• Johnny had large hands and feet as well as long arms and legs that were badly bowed.
• From the beginning, he threw "a sharp pass that came on you quick but, for some reason, was easy to catch," in the words of Jimmy Orr, one of his re­ceivers on the Baltimore Colts in later years.
• Still, Johnny didn't start under C until the fifth game when the Cardinals sported a 1-3 record.

Coach Camp ran a passing O that was sophisticated for that era.

• Other coaches came to Camp for ideas.
• "Camp ran the Chicago Cardinals offense before the Chicago Cardinals," said Blanton Collier, an assistant with the Cleveland Browns who became head coach of Kentucky and then the Browns.

Johnny's first start came against St. Bonaventure in Olean NY.

• Playing in a chilly drizzle, Unitas took an entire half to get into the flow. By that time, the Bonnies led 19-0 behind their QB, Ted Marchibroda, who would coach the Colts from 1975-79 after Unitas retired from the NFL.
• The second half was a different story. Unitas completed 11 straight passes, three for TDs, to give the visitors a 21-19 lead.

Johnny's heroics were spoiled by a highly controversial ending.

• According to the recollections of Marchibroda and others, the Cardinals thought the clock had run out and stormed the field in victory.
• However, officials put more time on the clock. That allowed Walt Czaja to try a FG that missed. Again, Louisville exulted.
• Not so fast, my friend. A penalty was called on the visitors (offside?), giving Czaja another try which he made from the 17 with 0:03 on the clock to give the Bonnies a 22-21 victory.
• According to the AP report on the game, the FG "precipitated a minor sort of riot ... It took officials and special police 15 minutes to clear the field after Czaja's winning boot."

After the game, Coach Camp praised Unitas.

Camp's prediction was right on as the Cardinals won their final four games with Unitas at the helm.

Related article: When Johnny U. Came to Tallahassee

That was the lead sentence of the AP article on September 28, 1952. The "red-haired fireball" was Howard "Hopalong" Cassady, a 168-pound RB/DB from Columbus. He was eligible as a freshman because he enrolled at OSU the previous January. Second-year coach Woody Hayes installed the split-T formation partly to take advantage of Cassady's skills.

The "outweighed and undermanned Hoosiers" battled the Buckeyes to a 13-13 tie through three periods. The home team's second TD had been a 37-yard pass to Cassady from QB Fred Bruney. Early in the fourth quarter, Cassady ran six yards over LT to culminate a 49-yard drive that put OSU ahead to stay. Late in the game, Hopalong scored the Bucks' third TD of the quarter on a 3-yard run to make the final score 33-13.

Cassady went on to score 37 TDs in 36 games, rushing for 2,466 yards. Often playing all 60 minutes, he never had a pass completed on him in any Big Ten game during his four years. His college career culminated in the Heisman Trophy in 1955.

Read Cassady's recounting of his first game. Notice how his recollection has changed the facts over the decades. View brief video on Cassady with game footage.

Navy was grounded in a scoreless game with Cornell in the third quarter.

• Coach Wayne Hardin decided to take a chance on a sophomore QB who hadn't played much and ranked far down on the depth chart.
• The hunch paid off as the new QB passed for one TD and ran for two more in only 23 minutes of play in a 41-0 rout.
• The neophyte went on to lead the NCAA in completion pct. (67.3) that season. The Midshipmen upset archrival Army 34-14 in the finale.

If you haven't guessed, the QB was Roger Staubach, the greatest player in Naval Academy history.

• After leading the Middies to an 8-2 record and a Cotton Bowl berth against Texas in his junior year, Roger the Dodger won the Heisman Trophy.
• An injury unfortunately curtailed his senior year.
• He then served his term in the Navy before starting a Hall of Fame career with the Dallas Cowboys.

Brett Favre from Southern Mississippi was drafted in the second round by the Falcons in 1991 despite the fact that head coach Jerry Glanville insisted he didn't want him. After one undistinguished season with Atlanta, Favre was traded to Green Bay for a first round pick.

First-year head coach Mike Holmgren didn't start Favre until the fourth game of the 1992 season against the visiting Pittsburgh Steelers, who were 3-0 under their rookie coach Bill Cowher.

• Two weeks earlier, Favre had entered the game at Tampa Bay for the second half trailing 17-0.
• His first pass was deflected, and he caught it himself for -7y. He accomplished little in the 31-3 defeat.
• Then the next week, when starter Don Majkowski injured his ankle against the Bengals, Brett played the rest of the way but fumbled four times, causing the home crowd to chant for third-string QB Ty Detmer.
• Fortunately, Holmgren didn't listen, and Favre rewarded him with a 92y drive in the last 1:08 culminating in the game-winning TD pass to Kitrick Taylor with 13 ticks left.

