1975: Bell Spoils Calvin Hill’s Debut with Hawaiians

The World Football League’s Honolulu-based team, The Hawaiians, had started poorly in 1974 but improved throughout the course of the eventual 9-11 season. The team had used rookie Norris Weese at quarterback until veteran Randy Johnson, cut by the NFL’s Giants, came aboard at midseason. While WR Tim Delaney led the WFL in pass receptions with 89, the running game ranked last among the clubs that made it through the full season.

Several NFL veterans had been signed to contracts prior to the ’74 season, but other than Johnson, who only became available because the Giants released him, the club had to wait until 1975 to avail themselves of their services. Two of the players they had signed, San Francisco TE Ted Kwalick and Vikings WR John Gilliam, were allocated to other teams by the league (Philadelphia and Chicago, respectively). But RB Calvin Hill (pictured above), who had gained 5009 rushing yards in six years with the Dallas Cowboys, joined the Hawaiians for the ’75 season and it was anticipated that he would substantially upgrade the running attack. However, the team had lost Johnson as the quarterback, who jumped back to the NFL with the Washington Redskins.

On August 2, 1975 The Hawaiians traveled to Philadelphia where they opened the regular season against the Bell before a sparse crowd of 2732 fans at Franklin Field on a 94-degree Saturday night.

The Bell had undergone a change in head coach after Ron Waller, who guided the club in 1974, abruptly resigned during the preseason. After assistant Joe Gardi took over for an exhibition win over Portland, former Packers great Willie Wood was named to the position the Tuesday prior to the season-opening contest. Wood thus became the first African-American head coach of a major league pro football team in the modern era (some 14 years before Art Shell was hired in the NFL; Fritz Pollard had coached in the early 1920s).

Philadelphia scored first on a 37-yard field goal by Bob Cooper. The Hawaiians responded with a 72-yard drive that was capped when Hill caught a pass from QB Rick Cassata for a 13-yard touchdown. With a successful pass for the action point, they led 8-3 at the end of the first quarter.

In the second quarter, colorful Bell QB Jim “King” Corcoran threw a nine-yard touchdown pass to Kwalick that was followed by RB J.J. Jennings running successfully for the action point. The Bell took an 11-8 lead into halftime.

In the third quarter, Corcoran threw a pass to WR Ron Holliday that went 15 yards in the air but was turned into a 55-yard touchdown when Holliday evaded three tacklers and ran down the right sideline for the score, although the action point attempt failed. Cooper followed with a 35-yard field goal to give Philadelphia a comfortable 21-8 lead after three quarters.

The Hawaiians narrowed the margin in the fourth quarter on a two-yard carry by RB Clayton Heath. The action point attempt failed but the Bell now led by just six points with plenty of time remaining.

The Hawaiians again moved into Philadelphia territory, but in a key defensive play by the Bell, Hill was stopped short at the Philadelphia 30 in a fourth-and-two situation. With time running out, The Hawaiians inserted backup QB Sonny Sixkiller into the game and advanced to the Bell 16 yard line with the help of a pass interference call and three offside penalties. With no timeouts remaining, Sixkiller threw to WR Tim Delaney in the end zone for an apparent game-winning score, but a holding penalty nullified the play and give Philadelphia the 21-15 win.

The Hawaiians had more first downs (23 to 16) while outrushing the Bell, 245 yards to 119; Philadelphia gained more net passing yards (154 to 84).

Calvin Hill ran for 155 yards on 32 carries and Clayton Heath added 68 yards on 17 attempts that included a TD. Rick Cassata completed just 7 of 19 passes for 61 yards with a TD and three interceptions while Sonny Sixkiller connected on both of his passes for 23 yards. Hill and Heath also each caught three passes, with Hill leading the club with 30 yards. Tim Delaney had 26 yards on his two catches.

For the Bell, King Corcoran was successful on 13 of 25 passes for 155 yards with two touchdowns and an interception. J.J. Jennings, who had been a league co-MVP with Memphis in ’74, ran for 57 yards on 11 carries to pace the rushing attack. Ron Holliday had five catches for 100 yards that included the long TD.


“Wow, if people wanted excitement, they certainly got their money's worth tonight,” said Willie Wood (pictured at right), a winner in his first game as a pro head coach. “Our guys really held them down at most crucial points although those offside penalties almost gave me heart failure.”

