in 1970 i was 10 years old and had 2 shoeboxes filled with football cards, the linemen were about 240lbs. and the back of the cards would often say, "Joe has great speed and is a carpenter in the off season"
I used to work with a guy who had a friend who played in the NFL in the 60's. He asked him what he did to stay in shape in the off season. He said two things; pizza and beer.
Watch Packers' Henry Jordan, 74, catch Vikings' Hugh McElhenny from behind after a long, winding chase. Jordan was undersized for a DT but very fast, and this play shows his speed. No wonder he was all-pro several times.
Who were your favs? I'm 65, and loved watching Tark and Unitas and Starr in their prime or coming to it. These guys just loved to play, even if 5 grand was a good salary. 😊
This was an era when true "impact" tackling was rare. It looks like bad tackling but it was an era of tacklers grabbing ball carriers. Another change is that receivers did not wear tacky gloves. Consequentially, a catch was not done with arms extended, using only the hands as is the practice today. (18:43)
@@PaulRoos-p3o There were a couple of defensive players that changed football forever. No. 1 would probably be Butkus. There was another guy in that same era, Mike Curtis. A few years later there was Jack Tatum and Ronnie Lott. A good tackle was no longer wrestling a ball player to the ground. A good tackle was flattening the ball carrier with a collision.
Only reason I watched & no sound. I did notice that no Colts defensive players were shown except giving up big plays to other teams. Those '58 & '59 Championship defenses were either old or retired
I agree. It was a lotta fun for us late 50's babies who mostly remembered the very late 60's and all the 70's. Average salary then was about 4 to 5 grand per year. Guys had off season jobs, and played football for the love of it.
Those ads were part of the pre-VHS/DVR reality of watching everything on TV. The term "fast forward" didn't enter the public vocabulary until the 1970s, and didn't apply to watching TV until the late 1970s. You can fast forward through them on this platform if you choose.
There were some great teams in the NFL east but the best were the New York Giants, who were thought to be washed up in 1961. However when they traded for the also thought to be washed up Y A Tittle they won their 1st of 3 straight and 5 of 6 division titles. I still remember when the Giants brought in DB Erich Barnes for one play and connected with YA for a long TD on route to crushing their hated rivals and defending NFL champions Philadelphia "Beagles".
I saw my first Giants game in person in 61. I can still remember sitting in low level seats in old Yankee Stadium and trying to see the game over the heads of people and players on the field. It didn't matter though, just being there was so special. No wildcard, no playoffs, you won the conference and you go to the NFL Championship game....great stars, great football. When every team had two or three QB's who were good. How interesting no celebrating for just making a tackle or first down or sometimes even touchdowns in those days. Just play the game!
Great highlights! I was born in 1950 and grew up in San Francisco. When Y.A. was traded to NY, as a 10-year-old, my heart was broken. My dad took me to several games at Kezar Stadium because we lived nearby on Stanyon Street. I got a number of the guys to sign autographs for me as I waited with my dad for them to come out of the stadium. What a great time to grow up and get to watch these guys. Some of the guys worked in off-season jobs at places close to the stadium.
The Giants were still a star team, soon to be eclipsed by the Packers. They remained important though, being in the media center of the world, and getting much needed attention for the NFL as television burgeoned. Frank Gifford and the Giants were an integral element in the success of the league.
Title was an upgrade over the even older Charlie Conerly but the arrival of Del Shofner also helped to ignite the Giant' passing attack. The days of the defense telling the offense "hold 'em" were over.
True, and the players had an entirely useless union, just like the United Mine Workers. Their job security was equally bad, and it took three NFL strikes (1974 [preseason], 1982, 1987) and another six seasons before the players were given true free agency in 1993. All those nostalgic fans who yearn for the good old days of pro football forget, or are most likely ignorant of, the ridiculous working conditions and salaries for even the best players. Jim Brown was the first player in the modern, post-1950 NFL to earn $100,000 per year in 1964, the equivalent of about $1 million today (highest paid RB in 2024 is Christian McCaffrey at $16 million). By comparison, Dak Prescott takes in $60 million annually, and the players receive 48% of all league revenue (except for the entirety of team merchandise and a few other revenue streams).