Brett played the whole way in his first start, a 17-3 victory over the Steelers.

• He threw two TDs, one to Sterling Sharpe for 76 yards and the other 9 yards to Robert Brooks. His passer rating for his first start was 144.6.
• Little did anyone know at the time that he would never miss another start for Green Bay until his first retirement (March 2008).

Bear Bryant began his fifth season at Alabama by starting a brash sophomore QB named Joe Willie Namath from Beaver Falls PA. (Freshmen weren't eligible for varsity play in those days.)

• Bear called him "the best player I've ever seen."
• The opening opponent was Wally Butts' Georgia Bulldogs.
• Namath completed 10 of 14 for 179 yards and three TDs before he was removed in the third quarter with a 21-0 lead. The Tide went on to win 35-0.
• Joe led Bama to a 9-1 regular season mark and then a 17-0 victory over Bud Wilkinson's Oklahoma Sooners in an Orange Bowl game attended by President John F. Kennedy.

Two off-the-field items made Joe's first game even more memorable.

• Two black men sat in the grandstand reserved for whites to make the Georgia game the first integrated sporting event in Birmingham history.
• A year later, Bryant and Butts were accused of exchanging vital pre-game information in a telephone conversation that was accidentally overheard by an uninformed eavesdropper. Eventually, lawsuits were settled in the coaches' favor.

• In Q2, Bulldog coach Vince Dooley turned to his heralded freshman RB Herschel Walker.
• After Georgia got on the board with a safety, Walker turned the game around with a sensational 16y TD run during which he ran over future Cowboys S Bill Bates at the 10y line, then broke two more tackles to paydirt. (Watch a video of the run.)

The score stayed 15-9 until the Junkyard Dog D recovered Olszewski's fumble at the UT 36.

• This set up the winning drive that was topped off by a 9y run by – who else? – Herschel Walker.
• The Super Frosh ended the evening with 84y on 24 carries.

Needless to say, Dooley started Herschel the rest of the season, during which he amassed 1,616 yards and 15 TDs.

• He finished third in the Heisman voting behind George Rogers, senior RB from South Carolina, and Hugh Green, senior DE from Pittsburgh.
• After an 11-0 regular season, Georgia defeated Notre Dame 17-10 in the Sugar Bowl to win the AP National Championship.

Walker played two more seasons in Athens.

• He gained 1,891 yards in 1981 and 1,752 in 1982 for a grand total of 5,259.
• Georgia was 33-3 during his three seasons during which they won or shared the SEC title each year.
• He moved up to second in the Heisman in 1981 (behind Marcus Allen, USC RB) and then won the award in 1982 over QB John Elway of Stanford and RB Eric Dickerson of SMU.

Herschel played for Donald Trump's New Jersey Generals in the United States Football League from 1983-5, then in the NFL from 1986-1997.

• In 1989, Dallas traded him to Minnesota for five players and six draft choices.
• The Cowboys used the windfall to establish the nucleus of their Super Bowl champion teams of 1992, 1993, and 1995.

Vince Dooley

George Preston Marshall

Ernie Davis

Stewart Udall with President John F. Kennedy

Bobby Mitchell

Norm Snead

• Mitchell had played four years for Paul Brown as a HB and kick returner, providing a smaller, fleet-footed complement to FB Jimmy Brown.
• The Browns received the Redskins' first round draft choice, Syracuse RB Ernie Davis, the first African-American to win the Heisman Trophy.
• RB Leroy Jackson, an African-American like Mitchell, also moved from Cleveland to Washington in the deal.

The trade had unusual significance in the NFL.

• Owner George Preston Marshall's Redskins were the only team in the league that had never signed an African-American player.
• Born in West Virginia in 1896, Marshall had adamantly refused to draft black players, giving as his excuse that the Redskins, as the Southern-most team in the NFL, drew fans from all over the South thanks to their extensive radio network. Marshall claimed that fielding a team of white players, with many from the South, was a business decision and not an indication of ra­cism.
• If virtue is its own reward, then in this case vice was its own punishment. By 1962, the Redskins were the laughingstock of the league. Washington had won only one game each of the previous two years and had not en­joyed a winning record since 1955.
• Ollie Matson of the Chicago Cardinals admitted that he and the other 60 or so black players in the league "try a little harder when we play the Washington team."

Marshall's hand was forced after he signed a contract to play in the new D. C. Stadium (later renamed Robert F. Kennedy Stadium) starting with the 1961 sea­son.

