1975: Goal-Line Stand Preserves Bengals Win Over Oilers & “White Shoes” Johnson

The matchup between the Cincinnati Bengals and Houston Oilers on October 5, 1975 at the Astrodome promised to be a good one. Both AFC Central teams had won their first two games heading into the Week 3 contest. Cincinnati, under 67-year-old founding Head Coach Paul Brown, was coming off of a disappointing 7-7 season in ’74 after having won the AFC Central with a 10-4 mark in 1973. QB Ken Anderson (pictured at right), a precision passer who led the NFL in that category in ’74, was off to another fine start.

Meanwhile, the Oilers were on the rise under a new head coach, Bum Phillips. After back-to-back 1-13 records in 1972 and ’73, they had risen to 7-7 under the guidance of Sid Gillman, who chose to turn over the head coaching duties to Phillips, a veteran assistant coach who had most recently been Houston’s defensive coordinator; later he also inherited Gillman’s position as general manager.

The first quarter was scoreless. Cincinnati finally got on the board in the second quarter when Anderson tossed a 10-yard touchdown pass to RB Lenvil Elliott. However, Houston WR Billy “White Shoes” Johnson returned the ensuing kickoff 64 yards and RB Fred Willis (a former Bengal) capped the possession with a dive into the end zone from a yard out to tie the score.

Johnson struck again before the half when he returned a 53-yard punt by David Green for 30 yards to set up a 37-yard field goal by Skip Butler that gave Houston a 10-7 halftime lead.

Meanwhile, Cincinnati missed opportunities to score further in the first half as Anderson tossed an interception and FB Boobie Clark fumbled the ball away on the Houston 19 yard line.

There was just one score in the third quarter, but it was once again a big play by Houston’s Johnson as he returned a punt for a 63-yard touchdown. The Oilers were up 17-7 thanks to the heroics of the 5’9”, 170-pound wide receiver/kick returner from Widener who had set up both first half scores and directly produced the third.

However, Houston turnovers set up two fourth quarter touchdowns by the Bengals. First, CB Ken Riley recovered a fumble deep in his own territory and returned it 43 yards. Six plays later, RB Stan Fritts caught a pass from Anderson for a 17-yard touchdown that narrowed the Oilers’ margin to three points. Then, LB Al Beauchamp recovered a fumble at the Houston 41 on the Oilers’ next possession. Anderson tossed another TD pass, of six yards to WR Isaac Curtis, seven plays later. With less than nine minutes remaining to play, the Bengals were now ahead by 21-17.


The lead hardly appeared to be safe when the Oilers, thanks to a long pass interference penalty, found themselves with a first-and-goal situation at the Cincinnati one yard line. In the key defensive stand of the game, the Oilers attempted four straight runs into the center of the line and came up empty. Bengals MLB Jim LeClair (pictured at right) made two of the tackles on his own in the goal-line stand, and assisted on the other two. With 5:18 remaining in the game, Cincinnati took over on downs.

On the first play after the change of possession, Anderson was tackled in the end zone for a safety that narrowed the Bengals’ lead to two points. But later Riley intercepted a pass to thwart Houston’s last effort, and Cincinnati escaped with a 21-19 win.

Ken Anderson said afterward, “The only thing we didn’t want to do was panic. We were only down by 10 and you can come back from that.” The Bengals led in total yards (262 to 176) and first downs (18 to 13). They lost 107 yards on seven penalties and Anderson was sacked seven times for a loss of 34 more, but the Oilers suffered five critical turnovers.

Anderson completed 19 of 28 passes for 210 yards with three touchdowns and one interception. Neither club ran the ball effectively, and of Cincinnati’s 86 yards on 37 carries (2.3-yard average), Boobie Clark contributed the most with 29 yards on 13 attempts; he also caught the most passes with 5, for another 29 yards. Stan Fritts added 28 yards on 8 carries and Lenvil Elliott 27 yards on 6 rushes. Elliott also had the most receiving yards, with 49 on three catches that included a TD.

