Thursday, January 1, 2015

Happy New Year, 1969

The pairings for postseason bowl games can often be about as enthralling as the lopsidedness of one's head on New Year's morning. Anacin will be a 10-point underdog, and so will the opponent for the No. 1 team out there in Pasadena, Miami, Dallas or New Orleans. Elsewhere it will be a lot of No. 6s going against a lot of No. 10s, almost all of them from the Southeastern Conference. Every now and then, however, the fates and the sponsors accidentally get together and up comes a day that makes it look as though Sonny Werblin and David Merrick have bought the NCAA. Such a day is upon us.

That's the opening paragraph of Sports Illustrated's Dec. 23, 1968, preview of the college-football bowls. Dan Jenkins goes on to write, ...

What has occurred this time is a jolly good stirring up of geography and conference champions. The Southwest and the Southeastern will be after one another in both the Cotton and the Sugar, as Texas plays Tennessee and Arkansas plays Georgia, and the East has a shot at the Big Eight in the Orange, where Penn State meets Kansas. The six teams involved have won a total of 52 games and lost only four. And in the runner-up bowls we find the Southwest against the Big Eight in the Bluebonnet and the Southeastern against the Big Eight in the Gator.

But as interesting and action-crammed as all of these games threaten to be, they could be played simultaneously in the parking lots outside the Rose Bowl on Jan. 1, and hardly anyone would want to climb to the top row to glance over at them. ...

Indeed, the Dec. 31 Kentucky New Era told me that the ABC affiliate out of Nashville was going to show the Bluebonnet Bowl, but I opted for a Mod Squad on Bowling Green's Channel 13, instead. I'm tuning in today 1969, though--undefeated No. 1 Ohio State vs. undefeated No. 2 Southern California--and I'm not bothered at all that Paducah's Channel 6 is pre-empting a Perry Mason rerun this afternoon to show it.

So here we go. 



Here's a lovely co-ed to welcome us to the broadcast.



Here's the Rose Bowl.



Here are Curt Gowdy and Kyle Rote, looking sharp.



Here are the captains and the coin toss.



Here are your officials for today's game.



Here are the No. 1 Buckeyes, surrounding Coach Woody Hayes for their final pre-game instructions.



O.J. Simpson (bottom, 32) and a teammate are back deep for the Trojans.



Here's the kickoff.



I have no idea who's going to win. Let's watch.


38 comments:

  1. OK, 0-0 after one quarter. Just like pretty much every other college-football season, I've know almost nothing about the good teams until we come around to the holidays, but, after watching 10 or 15 minutes of the game for the national championship, I'm game for totally sharing my opinions on the teams and the individuals involved.

    First of all, O.J. Simpson looks like bomb about to explode. He's obviously a fluid and powerful runner, and it appears that the (good) gameplan for John McKay appears to just put the ball in his hands as often as possible and wait for an Ohio State defender or two to get tired or out of position and see what happens. On the first possession of the game, Southern Cal lined up to go for the first on fourth-and-a-long-1 from its own 39; I imagine McKay liked his chances with O.J. Simpson in that scenario even more than he liked his chances of punting Ohio State back into its end of the field. It didn't matter in this case; Ohio State jumped offsides.

    In fact, Woody Hayes's defensive approach seems to be based on the same assumption of Simpson's explosiveness--just limit the number of times he touches the ball. On a second down around the Southern Cal 20, the Trojans threw for a couple, three yards but were flagged for procedure. Hayes elected to grant USC the yards but not give back the extra down and another chance for McKay to give the ball to Simpson. In this case, though, McKay simply had Southern Cal's quarterback throw to Simpson, and he eluded a close tackler to run for the first down on third-and-7.

    Otherwise, however, Ohio State appears to be the stronger team. On the first play of the second quarter, it missed an opportunity to score the first points on a 17-yard field-goal try by Larry Zelina, who also plays halfback. Zelina kicks a little, runs a little and goes out to catch a little. I don't remember ever hearing of him before watching this game on YouTube, so I imagine he never played in the NFL. I'll check after the game.

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    1. I'm pretty sure that this game -- this exact game -- was the source for the color pictures in the "Football" article of World Book Encyclopedia throughout the 1970's and early 1980's.

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  2. Plenty of the guys in this game did play in the NFL, and I remember pushing their football cards all over the living-room floor when I was a boy. Bob Klein, who played tight end for the Rams for several years, is a Trojan. Jack Tatum, who was an All-Pro for many years with the Raiders, is a sophomore defensive back for the Buckeyes. Plus, Ohio State's offensive tackles are Rufus Mayes and Dave Foley, and I think both of those guys played 10 years or more in the NFL. That's pretty impressive, if it's true.

