Thanksgiving memories: Turkey Day meant family and football
Submitted photo
Submitted photo
The Detroit Lions鈥� Roger Brown sacks Green Bay quarterback Bart Starr on Thanksgiving Day in 1962.
Referee Phil Luckett, the Steelers鈥� Jerome Bettis and a pair of Lions observe the overtime coin flip on Thanksgiving day in 1998.
Submitted photo
Submitted photo
The Dallas Cowboys鈥� Leon Lett commits his Thanksgiving Day blunder after a blocked field goal against the Miami Dolphins in 1994.
This year in the midst of a worldwide pandemic most of us won鈥檛 be celebrating Thanksgiving in the traditional way. When I was young Thanksgiving was a special holiday for me. I liked Christmas just like every other kid but Thanksgiving was my favorite. I went back to an article I wrote in 1997 and updated it.
The family, all the nieces, nephews, aunts and uncles would gather at 鈥淵ia鈥� Yia鈥檚鈥� (Greek for grandma).
The day would start for me planted in front of Yia Yia鈥檚 black and white RCA Victor TV. The Macy鈥檚 Thanksgiving parade and the J.L. Hudson parade got you in the mood for the upcoming Christmas holiday.
My father and my uncles would gather in the living room to watch the annual Thanksgiving Day football game featuring the Detroit Lions. Mom and Yia Yia and my aunts had aromas coming from the kitchen that made our mouths water in anticipation of the Thanksgiving feast that we would devour later in the day.
The Thanksgiving game in Detroit started in 1934 and became a national tradition when it first appeared on national television in 1956. It was usually the Lions versus the Chicago Bears or Green Bay Packers.
My memories of Thanksgiving Day football really begin when I was 10 years old in 1962. Entering the game the Packers were a perfect 10-0 while the Lions were 8-2, a very good team, but not good enough it seemed to catch Vince Lombardi and the Packers. But playing at Tiger Stadium, the Lions defense shackled the Packers and shut them out entering the fourth quarter, with Detroit leading 26-0 behind two TD catches by Gail Cogdill from QB Milt Plum. The Packers were able to score a pair of late TDs, but the Lions won the game 26-14, ruining the Pack鈥檚 perfect season. The Lions would finish 11-3, but it wasn鈥檛 enough to make the playoffs. Meanwhile, Green Bay won out and finished 13-1, winning the NFL Championship.
I remember the tough Lions defense of Darris McCord, Alex Karras, Roger Brown and Sam Williams thrilling the crowd of 57,598 鈥� and 32 million television viewers 鈥� by sacking Bart Starr 11 times.
A list of some other memorable games:
1963 鈥� Lions tie Green Bay 13-13 knocking Packers out of the West title giving it to Chicago.
1965 鈥� The Baltimore Colts, behind superstar quarterback Johnny Unitas, were one of the best teams of that era, entering this Thanksgiving game with a 9-1 record. But the Lions jumped out on top in the first half, getting two touchdowns from halfback Amos Rush, the first a one-yard plunge and the second a dazzling 62-yard scamper. But Johnny U tossed two touchdown passes to John Mackey in the fourth quarter to rally the Colts from a 24-10 deficit. The game ended in a 24-24 tie, and proved to be the highlight of the Lions鈥� mediocre season. The game was also notable for being the first football contest televised in full-color.
Yia-Yia died in 1971 and the Thanksgiving tradition continued at my uncle Harry Laskey鈥檚 house in Hopwood. He would all end the dinner prayer by exclaiming 鈥淥h Lord their all here again.鈥�
More Thanksgiving football memories:
1976 鈥� Bills running back O.J. Simpson put the team on his back as he rushed for a then-NFL record 273 rushing yards with two touchdowns. Simpson鈥檚 record-setting performance was not enough to guide Buffalo to victory however, as Bills quarterback Gary Marangi struggled mightily. He completed just 4 of 21 pass attempts for 29 yards and an interception. Lions rookie receiver David Hill had two touchdown receptions which sealed the deal for Detroit. Lions win 27-14.
1980 鈥� Vince Evans accounted for two touchdowns as the Bears scored 14 unanswered points in the fourth quarter after being down 17-3. Chicago started the comeback with a 20-yard touchdown pass from Evans to Bob Fisher and then tied it with a four-yard touchdown run by Evans to force overtime. Dave Williams would return the ensuing kickoff 95 yards to give the Bears a dramatic victory. His return touchdown is one of only two in NFL history that have occurred in overtime. Bears 23, Lions 17, OT.
1983 鈥� In this game the Lions faced the vaunted Pittsburgh Steelers, who were growing a little long in the tooth, but still had several of the Hall of Fame members who helped them win four Super Bowls in the 1970s. Chuck Noll鈥檚 team was a playoff club that season, but on Thanksgiving Day they were battered by the Lions offense, which scored five touchdowns. Lions鈥� return man Robbie Martin returned a punt 81 yards. In all, Eric Hipple tossed two TDs, Billy Sims ran for 106 yards and scored twice, and wideout Ulysses Norris caught two TD passes, to lead the Lions to a 45-3 rout of the Steelers. The Steeler defeat ruined Thanksgiving dinner.
The Thanksgiving tradition underwent another change when my uncle Harry passed away in 1991. Now my Dad and sister Theodora Lynn celebrated together with a few friends. Later it was with my father鈥檚 friend Patricia Rogers and her family.
1997 鈥� Barry Sanders proved his brilliance to a nation-wide audience, rushing for 167 yards in the Lions 55-20 rout of the Bears on Thanksgiving day. Sanders ran for three TDs, each of them exciting runs, one for 40 yards just before the half, one for 25 yards, and the other for 15 yards. He truly proved that he was a big-play running back on this day. The Lions once again used this win to help propel them into the playoffs as a wild-card team. Sanders ran for more than 2,000 yards on the season.