@@courylanders4142 I should have mentioned the TV contracts the NFL had in the 1950s were worth next to nothing, with no network showing the games of every team until 1959. From the wiki "History of the NFL on TV:" "By 1959, big-market teams such as the Bears and Giants had all their games televised, but small-market ones like the Packers and 49ers still did not." It was this favoritism for large-market teams that gave Lamar Hunt much of the motivation to form the American Football League (AFL) in 1960. Even then, the AFL didn't get a league-wide TV contract until 1964. Fortunately for me, our family moved to Miami in 1966. I hated the city but loved the brand new Dolphins, in part because owner Joe Robbie and his family lived a few blocks away. My mother became friends and bridge partner with Liz Robbie, Joe's wife. This coincided with my love affair with the NFL, but soon found Joe was a cheap bastard who refused to offer contracts proportional to the skills of his best players. Just search on "Miami Dolphins WFL" if you're not already aware of the Csonka, Kiick and Warfield debacle of the Dolphins 1974 season. Players could not reap the benefits of the league's growing revenue streams until true free agency was legally forced upon the NFL in 1993. The owners had to agree to collective bargaining with the NFLPA if it wanted to retain its antitrust exemption. That exemption just ran headlong into a DOJ with some backbone. A jury granted $4.7 billion in fines for restricting access to its Sunday Ticket programming to DirectTV alone: www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/nfl-violated-antitrust-laws-and-must-pay-nearly-4-7-billion-in-damages-jury-rules It will likely go all the way up the legal ladder to a Supreme Court that wants to pull America back to the 19th century. The likelihood this judgment will stand is slim, IMO.
Deacon Jones and Jim Brown are at least two names that young fans need to be aware of when they opine on greatness. And there is almost twice the contemporary passing game compared to most of the '50. The NFL didn't track QB sacks until '82 but there has been an unofficial effort to research them. They make a difference when you are talking best of the defensive players.
I was about to mention no one spiking the ball. Others noticed it too. I started to stop watching football in late 70s. Players started becoming too in love with themselves.
They even had cheerleaders on the sidelines back then.And they say the game has changed.Also they had a semi championship game that year,The Playoff Bowl.The two teams with the second best records.Lasted only 1 year.
I remember the Playoff Bowl being played in Miami around 1966 between the Baltimore Colts & Dallaw Cowboys. Unitas & his replacement (Earl Morral?) were injured & Tom Matte, a former Ohio St QB) was the emergency QB that lead the Colts to victory. He had the first wristband with the plays on it & its in Canton.
MAN THAT IS REAL FOOTBALL 🏈 👍
in 1970 i was 10 years old and had 2 shoeboxes filled with football cards, the linemen were about 240lbs. and the back of the cards would often say, "Joe has great speed and is a carpenter in the off season"
I used to work with a guy who had a friend who played in the NFL in the 60's. He asked him what he did to stay in shape in the off season. He said two things; pizza and beer.
Back then a lot of players had to have off-season jobs because their football salaries were so meager.
@@dirtylemon3379 Art Donovan once said the heaviest weight he ever lifted was a 24-oz. can of Schlitz.
This is priceless-thanx😊!
Watch Packers' Henry Jordan, 74, catch Vikings' Hugh McElhenny from behind after a long, winding chase. Jordan was undersized for a DT but very fast, and this play shows his speed. No wonder he was all-pro several times.
That was the first year I followed the NFL> It was great to see these players young and alive again. There were some great ones.
Who were your favs? I'm 65, and loved watching Tark and Unitas and Starr in their prime or coming to it. These guys just loved to play, even if 5 grand was a good salary. 😊
@@jeffryhammel3035 Jim Brown, Jim Brown and Jim Brown.
The Packers might have had the greatest year of a team ever, in ‘61
The word excellence defines Lombardi’s greatest team
@@jeffryhammel3035Hornung,Starr, Johnnie U
Very Good footage.
'Professional' football at its finest!
@@curtgomes Childish showing off at its finest.
And no dancing in the end zone either.
And dancing after a tackle...
@@audieconrad8995Dancing or celebrating after every positive play. It’s beyond ridiculous.
Yes, they were men back then and played as a team and not individuals.
