Rick Casares ran the ball in from 9 yards to put the Bears on the scoreboard. They would not get on it again. Before the half was out, Webster would score another touchdown, and Henry Moore would block a punt in the end zone, making it 34-7 New York.

As Huff and the dee-fense continued to shut the Bears down (if not quite shutting them out), the Giants carried out the kind of ball-control offense that Bill Parcells would use for them 30 years later. In the 3rd quarter, Conerly threw a 9-yard touchdown pass to Rote, although Agajanian missed the extra point. In the 4th quarter, Conerly threw a 14-yard pass to Gifford. Final score: Giants 47, Bears 7. It wasn't a "miracle on ice," it was a massacre on ice.

This began a run of 8 seasons in which the Giants would win their Division 6 times, but they wouldn't win the NFL Championship Game again. In 1958, the Giants hosted the Baltimore Colts, and lost in overtime, in what has become known as "The Greatest Game Ever Played." In 1959, they had a rematch at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore, and the Colts won again.

By that point, Lombardi was gone, having been named the head coach of the Green Bay Packers. In 1960, Landry was named the 1st head coach of the expansion Dallas Cowboys. That season, the Giants lost the Division title to the Philadelphia Eagles, after a fumble-forcing tackle by Chuck Bednarik knocked Gifford out for the rest of the season.

Gifford sat out the 1961 season, while Allie Sherman was named the Giants' new head coach, and Y.A. Tittle replaced Conerly as quarterback. They won the Division again, but lost the Championship Game to Lombardi's Packers on a snow-strewn Lambeau Field on New Year's Eve. In 1962, with Gifford returning, it was Giants vs. Packers again, this time at Yankee Stadium, again with the field frozen, and the Packers won. In 1963, on yet another frozen field, the Giants went out against the Bears at Wrigley Field, and lost a tough battle.

All the while, Huff became more and more famous. He was named to 5 Pro Bowls. Time magazine had placed college football players on its cover before, but Huff became the 1st NFL player on it, for its issue dated November 30, 1959.

In the 1960 preseason, the CBS news program The Twentieth Century approached Huff, offering to put a microphone on his uniform for practices and an exhibition game, to show TV viewers what a football game really sounded like. Hosted by Walter Cronkite, it was titled "The Violent World of Sam Huff," and it aired, perhaps appropriately, on October 30, Mischief Night.

How successful was the program? The next day, a CBS executive wrote a letter, put it in an envelope, and wrote nothing on the envelope except "Number 70." No actual name, no return address, nothing except "Number 70." Three days later, the letter was delivered to Huff's locker at Yankee Stadium.

The U.S. Postal Service employees knew exactly what, and who, it meant. Even before Lawrence Taylor was born, Huff might have been a better linebacker.

The team seemed to get old all at once in 1964. Huff was traded to the Washington Redskins, Tunnell was already gone, and 1964 would be the last season for Tittle, Gifford and Robustelli. Roosevelt Brown lasted 1 more season. The Yankees, too, seemed to get old overnight between the Autumn of 1964 and the Spring of 1965. Yankee Stadium became a very different place through its closing for renovations in 1973.

In October 1976, the Yankees would be back in the World Series, in a renovated Yankee Stadium; while the new Giants Stadium opened in the New Jersey Meadowlands. It took until 1981 for the Giants to make the Playoffs again, and the 1986 season before they won another title.

*

December 30, 1956 was a Sunday. Actresses Sheryl Lee Ralph and Patricia Kalember were born.

At the time, the NCAA did not permit college football games, even bowl games, to be played on Sundays. Baseball was out of season. There were 4 games played in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks beat the Rochester Royals, 96-88 at the old Madison Square Garden. Kenny Sears scored 33 points for the Knicks. This would be the last season in Rochester, as the Royals moved to Cincinnati for 1957-58.

* The Boston Celtics beat the Syracuse Nationals, 105-92 at the Boston Garden.

* The Fort Wayne Pistons beat the Philadelphia Warriors, 104-99 at the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum in Fort Wayne, Indiana. In spite of the defeat, the Warriors' Paul Arizin scored 35 points. This would be the last season in Fort Wayne, as the Pistons moved to Detroit for 1957-58.

* And the St. Louis Hawks beat the Minneapolis Lakers, 100-93 at the Kiel Auditorium in St. Louis. Bob Pettit scored 41 points and had 18 rebounds for the Hawks.

