The '63 Steelers (9 page)

It was a familiar scenario, yet another challenge, for Tittle. “I was always fighting—fighting to stay a step ahead of the other quarterbacks,” he said.
“One thing about the quarterback position is, there's no room for two. You can't alternate like you do wide receivers. Quarterbacks stay in all the time, so you either play or you sit, and I wanted to play.”
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In recent years, the Steelers had repeatedly acquired quarterbacks with rare talent—Johnny Unitas, Len Dawson, Jack Kemp—and discarded them, allowing them to go on to All-Pro and Hall of Fame careers with other teams. The Steelers couldn't shake their image as a loser, and for a long time, neither could the city itself. Once James Parton damned Pittsburgh nearly one hundred years earlier by describing it as “hell with the lid lifted,” the city became a wide-open target for jokes and cheap shots. And the Steelers were in the line of fire as well.

The Renaissance that began in Pittsburgh in the mid-forties had started to clear the air and “redd up”—as locals referred to tidying up—downtown, but the biggest source of pride in '63 wasn't the Steelers; it was the two-year-old Civic Arena, the world's first auditorium with a retractable roof. “It has become a sort of symbol of the new Pittsburgh,” an editorial in the
Pittsburgh Press
stated in the aftermath of Leonard Bernstein's condemnation of the Arena's acoustics during his performance there on the afternoon the Steelers played the Eagles.
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Super Bowl trophies wouldn't be displayed in Pittsburgh until the seventies, but in 1963, the Arena served as the showpiece for a city eager to show off something of pride.

Still, the taunts and jibes rankled citizens, and one of the city's foremost advocates, Steelers owner Art Rooney Sr., had to endure the insults toward both his team and his city. Two days after the tie with the Eagles, Rooney addressed the Chamber of Commerce Breakfast Club and pledged not to move the team unless it met with severe financial hardship. “The Steelers are one industry that will not move until the time when it becomes financially impossible for me to keep the team here. It is as simple as that,” Rooney said. He also took the opportunity to chide officials and the media for a defeatist attitude toward the city's efforts at self-improvement, citing critical remarks that could undermine efforts to attract new industries and revitalize the downtown. But one regret he voiced seemed to speak more to changes in lifestyles and attitudes than in business, a shift in communities and priorities, and a decline in old-fashioned manners and civility. His unease seemed to presage the discontent that the
U.S. News & World Report
would reveal two months later. “Everyone seems busier and a little less friendly,” Rooney said. “We seem to take a more negative attitude toward things.”
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The world was undergoing drastic changes, and Pittsburgh couldn't avoid being swept up in them. People wanted to hang on to small pleasures and
the normalcy in their lives, even though western Pennsylvania felt the reverberations from thousands of miles away. So, while Bob Schmitz, a third-year linebacker from Montana State, was working with the first team defense at the Steelers' Wednesday practice in South Park, with Parker stressing protection against Tittle's bombs to Del Shofner, WIIC TV was preparing for its Community Day Parade, a kickoff to the new fall TV season, with Dan Blocker, Hoss from
Bonanza
, as the grand marshal. Tuesday night had ushered in a new season of
Combat!
and
McHale's Navy
, plus the premiere of “a very promising series,”
The Fugitive
, starring David Janssen.

Up in Oakland, James Meredith, the first black student to attend the University of Mississippi, received standing ovations at functions at the University of Pittsburgh, where he told students in a speech, “I think there is another civil war in the making.” Asked if he blamed Alabama governor George Wallace for the bombing in Birmingham the previous Sunday, Meredith replied, “The truth is all Americans are to blame, including the steel magnates in Pittsburgh who may own the mills of Birmingham … and the Congress … and the professor at the University of Pittsburgh who has failed to acquaint his students with the realities of the world.”
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Sports carried on despite death, wars, and tragedies. The sports section of the newspaper still provided the “vicarious, if not welcome relief” that Al Abrams had acknowledged two years earlier, and coaches and players from the high schools to the pros had to carry on.
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So Parker fretted over his offense but expressed no doubts that Tittle would play on Sunday. “We definitely will have to quit messing up our scoring opportunities,” Parker said. “Then we must exert more pressure on the passer.”
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What Parker should have remembered was Layne's insight when the Steelers traveled to Yankee Stadium to face the Giants the year before. “They're too smart to go for the fake and too fast to go around,” Layne said. “Your only chance is to overpower them.” Pittsburgh went on to rush for 259 yards in a 20–17 victory.
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Coming to Pittsburgh, it was John Mara who felt nervous. “We've had some terrible experiences out here,” the Giants president said the day before the game. “It's never been easy.”
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The Giants had won the previous four meetings in Pittsburgh, but by margins of four, three, two, and five points. Tittle's uncertain status didn't ease Mara's apprehension.

