New York Giants vs. Green Bay Packers 1961 NFL Championship

[iStubs]

Number 28 is my grandpa.

[careal]

NY Giants vs Packers for next weeks playoff game. Some things never change!

[44032]

The entire game was on U-Tube at one time. I kept the link but it has been "removed by the user". I wonder why. U-Tube is such a mystery sometimes. This was the first NFL championship game I ever watched live.

[UncleMikeNJ]

Curt Gowdy announcing?

[huskyjerk]

@UncleMikeNJ No.  Lindsey Nelson.

[GeorgeVreelandHill]

Love it.

Real football with players who hit, got hit and did not cry about it.

George Vreeland Hill

[Varangian1915]

People had helmets and spoke english back then?

[freddakiko]

@Varangian1915 no, they spoke french. you must understand them because you're a ghost.

[9162vb48]

And not one player even *near* 300 pounds!

Back then there was only one 30 pounder -- Gene "Big Daddy" Lipscomb. (And only *slightly* over 300 pounds).

He was also a rarity in that he didn't go to college.

Now, today, what's the key word? EXCESS! Win at all costs. Abuse your body at all costs. Pander to the public at all costs.

**FOOTBALL** now having become America's secular religion.

Where the players are overfed gods and the stadiums look like turnstile cathedrals.

[6400az]

At 1:30....to the left of Y. A Tittle # 11. Pretty sure that's Earl Morall..........can anyone confirm.

[kgmule]

@6400az No, #11 is Lee Grosscup, Giants' 1st round pick in '59 out of Utah. Earl Morrall wore #11 for the Giants from 1965-67. Great guess tho.

[6400az]

@kgmule

Ohhhhh man !!! Thought it may have been a bit too early for Morral, but coul'dnt think of anyone else. I dod'nt remember hearing about Crossup. I'm sure they drafted him considering Tittles' ( Connerly in 59") age. I know Morral was a bit like Norm Snead or Gary Cuozzo....journeymen who seemed to have played for just about every other team...with the exception that Morral made the most of his chance.

Was Morral with the Lions during this time. Thank you sir.

[kgmule]

@6400az You sure know you're stuff. Yep, Morrall was with the Lions in '61, but pretty much split the starts with Jim Ninowski that year. Earl was the primary Detroit starter in '63, but lost his job to Milt Plum in '64, then was shipped to the Giants in '65.

I often think of Snead, Cuozzo, Morrall, Plum in the same vain.

Grosscup was a complete bust, started a few games for the AFL's NY Titans in '62, but by '63 was out of the NFL. Went on to a very successful broadcasting career.

[6400az]

@kgmule

Ha! Thanks. I came to the US. in 1968 form Cuba, had an accent that would make Ricky Ricardo sound like public speaker #1. My parents bought me the old Punt, Pass&Kick books, wich I read outloud. Not only did it help with the accent, but taugh me a thing or two about football. I don't recall Crossup but Ninowski ended up with Cleveland. Plum with the Rams...think he was traded for Bill Munson right? What chances Cuozzo and Snead wasted with the 70 ' & 71' Vikings !

[kgmule]

@6400az LOL. I'm not sure Ricky Ricardo knows as much about the NFL as you do. Bill Munson...pretty sure you are right about his being traded for Milt Plum. Munson was another one of those guys: journeyman NFL QB. GREAT POINT about Cuozzo & Snead: the Vikings defense was stout, even in the early '70s, but Cuozzo and Snead couldn't produce for them, so they needed Tarkenton back in '72.

[6400az]

@kgmule

Maybe he knew a bit of baseball !!

YMunson played against my beloved Vikings but then Landry replaced him. In 70' and 71, the Vikings had absolute monster teams, and their opponents in the Superbowl, would have suited them better than any of the buzz saws they played. I always though, their best chances would have been WITH Kapp at the helm, in both SB V & VI.. Later in the mid 70's with Tarkenton, they where good BUT, they weren' the destructive machines the once where.

[kgmule]

@6400az I agree 6400az. The Vikings defense led the NFL in '70 & '71 in fewest points allowed, but their offense in those years was fairly unproductive. That was when the defense was young. Kapp was the leader in '68 & '69, the team just won for the guy. I think if Kapp stayed, they may have won a ring. By the time the 1977 NFC Championship game rolled around, it was clear that the Vikings (particularly the defense) was too old and had slowed down.

[6400az]

@kgmule

After the 76' season, the first of the "Purple People Eaters" retired...Roy Winston. After that, a bunch of players also retired within a few years. By 77' the Viking ship was big-time rough seas.They somehow pulled off an incrdible victory over the Rams in " The Mud Bowl". Mud or not, it was a sensational win for them. In the 77' Championship Game against Dallss. They took the ball right down field on their 1st drive and got 3.But, alas, they just could'nt hold the fort.