Neither team did particularly well in the WFL’s abbreviated second season that ended in October with the abrupt folding of the league. Both ended up with 4-7 records, which meant a last-place finish in the Eastern Division for the Bell at the point that the plug was pulled; the Hawaiians tied for fourth with the Portland Thunder.

The opening game performance was the best for Calvin Hill as he went down with a knee injury shortly thereafter and ended up with just 218 yards on 49 carries. He returned to the NFL with Washington in 1976, where he played for two seasons before moving on to the Cleveland Browns for four years. While still an effective role player, he never ran the ball more than 80 times in a season or exceeded his post-WFL high of 301 yards with the Redskins in ’76. As a receiver out of the backfield, he did catch as many as 38 passes with the Browns in 1979.

As for Willie Wood, he got another pro head coaching opportunity with the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League, becoming that league’s first black head coach.

Past Venue: Husky Stadium

Seattle, WA



Year opened: 1920
Capacity: 72,500, up from 30,000 at opening

Names:
Husky Stadium, 1920 to date

Pro football tenants:
Seattle Seahawks (NFL), 1994, 2000-01

Postseason games hosted:
None

Other tenants of note:
Univ. of Washington, 1920 to date

Notes: Used by Seahawks for two preseason and three regular season games in 1994 after several ceiling tiles fell at the Kingdome, closing that venue for repairs. Served as temporary home of Seahawks for two full seasons between demolition of Kingdome and construction of Qwest Field. Grass surface was replaced by AstroTurf in 1968 and FieldTurf in 2000. Used for track & field as well as football. First football game was Univ. of Washington vs. Dartmouth on Nov. 27, 1920. Major venue for Goodwill Games, 1990. Stadium is also accessible by boat. During 1987 renovation, a portion of the stands under construction collapsed, fortunately with no fatalities and the stadium was ready for use by football season.

Fate: Still in use, although scheduled to undergo significant renovation.

1959: Colts Trade George Shaw to Giants

On July 30, 1959 the Baltimore Colts complied with backup QB George Shaw’s request for a trade, sending him to the New York Giants for that team’s second-round 1960 draft choice (originally reported to be a first-round pick and used to take G Bo Terrell from Mississippi, who opted for the AFL).

It was the end of an association with the Colts that had begun with great promise. Shaw was chosen by Baltimore as the first overall pick (or, at that time, bonus selection) in the 1955 NFL draft out of Oregon, passing up on a baseball contract offer from the New York Yankees.

A versatile player in college (in addition to playing quarterback, he sometimes played as a halfback or receiver on offense, safety on defense, and also handled placekicking and punting), Shaw led the nation in total offense as a senior with 1536 yards. The 6’0”, 185-pound passer showed promise as a rookie, moving right into the starting lineup and completing 50.2 percent of his 237 passes for 1586 yards with 10 touchdowns and 19 interceptions. He also displayed impressive mobility, rushing for 301 yards on 68 carries.

While there were questions about Shaw’s leadership ability, he went into the ’56 season as the starting quarterback. A broken kneecap suffered in the fifth game prematurely ended his year and, ultimately, his starting career in Baltimore. Unknown backup Johnny Unitas took over and soon established himself as a rising talent. Shaw remained as a second-stringer and saw action in 1958 when Unitas was sidelined by a rib injury, but he was clearly not in the same class with the rapidly-developing all-time great who led the Colts to the NFL Championship.

In the ensuing offseason, Shaw requested a trade when it became apparent that he wouldn’t be getting any further playing time as long as Unitas was healthy and, while the Colts hoped to hold onto him as a backup, they eventually acquiesced. Both the Eagles and Cardinals reportedly showed interest, but in the end it was the Giants who made the preseason deal for the 26-year-old quarterback.

Coming to the Giants, Shaw faced a crowded quarterback situation that included the 38-year-old starter, Charlie Conerly, plus veteran backup Don Heinrich, and the team’s first draft choice, rookie Lee Grosscup. In addition, star HB Frank Gifford was being given a trial at quarterback, although he ended up staying put at running back.

Shaw made the team, but was hindered by an injured thumb on his throwing hand. He started one game in place of Conerly, who had an outstanding season as the Giants won the Eastern Conference for the third time in four years, and was a more effective passer than Heinrich when he did play - he completed 66.7 percent of his throws for 433 yards while Heinrich was successful on just 37.9 percent for 329 yards while tossing 22 more passes than Shaw (58 to 36); he also threw six interceptions to Shaw’s one, and each threw a TD pass. Grosscup was shunted off to the taxi squad.