And there were 2 games in the NHL. The Boston Bruins beat the Detroit Red Wings, 4-2 at the Olympia Stadium in Detroit. And the Chicago Black Hawks beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 2-0 at the Chicago Stadium. The New York Rangers and the Montreal Canadiens were not scheduled.

January 16, 1972: The Dallas Cowboys Win the Big One

Duane Thomas

January 16, 1972: The Dallas Cowboys, after some rough near-misses, finally win the big one.

An expansion team in 1960, they won the NFL Western Division title in 1966 and 1967, but lost the NFL Championship Game to the Green Bay Packers both times. They lost in the Divisional round in 1968 and 1969, both times to the Cleveland Browns.

In 1970, the 1st season after the full NFL-AFL merger, coach Tom Landry's Cowboys went 10-4, beat the Detroit Lions in the Divisional round, and beat the San Francisco 49ers in the 1st-ever NFC Championship Game. Quarterback Craig Morton, defensive tackle Bob Lilly, and the team that had lost a thriller at home on New Year's Day in 1967 and the Ice Bowl in Green Bay on New Year's Eve that same year was ready to take the final step.

They had advanced to Super Bowl V, against the Baltimore Colts, who were also seeking redemption, having lost Super Bowl III to the New York Jets, when they were favored by 18 points. It was a sloppy game, and the Colts won it, 16-13, on a field goal by Jim O'Brien with 5 seconds left.

The Cowboys had gained a reputation as "the team that couldn't win the big one." The idea that they would ever become what they would call themselves by the end of the decade, "America's Team," was ludicrous.

Landry decided he'd had enough: As the Cowboys were moving into a new home, leaving the Cotton Bowl for Texas Stadium in suburban Irving, he got a new quarterback, benching Morton for Roger Staubach. His running backs included Dan Reeves, Calvin Hill (an All-Pro whose son Grant would make the Basketball Hall of Fame), Walt Garrison, and Duane Thomas, a Dallas native long on both talent and complications.

Staubach's receivers included Bob Hayes, the Olympic sprinting Gold Medalist; and 2 men who would make the Pro Football Hall of Fame mainly for their achievements elsewhere, former San Diego Charger Lance Alworth and former Chicago Bear tight end Mike Ditka. They offensive line including 2 Hall of Fame offensive tackles, Rayfield Wright and former Packer Forrest Gregg. Between them, Reeves, Ditka and Gregg would be the head coaches of teams that reached 6 Super Bowls, although only Ditka would win one.

Landry had built what became known as the Doomsday Defense. Bob Lilly was a Hall of Fame tackle. The linebacking corps of Lee Roy Jordan, Chuck Howley, D.D. Lewis and former Packer Lee Roy Caffey was as good as any ever assembled. The backfield included another Packer, Hall-of-Famer Herb Adderley, plus Mel Renfro, Cornell Green, Cliff Harris and Charlie Waters.

They went 11-3 in the regular season. Their only losses were by 4 at home to the Washington Redskins, by 10 away to the New Orleans Saints, and by 4 away to the Chicago Bears. On Christmas Day, they beat the Minnesota Vikings in the Divisional Playoff, 20-12 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota. On January 2, 1972, in the 1st of 24 Playoff games that Texas Stadium would host, they won the NFC Championship by beating the San Francisco 49ers, 14-3.

They had advanced to Super Bowl VI, set for Tulane Stadium in New Orleans, home of Tulane University and the annual Sugar Bowl. Their opponents would be the Miami Dolphins. An even newer team, they had been founded in 1966, and had made the Playoffs the last 2 seasons. Their head coach was Don Shula, who had coached the Colts in their Super Bowl III loss. His team might not (yet) have needed redemption, but he sure did.

And so it was Landry and Shula, possibly the 1st 2 good defensive backs after the NFL went to two-platoon football, and of the 2 earliest great defensive coordinators, who both needed to cap their legacies with a championship, and needed it badly. But only one could get it on this occasion.

Also needing some kind of redemption was Duane Thomas. Based on the shenanigans of later players like Terrell Owens, Chad "Ochocinco" Johnson and Antonio Brown, the things Thomas did and said now seem rather tame. But football observers had never seen anyone like him before.

Before the season, he wanted his 3-year contract rewritten. Cowboy management refused. He called team president Tex Schramm "deceitful," player personnel director Gil Brandt "a liar," and Landry himself "a plastic man" and "no man at all." And he refused to report to training camp.

So the Cowboys traded him to the New England Patriots. But he wouldn't report to them, either. NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle actually voided the trade, something sports league commissioners rarely do. Thomas reported to Dallas, but announced that he wouldn't talk to his teammates, or to team management, or to the media.