The biggest contributor for the Oilers had been Billy “White Shoes” Johnson, who had 263 yards in kick returns for the day (136 on four kickoffs and 127 on six punts); he added another 19 yards on two pass receptions. QB Dan Pastorini was successful on 11 of 23 passes for 93 yards with two of them intercepted. Rookie FB Don “Jaws” Hardeman ran for a team-leading 33 of Houston’s 83 rushing yards, on 16 carries. WR Ken Burrough led the receivers with four catches for 47 yards.

In the highly competitive AFC Central, Cincinnati went on to win its first six games and finished with an 11-3 record, second to the 12-2 Steelers and good enough for a wild card spot in the playoffs. In Paul Brown’s last game as a head coach, they lost a close Divisional playoff contest to Oakland. Houston recovered to win its next four games and came in third with a very respectable 10-4 tally, the club’s best since 1962.

Ken Anderson again led the NFL in passing with a 93.9 rating and also topped the league with 3169 yards and 8.4 yards-per-pass attempt. His 60.5 completion percentage ranked second, as did his low 2.9 percentage of interceptions.

As this game exemplified, Billy “White Shoes” Johnson (pictured below) in his second year had established himself as one of the most exciting players in the league. He ranked fourth in the league with his 1820 all-purpose yards and was the top punt returner with a 15.3-yard average on 40 returns, which included three touchdowns.

1969: Greg Cook Leads Bengals Past Dolphins for Paul Brown’s 300th Win

The September 14, 1969 season-opening game between the Cincinnati Bengals and Miami Dolphins at the University of Cincinnati’s Nippert Stadium achieved a couple of milestones – one highlighting the long-term achievement of a head coach and the other marking the arrival of a talented player whose career would flame out all too quickly.

Paul Brown (pictured above) had returned to pro football coaching in 1968 after an absence of five years. The architect of the Cleveland Browns team that dominated the All-America Football Conference (AAFC) from 1946-49 and then appeared in six consecutive title games in the NFL had been summarily dismissed by young owner Art Modell following the 1962 season. Brown returned with the AFL expansion Cincinnati Bengals, where he was not only the general manager (as he had been in Cleveland) but had a part ownership in the franchise (all the better for job security).

Brown was a winning coach at every level, starting at Severn School, a prep school in Maryland where he began his coaching career (16-1-1) before returning to his native Ohio and Massillon Washington High School, where he first gained notoriety by leading the team to six consecutive state high school championships during his nine years there (80-8-2). It was on to the college level at Ohio State (18-8-1, including a national championship in 1942) and then service football at Great Lakes Naval Station (15-5-2). Entering the ranks of pro coaches with the Cleveland Browns, first in the AAFC (52-4-3, including postseason) and NFL (115-49-5, also including postseason), he had gone through a typically difficult 3-11 expansion season in ’68 with the Bengals. When added together, Brown entered the 1969 AFL season with 299 career wins as a head coach at all levels.

During 1968, Brown had personally scouted Greg Cook, a quarterback at the University of Cincinnati. The legendary coach liked what he saw and the Bengals made Cook their first choice in the ’69 draft. From the beginning, it seemed as though Cook had all the ingredients for greatness. He was tall, at 6’4”, weighed in at 220, had a strong and accurate throwing arm, a quick release, and good mobility. Moreover, he was intelligent, confident, and had the right emotional makeup – all in all, an excellent blend of physical ability and intangibles.

Cook threw three touchdown passes to nearly lead the College All-Stars to an upset of the defending AFL champion Jets. Even though his All-Star game participation caused him to get a late start in training camp, he became the sensation of the preseason and was the starting quarterback for Cincinnati in the opening game. He did not disappoint.


