Post by TheShadow on Dec 4, 2003 18:58:44 GMT -5
www.oaklandtribune.com
By STAFF REPORTS
BEFORE WILLIE Shoemaker won the Kentucky Derby at age 54, before George Foreman won the heavyweight championship at 45 and before Nolan Ryan pitched a no-hitter at 44, there was The Ancient Raider. George Blanda was defying Father Time back when Shoe was in his prime, when Foreman and Ryan were kids.
Blanda was thought to be hobbling toward retirement when he came to Oakland in 1967. He turned 40 that year. His job was to kick and, in case of emergency, come off the bench to play quarterback.
During a five-game stretch in 1970, Blanda at age 43 answered five emergency calls. Week after week, he rescued the Raiders, never failing to pass or kick them to a win or a tie in the final seconds.
On Nov.8, with Oakland facing Cleveland at the Coliseum, Blanda passed and kicked his team to victory.
Already on a roll, having passed Oakland to a 31-14 win over Pittsburgh two weeks earlier, then, a week later, kicking a 48-yard field goal in the final seconds to force at tie at Kansas City, Old George was fast becoming a legend.
So when starting quarterback Daryle Lamonica was knocked out of the game early in the fourth quarter, with Oakland trailing 17-13, Blanda entered to the sound of cheers.
"That was our first year after the AFL-NFL merger, and because we were playing Cleveland, one of the old NFL stalwarts, I think we all might have been trying too hard," Blanda recalls. "We had trouble moving the ball against them because they covered the deep pass pretty good, and Daryle didn't throw the short ball all that good at that point of his career."
Don Cockroft's field goal gave Cleveland a 20-13 lead with 4:10 left.
Blanda took over.
Shortly after the Raiders took over at their 31, Blanda fired a 22-yard strike to wide receiver Warren Wells. Three plays later, the Raiders found themselves facing a 4th-and-16, with 1:55 remaining.
Blanda zipped a pass to Fred Biletnikoff for 17 yards, to the Browns' 17.
Coach John Madden signaled for a timeout and huddled with Blanda near the sideline.
"Madden asked me what I wanted to do," Blanda says. "I told him I'd like to take three shots with Warren Wells because I knew I could hit him. First pass, we hit for a touchdown."
It was something Raiders broadcaster Bill King might even have expected.
"George had an uncanny knack with certain guys, and he loved going to Warren Wells," King recalls. "He and Wells had an almost magical feel for each other."
The Blanda-to-Wells connection was good for the 17-yard score, after which Old George booted the extra point and tied the game.
But with 1:34 remaining, things still looked pretty bleak for the Raiders.
Not even a minute later, though, cornerback Kent McCloughan stepped in front of a Bill Nelson pass, intended for tight end Milt Morin, and returned the interception to the Cleveland 49.
Blanda had 34 seconds to win the game.
"We had one timeout, and we ran about six plays," Blanda recalls.
On one of those plays, a third-and-20 incompletion, the Raiders were flagged for illegal procedure. The Browns, shocking just about everybody in the crowd of 54,463, accepted it.
"That gave us another play," Blanda recalls. "Our fullback, Hewritt Dixon, had told me in the huddle that nobody covered him when he drifted out in the flat on an earlier play, when I threw it to someone else. Hewritt thought he could get open and get out of bounds."
Blanda took the brawny back at his word. Dixon indeed got open, and Blanda lofted a pass good for 9 yards before Dixon hustled out of bounds.
It was fourth-and-16, from the Cleveland 45, with seven seconds left.
"Madden called our last timeout," Blanda says. "He said, 'What do you think?' I told him 'I don't think I could throw it 50 yards, so we'd better kick it.' He said to go ahead."
There was another hitch in the plan. Lamonica, Blanda's regular holder, was unable to do the job. Summoned as a replacement was a skinny kid named Ken Stabler.
Which was perfect, at least to Blanda.
"He was an outstanding holder because he was left-handed," he says. "So it was natural for him to hold for a right-footed kicker."
Stabler grabbed the snap, put the ball down like a veteran and Blanda -- one of the last of the old straight-ahead kickers -- blasted it through the uprights, which in 1970 stood at the goal line.
Pandemonium ensued.
Stabler leapt into the air and hugged Blanda, who disappeared in a mob of teammates, some on the field during the kick and others rushing from the bench.
Madden bounced over, slapping rear ends and hugging his players.
Meanwhile, upstairs, the announcer was making a bit of history of his own, referring to Blanda as "the king of the world." The call earned a spot on the CBS Evening News by Walter Cronkite and lives on today via NFL Films.
"If I listen to it now, it's almost embarrassing," King says. "It's a little hysterical.
"But nobody -- except George -- really figured he was going to make that. The place just exploded. I know I had no idea he would make it, even though I knew George was capable of a lot of things."
Said Blanda: "I was always confident. I never felt that I was going to miss any, even though I missed a lot. But if you don't think you can make it, you're not going to make it. Even the distance didn't bother me."
King's call was profoundly appropriate. For the third week in a row, Blanda had come through. He was the Ancient Savior, the Miracle Man.
"I was just a backup quarterback and a kicker," Blanda says now. "When you're called on to do what you're supposed to do, you go in there and try to do it."
Blanda did it the next week at Denver with a late touchdown pass to Biletnikoff.
The following week, Blanda's 16-yard field goal with four seconds left put away San Diego.
His impressive, unprecendented run of clutch play inspired not only his team but an entire nation. Blanda was named Player of the Year in 1970 and his exploits that season surely played a role in his first-ballot induction to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Blanda today spends most of the year in the Chicago area, migrating to La Quinta every autumn. He's 76, still married to Betty, his wife of 54 years.
