“The whole world loves a gambler, but not when he loses. We were out of time outs. I had a field goal team warming up. They would have gone in on the next play. But I don’t know if we would have had time to send them in.” ~Vince Lombardi after the Ice Bowl win.
Starr Scores to win Ice Bowl
The Greenville News Greenville, South Carolina · Monday, January 01, 1968 Clipping via Newspapers.com
Factoid: Down 14-17 with a mere 13 seconds remaining, Coach Vince Lombardi counted on his legendary Quarterback Bart Starr to come up with a play to win the game. It was third-and-one, so the Packers could have tried a quick pass play, then trotted the FG team on. But it was cold, really cold, and sometimes you have to go with your gut.
Spiking the ball to conserve time did not yet exist as a legal option. The action of a quarterback immediately throwing the ball into the ground (spiking it) after a hand-to-hand snap to stop the game clock became a legal exception to the intentional grounding rule in the NFL in 1990.
Starr counted on Guard Jerry Kramer to win his block on Jethro Pugh, and the wily signal caller followed him into the end zone to make history.