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  3. A couple of other things:

    -- Curt Gowdy pronounces it oh-JAY. I don't think I've ever heard it where the emphasis is on the "J" instead of the "O."

    -- Ohio State's fullback is Jim Otis, and Matthew and I have been to Jim Otis's hometown, which is a beautiful lakeside place somewhere up pretty north in Ohio. I'll look it up after the game. I don't want to do it now, because I'm afraid I'll inadvertently find out who wins this thing.

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  4. Wow. USC gets deep into Ohio State territory, but Mike Sensibaugh, a defensive back who played a good bit for the Chiefs and Cardinals in the 1970s, stuffs Simpson twice, and, then, on third down, McKay has Simpson throw a rollout pass, which falls incomplete. A field goal gives the Trojans a 3-0 lead early in the second quarter.

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  5. OK, Simpson is really, really great. He just took a pitch to the left side of the field; he gets across the line of scrimmage and weaves through the grain of Ohio State's defense, and then--"Look out!" Gowdy says, voice rising, "he runs the 100 in 9.4!"--he races 80 yards for a touchdown.

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  6. Gowdy says that McKay says that what makes Simpson different is that "he is not a high-stepper; he keeps both feet close to the ground when he's running." That's an interesting comment.

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  7. The Buckeyes come back out in a "full-house straight T," says Gowdy: six linemen with three backs lined up parallel to the line, behind the quarterback. Several handoffs to Otis have gotten Ohio State to inside the Southern Cal 40 ...

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  8. Otis leaps into the end zone from the full-house, straight T formation, and Ohio State is back within 10-7. Coach Hayes kept things mostly on the ground, but sophomore quarterback Rex Kern did complete a fine third-and-13 pass for a first down to within the Southern Cal 10 to keep things percolating.

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  9. And now, with 3 seconds to go, Ohio State sends out a big boy wearing No. 52 to kick a 16-yard field goal, and it's good! We're tied, 10-10, nearly at halftime. Good game.

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  10. Halftime statistics befitting a tie score in the 1969 Rose Bowl: 61 yards on five-of-10 passing for Ohio State to 65 yards on five-of-10 passing for USC and 148 rushing yards for Ohio State to 128 for USC.

    Dan Jenkins seemed to think that O.J. Simpson would look like the best player on the field in this game but that Ohio State would win. My guess is that he'll turn out to be correct.

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  11. Rex Kern, says Curt Gowdy, as the second half starts, "is a nifty. They really have something in this boy."

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  12. The only football card I have for Rex Kern is a 1974 job where he was playing defensive back for the Colts.

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  13. I didn't start collecting football cards in earnest until the 1975 set. But I did get one or two packs in 1974, and those included the Rex Kern, a Glenn Ressler (Colts guard), a Randy Vataha (Patriots wide receiver), a Bobby Bryant (Vikings cornerback) and, miraculously, a Bob Griese (Dolphins quarterback).

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  14. Simpson is so, so good. Delayed draw, and Simpson jags and dashes his way through the Buckeye defense and into Ohio State territory early in the third quarter.

    Oh, excellent! Ohio State has a linebacker, Mark Steier (sp?), from Louisville.

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  15. Southern Cal fumbles on a pitch to Simpson, and Ohio State recovers at the USC 48! Still 10-10, with about 11 minutes to go in the third quarter ...

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  16. Now Curt Gowdy is detailing the long friendship of O.J. Simpson and Al Cowlings and how Cowlings introduced Simpson to his wife.

    Well.

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  17. The Buckeyes can't convert the turnover into points. Scrambling Kern is stopped short on a fourth-down attempt at the USC 30, and the Trojans resume possession.

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  18. Earlier scores today, per Gowdy: Arkansas over Georgia, 16-2, and Texas over Tennessee, 36-13. "So the Southwest Conference did alright for themselves on this New Year's Day."

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    1. The next season after this one was the 1969 season -- the 100th anniversary of the first college football game between Princeton and Rutgers. Going into the season, ABC wanted to pick one game to be the last of the year -- a huge game to which the other games would build. They asked Beano Cook which game he thought they should pick. Beano recommended the Texas/Arkansas game, since both teams were likely to be very good in 1969.

      When Texas met Arkansas on December 6, 1969, the Longhorns were 9-0 and ranked number 1 in the country. Arkansas was 9-0 and ranked number 2 in the country. President Nixon attended the game, Billy Graham gave the opening prayer, and the game took 52.1 percent of the viewing audience.

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  19. Meanwhile, back in the 1969 Rose Bowl, Ohio State is grinding down the field, and the Buckeyes now are inside the USC 20 ...

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  20. And Ohio State takes a 13-10 lead on a 25-yard field goal!

