JRN/SPS 362 - Lecture Eighteen (October 29, 2025)

Here is the presentation that accompanied Lecture Eighteen.

1. JRN /SPS 362 Story of Football Rich Hanley, Professor Emeritus Lecture Eighteen

2. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football

3. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football Review The culture of celebrity emerged in the late 1960s with Joe Namath leading the way as quarterback of the New York Jets. The fact that Namath played in New York and guided the Jets to the Super Bowl III win over the heavily favored Colts ratified his standing in pop culture.

4. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football Review The launch of Monday Night Football transformed the game to prime-time television spectacle, cementing its spot at the top of both sports and pop culture. Roone Arledge’s approach to cover the game as entertainment programming drew growing audiences to the NFL.

5. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century By the second half of the 1960s, football reflected broad cultural shifts more so than other sports despite lingering conservatism. And pro football, reflecting America twin traits of ecstasy and violence, stood as America’s secular religion, with the Super Bowl serving as its sacred rite.

6. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century “If Jesus Christ were alive today, he’d be at the Super Bowl,” said the Rev. Norman Vincent Peale in 1975. Indeed. The 1970s NFL featured two plays studded with religious imagery: The Immaculate Reception and The Hail Mary.

7. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century One of the more enduring symbols of football in the 1970s is a cartoon strip known as Doonesbury. Garry Trudeau attended Yale and drew cartoons that featured campus personalities, including No. 10 B.D. – Brian Dowling, Yale’s quarterback from 1966-68

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9. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century But football itself had long since left its origins in the cloistered quads of eastern colleges even though the Big Three – Yale, Harvard and Princeton – still played good, tough football. The game’s core moved west and south and most importantly of all, it moved to television.

10. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century The decade of 1970s marked the end of the first 100 years of American football. Over that period, football became the national spectacle and innovations in tactics and fields between the mid 1960s and 1970s guaranteed it would stay that way into the next century.

11. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century During this period, football embraced synthetic fields and domed stadiums, making the field sharp and green. Mud became a distant memory. Innovative, high-risk, high-reward offenses deployed on artificial turf under a new generation of coaches emerged.

12. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century The University of Houston became the first college team to play indoors when the Cougars played in the Astrodome in 1965. A year later, they played a game on the Astrodome’s new synthetic turf, the first team in college football to play on something other than grass.

13. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century Houston coach Bill Yeoman introduced the Veer offense in 1966, and it turned out to be the perfect system for these perfect conditions. It transformed offenses and forced defenses to adapt by recruiting faster, more mobile players.

14. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century The veer had its antecedent in the I formation, first developed in 1950 by Tom Nugent when he coached at the Virginia Military Institution. The I served as a platform for both running, specifically from the deep tailback position, and passing.

15. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century Notre Dame adopted the I formation in 1951 and it soon spread to other teams, most famously the University of Southern California under coach John McKay in 1961 who learned about the I directly from Nugent.

16. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century USC won four national championships running the I in 1962, 1967, 1972 and 1974. It also produced two Heisman Trophy-winning running backs in Mike Garrett (1965) and O.J. Simpson (1968).

17. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century Garrett proved that small, quick tailbacks could be deployed in the I. He stood just 5-foot-9 and weighed 190 pounds.

18. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century Yeoman understood that concept when he developed the veer. In 1964, he recruited Warren McVea, a 5-foot-9, 170-pound tailback, from San Antonio. McVea would star at Houston as the cornerstone of the veer offense.

19. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century The veer gave the quarterback three options to consider based on the defense: - Run the ball - Handoff to a halfback (dive back) - Pitch to a halfback. (pitch back)

20. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century The veer could be operated from the split T-formation or from the new I-formation, with the fullback and halfback in a line behind the quarterback. The offense allowed fast, small backs such as McVea to find space on the outside while maintaining the power of the fullback inside.

21. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century The veer kept defenses off-balance as the quarterback could read the play as it unfolded and select the best option based on that read. A fourth option – the pass - further complicated approaches to stopping it.

22. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century Houston led the nation in offense in 1966, 1967 and 1968, and the offense spread throughout college football. Variants emerged, too, as coaches experimented with option football.

23. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century Texas coach Darryl Royal perfected the most visible innovation in college football: the wishbone design formulated by assistant Emory Bellard in the late 1960s.

24. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century The formation focused on quickness, with a quarterback under center with a fullback flanked behind him by two halfbacks.

25. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century Bellard initially called it the 46 veer from the Y formation when he first designed it. “ I never liked the concept the defense could say, ‘you can either run or pass.’ We should be able to do anything we like—this is the way football ought to be played,” he said.

26. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century A sports columnist from Houston who saw Texas run the formation against the Cougars in 1968 described it as a wishbone. The name stuck.

27. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century Under the wishbone, the quarterback had four options: - handoff to the fullback - fake to the fullback and sprint to a side, turn up field and run - pitch to a tailback, with the other tailback blocking - long pass

28. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century Texas unveiled the wishbone in 1968 and had perfected it within a year. In one game in 1969, quarterback James Street and backs Jim Bertlesen, Steve Worster and Ted Koy all rushed for 100 yards.

29. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century With the wishbone in full flower, Texas won the 1969 national championship and shared the 1970 crown with Nebraska. The Longhorns won 30 straight games in that span.

30. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century In a short time, the wishbone became part of Texas football mythology, an enduring symbol of the team’s success in the 1970s. When Royal died in 2012, the team honored his memory by using the wishbone for a play.

31. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century Teams running the wishbone won or shared seven national titles between 1969 and 1979. Two traditional football powers that successfully adopted the wishbone during this time were Oklahoma and Alabama.

32. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century Oklahoma took advantage of the high crown of its artificial turf field to run opponents into the ground with the multiple-option offense. In 1971 Oklahoma sought to ride the formation to a national championship, fitting given the wishbone’s lineage: the Split T.

33. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century Oklahoma would have its chance to do so on November 25, 1971, when it hosted the top-ranked team and defending national co-champion Nebraska.

34. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century The game matched the two best backs in the country.

35. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century Greg Pruitt of Oklahoma – a 5-foot-10, 190-pound tailback - averaged 9.5 yards per carry.

36. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century Johnny Rodgers of Nebraska-5-foot-10, 180 pounds - would win the Heisman Trophy in 1972, capping a career in which he was named twice to All-America teams. Unlike Oklahoma, though, Nebraska ran the power I featuring fullback Jeff Kinney.

37. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century A television audience of 55 million – a record for a college football game at the time – tuned in to watch the game on a national holiday. They were not disappointed as the game featured a clash of fast offenses and fast, strong defenses.

38. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century The late writer, commentator and sports information director Beano Cook defined a great game as follows: “For a game to be considered great, it has to have special meaning … and something has to happen in the last few minutes.”

39. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century The game met all criteria. The teams were the top two in the nation. The greatest wishbone quarterback ever, Jack Mildren, threw a touchdown pass – a rare event– to give Oklahoma a 31-28 lead late in the fourth quarter.

40. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century Nebraska then responded by going 74 yards in 12 plays to score with 1:38 remaining to take a 35-31 lead, which it held to win the game.

41. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century Oklahoma’s wishbone couldn’t crack Nebraska in the end because the Cornhuskers figured out how to defend the wishbone. They put a defense end on the tailback to neutralize the pitch.

42. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century Nebraska then defeated another wishbone offense, this one run by No. 2 Alabama in the Orange Bowl, to claim the national championship with a 13-0 record. The power I had defeated the wishbone but the formation endured for another decade with great success.

43. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century Because of the wishbone, the veer and other options, the stars of the college game in the 1970s tended to be running backs. Eight of the 10 Heisman winners were running backs as the position recaptured prominence from quarterbacks who seemed to lord over the 1960s .

44. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century Among the winners were Archie Griffin of Ohio State who won two Heisman trophies (1974-75), the only player to do so …

45. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century … and Tony Dorsett of Pittsburgh who won the trophy in 1976.

46. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century As the college game innovated, the NFL completed its merger with the AFL. AFL teams became grouped under the American Football Conference, with all but three NFL teams assigned to the National Football Conference.

47. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century To achieve numerical balance among the 26-team league, the Cleveland Browns, Baltimore Colts and Pittsburgh Steelers moved to the AFC as noted earlier.

48. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century The NFL finally conquered the full continental U.S. in 1976 when the Seattle Seahawks of the Pacific northwest started play, as did another team from the South, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. That gave the NFL 28 teams from coast-to-coast, north-to-south.