• The change from Griffith Stadium, longtime home of baseball's Washington Senators, coincided with the inauguration of John F. Kennedy as President in 1961.
• Stewart Udall, Kennedy's Secretary of the Interior, informed Marshall that the new stadium, under Udall's authority, could not be used by a profes­sional team that practiced discrimination in its hiring.
• At first, Marshall was defiant and claimed that his 1961 squad was set. However, after young NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle, concerned about the negative publicity Marshall's stance produced, intervened, the Washington owner promised to select a black player in the next NFL draft.

Taking Marshall at his word, Udall granted the Redskins a one-year reprieve on his ultimatum.

• Finishing 1-12-1 in 1961, the Redskins "earned" the first choice in the draft.
• Marshall selected Davis, privately intending to trade him in order to obtain multiple players for his weak team. Preston knew that the brand new American Football League would also draft Davis and that he couldn't afford to outbid the Buffalo Bills.
• When Paul Brown expressed interest in Davis, Marshall effected the trade. Marshall later acquired black G John Nisby from the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Mitchell by no means saw himself as the Jackie Robinson of pro football.

• After attending segregated schools in Hot Springs AK, Bobby played at Illinois before the Browns chose him in the 7th round of the 1958 NFL Draft.
• When he reported to the Redskins training camp at Occidental College in California, Mitchell expressed shock not at the way he was treated but rather at the lack of talent on the field. "This is the team?" he asked Coach Bill McPeak. As Mitchell recalled, "It was a real shock for me becuse I had come from a team with real personnel. It just scared the hell out of me."
• McPeak converted Mitchell to WR to take advantage of his agility and speed.

The new look Redskins began the regular season at the Cotton Bowl against the Cowboys of second-year coach Tom Landry. Mitchell wasted no time in making an impact.

• He scored 3 TDs and set up another.
• He caught a 6y scoring pass from QB Norm Snead to tie the score at 7 in Q1.
• In Q3, after Dallas had pulled out to a 28-14 lead, Bobby returned the kickoff 92y.
• When the Cowboys regained a 14-point lead in Q4, Mitchell hauled in an 81y TD pass from Snead to cut the lead back to 7.
• The Redskins tied the contest on Snead's 1y sneak with 1:56 left. The Snead-Mitchell combo had connected for 26y to spark the scoring drive. Then Dallas was called for interference on Mitchell in the EZ to place the ball at the 1.
• In those pre-overtime days, the game ended 35 all.

The following Sunday, at Mitchell's old stomping grounds, Cleveland Municipal Stadium, Bobby burned his former team.

• With 1:36 left, he caught an 8y button hook from Snead and turned it into a 50y TD to give the two-TD underdog Skins a 17-16 triumph. Bobby ex­plained afterwards, "I caught the ball, skidded over to the sideline, went 'z-z-z-zt' right between two Browns, made a couple of crazy moves, and ran right on over that line."
• The victory was only the fourth for the Redskins in 24 tries against the Browns, who had featured black players since they joined the NFL in 1950 as part of the merger with the All-American Football Conference.
• The man for whom Mitchell had been traded, Ernie Davis, did not suit up for Cleveland because of a "blood disorder" that turned out to be leukemia. In one of the great tragedies in football history, Ernie died May 18, 1963, without ever playing an NFL game.

The Cinderella Redskins won again the following week in their home opener against the St. Louis Cardinals.

• In the opening period, on 4th-and-1, Snead faked a sneak, then drifted back and looped an easy pass to Mitchell, who pulled away from the de­fenders for a 40y TD.
• Bobby gathered in a 23y scoring pass from Snead in Q2 to push the lead to 14-0 as the Skins won 24-14.
• Washington had already won more games than in either of the previous two seasons.
• The crowd of 39,250 included many fans who had boycotted past games because of Marshall's refusal to integrate the team, including Secretary Udall who attended as the owner's guest.

• McPeak's club won only two more games to finish 5-7-2, their best record since 1957 but disappointing after the 4-0-2 start.
• Mitchell, though, was everything the fans hoped he would be: 1,384y on 72 receptions with 11 TDs. He was selected for his second Pro Bowl and first of three straight with Washington.

Mitchell played six more seasons in the nation's capital.

• He retired with 7,954 receiving yards, 2,735 rushing, and 3,389 more on kick returns for a total of 14,078.
• Mitchell entered the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1983.

George Marshall didn't get to enjoy Bobby's exploits very long after the '62 season.

• The owner was diagnosed with arteriosclerosis in 1963 and also suffered from diabetes.
• A few months later, he suffered a mild stroke that hastened his steep mental and physical decline.
• Known all his life as bright, ebullient, and full of ideas, Marshall was a shadow of his former self until his death in 1970.