As Far as Comebacks Go, Lions’ Championship Season Was 1957

It was Monday, Aug. 12, 1957, and, in downtown Detroit’s Hotel Statler, a noisy, boisterous, and optimistic crowd of football fans had gathered for the annual “Meet the Lions” banquet, which again, as in past years, would kick off the National Football League season in the Motor City.

The highlight of the evening, as it had been for the last six years, would be a talk by Raymond (Buddy) Parker, the team’s coach. It was anticipated that the tall, lean Texan would deliver a glowing report on the team’s prospects for ’57.

It was Parker who, since taking the Detroit coaching job in 1951, had turned the Lions, largely a collection of castoffs and malcontents, into one of the NFL’s most successful teams. His 47-23-2 record was second only to Paul Brown’s 53-18-1 mark in Cleveland.

Under Parker, the Lions had won three straight Western Division titles, 1952-54, and NFL championships in ’52 and ’53.

Although Detroit had slumped to 3-9 in 1955, the team had bounced back the following year to a 9-3 mark, second only to the Chicago Bears’ division-winning 9-2-1 record. This year, the Lion faithful were confident, would be another championship year.

But Buddy was not always happy in his work.

Parker was a workaholic, a no-nonsense guy who would tend to the most minute football detail. But much to his dismay, he had learned early on that his players’ devotion to football fell considerably short of his.

The Lions, the quick-tempered, volatile Parker had soon learned, were a fun-loving bunch and many of his players were fond of seeking off-the-field entertainment.

In 1953, for instance, while they were on their annual West Coast trip to play the 49ers and Rams, a small group of Lions were preparing for the 49er game at a San Francisco night spot, John’s Rendezvous. When a few of the bar’s regulars began to heckle them, the Lions promptly and efficiently cleaned out the place.

The next day, at Kezar Stadium, the Lions cleaned out the 49ers, 14-10.

Ironically, considering his distaste for such carryings-on, Parker’s favorite among the Lion players was his fellow Texan, fun-loving quarterback Bobby Layne, who maintained as high a profile off the field as he did on it. Bobby drank a lot, but he always entered and left his favorite bars the same way--through the front door--local reporters soon discovered.

Things had gotten so bad during the 1956 season that autograph seekers found it far easier to snag Bobby’s signature at Russell’s, one of Layne’s favorite off-the-field hangouts, than at Briggs Stadium.

Parker didn’t like the situation, but he put up with the unusual training habits of his talented party animals. Now, though, after six years of increasing media flack regarding some of the Lions’ antics, his patience was wearing thin. When the subject was brought up by a reporter, Buddy angrily fired back, “I’m not a policeman. I can’t go around a city of three million checking on my players!”

Lion management and organizers of the “Meet the Lions” banquet were well aware of Parker’s fierce temper when it came to players drinking in public, so they took particular care to arrange for the bus transporting the team from its suburban Detroit training site to arrive at the hotel at 7 p.m. This would give the squad just enough time to find their seats before the festivities began.

On this particular Monday night, however, traffic was unusually light, and the players’ bus arrived at 6:30, half an hour earlier than expected.

With time to kill, some of the players wandered up to the 10th-floor suite of D. Lyle Fife, former president of the team and one of the club’s directors. Naturally, they did not want to offend their gracious host, so they accepted his offer of a drink.

A few minutes later, Parker entered the suite and was incensed by the scene. “I’m getting out of here!” he ranted, but a friend prevailed on him to stay.

For the now-seething Parker, though, things got even worse.

With the Browns scheduled to open the exhibition season the next night against the Lions, former Cleveland quarterback Otto Graham had been invited to speak at the banquet. Graham compared the rigid training rules laid down by his coach to those of the Lions.

“Coach Brown has a standard $500 fine for players breaking training,” he said. “If this club had the same rule, some of your players would be bankrupt.”

Soon, it was Parker’s turn. He was introduced as “the best coach in the league,” and got a rousing ovation.

Buddy took his position at the podium, starred out at the crowd, and in a restrained voice said: “I can’t handle this football team. When you can’t handle players, it’s time to get out. That’s what I’m going to do tonight. I’m through with football in Detroit.”

Recalled Jim Martin, the former Notre Dame All-American who played played both offense and defense and was the Lions’ field goal kicker as well: “When Buddy got through talking, we all laughed. We thought he was joking. But, when it hit us he wasn’t kidding, we were shocked!”

Martin and Parker had both joined the Lions in 1951.