Before dawn Saturday, the day before the game, Allie Sherman decided not to play Tittle. “I told him Sunday morning in my hotel room,” Sherman said later, “and it took me an hour to convince him. Naturally, he wanted to play. He's a real competitor.”
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Even if he had been healthy enough to play, Tittle would have had a hard time getting on the field that afternoon. “The Steelers won the toss and promptly began knocking the tar out of the Giant defense,” wrote one New York tabloid reporter.
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So overwhelming was the Steelers' ground game that the Giants ran only three plays from scrimmage in the first quarter, compared to twenty-six for Pittsburgh. The Steelers banged away at the Giant defense on eight straight running plays on the opening series, with John Henry Johnson ripping up the middle for 6 yards, then off right tackle for 7, and Dick Hoak hitting the left side for 3- and 6-yard gains. The Steelers were in field goal range when Hoak ran for 4 yards to the Giants' 39, but linebacker Tom Scott dropped Ed Brown for an 11-yard loss, and the Steeler quarterback punted on fourth-and-17.

The Steelers stopped the Giants cold and started from their 43 after Brady Keys's 7-yard punt return. Parker's offense began methodically grinding out yardage, poking holes in a defensive front—Jim Katcavage, Dick Modzelewski, John LoVetere, and Andy Robustelli—that was showing the wear from a combined thirty-three seasons of NFL play. The Steelers ran the ball for eleven straight plays, and so confident were they in their offensive line that they went for it on fourth-and-1 at the Giant 37, rather than settle for a field goal, and gained 6 yards from Hoak.

On third-and-11 at the 20, Johnson gained 8 yards on a reception, and a penalty against New York gave the Steelers first-and-goal at the 6. Johnson ran the ball to the 2 as the first period ended. On third down, the second play of the second quarter, Hoak burrowed in for a 1-yard touchdown, capping a fifteen-play drive that had covered only 57 yards.

The teams exchanged punts, and Pittsburgh started to put relentless pressure on Tittle's fill-in, Ralph Guglielmi, a seven-year veteran out of Notre Dame. Cordileone had already shown in preseason that he could be a terror on defense. One writer dubbed him Lou “the Lion Hearted,” commenting that he “has filled in admirably” for Lipscomb.
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On second-and-4 from the Giant 39, Michaels batted away Guglielmi's pass. On third down, the former No. 1 draft pick known as “Goog” fumbled when hit by Cordileone, and defensive end John Baker recovered. Baker was nearly as big as Lipscomb but had been faulted for not being aggressive enough. He had the potential to become a force on the defensive line, the
Pittsburgh Courier
suggested, “if he can be supercharged with desire.”
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Baker had excelled in the fourth preseason game after being elbowed by one of the Detroit Lions, leading Rooney to quip afterward, “Maybe we ought to have
someone in the runway belt that guy in the nose before every game.”
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The second game of the regular season would prove to be a long, tiresome day for six-foot-three, 260-pound offensive tackle Roosevelt Brown, in his eleventh year, against the six-foot-six, 270-pound Baker. “Big John just ate him up,” Michaels said later.
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Pittsburgh took over at the 25. Hoak caught a pass on third-and-12 and gained 18 yards, setting up first-and-goal at the 9. On third down from the 2, Johnson lost the ball while vaulting over the line, but Ed Brown recovered at the 4, setting up Michaels for an 11-yard field goal to make it 10–0 with 7:02 left in the half.

