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NFL-70           12/15/99

How many leagues can pinpoint the exact spot, the exact day, even the exact time they "arrived"? The National Football League can – Yankee Stadium…December 28, 1958…4:51 PM.

On December 28, 1958, what would become known as "The Greatest Game Ever Played" took place -- the 1958 NFL Championship Game between the Baltimore Colts and New York Giants at Yankee Stadium in New York City. And when Colts fullback ALAN AMECHE burst through a hole for a one-yard touchdown with 6:45 left in overtime – at 4:51 p.m. on a foggy, drizzly day – he took the National Football League with him into a new era.

That contest has been voted by NFL fans as the seventh most memorable game in NFL history, the league announced today. To commemorate the end of the century, the NFL invited fans to vote on nfl.com, the league’s official website, for the 10 most memorable games of the century. Nearly 35,000 votes were cast. Each Wednesday, the next "most memorable" game will be announced, culminating in the announcement of the Most Memorable NFL Game of the Century during Super Bowl XXXIV week on Wednesday, January 26.

"PETE ROZELLE (NFL Commissioner from 1960-89) always told me that the reason pro football took off was because the ’58 Championship happened just at that time, in that season, and it happened in New York," says WELLINGTON MARA, then, as now, an owner of the Giants. America’s media capital, New York, its marketing and advertising communities and its still-developing television industry were turned on.

It was to be a classic confrontation of offense vs. defense. The Colts led the NFL in scoring with 381 points. They were led by 25-year-old quarterback JOHNNY UNITAS, signed two years before out of the Pittsburgh sandlots where he had been making $25 a game with the Bloomfield Rams. The Giants, glamorizing defense for the first time in NFL history, surrendered the league’s fewest points – 183.

THE GAME -- The Giants scored first on a 36-yard PAT Summerall field goal with two minutes left in the first quarter. By halftime, the Colts had a 14-3 lead and it looked like their high-powered offense would only add to that total in the second half.

On their second series in the third quarter, the Colts drove from their 41-yard line to the Giants’ three. Three rushes gained the Colts two yards. It was now fourth and goal-to-go at the one. The Colts would go for it. Unitas took the snap, pitched to Ameche, who faked a pass and then took off – only to be stopped cold by JIM KATCAVAGE, DICK MODZELEWSKI and SAM HUFF. Four-yard loss. Giants ball. The momentum swung.

The Giants marched 95 yards on the next series, and 81 yards on the next, for touchdowns. Now they were ahead, 17-14, one minute into the fourth quarter. It was their turn to try to bury the opposition.

The Giants moved from the 19 to their 40, using up the clock on four running plays and a completed pass. There was 2:30 left in the game. Then Colts defensive end Gino Marchetti, breaking his leg in the process, stopped FRANK GIFFORD on a crucial third-down play.

To this day, Gifford thinks he made the first down. "I made the first down," he says. "But Marchetti broke his leg, and he was screaming like a wounded panther. There was a lot of confusion. A lot of time passed by while they carried Marchetti off the field. When they spotted the ball, it was placed short of the first-down marker."

THE FINAL DRIVE – The Giants’ DON CHANDLER punted 43 yards to the Colts’ 14, where CARL TASEFF fair-caught the ball. There was 1:56 left, and the Colts had to go 86 yards to tie.

Unitas’ first two passes were incomplete. On third down, he connected with LENNY MOORE for 11 yards. He then missed L.G. DUPRE. And then "Johnny U" started going to RAYMOND Berry, the guy who wore contacts, whose one foot was shorter than the other, whose wife threw him passes in the offseason. Unitas to Berry for 25. Unitas to Berry for 15. Unitas to Berry for 22.

The Colts were now at the New York 13 with 19 seconds left, but no time outs available. Kicker STEVE MYHRA raced onto the field. There was no time for a huddle.

"I told myself I better not miss it," he says, "or it would be a long, cold winter back on the farm in North Dakota." The kick was good and created the first sudden-death overtime in NFL history.

THE WINNING DRIVE – The Giants won the toss and elected to receive, but gained only four yards before Chandler punted to Taseff again. The next 13 plays confirmed the "ice-in-his-veins" legend of Johnny Unitas.

Unitas moved the Colts 80 yards in those 13 plays. On the first play, Dupre gained 11 yards on a left-side cutback. After an incompletion, Dupre went for two over left tackle. On third-and-eight, a connection to Ameche went for eight over the middle. Then Dupre added another four over right tackle. After a sack, Unitas completed a 21-yard pass to Berry. Then Ameche, on a trap, raced up the middle for 22 yards.

After Dupre was held for no gain, Unitas completed a 12-yarder to Berry. It was now first-and-goal at the Giants’ eight. Unitas handed off to Ameche for a one-yard gain off right tackle. Then he stunned everybody – especially Colts head coach WEEB Ewbank – by fading back and floating a six-yard pass along the right sideline to wide receiver JIM MUTSCHELLER.

"When you know what you’re doing," said Unitas, "you’re not intercepted."

Third-and-goal at the Giants’ one. Unitas called "16 power," a play designed to send Ameche through the right side of the line. Colts tackle GEORGE PREAS and guard ALEX SANDUSKY cleared out a mammoth hole that the 220-pound Ameche roared through, literally falling from his momentum after crossing the goal line.

It was 4:51 in the afternoon. The NFL had entered a new era.

"GREATEST GAME EVER PLAYED" TRIVIA

• SPORTS ILLUSTRATED is credited with naming the ’58 Championship "The Greatest Football Game Ever Played." Actually, SI used the title "The Best Football Game Ever Played" in their January 5, 1959 issue, because SI editors in those days did not use the word "greatest" to describe events. Soon, though, "best" became "greatest."

• Immediately after the game, the press box sportswriters changed their MVP vote to Unitas.

• A 17-year old BILL PARCELLS, at a skating party in Lake Hopatcong, New Jersey, sat in a car for three hours listening to the game.

• The winner’s share for the championship game was $4,718.77, the loser’s $3,111.33.

• Alan Ameche left the locker room postgame celebration early. He could earn an extra $500 for an appearance on the "Ed Sullivan Show."

• Colts defensive tackle ART DONOVAN was born on the Grand Concourse, only blocks away from Yankee Stadium.

• Lenny Moore, nicknamed "Spats" because he did not like the feel of adhesive tape on his bare skin and therefore had trainers tape his cleats, kept a miniature bible in his thigh pad.