And he plays a lot of golf. Says it helps him maintain his competitive edge.
By STAFF REPORTS
BEFORE WILLIE Shoemaker won the Kentucky Derby at age 54, before George Foreman won the heavyweight championship at 45 and before Nolan Ryan pitched a no-hitter at 44, there was The Ancient Raider. George Blanda was defying Father Time back when Shoe was in his prime, when Foreman and Ryan were kids.
Blanda was thought to be hobbling toward retirement when he came to Oakland in 1967. He turned 40 that year. His job was to kick and, in case of emergency, come off the bench to play quarterback.
During a five-game stretch in 1970, Blanda at age 43 answered five emergency calls. Week after week, he rescued the Raiders, never failing to pass or kick them to a win or a tie in the final seconds.
On Nov.8, with Oakland facing Cleveland at the Coliseum, Blanda passed and kicked his team to victory.
Already on a roll, having passed Oakland to a 31-14 win over Pittsburgh two weeks earlier, then, a week later, kicking a 48-yard field goal in the final seconds to force at tie at Kansas City, Old George was fast becoming a legend.
So when starting quarterback Daryle Lamonica was knocked out of the game early in the fourth quarter, with Oakland trailing 17-13, Blanda entered to the sound of cheers.
"That was our first year after the AFL-NFL merger, and because we were playing Cleveland, one of the old NFL stalwarts, I think we all might have been trying too hard," Blanda recalls. "We had trouble moving the ball against them because they covered the deep pass pretty good, and Daryle didn't throw the short ball all that good at that point of his career."
Don Cockroft's field goal gave Cleveland a 20-13 lead with 4:10 left.
Blanda took over.
Shortly after the Raiders took over at their 31, Blanda fired a 22-yard strike to wide receiver Warren Wells. Three plays later, the Raiders found themselves facing a 4th-and-16, with 1:55 remaining.
Blanda zipped a pass to Fred Biletnikoff for 17 yards, to the Browns' 17.
Coach John Madden signaled for a timeout and huddled with Blanda near the sideline.
"Madden asked me what I wanted to do," Blanda says. "I told him I'd like to take three shots with Warren Wells because I knew I could hit him. First pass, we hit for a touchdown."
It was something Raiders broadcaster Bill King might even have expected.
"George had an uncanny knack with certain guys, and he loved going to Warren Wells," King recalls. "He and Wells had an almost magical feel for each other."
The Blanda-to-Wells connection was good for the 17-yard score, after which Old George booted the extra point and tied the game.
But with 1:34 remaining, things still looked pretty bleak for the Raiders.
Not even a minute later, though, cornerback Kent McCloughan stepped in front of a Bill Nelson pass, intended for tight end Milt Morin, and returned the interception to the Cleveland 49.
Blanda had 34 seconds to win the game.
"We had one timeout, and we ran about six plays," Blanda recalls.
On one of those plays, a third-and-20 incompletion, the Raiders were flagged for illegal procedure. The Browns, shocking just about everybody in the crowd of 54,463, accepted it.
"That gave us another play," Blanda recalls. "Our fullback, Hewritt Dixon, had told me in the huddle that nobody covered him when he drifted out in the flat on an earlier play, when I threw it to someone else. Hewritt thought he could get open and get out of bounds."
Blanda took the brawny back at his word. Dixon indeed got open, and Blanda lofted a pass good for 9 yards before Dixon hustled out of bounds.
It was fourth-and-16, from the Cleveland 45, with seven seconds left.
"Madden called our last timeout," Blanda says. "He said, 'What do you think?' I told him 'I don't think I could throw it 50 yards, so we'd better kick it.' He said to go ahead."
There was another hitch in the plan. Lamonica, Blanda's regular holder, was unable to do the job. Summoned as a replacement was a skinny kid named Ken Stabler.
Which was perfect, at least to Blanda.
"He was an outstanding holder because he was left-handed," he says. "So it was natural for him to hold for a right-footed kicker."
Stabler grabbed the snap, put the ball down like a veteran and Blanda -- one of the last of the old straight-ahead kickers -- blasted it through the uprights, which in 1970 stood at the goal line.
Pandemonium ensued.
Stabler leapt into the air and hugged Blanda, who disappeared in a mob of teammates, some on the field during the kick and others rushing from the bench.
Madden bounced over, slapping rear ends and hugging his players.
Meanwhile, upstairs, the announcer was making a bit of history of his own, referring to Blanda as "the king of the world." The call earned a spot on the CBS Evening News by Walter Cronkite and lives on today via NFL Films.
"If I listen to it now, it's almost embarrassing," King says. "It's a little hysterical.
"But nobody -- except George -- really figured he was going to make that. The place just exploded. I know I had no idea he would make it, even though I knew George was capable of a lot of things."
Said Blanda: "I was always confident. I never felt that I was going to miss any, even though I missed a lot. But if you don't think you can make it, you're not going to make it. Even the distance didn't bother me."
King's call was profoundly appropriate. For the third week in a row, Blanda had come through. He was the Ancient Savior, the Miracle Man.
"I was just a backup quarterback and a kicker," Blanda says now. "When you're called on to do what you're supposed to do, you go in there and try to do it."
Blanda did it the next week at Denver with a late touchdown pass to Biletnikoff.
The following week, Blanda's 16-yard field goal with four seconds left put away San Diego.
His impressive, unprecendented run of clutch play inspired not only his team but an entire nation. Blanda was named Player of the Year in 1970 and his exploits that season surely played a role in his first-ballot induction to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Blanda today spends most of the year in the Chicago area, migrating to La Quinta every autumn. He's 76, still married to Betty, his wife of 54 years.
And he plays a lot of golf. Says it helps him maintain his competitive edge.