1998 鈥� I spent this Thanksgiving on the road in Anchorage, Alaska broadcasting Cincinnati Bearcats basketball in The Great Alaska Shootout, so I was watching this game from a hotel room. The Steelers and Lions were deadlocked after four quarters, 16-16, sending the game into overtime. As the team captains gathered at the center of the field, referee Phil Luckett asked the visiting Steelers to make the coin toss in the air to determine who would have possession. Pittsburgh鈥檚 Jerome Bettis clearly said 鈥渢ails,鈥� but Lockett heard 鈥渉eads,鈥� and when the coin came up tails, he awarded the ball to the Lions. Pittsburgh and Bettis argued to no avail, and subsequently watched the Lions march down the field behind Charlie Batch and some nifty running by Barry Sanders, resulting in a game-winning field goal by Jason Hanson for a 19-16 Lions victory. This also put a damper on Thanksgiving dinner!
There have been quite a few other Lions Thanksgiving day tussles worth mentioning, but I also have to bring the Dallas Thanksgiving Day tradition into the mix.
The Cowboys started playing on Thanksgiving in 1966. In the first six years after the Cowboys became an NFL franchise in 1960, the team had a combined 25-53-4 record. President and general manager Tex Schramm was hunting for an opportunity to market the team and jumped at the chance to put his team on a national stage with Thanksgiving games.
Some of my Dallas Thanksgiving football memories include:
1966 鈥� In the Cowboys very first Thanksgiving game, the Dallas trailed 14-13 at halftime. But in the third quarter, Cowboys kicker Danny Villanueva hit the final two of his four field goals on the day, and then the Cowboys put the game away in the fourth quarter with Ring of Honor member Don Perkins running one in from 10 yards out. Perkins led the Cowboys with 111 yards rushing on 23 carries. Quarterback Don Meredith completed 16 of 24 passes for 131 yards, which included a second-quarter 6-yard touchdown pass to Dan Reeves. The victory over the Browns was considered to be somewhat of a coming out party for this expansion franchise, defeating a team that had dominated the NFL over the past two decades. Wrote Tex Maule for 缅北禁地 Illustrated, 鈥淯nder the noon-bright illumination of extra lights provided for the TV color cameras, Dallas seemed to be a younger, faster edition of the Packers.鈥� They were at that, finishing the season 10-3-1, the Cowboys鈥� first winning season in franchise history, bringing them the Eastern Conference title.
1974 鈥� The Cowboys and Redskins great rivalry back in the day. The Cowboys were playing Washington for the second time in three games, and after beating the Cowboys in the first one, 28-21, Redskins linebacker Diron Talbert proclaimed that all Washington had to do was knock quarterback Roger Staubach out of the game to win since the Cowboys only had some unknown rookie named Clint Longley as their backup. Well, they did knock Staubach woozy in the second quarter and in comes the raw Clint Longley. The Redskins were up 16-3 in the third quarter before Longley led the Cowboys to three second-half touchdowns, earning Longley the 鈥淢ad Bomber鈥� nickname and causing offensive lineman Blaine Nye to proclaim, since no one was sure just how much the live-wire rookie knew, that this was a case of, 鈥淭he triumph of the uncluttered mind.鈥�
1994 鈥� After a sleet storm hit Dallas-Fort Worth overnight, the Cowboys had to not only play their coldest game in franchise history on this Thanksgiving, 32 degrees at kickoff, but the Texas Stadium officials had to hurriedly rent these small tractors to plow the frozen tarp and sleet off the field. Then with the Cowboys leading 14-13 with just 15 seconds left in the frigid game, Miami kicker Pete Stoyanovich鈥檚 41-yard field-goal attempt was blocked by defensive lineman Jimmie Jones. With the ball spinning like a top on the icy field, fellow defensive lineman Leon Lett, a backup on the special teams and now the Cowboys鈥� defensive line coach, thought he had to cover the loose ball. Unfortunately, Lett slid into it, creating a live ball that the Dolphins recovered. And now Stoyanovich hit from 19 yards out as the clock expired. Dolphins 16, Cowboys 14. The Cowboys losy their second straight and fell to 7-4 in an eventual 12-4, Super Bowl-winning season.
There are some other Dallas games I would mention, but I want to acknowledge that in 2006, because six-plus hours of holiday football was not sufficient, the NFL added a third game to the Thanksgiving lineup. This game is not assigned to a specific franchise. My memory from the third NFL Thanksgiving game involves the Steelers.
During this period Thanksgiving with family changed forever with the passing of beloved sister Teddy Lynn in 2009 and the death of my father John in 2011. Now I usually celebrate Thanksgiving alone or with some select friends.
My memory from the third Thanksgiving game of the day is from 2013, an intense game between two heated AFC North rivals, Baltimore and Pittsburgh. Sure, the Ravens and Steelers were both 5-6 and looking to reach .500, but a win would still have major playoff ramifications. Justin Tucker was the hero for Baltimore, making five field goals. The Steelers scored a touchdown late but failed at a two-point conversion to get the potential tie. Baltimore prevailed 22-20.
I could go on and on with other Thanksgiving Day battles, but I will leave the others for discussion at the Thanksgiving dinner table.
I often wish I could smell those aromas from Yia Yia鈥檚 kitchen again and be sitting in front of that black and white RCA Victor TV.
Happy Thanksgiving everybody!
George Von Benko鈥檚 鈥淢emory Lane鈥� column appears in the Sunday editions of the 缅北禁地. He also hosts a sports talk show on WMBS-AM radio from 10 a.m. to noon on Saturdays.