In 1960, Heinrich was gone to the expansion Dallas Cowboys and Conerly suffered through an injury-plagued season that gave Shaw more of an opportunity to play. While he led the team in pass attempts (155), completions (76), and yards (1263) and had some good performances, he also threw 13 interceptions (a few which came at particularly inopportune times), as opposed to 11 TDs, for the 6-4-2 Giants. Moreover, questions regarding his lack of confidence and inability to command the veteran-filled offense led the team to write him off.

Moving on to the expansion Minnesota Vikings for 1961, it was anticipated that Shaw would have an opportunity to show what he could do as a starting quarterback, particularly under the guidance of Head Coach Norm Van Brocklin. But while he started the opening game, he was quickly replaced by rookie Fran Tarkenton, who was the first-string quarterback for the rest of the year (and beyond). Shaw went next to the AFL, where he played one season as a backup to QB Frank Tripucka in Denver (and completed a team-record 97-yard touchdown pass to WR Jerry Tarr), before retiring.

In the end, Shaw’s career that started with so much promise was ultimately disappointing. After losing the starting job in Baltimore, he was never more than a decent backup. Indeed, at the time of his trade to the Giants, he expressed a concern that he had developed “second-stringitis”. He went so far as to confess in an article in Sports Illustrated: “When you go in, you feel the responsibility so much. A couple of years ago, when Johnny (Unitas) was hurt, I played two games at quarterback. I wasn't relaxed and I wasn't confident because I was afraid of playing poorly. Not afraid of giving a bad performance myself, but afraid of failing the team. Maybe I shouldn't say it, but you know when you're out there that the guys up in the line aren't making as much money as the quarterback. When they are great players on a team which is about to win a championship, they demand a lot from a quarterback. They expect you to be as good as they are, or better. It's a big load.”

An offseason banker, Shaw’s personality lacked fire and, in particular with the Giants, that worked against him. Displaced by two Hall of Fame quarterbacks, Unitas and Tarkenton, he became an example of a quarterback drafted in the first round who failed to make the grade at the pro level.

MVP Profile: O.J. Simpson, 1973

Running Back, Buffalo Bills


Age: 26
5th season in pro football & with Bills
College: Southern California
Height: 6’1” Weight: 212

Prelude:
Following an outstanding college career capped by winning the 1968 Heisman Trophy, the highly-coveted Simpson was drafted by the Bills with the first overall pick in the combined AFL/NFL draft. His pro career started slowly, as he was used sparingly and missed time due to injury during his first three seasons, never carrying more than 182 times or gaining more than 742 yards. However, the return to Buffalo of Head Coach Lou Saban in 1972 marked a change as Simpson became the centerpiece of the offense and led the NFL in rushing with 1251 yards, earning 1st-team All-Pro and Pro Bowl honors.

1973 Season Summary
Appeared and started in all 14 games
[Bracketed numbers indicate league rank in Top 20]

Rushing
Attempts – 332 [1]
Most attempts, game - 39 (for 157 yds.) vs. Kansas City 10/29
Yards – 2003 [1]
Most yards, game – 250 yards (on 29 carries) at New England 9/16
Average gain – 6.0 [2]
TDs – 12 [1, tied with Floyd Little]
200-yard rushing games – 3
100-yard rushing games – 11

Pass Receiving
Receptions – 6
Most receptions, game – 3 (for 33 yds.) vs. Philadelphia 10/7
Yards – 70
Most yards, game - 33 (on 3 catches) vs. Philadelphia 10/7
Average gain – 11.7
TDs – 0

Passing
Attempts – 2
Completions – 1
Yards – -3
TD passes – 0
Interceptions – 0

All-purpose yards - 2073 [1]

Scoring
TDs – 12 [5]
Points – 72

Awards & Honors:
NFL MVP: AP, NEA, Bert Bell Award
NFL Offensive Player of the Year: AP
AFC Player of the Year: Sporting News
1st team All-NFL: AP, PFWA, NEA, Pro Football Weekly
1st team All-AFC: AP, UPI, Pro Football Weekly, Sporting News
Pro Bowl

Bills went 9-5 to finish second in the AFC East while leading the NFL in rushing yards (3088). It was their first winning record since 1966.