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50. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century Innovation in the NFL took place on the field, too, as Paul Brown refused to exit quietly. After Cleveland owner Art Modell fired him in 1963, Brown founded the Cincinnati Bengals of the AFL in 1968, a year after he was elected to the pro football Hall of Fame.

51. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century “ This is like coming home,” Brown said at the Bengals’ first press conference. “I’m living again.”

52. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century Brown hired Bill Walsh as his offensive coordinator in 1968 to build a new offense.

53. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century Walsh learned the vertical game from Sid Gillman in the AFL and devised a new offense that would feature passing as its animating force. He called it the Ohio River Offense.

54. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century In 1969 with fifth overall pick, Brown drafted the perfect quarterback to run that new offense, Greg Cook of the University of Cincinnati. “Greg Cook was, I believe, the greatest talent to play the position,” said Walsh years later.

55. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century Cook’s rookie season was among the best of any quarterback in NFL history.

56. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century Cook led the AFC in completion percentage, passer rating and yards per attempt, all while leading a second-year expansion team He averaged 9.41 yards-per-attempt figure and 17.5 yards-per-completion mark, rookie records.

57. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century Cook and the Bengals defeated Super Bowl-bound Kansas City Chiefs and the Oakland Raiders. But Cook had injured his shoulder against the Chiefs, and although he continued to play in 1969, he never fully recovered afterward.

58. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century The injury forced Brown and Walsh to change the scheme in 1970, because the Ohio River Offense depended on Cook. Instead, Walsh re-formatted the Ohio River Offense to feature a horizontal, ball-control passing attack for new quarterback Virgil Carter.

59. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century Thus was born what would later be called the West Coast Offense, designed by Walsh in San Francisco and operated by Joe Montana.

60. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century For Brown, the loss of Cook meant the loss of a quarterback he saw as the next Otto Graham. Others did, too. “ What a great, great talent," Walsh said in 2001. "What a terrible shame.”

61. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century Despite the loss, Brown and Walsh led the Bengals to divisional titles in 1970, 1973 and 1975. Brown retired after the 1975 season, ending his pro coaching career with 167 victories, 58 losses and 8 ties. He died in 1991.

62. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century Cook’s career lasted just 12 games as the shoulder injury never healed even after multiple surgeries. After formally retiring at the age of 27, Cook, an art major, painted. He died in 2012 of pneumonia.

63. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century Brown’s legacy was assured even before he retired as former players and coaches who worked with him spread throughout the NFL. First, it was Weeb Ewbank with the Jets in Super Bowl III. Don Shula of Miami followed.

64. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century Like Brown, Shula was from Ohio in the football crescent. He coached Baltimore against Ewbank in Super Bowl III but left to lead the Miami Dolphins in 1970.

65. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century Shula immediately built the team around a punishing ground game on the Orange Bowl’s new synthetic surface . The team featured three backs – Larry Csonka, Eugene “Mercury” Morris and Jim Kiick – who each brought unique approaches.

66. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century Bob Griese, left, provided steady if not spectacular play at quarterback but had a top receiver in Paul Warfield – formerly of the Browns – when he needed a great receiver to gain yards.

67. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century Shula and his defensive coordinator Bill Arnsparger constructed a defense focused on linebacker Nick Buoniconti that had a nickname of its own because it lacked the stars of other teams: the no-name defense.

68. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century This combination of a lethal ground game and a stubborn defense – hallmarks of the type of play favored in the football crescent – powered the Dolphins to three straight Super Bowls in 1971, 1972 and 1973.

69. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century In Super Bowl VI, the Dolphins lost to the Dallas Cowboys, 24-3, in New Orleans. The Cowboys suffocated Miami’s running attack, holding the Dolphins to 80 yards of net rushing in becoming the first team to not allow a touchdown in the Super Bowl.

70. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century It would be more than another year before the Dolphins would lose another game.

71. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century In 1972, the Dolphins went 17-0, becoming the first NFL team to go from the opening game to the Super Bowl without a loss, finishing 14-0 in the regular season and 3-0 in the playoffs.

72. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century In the Super Bowl against the Washington, the No-Name Defense held the Redskins and running back Larry Brown in check. The Dolphins won 14-7, with the Washington score coming on a botched field goal attempt.

73. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century The Dolphins relied on the running attack, amassing 184 net yards. Griese threw just 11 passes, completing 8 for 69 net yards. And the MVP was safety Jake Scott who had two interceptions.

74. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century The following year, Miami lost the second game of the season to Oakland, ending its winning streak. Still, the team finished 12-2 and defeated Minnesota 24-7 in the Super Bowl to match Green Bay’s record of two straight wins in the game.

75. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century Griese set a record for the fewest passes in the Super Bowl with seven, including just one in the second half, for a total of 63 net yards passing on six completions. NFL headquarters took note as concern grew over the style of play.

76. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century As Miami built is dynasty, a team in the heart of the football crescent established its credentials for one to watch. Long a doormat in the NFL, the Steelers hired former Brown assistant Chuck Noll in 1969 to turnaround the team, much as Green Bay had with Lombardi.

77. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century Noll had the best of multiple worlds in terms of preparation. He was drafted by Brown in 1953 and played in Cleveland until 1959. From 1960-65, he was an assistant coach under Sid Gillman.

78. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century Noll joined the Steelers after serving as offensive coordinator for Shula in 1968 when the Colts lost Super Bowl III. In his first draft as head coach in 1969, Noll selected Joe Greene from North Texas State as his first pick.

79. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century Noll selected Terry Bradshaw, a quarterback from Louisiana Tech, as the first overall pick in 1970.

80. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century In 1972, the Steelers arrived as a legitimate contender for the Super Bowl by making the playoffs for only the second time in their 40-year history. In a first-round game, the Steelers met the Oakland Raiders in Pittsburgh.

81. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century Trailing on the last play of the game, Steeler quarterback Terry Bradshaw set the formation for a pass over the middle.

82. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century Bradshaw rifled the ball toward running back John Fuqua, who was bounced off the play.

83. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century The ball bounced off either Fuqua or defensive back Jack Tatum. Running back Franco Harris caught the rebound …

84. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century … and raced into the end zone, giving Pittsburgh the win. The play would later be known as The Immaculate Reception.

85. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century The AFC Championship game to follow pitted two disciples of Brown – Noll and Shula – against each other as the Steelers met the Dolphins. Miami won, 21-17, and the Dolphins went on to win the Super Bowl and complete the undefeated season.

86. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century As the Dolphins under Shula and the Steelers under Noll established what would be dynasties, NFL headquarters became increasingly alarmed over football-crescent play that favored the run over the more entertaining pass.

87. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century In 1972, the NFL made a modest move in favor of more scoring by aligning the hashmarks with the goal posts to give offenses more room to operate from the middle to the side of the field.

88. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century That didn’t work, as the Dolphins continued to ignore the passing game en route to back-to-back championships. So the NFL went back to work to open up the game.

89. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century In 1974, the league rewrote the rules in favor of more scoring, just as college football had consistently pursued since the 1890s. The rule changes included:

90. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century Moving kickoffs from the 40-yard line to the 35 Banning blocking receivers below the knee. Reducing holding penalties from 15 to 10 yards.

91. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century Introducing overtime for regular-season games. Moving the goalposts to the back of the end zone. Spotting the ball at the line of scrimmage on missed attempts instead of at the 20.

92. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century Limited defenders to one “chuck,” or bump, past three yards from the line of scrimmage.

93. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century Noll and the Steelers adjusted. And that adjustment was reflected in the draft, particularly in 1974 when the Steelers picked Lynn Swann, right, and John Stallworth, both receivers.

94. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century Noll and his defensive coordinator Bud Carson figured out how to create a defense within the new rules that would privilege passing even as the team drafted wide receivers. First, the team drafted linebacker Jack Lambert, a big, mobile defender.

95. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century Then, Carson devised the Cover Two, a defense in which cornerbacks moved to the line and the safeties shifted to deeper positions. Tony Dungy played for the Steelers and later refined the formation as a coach.

96. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century The corners would bump the receivers at the line and then release to cover a short zone from the middle of the field to the sideline. The linebackers would take the middle. The safeties would cover deep.

97. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century The Steel Curtain defense - the front four of L.C. Greenwood and Dwight White at ends and Ernie Holmes, Joe Greene at tackles – would handle the run and pressure the quarterback.

98. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century Noll had constructed the perfect defense with great players and an innovative scheme to cover the run, the pass and anything in between that would come under the new rules.

99. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century On offense, Terry Bradshaw would hand the ball to Franco Harris or pass to Swann or Stallworth. The Steelers were set up for a dynasty.

100. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century The Steelers would win four Super Bowls in six years, an achievement exceeded only by Paul Brown’s run with the Cleveland Browns in the AAFC and the NFL in the late 1940s and 1950s.

101. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century Pittsburgh beat: - Minnesota 16-6 in Super Bowl IX. - Dallas 21-17 in Super Bowl X. - Dallas 35-31 in Super Bowl XIII. - Los Angeles Rams 31-19 in Super Bowl XIV.

102. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century In addition to the new dynasties in Miami and Pittsburgh, and rules that opened the game to more television-friendly play, new indoor stadiums in Pontiac, Michigan, and Minneapolis, and synthetic surfaces in multipurpose stadiums appeared throughout the 1970s.

103. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century The most emblematic of the new age of football was Texas Stadium, home of the Dallas Cowboys and coach Tom Landry.

104. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century Texas Stadium opened in 1971, and the Cowboys moved there from the Cotton Bowl. It stood as the first of the modern football-only stadium, with as luxury boxes and artificial turf as part of the original design.

105. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century The original design called for a roof but when that became impossible to install within budget, the drawings changed to leave a hole in the roof. Cowboys’ fans said it was there so god could watch his team play.

106. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century No one mentioned the famed Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders in that context. But the cheerleaders mirrored the gendered roles of the game and the glitz of the age, an updated version of the Tex-Anns of the AFL’s Dallas Texans who moved to Kansas City.

107. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century Landry was perfectly matched with Texas. Both represented football’s strange linkage between ecstasy and violence – and religion - playing out now in a technological fantasyland.

108. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century Landry developed his sharply analytical mind when training as an engineer while playing football at the University of Texas. During World War II, he flew combat missions over Europe.

109. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century Landry returned from the war and played pro football in the AAFC for the New York Yankees as a defensive back, shifting to the New York Giants in 1950 when the league folded.

110. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century Landry was often asked by New York coach Steve Owen to explain defensive formations to his teammates, serving in effect as a coach on the field and in practice.

111. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century Landry joined the Giants’ staff as defensive coach in 1956 after he retired, working with offensive coach Vince Lombardo for coach Jim Lee Howell. When asked decades later whose coaching style he emulated, Landry did not hesitate:

112. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century “The person who influenced me the most was Paul Brown. I mean, this is where my whole coaching came from,“ said Landry. Indeed, Landry’s approach reflected Brown’s scientific methods in training, coaching and developing formations and game plans.

113. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century In 1960, Landry turned down the Giants’ offer to be head coach and signed with Dallas instead so he could return to his home state. As Landry and others knew, though, Texas had a different sensibility toward football relative to New York.

114. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century “When I played, I just kinda dug it for what it was. Football and Texas – it was the thing to do. You know, ‘I want to be a football hero, I want to have a beautiful girl.’” – Joe Don Looney, running back, quoted in Dallas Times Herald.

115. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century When Calvin Hill of Yale first visited Dallas after the Cowboys drafted him with their top pick in 1969, he found it difficult to adjust to the scale of the game and the weight of the intensity there.

116. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century “ It was more intense,” he said. “I went from an environment where football was important to an environment where football was extremely important, not only because it was professional in nature, but also Texas football was much more important It was part of the ethos, I thought.”

117. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century Landry represented the other side of Texas football: that of the quiet Christian warrior. As noted earlier in the semester, football “functions” as a religion in the South, as described by Eric Bain Selbo of Western Kentucky University.

118. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century Landry thus served as a personality who linked the football and religious worlds of the contemporary South and Southwest. Landry, though, was hardly conservative in his approach to the game.

119. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century As defensive coach for the Giants, Landry developed the 4-3 defense – four linemen in front, with three linebackers behind them. The scheme transformed pro defenses and made the middle linebackers such as Sam Huff the stars of the defense.

120. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century The 4-3 defense’s emphasis on the middle linebacker meant the player in that position had to perform multiple jobs: fill the gaps against the run, cover backs circling out of the backfield and blitz the quarterback when the moment required it. It required brains and brawn.

121. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century The Cowboys did not win a game in Landry’s first year, finishing 0-11-1. But the coach had started the process of building a team that would be competitive for decades. The key would be his capacity to take calculated risks.

122. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century In 1961, the Cowboys won their first game, against Pittsburgh, and the team would go on to win four games that year. The team would not have a winning season until 1966 but Landry’s job was not in jeopardy.

123. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century Landry and general manager Tex Schramm developed intelligence tests along the pattern established by Paul Brown. Both insisted on building the team through the draft, and one choice in particular showed their appetite for risk.

124. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century In 1964, the Cowboys drafted Roger Staubach, the Heisman-winning quarterback of the U.S. Naval Academy, evidence of the team’s desire to draft smart, accomplished people.

125. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century Staubach, though, couldn’t join the team for five years, until after he met his five-year commitment to the Navy. He would be worth the wait.

126. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century Landry and Schramm took another risk in 1969, when they reached into the Ivy League to draft Hill of Yale with the Cowboys’ top pick. Hill would be named NFL rookie of the year in 1969.

127. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century The pair quickly built Dallas into a competitive team, but the Cowboys lost NFL Championship games to the Green Bay Packers in 1966 and 1967.

128. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century Landry and the Cowboys finally reached the Super Bowl in 1971 but the team lost to the Baltimore Colts, 16-13, on a last-second field goal. The game featured 11 turnovers on the Orange Bowl turf, including seven by the Colts.

129. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century A year later with Roger Staubach starting at quarterback, Dallas earned its first NFL title, beating Miami, 24-3. As noted, it was the first Super Bowl where a team did not score a touchdown, as the Cowboys held Miami’s to just 80 rushing yards.

130. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century With new rules favoring more open play, Landry revised his 4-3 defense to match the tempo set by the offense by stationing two linemen a yard from the line of scrimmage. He called it The Flex because it gave linemen the chance to read-and-react to a play as it unfolded.

131. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century On offense, Landry refined the shotgun formation in 1975 and in the process introduced the spread offense, which took advantage of new rules that restrained defenders from hitting receivers downfield. (The 49ers’ Red Hickey developed the NFL shotgun in the 1960s.)

132. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century The Landry Shift to mask pre-snap movement in the backfield is one innovation no other team copied. The shift called for lineman to start in a crouch and then stand up before moving down to the traditional three-point stance.

133. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century Landry’s Cowboys compiled 20 straight winning seasons between 1966 and 1986. Under Landry during his 29 years as coach, the team:

134. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century Won 13 Divisional Championships Five NFC Titles Won Super Bowls VI and XII Compiled a 250-162-6 regular-season record.

135. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century The most memorable game turned out to be the 1975 NFC playoffs against the Minnesota Vikings. Staubach hit Drew Pearson with a desperation pass with 26 seconds left in the game to give Dallas the lead, 17-14.

136. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century After the game, Staubach told reporters that “I closed my eyes and said a Hail Mary.” Since that game, the expression Hail Mary has been adopted by the wider culture, encompassing politics and any desperation heave at the end of games.

137. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century The fourth coach who defined the 1970s joining Shula, Noll and Landry was John Madden Unlike Shula and Noll, who fall under the coach Paul Brown tree, and Landry, connected with Vince Lombardi during their assistant years in New York, Madden came from the outside.

138. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century Madden was born in Minnesota but his family moved to California when he was young. Raiders’ owner and GM Al Davis promoted the 32-year-old Madden from linebackers’ coach to head coach in 1969, making him the youngest coach in the NFL.

139. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century Madden would stand as the polar opposite of Vince Lombardi in his approach to players. He trusted the team to be ready to play and didn’t care what players did off the field.

140. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century At the start of the 1976 season, for example, Madden simply told his team: “This is our year, so let’s not get fancy. Let’s just kick ass.”

141. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century Madden had good reason to keep things simple. Between 1969 and 1975, Oakland had lost five AFC Championship games, including two to Pittsburgh. The team also lost a Divisional playoff game to the Steelers.

142. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century The Raiders carried a reputation for on- and off-field mayhem. Madden reflected that attitude. According to one of his former players, Ted Hendricks, Madden urged his team to “knock their dicks off.”

143. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century In 1976, the Raiders met the Steelers in the season-opening game. The Raiders won a brutal game, prompting Pittsburgh coach Noll to state:

144. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century “You have a criminal element in all aspects of society. Apparently, we have it in the NFL, too.” The Raiders, Noll said, should be banned from the league.

145. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century But at least one Raider refused to be described as a criminal. George Atkinson sued Noll.

146. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century The game unnerved the usually placid commissioner Peter Rozelle. He wrote the following to both coaches:

147. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century “Dear John and Chuck: A review of your September 12 game indicates that your ‘intense rivalry’ of recent years could be on the verge of erupting into something approaching pure violence.”

148. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century The trend toward “pure violence” also influenced fan behavior. During a Monday night game at Schaefer Stadium in Foxborough, Mass., between the Jets and the Patriots, drunken fans battled police. A disabled man had his wheelchair taken out from under him.

149. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century According to one account of the mayhem, a fan urinated on a paramedic struggling to revive a man who suffered a heart attack as fans rushed the field in the fourth quarter. This was the America of the mid 1970s, and the NFL reflected the wider culture.

150. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century Fittingly, the Raiders of John Madden and the Steelers of Chuck Noll met for the 1976 AFC Championship. The rivalry had started with the Immaculate Reception in 1972 that knocked Oakland from the playoffs.

151. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century Oakland manhandled the Steelers to win 24-7 and advance to its second Super Bowl but first under Madden. The Raiders would face the Minnesota Vikings, losers of three previous Super Bowls.

152. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century The columnist for the Los Angeles Times, Jim Murray, described the contestants this way: “The Vikings play football like a guy laying carpet. The Raiders play like a guy jumping through a skylight with a machine gun,” he wrote.

153. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century Led by quarterback Ken Stabler, running back Clarence Davis, and wideout Fred Blitnikoff Madden’s Raiders won the game, easily, in front of 103,000 people at the Rose Bowl and some 80 million watching on television.

154. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century Atkinson’s lawsuit against Noll put the NFL’s culture of violence on trial in a way that books published in the 1970s critical of the league could not.

155. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century Violence in the NFL, he said, amounted to a: “… sad commentary on the motives of our generation, sadistic. This secret love of violence, the spectacle of liking to see others hurt, happiness at pain, the love of blood – that’s the America of George Atkinson.”

156. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century The jury agreed with Noll and ruled in his favor, confirming the statement that the NFL’s DNA of violence did carry a criminal signal. The NFL, however, sought to reduce violence, using new rules to keep critics at bay and fans watching.

157. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century The league banned head slapping and permitted offensive lineman to use their arms to keep defensive linemen at bay. Moreover, the rules prohibited the defense from hitting receivers beyond five yards of the line of scrimmage, opening up the field for more passing.

158. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century In addition, the league voted to extend the season to 16 games for the 1978 season, giving TV executives more games in exchange for $5.2 million per team. The league also added the wild card to extend playoffs and generate more revenue.

159. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century As it turned out, the 1974 rules worked. Passing accounted for half of offensive plays within three years. In 1979, a poll found that 70 percent of Americans preferred football to baseball.

160. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century But for John Madden, the new rules and extend schedule had become exhausting. He retired after the 1978 season and found work as a broadcaster.

161. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century And licensed his name to a video game whose annual release is now part of pop culture.

162. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century The 1970s also represented the last time a NFL game would not be on television. Due to a scheduling conflict at Shea Stadium, where the Giants played at the time, the Saturday, Nov. 1 , 1975, game against the Chargers would be on radio only.

163. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century The NFL of the 1970s reflected the violent tendencies of the era but also mirrored the “burned out” decade with its use of drugs and decadent ways. But by 1980, the 49ers had opened a new era under the Brown disciple Walsh and quarterback Joe Montana.

164. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century Montana’s background made him a perfect icon of the game: he was from western Pennsylvania in the football crescent, and he played for Notre Dame.

165. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century Walsh left Cincinnati after Brown did not name him head coach after the 1975 season, selecting Bill Johnson instead. Walsh went to the San Diego Chargers for a year before joining Stanford as head coach. He joined the Niners in 1979.

166. JRN/SPS 362 Story of Football The End of the Century San Francisco drafted Montana in the third round of the 1979 NFL draft. Walsh and Montana would combine to lead the 49ers to the greatest runs in NFL history. And it all started with something called The Catch.