@@excalibur7185 Especially when you are down by four touchdowns.
We have all this stupid behavior all thanks to Mr. Prime Time. 😢😢
Names I still remember over 60 years later
This was an era when true "impact" tackling was rare. It looks like bad tackling but it was an era of tacklers grabbing ball carriers. Another change is that receivers did not wear tacky gloves. Consequentially, a catch was not done with arms extended, using only the hands as is the practice today. (18:43)
That's a good point. When think about it, high pointing the ball at impact would be much more difficult without gloves.
YOU EVER SEE THE CLIP OF PACKERS COACH VINCE LOMBARDI YELLING AT HIS PLAYERS, "gRAB , GRAB , GRAB, EVERYONE'S GRABING AND NO ONES TACKLING"!
@@PaulRoos-p3o There were a couple of defensive players that changed football forever. No. 1 would probably be Butkus. There was another guy in that same era, Mike Curtis. A few years later there was Jack Tatum and Ronnie Lott. A good tackle was no longer wrestling a ball player to the ground. A good tackle was flattening the ball carrier with a collision.
@@mikewalters3048 NO DOUBT, DON'T FORGET SAM HUFF , , RAY NITSSCHKE
I guess the audio for the Colts season was flagged by TH-cam
Only reason I watched & no sound. I did notice that no Colts defensive players were shown except giving up big plays to other teams. Those '58 & '59 Championship defenses were either old or retired
These guys were slower and smaller than todays guys but these players were waay tougher !
You can say that again!
Great stuff!! Thanks for posting !!
I agree. It was a lotta fun for us late 50's babies who mostly remembered the very late 60's and all the 70's. Average salary then was about 4 to 5 grand per year. Guys had off season jobs, and played football for the love of it.
The beer narrator is Chris Shenkel, who did bowling in the late 70s, right?
For ABC Sports
The game was played like a aport.
This is so cool
Those ads were part of the pre-VHS/DVR reality of watching everything on TV. The term "fast forward" didn't enter the public vocabulary until the 1970s, and didn't apply to watching TV until the late 1970s. You can fast forward through them on this platform if you choose.
Some great names here. And maybe the most missed tackles in history!
There were some great teams in the NFL east but the best were the New York Giants, who were thought to be washed up in 1961. However when they traded for the also thought to be washed up Y A Tittle they won their 1st of 3 straight and 5 of 6 division titles. I still remember when the Giants brought in DB Erich Barnes for one play and connected with YA for a long TD on route to crushing their hated rivals and defending NFL champions Philadelphia "Beagles".
I saw my first Giants game in person in 61. I can still remember sitting in low level seats in old Yankee Stadium and trying to see the game over the heads of people and players on the field. It didn't matter though, just being there was so special. No wildcard, no playoffs, you won the conference and you go to the NFL Championship game....great stars, great football. When every team had two or three QB's who were good. How interesting no celebrating for just making a tackle or first down or sometimes even touchdowns in those days. Just play the game!
Great highlights! I was born in 1950 and grew up in San Francisco. When Y.A. was traded to NY, as a 10-year-old, my heart was broken. My dad took me to several games at Kezar Stadium because we lived nearby on Stanyon Street. I got a number of the guys to sign autographs for me as I waited with my dad for them to come out of the stadium. What a great time to grow up and get to watch these guys. Some of the guys worked in off-season jobs at places close to the stadium.
@@luberdoo1950 Great times for sure. I remember paying $14 to see the games at Yankees Stadium.
The Giants were still a star team, soon to be eclipsed by the Packers. They remained important though, being in the media center of the world, and getting much needed attention for the NFL as television burgeoned. Frank Gifford and the Giants were an integral element in the success of the league.
Title was an upgrade over the even older Charlie Conerly but the arrival of Del Shofner also helped to ignite the Giant' passing attack. The days of the defense telling the offense "hold 'em" were over.
The guys today are supernatural compared to these guys/my guys, who I still love immeasurably.
