1960 NFL Championship Game
The 1960 NFL Championship Game was the 28th NFL title game, played between the Green Bay Packers and Philadelphia Eagles on the afternoon of Monday, December 26, at Franklin Field in Philadelphia.[1][2][3][4][5][6]
Green Bay Packers
(Western)
(8–4)
Along with the landmark 1958 championship game, in which the Baltimore Colts defeated the New York Giants in sudden death overtime, the 1960 NFL Championship Game between the Packers and Eagles is considered a seminal game in professional football history.
The game marked the lone playoff defeat for Packers coach Vince Lombardi before his Packers team established a dynasty that won five NFL championships, including its first and second Super Bowls in a span of seven seasons.[7]
The victory was the third NFL title for the Philadelphia Eagles, but it would prove to be their last for another 57 years until February 4, 2018, when the Eagles defeated the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LII.[8]
The American Football League was in its first season, and held its inaugural title game less than a week later. First-year NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle convinced owners to move the league's headquarters from Philadelphia to New York City, and with Congressional passage of the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961, received an antitrust exemption that allowed the league to negotiate a common broadcasting network representing all of its teams, helping cement football's ascendancy as a national sport.[7]
This was the second and last NFL Championship Game played in Philadelphia, and the only one at Franklin Field; the previous 1948 championship game, held in a snowstorm at Shibe Park, was also won by the Eagles.
Ticket prices for the game were ten and eight dollars.[1] This was also the only year from 1958 to 1963 that did not include the New York Giants in the title game.
Background[edit]
The game matched the league's conference champions, Philadelphia Eagles (10–2) of the East and Green Bay Packers (8–4) of the West. The Eagles were making their first appearance in a championship game since 1949, and the Packers their first since 1944.[9] Two years earlier, both teams had finished last in their respective conferences.
Due to the lack of lights at Franklin Field, which were later installed in 1970, the game's kickoff time was moved up to 12 p.m. (noon) EST to allow for the possibility of sudden death overtime, which had occurred two years earlier.[1][10] The game was also played on a Monday, as it had been in 1955, as the NFL did not want to play the game on Christmas.[7]
Led by future hall of fame head coach Vince Lombardi, Green Bay won the Western Conference, a game ahead of the Detroit Lions and San Francisco 49ers. The two-time defending champion Baltimore Colts, led by quarterback Johnny Unitas, were 6–2 on November 13,[11] but lost their last four and stumbled into fourth place with a .500 record.[12] (Baltimore did not win another division/conference title until 1964.) Green Bay had won six league championships before, most recently in 1944, but the intervening years had been lean.[7]
At the time, Lombardi was better known as an assistant coach (offense) for the New York Giants. Hired by the Packers in January 1959,[13] he led them to a 7–5 record in his first season as a head coach, a vast improvement over the 1958 season (1–10–1), their worst ever. On the field, the Packers were led by quarterback Bart Starr, another future hall of famer but lightly regarded at the time, having thrown eight interceptions to go with his four touchdown passes in the 1960 season. Starr had shared playing time with Lamar McHan, who won all four games he started, while Starr was an even 4–4.[14] In his four previous seasons in the league, Starr had more interceptions than touchdowns in each season and he finished the 1960 season with 1,358 passing yards, completing 98 of 172 passes for a completion percentage of 57.0.[15] Other names that would shine during the dynasty the Packers built during the 1960s, such as halfback / placekicker Paul Hornung, linebacker Ray Nitschke, and fullback Jim Taylor, were all early in their careers and future hall of famers.[7]
The 1960 game represented a chance for Philadelphia to add to the consecutive titles in 1948 and 1949, but they had declined to only two wins in 1958.[7] Head coach Buck Shaw was in his third season with the Eagles, his final year as a head coach, and had turned around the team from a 2–9–1 record in 1958 to seven wins in 1959 to a conference championship and the league's best record in 1960.[16] The Eagles were led on the field by 34-year-old quarterback Norm Van Brocklin,[17] who was ranked second in the NFL with 2,471 passing yards and 24 passing touchdowns, behind Unitas of the Colts in both statistics, and was playing in his final game.[14][18] Less than a month after the title game, he was named the head coach of the expansion Minnesota Vikings.[19] Philadelphia had clinched the Eastern title early on December 4 at 9–1,[20] and there was concern by Shaw that it could have an adverse effect on his team.[21]