Aftermath:
Simpson was a consensus 1st team All-Pro and Pro Bowl selection after each of the next three seasons, setting a then-league record with 23 TDs in 1975 while also gaining 1817 yards on the ground. Injuries in 1977 limited him to seven games and he was dealt to the 49ers, where he spent his last two seasons (1978 and ’79). Upon retirement, he had gained 11,236 rushing yards, the second-highest total up to that time. Simpson was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, Class of 1985.

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MVP Profiles feature players who were named MVP or Player of the Year in the NFL, AAFC (1946-49), AFL (1960-69), WFL (1974), or USFL (1983-85) by a recognized organization (Associated Press, Pro Football Writers Association, Newspaper Enterprise Association, United Press International, The Sporting News, Maxwell Club – Bert Bell Award, or the league itself).

[Updated 2/15/14]

Past Venue: Pitt Stadium

Pittsburgh, PA



Year opened: 1925
Capacity: 56,500, down from 69,400 at opening

Names:
Pitt Stadium, 1925-99

Pro football tenants:
Pittsburgh Steelers (NFL), 1958-69

Postseason games hosted:
None

Other tenants of note:
University of Pittsburgh, 1925-99

Notes: Steelers split home games between Forbes Field and Pitt Stadium from 1958 to ’63. Grass field was replaced with AstroTurf in 1970, SuperTurf from 1984-89, and then back to AstroTurf in 1990. Temporary lighting was added for a game between Univ. of Pittsburgh and Purdue in 1985. Permanent lights were installed in 1987. Also used for track & field and soccer. Hosted first football game on Sept. 26, 1925 between Univ. of Pittsburgh and Washington & Lee Univ.

Fate: Demolished in 1999, the site is now occupied by the Petersen Events Center and student housing.

2007: Curtis Martin Retires from Jets

On July 26, 2007 Curtis Martin, star running back of the New York Jets, confirmed what had first been acknowledged in January, and 19 months after he had last taken the field – that he had played his last game because of a severe right knee injury suffered during the 2005 season. The 34-year-old Martin retired as the fourth-ranked rusher in NFL history.

“I don't have any regrets,” Martin said. “I feel like I'm leaving this game exactly how I would want to. I know that I'm stubborn when it comes to football and I know that it would have to take something like this – and gratefully it's not too bad to where it's going to hinder the rest of my life where I'd need a wheelchair or cane.”

“At the end of the day, things turned out better than what I had even intended from the beginning,” Martin added.

Martin came from a rough part of Pittsburgh but made it to the University of Pittsburgh where he became a star running back. He was the NFL’s Offensive Rookie of the Year in 1995 with the Patriots, having gained 1487 rushing yards, and played three seasons in New England before moving on to the Jets in 1998 as a restricted free agent, reuniting with his first pro head coach, Bill Parcells (who was willing to lose two draft choices to obtain him).

The 5’11”, 205-pound running back was a key to New England’s AFC Championship team in 1996 and, in his first year with New York, was a significant factor in the club going 12-4 and advancing to the AFC title game.

A classy yet tough player who was also humble and inclined to shun the spotlight, he was often overlooked over the course of his 11-season career. Team-oriented, hard-working in practice, and liked by coaches and fans, he became one of the most popular players in Jets history. Martin was also durable and regularly played while hurt. In the 2000 season-opening game, with badly damaged ligaments (he said it felt as though the top half of his right leg had separated from the bottom) he wore a brace and rushed for 110 yards and two TDs against the Packers. The durability proved to be something of a surprise considering that injuries during his college career had hurt his draft status (the Patriots took him in the third-round in ‘95).

The lack of flashiness in Martin’s personality carried over to his performance at running back, where his play was better defined by consistency (and consistent excellence) rather than making explosive runs and generating highlight footage. He was the thinking-man’s power runner, rarely making mistakes while playing with great determination. Not particularly fast by NFL standards, Martin had excellent running instincts.

His last healthy season, 2004, was also his best as he led the NFL with 1697 yards rushing and tied Barry Sanders with 10 thousand-yard seasons from the start of his career. That string came to an end with the injury during the ’05 season that held him to twelve games, in which he compiled 735 yards on 220 carries to close out his career.

Martin played 11 seasons and ended up with 14,101 rushing yards on 3518 attempts for a 4.0 average and 90 touchdowns. He also caught 484 passes for 3329 yards and ten more TDs (for a total of 100), with a high of 70 receptions for 508 yards in 2000. He was a consensus first-team All-Pro once, received All-Pro and/or All-AFC consideration following four other seasons, and was selected to the Pro Bowl five times.

