ExtremeRavens Posted January 27 Share Posted January 27 Fifty-three years ago, Baltimore hosted the first AFC championship game — and won. That hallowed Colts team is gone; its stadium, demolished. What remain are some grizzled old Colts who have harked back to that victory as their successors, the Ravens, set to play the Kansas City Chiefs at M&T Bank Stadium on Sunday for a Super Bowl berth. This past week, more than one of those Colts, including running back Sam Havrilak, watched the vintage video of that contest, a 27-17 win over the favored Oakland Raiders at Memorial Stadium on Jan. 3, 1971. Havrilak, now 76, played a pivotal role, recovering an enemy fumble on a punt return, which led to a Colts touchdown. His reaction, on film, is — by today’s standards — restrained. “I was not prone to a lot of celebratory action,” said Havrilak, a retired dentist who lives in Phoenix, Maryland. “I remember grabbing the ball and lifting it up in the air as I ran off the field. That’s as animated as players got back then.” Likewise, the postgame revelry was low-key. The Colts were headed to the Super Bowl where, two years earlier, they’d been upset by quarterback Joe Namath and the New York Jets in a loss that still stuck in their craw. The champagne, they vowed, would have to wait. In the locker room, Havrilak said, “The younger players like me and [rookie kicker] Jim O’Brien were hooting and hollering and singing ‘Moon Over Miami’ [site of Super Bowl V]. The veterans who’d lost in Super Bowl III were more subdued and just thankful for a chance to redeem themselves.” Despite their heady record (13-2-1), it was a somber Colts team that faced Oakland (9-5-2) on that crisp, clear afternoon. Skeptics scoffed at Baltimore’s schedule; the Colts had played just three teams with winning records, one of which — the Chiefs — routed them, 44-24, on “Monday Night Football.” Even the crowd of 56,368 seemed to lack fervor. For the second straight game, there were empty seats in the stands after 51 consecutive home sellouts. One fan smuggled in enough snow to build a snowman in a vacant box seat, a blue-and-white pennant in its icy grasp. The non-sellout meant that, per NFL rules at the time, the game was blacked out on Baltimore television. Nationwide, an estimated 30 million viewers tuned in. Coach Don McCafferty is hoisted aloft by Baltimore Colts players after their victory over the Raiders in the AFC championship game on Jan. 3, 1971. (Staff file)The Raiders’ George Blanda looks to pass against the Colts. Blanda, 43, was the oldest quarterback ever to play in an NFL conference championship game. (Staff file)The front page of The Baltimore Sun highlights the Colts' victory in the AFC championship game. (Staff file)A page from The Baltimore Sun previewing the Colts' AFC championship game against the Raiders. (Staff file)Show Caption of Expand The game matched two stellar quarterbacks: Hall of Fame-bound Johnny Unitas, 37, and Oakland’s Daryle Lamonica who was, on paper, the AFC’s top passer that season. But the latter struggled early and limped off in the second quarter after being sacked by Bubba Smith, the Colts’ behemoth defensive end. “I was surprised [Lamonica] got hurt, because I didn’t hit him my best lick,” Smith said later. Enter the Raiders’ George Blanda, 43, whose appearance made him the oldest quarterback ever to play in an NFL conference championship game. The ageless Blanda, who’d played for the Colts 20 years earlier, passed for two touchdowns and kicked a 48-yard field goal to keep it close. But he was sacked four times and intercepted three, including a fourth-quarter theft by Rick Volk, a Pro Bowl safety who outwrestled a receiver for the ball at the Colts’ 5-yard line. “I just went up in the air a bit higher than he did,” said Volk, 78. The Glen Arm resident acknowledged that he “hadn’t thought about that play in forever” until Sunday when he watched highlights of the game on YouTube with several old teammates. The Colts’ attack proved erratic. Plagued by dropped passes and overthrows, Unitas completed 11 of 30 passes for 245 yards and a touchdown. Chicanery proved the difference. Leading 13-10 in the third quarter and 11 yards from the end zone, the Colts attempted a “Statue of Liberty” play, said Norm Bulaich, a rookie running back who’d already scored one touchdown and was a key to this play. “John [Unitas] backed up as if to pass, then I swung around behind him and he handed me the ball,” said Bulaich, 77, of Hurst, Texas. “I spun to the left, Bill Curry threw a block and I dove in for a touchdown. It was a good play, and it caught [Oakland] off guard.” The Raiders answered with a touchdown of their own. Three plays later, on third-and-long, Unitas flummoxed the defense, bringing four wide receivers to the line of scrimmage. He took the snap, backpedaled, peered right, then swiveled and threw left, hitting fleet Ray Perkins, all alone and in mid-stride. Though flu-ridden and nursing a broken toe, Perkins raced 68 yards for a touchdown to finish the scoring. Afterward, as he usually did, Unitas shrugged off the success of the trick play. With so many would-be targets, he said, “I had [the Raiders] man-to-man on Perkins and it was simple. Ray just beat his man.” At the final whistle, linebacker Mike Curtis raised his arms in triumph, fans rushed the field and Unitas grabbed the game ball before it disappeared. Coach Don McCafferty was hoisted aloft; two weeks later, he’d become the first rookie coach to win a Super Bowl, 16-13, over the Dallas Cowboys. For the moment, though, the jubilation was on hold. The day after the AFC title game, an editorial in the Baltimore Evening Sun read: “The restraint that brings the [Colts] home season to so gratifying a close is … deceptive. Underneath, we must understand, the Colts seethe with emotion. They are men of purpose, whose desire will know no satisfying until they have reappeared in the Miami Stadium where they were rudely upset two years ago, until the end of the Super Bowl … finds them alone at the summit of the entire pro football range of mountains.” AFC championship game Chiefs at Ravens Sunday, 3 p.m. TV: CBS Radio: 97.9 FM, 101.5 FM, 1090 AM Line: Ravens by 3 1/2 View the full article Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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