These guys got paid like mill workers
True, and the players had an entirely useless union, just like the United Mine Workers. Their job security was equally bad, and it took three NFL strikes (1974 [preseason], 1982, 1987) and another six seasons before the players were given true free agency in 1993. All those nostalgic fans who yearn for the good old days of pro football forget, or are most likely ignorant of, the ridiculous working conditions and salaries for even the best players. Jim Brown was the first player in the modern, post-1950 NFL to earn $100,000 per year in 1964, the equivalent of about $1 million today (highest paid RB in 2024 is Christian McCaffrey at $16 million). By comparison, Dak Prescott takes in $60 million annually, and the players receive 48% of all league revenue (except for the entirety of team merchandise and a few other revenue streams).
The players would work a job during the off-season.
@@courylanders4142 I should have mentioned the TV contracts the NFL had in the 1950s were worth next to nothing, with no network showing the games of every team until 1959. From the wiki "History of the NFL on TV:"
"By 1959, big-market teams such as the Bears and Giants had all their games televised, but small-market ones like the Packers and 49ers still did not."
It was this favoritism for large-market teams that gave Lamar Hunt much of the motivation to form the American Football League (AFL) in 1960. Even then, the AFL didn't get a league-wide TV contract until 1964. Fortunately for me, our family moved to Miami in 1966. I hated the city but loved the brand new Dolphins, in part because owner Joe Robbie and his family lived a few blocks away. My mother became friends and bridge partner with Liz Robbie, Joe's wife. This coincided with my love affair with the NFL, but soon found Joe was a cheap bastard who refused to offer contracts proportional to the skills of his best players. Just search on "Miami Dolphins WFL" if you're not already aware of the Csonka, Kiick and Warfield debacle of the Dolphins 1974 season.
Players could not reap the benefits of the league's growing revenue streams until true free agency was legally forced upon the NFL in 1993. The owners had to agree to collective bargaining with the NFLPA if it wanted to retain its antitrust exemption. That exemption just ran headlong into a DOJ with some backbone. A jury granted $4.7 billion in fines for restricting access to its Sunday Ticket programming to DirectTV alone: www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/nfl-violated-antitrust-laws-and-must-pay-nearly-4-7-billion-in-damages-jury-rules
It will likely go all the way up the legal ladder to a Supreme Court that wants to pull America back to the 19th century. The likelihood this judgment will stand is slim, IMO.
Deacon Jones and Jim Brown are at least two names that young fans need to be aware of when they opine on greatness. And there is almost twice the contemporary passing game compared to most of the '50. The NFL didn't track QB sacks until '82 but there has been an unofficial effort to research them. They make a difference when you are talking best of the defensive players.
Each stadium had differently designed goal posts. It was like hey, let’s build some goal posts for the stadium!
Chicago's Willie Galimore and John Farrington were both killed in an auto accident in 1963.
I also belive thats when the 2 black strips were added to the bears uniform in '64
Say, that's swell.
Damn I was 2 !
Everything but the championship game. Awesome though
I was about to mention no one spiking the ball. Others noticed it too. I started to stop watching football in late 70s. Players started becoming too in love with themselves.
Notice how short the uprights were back than.
Darn, I was a Baltimore Colts fan & the sound goes off.
9:33 "Shotgun"? wow i thought that came much much later.
Red Hickey brought it in
Ollie Matson looked pretty nimble in '61, seeing as how he had 8 years of wear of tear on his frame.
And no spiking the football BEFORE they cross the goal line!
They even had cheerleaders on the sidelines back then.And they say the game has changed.Also they had a semi championship game that year,The Playoff Bowl.The two teams with the second best records.Lasted only 1 year.
The third-place Playoff (Bert Bell) Bowl was played ten times: 60-69.
I remember the Playoff Bowl being played in Miami around 1966 between the Baltimore Colts & Dallaw Cowboys. Unitas & his replacement (Earl Morral?) were injured & Tom Matte, a former Ohio St QB) was the emergency QB that lead the Colts to victory. He had the first wristband with the plays on it & its in Canton.
That was great except for the excessive advertisements. Thumbs down.
Nothing on the Detroit Lions?
Have a look at 19:46. From a Bill's fan. 🙂
If this was the year
A gain st
Uh-gainst
Canadian pronunciation.
@ I know but it sounds strange for an NFL highlight film.
Wow football without the cringe.
Those redskins helmets are awful