[kgmule]

@6400az Yep. "The Mud Bowl", what a classic game that was!

As for the '77 NFC Championship game, that is also the infamous game when a Dallas fan accidentally set himself ablaze in the stands. Shocking footage that was oddly shown in clear detail on the NFL Films Game of the Week.

[6400az]

@kgmule

I remember that guy in flames and was also shocked.The game was called by Brookshire and Summeral, so shocked where they, it had to replay a couple of times before Brookshire actually described what actually occured. As for the "Mud Bowl", not that it should matter to anyone, but I can't remember a time where I felt more proud of my geezer Vikings than when they won that game.

I had a great childhood but inspite of the SB losses, the best part of being a boy,,,where the Vikings!!

[JCKAMK]

This is pretty cool - no explosions, no rain dances, no whooping and hollering. Just football.

[Dachshund]

Wow! A kinescope clip! Great stuff!

[DEProf06]

@stevenjromero. This was in GB. Back then the championship games alternated between conferences. The 1960 game was in PHI (East), 1961 in GB (West), 1963 in NY (East), 1963 in CHI (West), etc.

[stevenjromero]

This is really cool. i know it's absolutely NONE of my business, but where is the game?

[pbrick6301]

Where was Gifford?

My goodness that hit from Bednarik must of been something. Did Gifford miss the next 6 years or something?

[MrMatt8204]

@pbrick6301 Gifford sat out the 1961 season due to the injury sustained from the Bednarik hit. He came back in 1962 and played with the Giants until the end of the 1964 season IIRC.

[solefthanded2]

WOW - some New York legends there!

[ripperduck]

Damn some high school teams are bigger than this.....

[robphilll22]

Hello again everybody this is Lindsay Nelson...

[GoatZombie]

14 tittle my boys grandpa !!!! cool shit

[efrem1]

Lindsay Nelsen and Chris Schenkel!! Can't get any more old school than this.

[bobbollu]

awesome, don't know how you got this from 1961 but I remember these guys

go gmen

[BeatleJim55]

REAL football players!!!

[bobbollu]

that was very cool the first championship game for me as a Giants fan

thanks for sharing

[morgankitty1]

a guard at 235 lbs ????

[Boelcke1916]

Too bad Y.A. Tittle, a great man and great quarterback, never got that elusive championship.

[1985OldSkool]

@Boelcke1916 The same can be said about Dan Marino, who like Y.A. Tittle, is a Pro Football Hall of Fame Quarterback.

[Boelcke1916]

Actually, the two teams met earlier, in the regular season, in good weather in Milwaukee and Green Bay won "only" 20 to 17, so the two teams were essentially fairly evenly matched, though I think Green Bay was younger, faster and had Lombardi ... so, they won. They also had the cold, slick conditions and the mystique of the home field. They also benefited when Kyle Rote had a poor game and let the Giants down in the first quarter whe they could have scored and made a game of it.

[Boelcke1916]

The Giants were the better team. Lombardi got lucky. (Just kidding).

[ChrisDutch]

Wow, where did this come from? That Giants team was a great club but they ran into two years of the Pakcers at their best and then the Bears with that off the wall defense they had. It was pity because YA never got his title.

[GeorgeVreelandHill]

Love it.

I remember so many of these guys.

Thank you so much for posting this.

George Vreeland Hill

[slydawg221]

i wish i could find some footage from the 1960 title game where the eagles beat the packers.

[hermanglimsher]

@slydawg221

I know you posted this a year ago but there are videos on the 1960 Championship game on youtube.

[44032]

Can you post anything from the actual game. This was the first NFL championship game I ever watched. I would have been 8 years old at the time.

[realgoodscoobysnacks]

On leave from the US army. you don't hear that anymore during team introductions

[azbaldy5]

no you don't, today you hear " on leave from prison" !

[Maroons1p]

Let's be realistic. The game today requires so much off-season conditioning work and OTAs that most players would not be able to commit to a second job during the off-season.

[markko17]

Anybody know why Jerry Kramer wasn't starting at right guard?

[Mikey300]

Jerry Kramer suffered a broken ankle on a kickoff against Minnesota in the 1961 season. See the entry for July 5 1967 in the 'Preliminary Skirmishes' section of "Instant Replay".

[markko17]

Thanks. I was wondering because in the 1962 championship game Kramer did the kicking as well as play guard.

