THE GOLD SHEET Published Weekly by: Nation-Wide Sports Publications 4717 Van Nuys Blvd., Suite 101 Sherman Oaks, CA 91403 (800)798-GOLD (4653) www.goldsheet.com $9 NFL DIVISIONAL PLAYOFFS!! NATION-WIDE SPORTS PUBLICATIONS www.goldsheet.com (800) 798-GOLD (4653) ©2017 VOLUME 60 JANUARY 22, 2017 NO. 21 vs. the NFL champ two weeks hence. Though, for a short while, Buffalo TGS NFL CONFERENCE TITLE NOTEBOOK appeared to have a very good chance, especially after Dubenion hauled in a 69- by Bruce Marshall, Goldsheet.com Editor yard TD bomb from Kemp to tie the game at 7 late in the 1st Q. After Dubenion’s score, Buffalo settled down to playing a vicious, blitzing This past Sunday, we hit the 50-year anniversary of Super Bowl I, played on defense that kept KC QB Len Dawson changing formations and checking off his January 15, 1967 at the L.A. Coliseum. Pro football fans know that the Packers plays at the line of scrimmage. “I was amazed,” Dawson said after the game. beat the Chiefs that day, 35-10. We were there and remember it like yesterday. “I’d never known the Bills to blitz that much. I had to keep guessing with them, Two weeks hence, for our Super Bowl issue, we will reminisce a bit about that and I called a lot more audibles than I would ordinarily.” day, which just celebrated its golden anniversary. Big plays, however, would put Kansas City back in control. Mike Garrett, the Having experienced the Super Bowl from the outset, we have always rookie halfback who won the Heisman Trophy the previous year at USC, noted something special about the semifinals of the tournament, and the grabbed a Buffalo punt in heavy traffic early in the second quarter, and his long special anticipation that accompanies those games. In no other contests return set up the Chiefs at the Bills’ 45. After a couple of scrambles and a pass during an NFL season is the end of a game a “beginning” as in conference title to TE Fred Arbanas, QB Dawson rolled to his right from the Buffalo 29. The blitz weekend. The conference title games are their own launching pad into pro was on again, and Buffalo MLB Harry Jacobs came up behind and hit Lenny a football history; even losing teams in the Super Bowl will be forever etched into thudding blow. But just at impact, Dawson threw to flanker Otis Taylor, who gridiron lore, if only as only a footnote. used his 210 pounds to run over four Bills on his way into the end zone to put The first four editions of the Super Bowl were conducted “pre-merger,” with Kansas City in front 14-7! the AFL and NFL crowning their champions before the eventual title game, and Buffalo still had a couple of opportunities before the halftime break. One we have always believed none of the subsequent Super Bowls after the 1969 came on the next Kansas City series, when CB Tommy Janik almost season piqued the curiosity of the sporting public like those first few “Supes” intercepted a Dawson flat pass at the Chiefs’ 21. It would have been a certain long ago. Especially the first Super Bowl, which though a bit hastily touchdown and might have changed the trajectory of the game. The Bills got arranged in 1966, was nonetheless a culmination of a feud between the the ball again with a minute left in the half, and behind Kemp’s passes moved two rival leagues that had gone on for several years. The anticipation of quickly to the Kansas City 10. With 49 seconds to play, rookie Bobby Crockett such a matchup had been building since the early ‘60s between the warring ran a quick post pattern...and Chief CB Willie Mitchell fell down! For a moment, leagues. For those who weren’t around in 1966, we wish we could convey the Crockett appeared open for a TD. But, suddenly, Kansas City’s veteran free excitement that gripped the pro football world in anticipation of the first-ever safety Johnny Robinson appeared. game between teams from the AFL & NFL! Those first Super Bowl “semifinals” “We had a blitz called,” said Robinson later. “My man was (RB) Jack Spikes, and the precursors to subsequent AFC & NFC championship games were but he stayed in to block. I looked to the strong side, and as I looked back to the played on Sunday, January 1, 1967, with Kansas City traveling to Buffalo for the weak side I saw Crockett. I went for the ball. I was very lucky.” AFL title game, while Green Bay was on the road at Dallas for the NFL Robinson intercepted at the goal line and ran 72 yards to the Buffalo 28. championship. (Interestingly, from that 1966 pro football season, only