It worked. He scored the 1st touchdown at Texas Stadium -- with some irony, against the Patriots. He led the NFL in touchdowns with 13, and in rushing touchdowns with 11. A reporter tried to get him to break his silence in the leadup to the Super Bowl, and succeeded: He asked Thomas about playing in "the ultimate game," and Thomas said, "If it's the ultimate, how come they're playing it again the next year?"

Dallas and Miami. Texas and Florida. It was the 1st time any sport's championship game down to 2 teams whose home States had both been on the Confederate side in the American Civil War. And it was being played in a former Confederate State, Louisiana. If there were any racial issues arising from the game and its preparations, they were not made public.

Despite the American Southeast's reputation for heat, this was January, and the game was played outdoors, and the temperature at kickoff was 39 degrees. It remains the coldest Super Bowl ever, and the coldest NFL Championship Game under any name since the Ice Bowl in Green Bay in 1967.

Dolphin running back Larry Csonka had not fumbled all season long. But he fumbled in the 1st quarter, and the Cowboys recovered, eventually getting a field goal out of it. Later in the quarter, Lilly chased Dolphin quarterback Bob Griese back so far, he was sacked for a 29-yard loss, the longest loss of yardage from scrimmage, not counting turnovers, in the history of NFL championship games, under any name.

Despite this, the Dolphins were not yet out of the game. They got into Cowboy territory, and set up a 49-yard field goal attempt by Garo Yepremian. But it proved to be too long for him, and the Cowboys capitalized, with Staubach throwing a touchdown pass to Alworth to make it 10-0. Yepremian kicked a field goal late in the half, to give the Dolphins some hope.

The Cowboys' inside running game had worked very well in the 1st half. Shula decided to concentrate on that. But Landry guessed that Shula would do that, so he set up an outside running game for the 2nd half, and it worked: On their next drive, Thomas had 4 runs for 37 yards, capped by a 3-yard run for a touchdown. The Cowboys added a touchdown in the 4th quarter, Staubach passing to Ditka.

The final score was 24-3. Shula said the Doomsday Defense "destroyed" his offense. Not until Super Bowl XXXV, when the New York Giants got only a kickoff return touchdown against the Baltimore Ravens, would another team play an entire Super Bowl without an offensive touchdown. And not until Super Bowl LIII, when the Los Angeles Rams lost to the New England Patriots 13-3, would a team score so few points in a Super Bowl. Those 3 points remain the fewest scored in an NFL championship game, under any name, since 1964, when the Browns beat the Colts, 27-0.

The writers overcame their feelings about Thomas, and named him the game's Most Valuable Player. At the time, the Super Bowl MVP was announced by Sport magazine, and came with a new car, whose keys would be presented at a banquet in New York.

But Larry Klein, the magazine's editor, in attendance, didn't know how Thomas, black and with a record of insubordination, would act at the banquet. So he personally overrode the vote, and named Staubach, a white Naval Academy graduate and Vietnam War veteran with a reputation for doing as he was told, as the MVP. Pittsburgh Steeler quarterback Terry Bradshaw, in his later media career, was fond of pointing out his head coach, Chuck Noll, let him call his own plays, while Staubach didn't, always taking orders from Landry.

After the game, Tom Brookshier, the former Philadelphia Eagle defensive back working for CBS, tried to interview Thomas. Pointing out his speed, Brookshier, asked, "Are you that fast?" Thomas looked at him as if it was the dumbest question he'd ever heard, and said one word: "Evidently."

Thomas did not handle his fame to his team's satisfaction. So, in the next season's training camp, he was traded to the San Diego Chargers. He refused to report. He was suspended. He was played on the reserve list. He didn't play a down in the entire 1972 season. (He was lucky there was no ESPN, and no social media, at the time.)

The Chargers traded his rights to the Redskins -- the Cowboys' arch-rivals. For 2 years, he seemed to do all right there, even scoring a go-ahead 4th quarter touchdown against the Cowboys on Thanksgiving Day 1974, a game the Cowboys won anyway, in what became known as The Clint Longley Game. But he refused to report to training camp in 1975, and was waived.

Desperate for fans as their rebel league was floundering, the World Football League offered Thomas a new chance. He was signed by the Honolulu Hawaiians -- with some irony, to replace his former Cowboy teammate, the injured Calvin Hill. But he was released right before the league folded. The Cowboys brought him back in 1976, but waived him before the season.