After the Dolphins took a 7-0 lead in the first quarter on a 10-yard touchdown pass from QB Bob Griese to WR Karl Noonan, HB Paul Robinson (the AFL’s leading rusher as a rookie in ’68) scored at the end of the period on a four-yard run. The game didn’t remain tied for long as HB Mercury Morris of the Dolphins returned the ensuing kickoff 105 yards. But Cook (pictured at left) showed off his passing skill as he threw two touchdown passes to split end Eric Crabtree, of 69 and 25 yards, to put Cincinnati ahead by 21-14 at halftime.

Horst Muhlmann booted two third quarter field goals, and while HB Jim Kiick ran for a fourth quarter TD, the Bengals held on to win, 27-21. Paul Brown had the 300th win of his illustrious coaching career.

Miami’s third-year quarterback, Bob Griese, threw for 327 yards and a TD, but also gave up two interceptions. Greg Cook completed 11 of 21 passes for 155 yards with the two touchdowns and had one picked off. Eric Crabtree, thanks to the two long scoring receptions, gained 113 yards on three catches. The Bengals also outran the Dolphins, 101 yards to 79, with FB Jess Phillips leading the way at 62 yards on 11 attempts.

It was a good beginning for Cincinnati, and Cook and the Bengals became the talk of the league as they improved to 3-0 with wins over the Chargers and Chiefs. However, the Kansas City game marked the beginning of the end for the rookie phenom. While rolling out on a pass play, Cook was hit hard and came down on his throwing shoulder. In the days before MRIs, it wasn’t recognized that Cook had severely damaged his rotator cuff (it was misdiagnosed as a shoulder separation).

Cook was rested for four weeks – all games that Cincinnati lost with backup Sam Wyche at quarterback – and returned to lead the Bengals to an upset of the Oakland Raiders by a score of 31-17. Cook threw two touchdown passes despite his damaged shoulder (and greatly impressed Oakland’s first-year head coach, John Madden). He threw four touchdown passes and accumulated 298 yards through the air the following week in a 31-31 tie with Houston. But the next week Cook was intercepted three times as the Bengals lost to the Patriots.

There were further injuries in addition to the rotator cuff, causing Cook’s performance to suffer in the remaining games. Cincinnati lost five straight to close out the season and ended up with a 4-9-1 record. The rookie threw for 291 yards and a TD in the finale at Denver, which was effectively the last game of his career. Cook appeared in a contest for the Bengals in 1973, in which he completed one of three passes, and that was it. Playing through the rotator cuff injury – and not having modern diagnostic and surgical techniques available to him – proved disastrous.

Nevertheless, Cook made an impression in 1969. He led the AFL in passing (88.3 rating), completion percentage (53.8), yards per attempt (9.4, still the record for a rookie quarterback), and yards per completion (an excellent 17.5); his 15 touchdown passes resulted in a TD percentage of 7.6, which ranked second. Perhaps tellingly, despite missing significant time to injury, he was ranked second in the league in times sacked (29, tied with Denver’s Steve Tensi).

Perhaps John Madden best summed up the impact of Cook’s performance in ’69: “That was the year that Daryle Lamonica had his best year and the year that Len Dawson led the Chiefs to the Super Bowl. But Cook looked like the best quarterback in the league – better than Lamonica, better than Dawson, better than Namath, Hadl, or Griese. I thought that this kid was going to be better than anyone I had ever seen.”

As for Paul Brown, he remained coach until his retirement following the 1975 season and led the Bengals to the postseason three times (including 1970, in just the third year of the franchise’s existence). He accumulated another 51 wins beyond the 300th in the victory over Miami and ended up with 222 (counting the postseason) as a pro coach alone (AAFC, AFL, NFL).

1946: Browns Dominate Miami in First AAFC Contest

There were 60,135 fans at Cleveland’s Municipal Stadium on September 6, 1946 to witness the debut of a new pro football league, the All-America Football Conference (AAFC). The size of the crowd was notable in itself, for it was the larger than any that had assembled to watch a regular season NFL game to date.