“Buddy never had a problem ‘handling players,’ ” Martin said. “Things other than that had been building up for a long time. The owners were after Buddy to keep producing winners. And, we heard that Art Rooney wanted him badly to coach the Steelers.”

Whatever the case, Parker packed up his gear at the team’s Cranbrook Academy training camp the next day and left town. Before leaving, though, he expanded upon his reasons for quitting the team.

“It’s the worst team I’ve ever had in training camp,” he said. “It’s a dead team, and I don’t want to be associated with a loser!”

Sixteen days after bolting Detroit, Parker was named coach of the Steelers.

Back in Detroit, meanwhile, George Wilson, an eight-year assistant was named to succeed Parker. During the football season, the 43-year-old Wilson had coached the ends and backs. In the off-season, he sold milling supplies, played some golf and stuck close to home. He and his wife had five children.

A former end for the Chicago Bear teams of the 1940s, Wilson was well liked, but only a few had confidence in his ability to be a head coach in the NFL.

“It was hard to get used to George as head coach,” recalled Martin. “He was always just one of the guys.”

Still, in accepting the position, Wilson expressed confidence that his team would be a contender. For the rest of training camp, he set an 11 p.m. curfew with a $50 fine per hour for violators, personally made bed checks and ran the players unmercifully at practice.

In Wilson’s first game, the exhibition opener against Cleveland, the Lions, as usual, beat the Browns, 20-10. As a reward, Wilson gave the players 24 hours off. And, as usual, many of them spent their free day hoisting cold ones at Russell’s, Yeaman’s and Manjo’s. Like leopards, the Lions couldn’t change their spots.

In fact, Wilson had hardly begun when he got his first real taste of his policeman’s role with the club. He was awakened by a phone call in the wee hours of the morning and told that Layne, his star quarterback, was being held in jail on a drunk-driving charge.

The arresting officer later said that he might have mistaken Bobby’s Texas drawl for slurred speech, though, and shortly thereafter a clubhouse prankster hung up a sign that read, “I’m not drunk, I’m from Texas.”

After a mediocre 3-3 exhibition season, Detroit opened the regular season in Baltimore.

The pride of the great Detroit teams of the ‘50s had been its defense, particularly the secondary, Chris’ Crew, named after its leader, Jack Christiansen. On Sunday, Sept. 29, the Colts’ young quarterback, Johnny Unitas, riddled the Lions’ defense for four touchdowns, and Baltimore flattened Detroit, 34-14.

But the Lions bounced back from their opening-day loss to beat Green Bay, 24-14, then, in their home opener, edged the Los Angeles Rams, 10-7.

In a rematch with the Colts in Detroit, Unitas needed only half as much time to throw for four touchdowns, and at halftime, it was Colts 27, Lions 3.

Only once before in National Football League history had a team come back from a 24-point deficit to win a regular-season game. In 1946, Philadelphia had rallied to beat Washington, 28-24.

The Lions, though, were game.

They got their first touchdown in the third quarter on a 14-yard pass from Tobin Rote, the backup quarterback, to end Steve Junker.

In the fourth quarter, Layne threw for 26 yards to halfback Howard (Hopalong) Cassady, who, a few minutes later, set up Detroit’s third touchdown with a leaping catch of a 25-yard pass from Layne on the Colt one. Fullback John Henry Johnson ran it in to make it 27-24, Colts.

On the third play after the ensuing kickoff, Baltimore halfback Lenny Moore fumbled at his 39 and Yale Lary, Lion defensive back, recovered. Then, with 50 seconds left, Layne threw another scoring strike to Cassady to hand the Colts their first loss.

In early November, midway through the 12-game season, Detroit trailed San Francisco by two games in the Western Division, but by the last weekend of the season, there was a three-way tie for the top spot among Detroit, San Francisco and Baltimore all with 7-4 records. Plans were being made for a three-team playoff, since none of the leaders played either of the others in the season finales.

The Lions, however, were handicapped. In their next to last game, against the Browns in Detroit, they had been dealt a crushing blow. Late in the second quarter, Layne was snowed under by a fierce pass rush.

As he went down, he caught his cleats in the soft turf. Dr. Richard A. Thompson, the Lions’ team physician, checked Layne’s ankle. It was broken.

“You’re going to the hospital, Bobby,” said the doctor.

As Layne was put on a stretcher, Cleveland’s giant tackle, Don Colo, bent over him and said, “That’s better than jail, Bobby boy,” alluding to the pending case against Layne for drunk driving.