He briefly played for the Vancouver-based BC Lions of the Canadian Football League, and was briefly at training camp with the 1979 Packers. Despite having the kind of talent that later led Houston Chronicle writer David Barron to say, "Some running backs looked for the hole. To Thomas, the whole field was the hole," his career ended with 2,038 rushing yards and 21 touchdowns.

He later hosted a radio talk show, telling an interviewer, "A lot of people get a kick out of that." He has said, "The Super Bowl wasn't the ultimate to me. I was just getting started. I was having fun, and I thought management was trying to take the fun out of it." He also says he made peace with Landry before his death.

He collaborated with Sports Illustrated writer Paul Zimmerman on a book titled Duane Thomas and the Fall of America's Team. The Cowboys did not "fall" after Super Bowl VI. It is true that they needed 3 years to get back to the Super Bowl, and 2 more after that to win one. But that's because their team that had reached 4 NFL Championship Games was getting old, and they were in transition, and still made the Playoffs in 2 of those 3 seasons out of the Super Bowl.

Once that transition was completed, Landry, Brandt and Schramm had built a team that dominated the NFC East for another decade, winning Super Bowl XII, but losing Super Bowls X and XIII.

As of January 16, 2022, Duane Thomas is still alive, age 74.

UPDATE: He died on August 4, 2024, at 77.

In 1999, The Sporting News released their list of the 100 Greatest Football Players. Lilly ranked 10th, and Staubach 29th. In 2010, the NFL Network released their list of the 100 Greatest Players. Lilly ranked 26th, and Staubach 46th.

*

January 16, 1972 was a Sunday. Obviously, this was the only football game played on the day. Baseball was out of season. There were 5 games played in the NBA that day:

* The New York Knicks beat the Houston Rockets, 109-108 at the Hofheinz Pavilion in Houston.

* The Atlanta Hawks beat the Philadelphia 76ers, 124-116 at the Alexander Memorial Coliseum in Atlanta. Pete Maravich scored 50 points.

* The Cincinnati Royals beat the Cleveland Cavaliers, 128-108 at the Cincinnati Gardens. Nate "Tiny" Archibald scored 41 points. But Cincinnati vs. Cleveland would not become a great NBA rivalry: The next season, the Royals moved to Kansas City. Since there was already a baseball team named the Kansas City Royals, they became the Kansas City Kings. In 1985, they moved again, becoming the Sacramento Kings.

* The Milwaukee Bucks beat the Portland Trail Blazers, 126-97 at the Milwaukee Arena. In 1974, it was renamed the Milwaukee Exposition, Convention Center and Arena, or "The MECCA." Since 2014, it has been named the UW-Panther Arena.

* And the Baltimore Bullets beat the Phoenix Suns, 107-104 at the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum.

There were 2 games played in the American Basketball Association. The New York Nets lost to the Memphis Pros, 129-123 at the Mid-South Coliseum in Memphis. This was despite Rick Barry scoring 36 points for the Nets. And the Denver Rockets beat the Utah Stars, 110-102 at the Denver Auditorium Arena. The Rockets became the Denver Nuggets in 1974.

There were 5 NHL games played that day: 

* The Boston Bruins beat the Detroit Red Wings, 9-2 at the Boston Garden.

* The Philadelphia Flyers and the Los Angeles Kings played to a tie, 3-3 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia.

* The St. Louis Blues beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 4-3 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.

* The Buffalo Sabres beat the Montreal Canadiens, 4-2 at the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium.

* The Chicago Black Hawks beat the Minnesota North Stars, 3-2 at the Chicago Stadium.

* And the New York Rangers, the Pittsburgh Penguins, the California Golden Seals and the Vancouver Canucks were not scheduled. 

January 1, 1967: Shootout at the Cotton Bowl

January 1, 1967: The 1966 NFL Championship Game is held at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas. For the host Dallas Cowboys, Champions of the Eastern Conference (which made no sense geographically), it is their 1st title game, in only their 7th season. For the Green Bay Packers, Champions of the Western Conference, it is their 9th.

When the New York Giants won the 1956 NFL Championship, under head coach Jim Lee Howell, his offensive assistant (or offensive coordinator, as the position came to be called) was Vince Lombardi, previously a guard at Fordham University and an assistant coach at Army. His defensive assistant (defensive coordinator) was Tom Landry, a star two-way back at the University of Texas and with the Giants. Now, Lombardi was coaching the Packers, attempting to win a 4th NFL Championship in 6 seasons; and Landry was coaching the Cowboys, attempting to "win the big one" on the first try.