The AAFC had been organized by Arch Ward, sports editor of The Chicago Tribune, who had previously brought major league baseball’s All-Star Game and football’s College All-Star Game into being. The league was determined to be truly national in scope, with teams on the west coast (San Francisco and Los Angeles) and southeast (Miami) as well as the major centers of New York City and Chicago (the NFL’s Rams moved from Cleveland to Los Angeles in 1946 to extend the older league’s reach as well). By and large, the AAFC franchise owners were wealthier than their NFL counterparts and prepared to spend money in the competition for talent.

One of the new AAFC owners was Arthur “Mickey” McBride in Cleveland, who had made his money in real estate and taxi services. He hired Paul Brown (pictured above) as head coach and general manager, a smart public relations – as well as football – move. Brown was already a semi-legendary figure in Ohio football from his coaching stints at Massillon High School and Ohio State. He had most recently coached during World War II at the Great Lakes Naval Training Station and, everywhere he had been, he had produced winning teams. Likely in tribute, when a fan contest to name the new club was held, “Browns” was the winner.

Brown signed players that he was familiar with from his college and service coaching, including Otto Graham, who had been a single-wing tailback at Northwestern; end Mac Speedie, from Utah but who Brown knew from service football; and end Dante Lavelli and tackle/placekicker Lou Groza, from Ohio State. There were also Bill Willis, a guard from Ohio State, and 230-pound fullback Marion Motley, who was familiar to Brown from high school and service teams, who were not only talented players but the first two African-Americans in the AAFC (the NFL’s Rams broke that league’s color barrier in ’46 also).

All of those players were making their pro debuts in the opening game along with the new franchise and league. Other significant Browns players who had at least some prior pro experience included HB Edgar “Special Delivery” Jones, who briefly played for the Chicago Bears in 1945; tackle Lou Rymkus, formerly of the Washington Redskins; and Gaylon Smith, an all-purpose back who had spent four seasons with the Cleveland Rams.

The Browns’ opponents in the season-opening game were the Miami Seahawks, coached by Jack Meagher. They fell quickly behind in the first quarter as QB Cliff Lewis threw a 19-yard touchdown pass to Speedie for the first score in Browns history. Groza followed with a 22-yard field goal for a 10-0 lead at the end of the first quarter.

It was 27-0 by halftime as the Browns broke the game open in the second quarter. Otto Graham threw the first TD pass of his illustrious career, of 39 yards to Lavelli, HB Tom Colella ran for a 50-yard touchdown, and Groza booted another field goal, from 27 yards out.

The defense added two more touchdowns in the fourth quarter, as HB Don Greenwood scored on a three-yard fumble return and HB Ray Terrell intercepted a pass and ran 76 yards. In between, Groza kicked his third field goal, of 21 yards.

The final score was 44-0 and demonstrated both the dominance of the Browns and the weakness of the Seahawks. “I couldn’t believe we beat a pro team 44-0”, said Lavelli afterward.

Cleveland won its first seven games and didn’t allow another club to score in double figures until the seventh contest. After losing for the first time to the team that would be their chief nemesis in the AAFC, the San Francisco 49ers, the Browns lost once more to the Los Angeles Dons before completing the regular season with a 12-2 record. Finishing at the top of the Western Division, they went on to defeat the New York Yankees for the league title.

As outstanding as the Browns were, the Miami Seahawks proved to be the biggest failure of the AAFC’s first season. Two of the club’s games were postponed by hurricanes and the team never drew more than 9700 fans at home (they scheduled their games on Monday nights). The Seahawks weren’t helped by the fact that seven of their first eight games were played on the road and they were already 1-7 by that point. They finished at the bottom of the Eastern Division with a 3-11 tally.

Coach Meagher resigned after six games and was replaced by player/coach Hamp Pool. Owner Harvey Hester went broke and the other teams were forced to pay off the club’s debts at the end of the season. The franchise was expelled and replaced by the first incarnation of the Baltimore Colts for 1947.