[jamezpackerfan]

injured

[jamezpackerfan]

I wonder what Green Bay was like in 1961. These Packers from 1957 to 1961 were my favorite.

[jaytf123]

When I first saw this video I didn't notice but now I did notice. There was no Frank Gifford. Now I realize why. This is the year he sat out with a bad neck injury because Chuck Bednarek of the Eagles nearly killed him with that hit in 60. Gifford came back in 62 all year I believe. Though I've lived in Philly since the fall of 71 and I am an Eagles fan now(NFC team) I did grow up a Giants and Pats fan in Massachusetts. Gifford was my favorite Giant and I always resented Bednarek for that.

[balooby]

reasons61. Great post. Can you post more of these? Amazing stuff.

[jaytf123]

That voice is Lindsay Nelson right??

[ripperduck]

Yes it is. He did Notre Dame football for years as well. As a child in the 70's, it was his voice that I would hear with ND football...

[798389]

Hornung and Dowler were in the Army Reserve during the 1961 Berlin Crisis. They received weekend passes to play in the NFL Championship Game that year.

[balooby]

What is amazing is the sizes of the guys back then. The NYGs had a guard who weighed 230 pounds. That is what a QB is supposed to weigh now. This is why it is hard to compare teams. If he Packers of 1961 played the Packers of 2009, they would get destroyed. So comparing is virtually impossible. All you can do is reference everything with regard to the time period. Even that is difficult since the NFL now promotes parity. So all this talk about the "greatest" is silly.

[Jikk]

Your comment is complete nonsense.

[balooby]

I'm not trying to make light of the legacy of the great Green Bay Packers. Their legacy laid a groundwork for the NFL that may never be matched. I was merely making a comment about how things have changed over time. I find the whole debate interesting, but invalid when somebody tries to compare teams from different decades. My grandfather played professional hockey, and he agrees with me. To say that I am flawed in my argument would make sense, but "complete nonsense"? How so?

[ripperduck]

I tend to agree with ya. From the late 70's on, it has been the steriod era in football, only now its accelerating. The menu's of drugs, steroids, hormone boosters, etc, make it impossible for eras to be compared. And remember that the guys back in the 60's needed off season jobs in order to supplement their football contracts. Yeah alot of the NFLers actually worked real jobs. Do yuou think Pac Man or Moss or Farve need to get up in the morning and go to work....

[balooby]

Agreed. It was completely different. I used to work with a guy who played linebacker for the Bears (just after Butkus retired). He had a pretty good 7-year NFL career, but works in public schools in Texas now. Man, any guy who can play more than 3 years now can play golf for the rest of his life. I read Jerry Kramer's autobiography a few years back, and it is amazing how different things were back then.

[ripperduck]

Yeah, Kramer's book was great. He talked about the off season jobs he had, including a diving company and if memory serves, a restaurant. I remember as a kid I read a story in the San Francisco Chronicle featuring the off season jobs some of the 49ers had, including engineers, stock brokers, and bank officers. While guys now have enough money to beat up strippers and lift weights in the off season, the old timers got up and went to work. How can anyone compare eras....

[Thomas2680]

If it weren't for the banishment of Paul Hornung for the entire 1963 season for gambling, it is fair to assume the Packers would have won their third consecutive title for seasons 1961-1963. Of course Lombardi would reach that milestone for the 1965-1967 seasons. It is hard to fathom by any standard that Lombardi's Packers played in 6 title games in 8 years. Should have been 7 out of 8 years. TerribleTom--Green Bay

[Thomas2680]

Was there ever a greater backfield then

Bart Starr, Paul Hornung, Jim Taylor--ALL in the NFL Hall of Fame.

Was there ever a better team than the 1961-1962 Packers?? At a time when teams were winning 10-7, and 9-6 the Packers were routinely demolishing teams by 49-0 scores.

TerribleTom--Green Bay

[a7b7c78]

Yeah, there was a better team than those Packer teams. They were the Steelers of the 70's.

[Jikk]

Nope. 49ers of the 80's > 70's Steelers

However neither of those teams won 5 NFL titles in a decade, like the 60's Packers.

[a7b7c78]

Do the 80's Niners have 9 Hall of Famers? No! They had a good team, but the Steelers would beat them. And, I think the Pack had a lot of HOFers as well, and an excellent coach in Lombardi, but they didn't have the overall talent and depth that those Steeler teams had.

[jaytf123]

Every era has their great teams. Every decade. You can't compare and say this team was better then that team. Fact is we'll never know.