Okay, it was a big one, but not the big one: For the 1st time, the NFL Champions would not, automatically, be considered the World Champions of American-style football. The merger agreement with the American Football League, a few months earlier, meant that the two leagues' Champions would meet 2 weeks after their title games, in what was then officially named "The AFL-NFL World Championship Game." This would retroactively be renamed "Super Bowl I."

In those days, the NFL alternated the site of its Championship Game geographically. It was the Eastern Champions' turn to host, so, despite the Packers having the better record -- 12-2, to the Cowboys' 10-3-1 -- the Cowboys would host.

The Packers jumped out to a 14-0 lead, on a 17-tyard pass from Bart Starr to Elijah Pitts, and an 18-yard fumble return by Jim Grabowski. But before the 1st quarter was out, the Cowboys tied the game, on touchdown runs by Dan Reeves and Don Perkins. Starr threw a 51-yard touchdown pass to Carroll Dale, to give the Packers the lead. Danny Villanueva kicked an 11-yard field goal, and the Packers went into the locker room up 21-17.

Villanueva kicked a 32-yard field goal, and then Starr threw a 16-yard touchdown pass to Bowd Dowler, putting the Packers up 28-20 at the end of the 3rd quarter. In the 4th quarter, Starr threw a 28-yard touchdown pass to Boyd Dowler. Don Chandler kicked the extra points on the Packers' 1st 4 touchdowns, but missed it on the 5th one, so the Packers' lead was 34-20.

There was 5:20 left to play. Meredith threw a 68-yard touchdown pass to Franklin Clarke, making it 34-27. A bad punt by Chandler gave the Cowboys the ball on the Packer 47-yard line with 2:12 to go, to get a touchdown that would send the game to overtime.

Cowboy quarterback Don Meredith got the ball to the Packer 22. Each team then made a dumb penalty: The Packers' Tom Brown committed pass interference to put the ball on their own 2-yard line, and a false start pushed the Cowboys back to the 6. On 4th and goal, Meredith dropped back to pass. Packer linebacker Dave Robinson got to Meredith, who was still able to get a pass off. But Brown made up for his mistake by intercepting the pass in the end zone. Starr made 2 kneeldowns to run out the clock, and the Packers had won.

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

The American Football League Championship Game was also played that day, at War Memorial Stadium in Buffalo, New York. The Buffalo Bills were 2-time defending AFL Champions, but, this time, they were beaten by the Kansas City Chiefs, 31-7. So the Bills were the last AFL Champions who didn't get to play the NFL Champions in the Super Bowl. The Chiefs did, but the Packers beat them, 35-10 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

*

January 1, 1967 was a Sunday. Future Pro Football Hall-of-Famer Derrick Thomas was born that day.

Because it was a Sunday, the usual New Year's Day college football bowl games were moved. The Cotton Bowl Classic was held the day before: Number 4 Georgia beat Number 10 Southern Methodist University (SMU), 24-9 at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, where the NFL Championship Game was held the next day.

The other games were held on Monday, January 2. In the Sugar Bowl, Number 3 Alabama beat Number 6 Nebraska, 34-7. This completed an undefeated season for Alabama, which had won shares of the National Championship the preceding 2 years.

But not this time: Number 1 Notre Dame did not accept bowl bids in those days, and Number 2 Michigan State, which had played Notre Dame to a 10-0 tie on November 19, was barred from playing in the Rose Bowl due to the Big Ten Conference's rule against back-to-back appearances, and its rule that only the Rose Bowl representative could go to a bowl game. Both of those rules were repealed for the 1975 season. But that did neither Michigan State nor Alabama any good, and Notre Dame, despite the blemish on its record, was voted the National Champion.

In the Rose Bowl, at the stadium of the same name in Pasadena, California, outside Los Angeles, Number 7 Purdue beat Number 18 University of Southern California (USC), 14-13. And in the Orange Bowl, at the stadium of the same name in Miami, Number 11, Florida, led by Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Steve Spurrier, beat Number 8 Georgia Tech, 27-12.

Baseball was out of season. There were 2 games played in the NBA. The New York Knicks lost to the St. Louis Hawks, 128-105 at the Kiel Auditorium in St. Louis. And the Los Angeles Lakers beat the Boston Celtics, 111-110 at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena.

And the NHL's entire Original Six were in action:

* The New York Rangers lost to the Toronto Maple Leafs, 2-1 at the old Madison Square Garden.

* The Detroit Red Wings beat the Montreal Canadiens, 4-1 at the Olympia Stadium in Detroit.

* And the Chicago Black Hawks beat the Boston Bruins, 3-2.