MVP Profile: Randall Cunningham, 1988

Quarterback, Philadelphia Eagles



Age: 25
4th season in pro football & with Eagles
College: Nevada – Las Vegas
Height: 6’4” Weight: 201

Prelude:
Taken by the Eagles in the 2nd round of the 1985 NFL draft, Cunningham saw some action in place of veteran QB Ron Jaworski, and while he completed only 42 % of his passes, he showed off his exciting running ability. In ’86, under new Head Coach Buddy Ryan, he saw more action in place of Jaworski and took over as the starting quarterback during the strike-interrupted 1987 season. Cunningham threw for 2786 yards and 23 TDs in 12 games and also rushed for 505 yards.

1988 Season Summary
Appeared and started in all 16 games
[Bracketed numbers indicate league rank in Top 20]

Passing
Attempts – 560 [2]
Most attempts, game – 53 vs. Dallas 10/23
Completions – 301 [3]
Most completions, game – 31 vs. NY Giants 10/10
Yards – 3808 [3]
Most yards, game – 369 vs. NY Giants 10/10
Completion percentage – 53.8
Yards per attempt – 6.8
TD passes – 24 [4]
Most TD passes, game – 3 vs. NY Giants 10/10, vs. LA Rams 11/6
Interceptions – 16 [7, tied with Steve DeBerg]
Most interceptions, game – 2 on five occasions
Passer rating – 77.6 [15]
300-yard passing games – 2
200-yard passing games – 11

Rushing
Attempts – 93
Most attempts, game - 9 (for 85 yds.) vs. Cincinnati 9/11, (for 64 yds.) at NY Giants 11/20, (for 21 yds.) at Phoenix 12/10
Yards – 624
Most yards, game – 85 yards (on 9 carries) vs. Cincinnati 9/11
Yards per attempt – 6.7 [1]
TDs – 6

Punting
Punts – 3
Yards – 167
Average – 55.7
Punts blocked – 0
Longest punt – 58 yards

Scoring
TDs – 6
Points - 36

Postseason: 1 G (NFC Divisional playoff at Chicago)
Pass attempts – 54
Pass completions – 27
Passing yardage – 407
TD passes – 0
Interceptions – 3

Rushing attempts – 3
Rushing yards – 12
Average gain rushing – 4.0
Rushing TDs – 0

Awards & Honors:
NFL Player of the Year: Bert Bell Award
2nd team All-NFL: AP
1st team All-NFC: UPI, Pro Football Weekly
Pro Bowl

Eagles went 10-6 to win NFC East, their first division title since 1980. Lost NFC Divisional playoff to Chicago Bears (20-12).

Aftermath:
Cunningham had another Pro Bowl year in 1989, passing for 3400 yards and running for 621, but the Eagles again lost in the first round of the playoffs. He followed up in ‘90 with a second MVP season and was again chosen for the Pro Bowl, passing for 3466 yards and 30 touchdowns with a much-improved passer rating of 91.6. But once more, the club fell quickly in the postseason. An outstanding talent who could often improvise brilliantly, Cunningham was less adept at reading defenses and often irritated teammates with his demeanor. He was lost to a season-ending injury in the first game of 1991 and, while he successfully returned in ’92, injuries became more of an issue as he missed most of 1993 with a broken leg. Benched in favor of Rodney Peete in ’95, he sat out a year in retirement before returning as a backup with the Vikings in 1997. When starting QB Brad Johnson was injured early in ’98, Cunningham put together an outstanding season, leading the league in passing (106.0 rating) while throwing 34 TD passes against just 10 interceptions. However, the team was upset by Atlanta in the NFC Championship game and Cunningham played in just six games in ’99. He finished up his career for good following a year each in Dallas and Baltimore. In the end, he passed for 29,979 yards and 207 TDs, was the career rushing leader for quarterbacks (4928 yards), and had the best rushing average (6.4) of any player in NFL history with over 750 carries (775).

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MVP Profiles feature players who were named MVP or Player of the Year in the NFL, AAFC (1946-49), AFL (1960-69), WFL (1974), or USFL (1983-85) by a recognized organization (Associated Press, Pro Football Writers Association, Newspaper Enterprise Association, United Press International, The Sporting News, Maxwell Club – Bert Bell Award, or the league itself).

[Updated 2/15/14]