“It was a lousy thing to say,” said Detroit tackle Lou Creekmur after the game, but the incident had served to fire up the team. The Lions’ tough defensive line held the Browns’ running game to just 69 total yards rushing, and Detroit came back with 17 points in the second half to win, 20-7.

That same day in San Francisco, John Brodie, the 49ers’ rookie quarterback, connected with halfback Hugh McElhenny on a 14-yard scoring pass with just 46 seconds left to pull out a 17-13 win over Baltimore and bring about the three-team tie in the Western Division.

So, the scene was set. The Colts would play the Rams in Los Angeles, the 49ers would play host Green Bay, and the Lions would face the Bears in Chicago.

At halftime the following weekend in Chicago, Detroit trailed the Bears, 10-0. But the Lions came roaring back in the final two quarters, scoring three touchdowns while holding the Bears to just a field goal and winning, 21-13.

In Los Angeles, the Colts were leading the Rams, 7-3, when the score of the Lion-Bear game was announced. The Colts seemed to fade thereafter, and the Rams rolled to a 37-21 win, eliminating Baltimore.

In San Francisco, though, the 49ers seemed to get pumped up after learning of the Detroit victory and held off Green Bay, 27-20, to tie Detroit for the Western Division title at 8-4.

The Lions were on their charter flight back to Detroit when the pilot announced the West Coast results. The 49er win meant that Detroit would play the 49ers the next Sunday in San Francisco in a playoff for the division title.

The following day, it was announced that Wilson and his staff had been signed for the 1958 season.

On playoff day, Sunday, Dec. 22, a capacity crowd of 60,118 in Kezar Stadium was going wild. The 49ers, sparked by Y.A. Tittle’s three touchdown passes and a field goal by Gordy Soltau, were leading Detroit, 24-7, at halftime, and seemed a cinch to face the Browns the next weekend for the NFL championship.

On the first play of the third quarter, McElhenny took a handoff from Tittle, bolted off tackle and seemed headed for another touchdown before being caught from behind at the Lion nine. Three plays later, the 49ers had to settle for a field goal, and they now led, 27-7.

Never had an NFL team come from 20 points behind to win a postseason game. The Lions, that December Sunday in 1957, were about to become the first. And no team has done it since.

The hero for the Lions was their backup fullback, Tom (the Bomb) Tracy, who was filling in for John Henry Johnson. During the regular season, Tracy had gained just 46 yards rushing and, had not Johnson been out with a leg injury, Tracy would probably have not played.

The 49ers began to unravel in the third quarter when Lion defensive end Bob Long recovered a San Francisco fumble on the 49er 28-yard line. Nine plays later, Tracy went in from the two to make it 27-14. A few minutes later, it was Tracy again, this time on a 59-yard touchdown run to narrow the 49ers’ lead to 27-21.

Just 43 seconds into the last quarter, halfback Gene Gedman scored the go-ahead touchdown on a three-yard run and then, with two minutes left in the game, Martin kicked a 14-yard field goal to climax the NFL’s greatest postseason comeback.

Detroit’s 31-27 victory had earned the Lions another title shot against the Browns the following Sunday in Detroit.

Sunday, Dec. 29, turned out to be an almost balmy day in Detroit, perfect for football. In their six regular-season home games, the Lions had played before standing-room-only crowds and, with a league record of almost 40,000 season-ticket sales, it was impossible to satisfy the demand for tickets.

Earlier in the week, Michigan Gov. G. Mennen Williams had proclaimed it was his Christmas hope that the title game would be televised in the Detroit area. But NFL Commissioner Bert Bell held firm.

The capacity crowd of 55,418 at Briggs Stadium (now Tiger Stadium), had plenty to yell about early as Detroit jumped off to a quick 17-0 lead.

At halftime, it was 31-7, Detroit, and the Lions’ first-year coach delivered one of his rare halftime pep talks. Wilson told the team, “Remember last week. You were behind, 27-7, and look what happened! The Browns could do it!”

In the second half, Detroit’s offense proved almost as productive as it had been in the first, scoring 28 more points as the Browns were handed a crushing 59-14 loss, the worst in the team’s history.

It was the Lions’ last championship season.

Detroit’s 59 points were the second-highest winning total. The Chicago Bears had scored 73 in their shutout of the Washington Redskins in 1940.

When the game ended, the happy Detroit fans flooded the field, but the Lion they hoisted to their shoulders was not Tobin Rote, the quarterback who had passed for four touchdowns. Linebacker Joe Schmidt, the defensive star, was the player the crowd sought out and carried off the field.

And quiet George Wilson had won an NFL title on his first try. “The greatest thing about this team was, they never quit,” he said.