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  21. And now the Buckeyes have recovered a fumble as the Southern Cal quarterback loses the ball while being thrown for a sack at his own 21!

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  22. Now here's a play you don't see every day. Buckeye quarterback Kern fakes a handoff to the fullback who runs into the middle of the line out of the I formation, and then he runs out of a delayed draw through the same hole the fullback created. It takes Ohio State to the Southern Cal 4, for a first-and-goal coming up on the opening play of the fourth quarter ...

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  23. Kern throws to the fullback, Leo Hayden (sp?), for the touchdown, and it's 20-10, Buckeyes, early in the fourth quarter.

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  24. Woody Hayes is running all sorts of interesting plays now. On a third-and-10 deep in Ohio State territory, he sends back Sensibaugh for an apparent quick kick. Instead, Otis receives the long snap and runs. It doesn't work, and the Buckeyes end up punting for real on fourth. Still, it was a really cool-looking play.

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  25. Simpson fumbles again, and now 1969 Ohio State is taking over at the Southern Cal 16 ...

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  26. Touchdown, Buckeyes! 1969 Ohio State is pulling away ... now 27-10 with 10:05 to go in the fourth quarter of the Rose Bowl ...

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    1. I knew how this game turned out, but I didn't realize the extent to which USC killed itself with fumbles.

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  27. 1969 Ohio State is wrapping up things in the Rose Bowl, still ahead 27-10 with Curt Gowdy recognizing off-camera colleagues and affiliates around the country. 1:29 to go ...

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  28. Kern, Otis and a bunch of other Buckeyes are all back next year, so I'm officially declaring Ohio State as my favorite for the 1969 national championship.

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  29. That's it: 27-16, Ohio State. Thank you YouTube user "John Quinn" for posting this game.

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  30. The review by Cynthia Lowry, the Associated Press TV/radio writer, as published in the Hoptown Kentucky New Era on Jan. 2, 1969:

    NEW YORK (AP) - You might say with a certain degree of truth that if you’ve seen one Rose Parade, you’ve seen them all—the slow-moving floats with their millions of flowers, the pretty smiling girls, the proud bands and horses, the jarring commercial flavor of an occasional entry or TV stars in conspicuous spots.

    It matters not at all because watching Pasadena’s annual day in the national sun, followed by marathon football viewing, has become established New Year's Day tradition.

    This year, it seemed, the floats were more beautiful and more elaborate than ever.

    CBS onee again had Bess Myerson and Mike Douglas carefully handling the descriptions and the credits. Betty White, who over the years had done NBC’s Rose Parade commentary so often she can confidently depart from the program notes, had Raymond Burr sharing the assignment. They worked together nicely and often engaged in funny, spontaneous banter.

    Then began the really serious viewing of the day that continued without pause until close to 11 p.m.—The college football games. CBS moved directly to Dallas and the Cotton Bowl, NBC to New Orleans and the Sugar Bowl.

    For the occasional football viewer, though, the big game is the Rose Bowl since it is part of the tradition. This year, if one listened to NBC sports announc­ers Curt Gowdv and Kyle Rote, the program should really have been called “The O.J. Simpson Show.’’

    The University of Southern California’s great running star did manage to score a touchdown with an 80-yard run but the afternoon was claimed by Ohio State.

    The half-time entertainment by the two universities was impressive and both bands performed with the precision of the June Taylor Dancers.

    If all those games were not enough, NBC carried the viewers on to Miami for the Orange Bowl. By that time there must j have been a lot of tired eyes across the nation which was a shame since it was the most exciting game of the lot with Penn State winning in the last 15 seconds.

    Both networks have plenty of practice covering parades and football games and both do uniformly excellent jobs.

    From the occasional football viewer, however, comes one complaint: Occasionally a play­er will be writhing in agony on the field after a play and the program cuts away for a couple of quick commercials returning when the play is about to be resumed. Nobody bothers to inform the vast and concerned audience about the condition of the injured player.

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  31. A few things:

    -- Ohio State tackles Rufus Mayes and Dave Foley were both taken in the first round of the 1969 NFL draft. That's something.

    -- Says Wikipedia, "This was also the first year the Buckeye players were awarded Buckeye pride stickers for their helmets, each one a reward for a good play. OSU was the first team to have such a program."

    -- The Ohio State linebacker/team captain, Mark Stier, from Louisville was from Louisville, Ohio, not our Louisville.

    -- Rest in peace, Larry Zelina.

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  32. This game is the most important one Woody Hayes ever coached, in terms of his final reputation. In 1954, Ohio State finished number 1 in the AP Poll, but UCLA took the Coach's Poll. In 1957, OSU finished number 1 in the Coach's Poll, but Auburn took the AP Poll. So the 1968 season is the only time Woody Hayes had a team that won an undisputed national title.

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