By Darin May 5, 1922, Construction begins on Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, New York. Here are ten notable gridiron games that MLB.com shares with us, played at the original House that Ruth Built:
- 10. Last Gridiron Game: Sept. 12, 1987, was the final football game ever played at the old Yankee Stadium. The game had Central State University of Ohio edging out Grambling University, 37-21. Grambling coach Eddie Robinson was still on the sideline for this one and showed disappointment in the loss.
- 9. Last Gotham Bowl: Before the Pin Stripe Bowl, there used to be another Holiday Bowl game played in the Big Apple, the Gotham Bowl. Nebraska defeated Miami, 36-34, on Dec. 15, 1962, in the final edition of this Bowl, as MVP George Mira tossed for 321 yards and two scores. The turnout of fans was so poor due to a 14-degree temperature at kick-off, as only 6,166 attended Yankee Stadium.
- 8. Kicking Kramer: Green Bay guard Jerry Kramer drilled three field goals to secure the Packers’ 16-7 victory over the Giants in Yankee Stadium’s last NFL Championship Game on Dec. 30, 1962.
- 7. Tarnished Granite: We talked about back on April 24 in the Ed Franco bio that another member of Fordham’s Seven Blocks of Granite was future Hall of Fame coach Vince Lombardi. In the 1936 season, Lombardi endured what he proclaimed as “the most devastating loss of my life.” The Rams needed one win for a Rose Bowl berth, but alas, they fell to New York University, 7-6, on a muddy Yankee Stadium field on Thanksgiving Day, dropping from No. 3 to No. 15 in the final AP rankings.
- 6. Tittle Meant Title: In 1961, the Giants acquired quarterback Y.A. Tittle from the San Francisco 49ers in exchange for guard Lou Cordileone. Tittle, who led the G-men to three straight Eastern Division titles, lofted seven touchdown passes to lead the Giants to a 49-34 victory over the Washington Redskins on October 28, 1962.
- 5. Ice Ice Baby: At the 1956 NFL championship game, the New York Giants stomped the Chicago Bears, 47-7, on Dec. 30, 1956, to complement their first season using Yankee Stadium as their home field. The game is famous for being played on an icy field, where the Giants wore sneakers instead of cleats, reminiscent of 22 years earlier, when those same NY Giants also wore tennis shoes to play on an icy Polo Grounds turf, a game that became known as “The Sneakers Game.”
- 4. Summerall’s boot: Pat Summerall’s voice had sent many Sundays echoing through all of our living rooms, but it was Summerall’s 49-yard field goal as a player for New York in a swirling snowstorm on Dec. 14, 1958, that gave the Giants a 13-10 win over the Cleveland Browns to force a playoff for the NFL East crown. He missed a 31-yarder earlier but made up for it with this clutch kick! The following week, New York defeated Cleveland, 10-0, to advance to the 1958 NFL Championship Game.
- 3. What a tackle! Second-ranked Notre Dame and top-ranked Army played perhaps the most thrilling contest of their historic rivalry on Nov. 9, 1946, at Yankee Stadium, a 0-0 tie made legendary by John Lujack’s well-chronicled saving tackle of Army’s star running back “Mr. Inside“ Doc Blanchard late in the game.
- 2. The Gipper Game: George “The Gipper” Gipp was a first-team All-American at Notre Dame before dying at the age of 25 of a deadly throat infection just days after leading Notre Dame to a win over Northwestern. Allegedly, while on his hospital bed, he received a visit from coach Knute Rockne. Some time in the future, at halftime of a scoreless game, Rockne seized the moment to use the wishes of his dying player as the basis for an inspirational speech, urging his squad to win it for Gipp, and the Irish went on to beat Army 12-6 at Yankee Stadium.
- 1. Greatest game: The NFL Championship Game on Dec. 28, 1958, between the New York Giants and Baltimore Colts was the first NFL game to go into sudden-death overtime. The Colts won, 23-17, in what is widely-regarded as “The Greatest Game Ever Played.” A national television audience saw Colts receiver Raymond Berry catch 12 passes, setting a championship game record with 178 yards and a score, in a game that signaled the beginning of the NFL’s surge in popularity.
The old stadium certainly had its share of gridiron moments in addition to those of baseball.