three Kansas City PK Mike Mercer then kicked a 32-yard field goal with three seconds head coaches are still alive today, including Bills HC Joe Collier. The others are remaining in the half, and the Chiefs had a 17-7 lead after looking as if they Colts HC Don Shula and Cardinals HC Charley Winner.) might head to the locker room tied at the break. And we still believe it was one of the most exciting pro football days in TGS The Bills became increasingly frustrated in the second half, as the big and history, which dates to 1957. fast Kansas City defense harassed Kemp. It seemed only a matter of time With slots in the first-ever Super Bowl up for grabs, the Chiefs and Bills were before HC Hank Stram’s explosive Chiefs offense would deliver the knockout first to tee things up that New Year’s Day, 1967. Kansas City had been the class blows. They would finally come in the 4th Q, first when Dawson passed 45 yards team of the AFL that season, romping to an 11-2-1 record, while the two-time to WR Chris Burford to put the Chiefs in business at the Buffalo four, and Garrett defending champs from Buffalo had experienced a bit of a bumpy ride under scored from about a foot out. Then behind 24-7, Kemp threw for WR Glenn first-year HC Collier (Lou Saban had resigned to take the job at Maryland after Bass, who was knocked cold by Kansas City CB Fred “The Hammer” the previous 1965 crown.) The Bills needed some help on the last weekend of Williamson, using his trademark helmet-smacking maneuver. Bass fumbled, the regular season to win the AFL’s Eastern Division, that aid provided by none and three plays later Garrett started to the left on a sweep from the Buffalo 18, other than Joe Namath and the Jets, who bounced the East-leading Boston got trapped, stopped as if to pass, turned back to the right, circled deep to Patriots 38-28 at Shea Stadium, providing Buffalo the lane it needed to steal the escape a tackle, then wove through a forest of Buffalo tacklers and wound up in East from Boston, which would have hosted the AFL title and first-ever Super the end zone with his second touchdown. “When I saw the goal line finally, I Bowl semifinal at Fenway Park, of all places, had the Pats beaten the Jets. said, ‘That’s mine,’ “ Garrett said later of his dazzler. Reprieved, the Bills smashed Denver, 38-21, and got to host the title game. The final score was 31-7, and the Chiefs were officially the first team to ever Though an underdog, Buffalo was still given a good chance vs. Kansas City qualify for a Super Bowl. Though on their way to celebrate in their locker room because of its championship pedigree and the fact it had dealt the Chiefs one they had to dodge snowballs, rocks, and chunks of ice hurled from the time- of their two regular-season losses by a 29-14 count in early October at KC’s worn stands at old War Memorial Stadium by the surly Buffalo fans. Once safely Municipal Stadium. Not to mention the Bills playing for the crown in their rowdy inside, the mood was jovial as the team was already looking forward to Dallas and intimidating War Memorial Stadium. Slick QB Jack Kemp had led the Bills or Green Bay. The controversial Williamson had his preference–the Packers. “I to AFL titles the previous two seasons, while RBs Wray Carlton and Arkansas am going to drop ‘Da Hamma’ on Green Bay,” boasted Da Hamma himself. rookie Bobby Burnett were typical hard-nosed runners of the era. Veteran WR Attention then shifted to Dallas, where the Packers were favored to Elbert “Golden Wheels” Dubenion had been a feared deep threat since the beginning of the league in 1960. The defense was rough and physical, very (TGS Notebook continued on page 2) NFL-like, hardly fitting the AFL sterotype of the era. But the Bills would be outclassed, so much so that more than a few NFL CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIPS football insiders believed the conquering Chiefs would have a good shot BEGIN ON PAGE 4!! THE GOLD SHEET PAGE 2 defend their NFL crown against the upstart Dallas Cowboys at the Cotton day, moved ahead of the snap, the illegal procedure penalty pushing Dallas Bowl. The nation’s TV fans switched their channels from NBC to CBS to watch back five crucial yards. the unfolding drama. Penalized to the Green Bay six, Meredith was forced to change his calls, as he knew that it would be very tough to go six yards on the ground through the Having lived luxuriously on poise and control all season, the Packers would Green Bay defense.