After each team went 3-and-out, the Giants started from their 28, and Pittsburgh nearly ran Guglielmi out of the stadium. On first down, Michaels and Joe Krupa dumped him for a 9-yard loss. On second down, Baker batted away a pass, and Michaels nearly caught it. On third-and-19, running back Joe Morrison took a pass 28 yards for a first down at the 47, but after the two-minute warning, Schmitz sacked Guglielmi for a 17-yard loss. Guglielmi hit end Joe Walton for a gain of 8, but then he was smashed by Baker and Ernie Stautner for a loss of 8, leaving New York with fourth-and-28. If Allie Sherman had anything to be grateful for as the half ended with Clendon Thomas intercepting Guglielmi, it had to be that at least Y. A. Tittle wasn't the quarterback on the field taking a beating.

Rarely had a 10–0 halftime lead looked so secure. The Steelers hadn't even let the visitors into Pittsburgh territory in the first half, and it took nearly thirteen minutes into the second quarter for the Giants to complete a pass and earn a first down.

The second half brought only more misery for Guglielmi. Other than a 31-yard gain by John Henry Johnson that took the Steelers to the Giant 45, neither team was able to gain a first down on the first four series. Guglielmi started on his 39, but Michaels dropped him for no gain. King took a pass in the flat and ran 22 yards to the Steeler 29, New York's first threat, but consecutive sacks by Russell and Michaels, plus a holding penalty, pushed the Giants back to their 40. End Aaron Thomas gained 16 yards on a reception, but Don Chandler's 51-yard field goal attempt only reached the Steeler 7, and Thomas returned it 20 yards.

Johnson and Hoak led the Steelers into Giant territory, but Jim Patton intercepted Brown at the Giant 21. Guglielmi gave the ball right back. Glenn Glass intercepted a pass and returned it 29 yards to the Giants' 9 as the third quarter ended. Hoak scored his second TD on a flare pass from the 2-yard line on the third play of the fourth quarter to make it 17–0.

Griffing came on for Guglielmi, and the Steeler defense kept dishing out punishment. Griffing was dropped by Baker for a loss of 9 yards, and then recovered his own fumble, forcing Chandler to punt on fourth-and-20 from the 37. Keys fielded the ball on his 17 and let a herd of blockers plow a path for him as he raced 82 yards before Chandler knocked him out at the 1. Johnson dived over right tackle for a touchdown to make it 24–0.

On the third play after the kickoff, Myron Pottios knocked the ball loose from Griffing and grabbed it in midair, setting up Brown to hit Dial with a 46-yard TD pass to make it 31–0. The Giants got down to the Steeler 13 on Frank Gifford's 64-yard reception, but three throws to wide receiver Del Shofner missed, securing the first regular-season shutout of the Giants in ten years and marking the first time the Steelers had ever blanked them. The Steelers piled up 223 yards rushing, including 123 by Johnson, while holding the Giants to 59 yards on the ground and only one first down rushing. Guglielmi and Griffing were a combined eight of twenty-six passing, with four interceptions.

A crowd of 46,068, the largest ever to see a pro football game in Pittsburgh, “sat in on the execution.”
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Said one Giant player: “They beat the hell out of us.”
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As sweet as the victory was for the Steelers and their fans, it was especially satisfying to the kid from Jersey. Cordileone, wrote the
New York Times
, “ran around in the Giant backfield as if he were back on the New York team, but with no intention of helping it along.”
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The
Pittsburgh Press
called it “a hollow victory” without Tittle, but Ernie Stautner responded, “It wouldn't have made any difference, do you think? The way this team played today, nothing would have helped the Giants.”
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Giants coach Allie Sherman didn't disagree. “They whipped us,” he said. “It wasn't a question of Tittle not playing. There were 22 men who didn't play.”
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Maybe so. Maybe no single player could have made a dent in the Steelers that day. But one week shy of the forty-fifth anniversary of the loss, Yelberton Abraham Tittle, sitting in his office in California, thought back on that afternoon and said, with a nod toward an athlete's code of respect for his opponent and an involuntary flare-up of pride, “If I'd played—don't write this down—it wouldn't have been 31–0.”
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In place of Tittle, Guglielmi hit only five of fifteen passes for 89 yards, was intercepted twice and thrown for 67 yards in losses, and felt pressure from Cordileone all afternoon. “What a game he played,” Guglielmi said. “We tried to go over him, we tried to trap him. We passed, and he knocked
the ball down. We tried to fool him with a play pass. Even that didn't work. Nothing worked.”
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