[lsmftymf]

About three months after this, Lindsay Nelson would begin the first of many broadcasts as the play-by-play voice of the expansion New York Mets alongside Bob Murphy & Ralph Kiner. When he called NFL games on CBS later that decade, he was usually assigned to the Chicago Bears.

[Rollin558]

Yes, and that Met broadcast crew led by Lindsay Nelson was just terrific.

[rug792]

right at the end the announcer says " Paul Horning from Notre Dame and on leave from the Army - facinating!! what an era.

[bikefixer]

The announcer is Lindsay Nelson. This, by the way, is the beginning of the Packer dynasty.

[dgtile]

Announcer for this game was the great Lindsey Nelson

[dgtile]

NBC had the TV contract rights till 1963 for NFL championship games..CBS in 1964 had rights to championship games.First NFL Title game in color was 1965 game (packers-browns).All games were in color by 1968.

[jamezpackerfan]

That was an awesome football game! Paul Hornung did a great job and the Pack crushed the Giants 37-0.

[Success2gether]

Sounds just like that announcer on Madden 06-08 for Xbox360. LOL

[489489489]

why cant i see the video

lovin this video!! leave me a comment h4

[USAGiant]

Great rare video. Dumb question guys? What station (CBS or NBC)broadcasted this game?

Can somone also please explain briefly the NFL TV Contract prior to the 1966 season.

I know for many years prior to Fox get involving AFL/AFC games were on NBC and the NFC/NFL on CBS.

Also i was surprised to learn recently that the lengedary 1958 Giants-Colts chapionship game was on NBC.

Thanks in Advance.

[Wallyhorse]

From what I remember, when the NFL got its national TV deal (shortly after the late Pete Rozelle took over as Commissioner), CBS got the NFL rights. ABC initially had the AFL rights as I remember, but they later went to NBC. Both CBS and NBC broadcast Super Bowl I (actually known at the time as the AFL-NFL Championship Game), after that, CBS did the even-numbers Super Bowls and NBC the odd numbered ones (that is how NBC wound up showing probably the two most important games in NFL history).

[usisguy]

Thanks for sending this! Big time Giants fan, oddly thses uniforms of both teams are about the same today.

[nickeloden1111]

why didn't they introduce the defense?

[nickeloden1111]

y.a. tittle's real name is yelberton abraham tittle

[cbehr91]

That is the best name of any NFL player. Period. I'm being serious.

[GeorgeVreelandHill]

I love this video!

I was too young to remember this game, but I remember many of these players from later on in the 1960's.

Thanks for the memories, and for a great video.

George Vreeland Hill

[pac401]

the great Lindsay Nelson announcing!

[Willtodd1990]

My Grandfather actually knew Bob Skoronsky, he went to high school with him at Fairfield Prep. My grandfather class of 1950', Skoronsky class of 1952'.

[classichost]

nota single guy on the GB OL over 250, nowadays most OL are over 300. such a different era!

[flatsignedbooks]

#71, you are missed. SMU. THANKS FOR POSTING THIS!

[stevephil07]

Awesome!!! Thanks man...

[jacksteve312]

My G-d where did this come from. I have not seen this since I was a little boy watching with my dad from my grandparents house in the Bronx. Thank you for the memories (though the 37-0 finish was not exactly a happy one for our family).

[forbus56]

Fantastic!

[mrp0518]

oh dude you rule for getting this up excellent job. Where did you get this?

[Speyrer88]

I could watch this 60s sports/NFL stuff all freakin' day. Thanks!

[giles422]

Sherman (idiot) gave the Giants 3 days off during the week before this game.

[devils950003]

I have this entire game on 2 DVD's. I ordered it from a guy on the internet. Pretty neat stuff. I wish I could find the original broadcast of the Ice Bowl and the first two Super Bowls.

[Harshcore811]

Cool. I would also like to find orignal complete games of the Ice Bowl.

[devils950003]

I keep searching on the internet. Someone somewhere has to have a copy of these great games. Some network affiliate might have a tape of them in their vault and not even know it.

[altfactor]

I don't think the entire telecasts of Super Bowls I and II still exist.

As far as I know, no excerpts of NBC's broadcast of Super Bowl I, and only a few excerpts of CBS's broadcast are known to exist.

The CBS excerpts were reportdely recorded and edited by the Green Bay CBS affiliate at the time for use on a local newscast later that night.

[McCainis4me]

Alex Webster would be the head coach of the Giants by the end of the decade, and Greg Larson was the starting center.

holmes113, Jerry Kramer battled injuries throughout his career, and something must have been hampering him entering this game.

[holmes113]

What's wrong with Jerry Kramer?

[holmes113]

Joe Walton is an end!

[holmes113]

Wow...(speechless)