January 15, 1939 - Wrigley Field, Chicago - A new addition to the NFL lineup of games arrived as the first NFL All Star Game. The NFL Championship game winners would have the honor of facing the best players from all the other League squads.The profootballhof.com website informs us that the 1938 NFL Champions were the New York Giants as back on December 11 they won the title over Green Bay 23-17. In this All-Star game the Giants narrowly defeated the All America All-Stars, 13-10.
January 15, 1956 - Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum - 6th NFL Pro Bowl assembled the League’s top players to battle each other representing their respective Conferences. That season it was the Eastern Conference who edged out their Western Conference rivals by the narrowest of margins, 31-30. The game’s Outstanding Player award was claimed by Ollie Matson the running back of the Chicago Cardinals per the American Football Database. Matson apparently had the play of the game on a 91 yard zig zagging punt return per a Pittsburgh Post Gazette article the morning after the game.
January 15, 1961 - Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum -11th NFL Pro Bowl results are once again brought to us via an American Football Database post. In the game the Western Conference knocked off the Eastern Conference, 35-31. The coaches selected to guide the Pro Bowlers were Buck Shaw of the Philadelphia Eagles and Vince Lombardi of the Green Bay Packers. It was the final contest for the outstanding Quarterback Norm Van Brocklin who hung up his helmet after the game. The game’s MVPs were Baltimore Colts Johnny Unitas and New York Giants Linebacker Sam Huff.
January 15, 1966 - Rice Stadium, Houston - The AFL All Star Game was played for the fifth time to celebrate the top players in the League. The All-Star squad would face the League Champion Buffalo Bills according to the website RemembertheAFL.com. It was the All-Stars who would get the better of the Champs in this game as they beat Buffalo Bills, 30-19. The Most Valuable Players in the game were the Jets quarterback Joe Namath and Frank Buncom the linebacker from the Los Angeles Chargers.
January 15, 1967 - Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum - The First AFL-NFL World Championship game later referred to as Super Bowl I was played. The AFL put up their Champ the Kansas City Chiefs against the old guard of the NFL the Green Bay Packers. The Packers of Vince Lombardi were the heavy favorites but still a record television audience of over 60 million viewers tuned into watch the game per History.com. To the surprise of most the Chiefs only trailed by four at the halftime break. In the second half Green Bay turned the temperature up a bit and scored a TD set up by a Willie Wood interception and 50 yard return off of KC QB Len Dawson. Elijah Pitts scored two of the Packers touchdowns and end Max McGee added a third as the Green Bay Packers rolled the Chiefs, 35-10, Green Bay signal caller Bart Starr was recognized as the game’s MVP.
January 15, 1978 - Louisiana Superdome, New Orleans - Super Bowl XII was billed as the Denver Broncos and their Orange Crush Defense against the DoomsDay Defense of the Dallas Cowboys. The Golden Rankings website writes that it was the Dallas D that won out, supported by the high flying Cowboys offense that boasted running back Tony Dorsett and had Roger Staubach managing the huddle. The Cowboys displayed the superior team that day as they won by three scores over the Denver Broncos, 27-10. For the first time in Super Bowl history there were two MVPs chosen and they were from the defensive side of the ball as Dallas’ defensive end Harvey Martin shared the spotlight with teammate Randy White.
January 15, 1994 - Lawrence Taylor announces his retirement from the NFL per a report on SportsCasting.com. Taylor, known as LT was a member of the New York Giants for his entire Pro career which spanned 13 seasons from 1981 through 1993. He made the Pro Bowl in 10 of those seasons and was voted as the 1986 NFL Most Valuable Player after dropping quarterbacks an amazing 20.5 times behind the line.
January 15, 1995 - Three Rivers Stadium, Pittsburgh - San Diego traveled to Pittsburgh to take on the Steelers in the AFC Championship game. The folks at BoltsfromtheBlue.com have an excellent synopsis of the game. The first half went pretty much how most experts expected it to. The Steelers defense was stout and held the Chargers to a mere 3 points and less than 50 yards of total offense while the Steelers had 10 up on the halftime scoreboard. The powerful Pittsburgh run game was sputtering though as San Diego defense held one the League’s top rushers, Barry Foster to little gain on the ground. The second half had a bit of a surprise as blocking tight end Alfred Pupunu was the target of a quarterback Stan Humphries’ 43 yard touchdown pass play and the Chargers were in the game down by 3. Late in the fourth the Steelers sent an all out blitz on Humphries who found speedster Tony Martin in single coverage with no safety help and the Chargers scored again. San Diego Chargers denied the Pittsburgh Steelers, as they claimed a 17-13 victory that sent them to the Super Bowl.
January 15, 1995 - Candlestick Park, San Francisco - NFC Championship,: San Francisco 49ers beat Dallas Cowboys, 38-28 per OnthisDay.com.
January 15, 1997 - San Francisco head coach George Seifert announces his resignation after 8 highly-successful NFL seasons with the 49ers. An archived report on the LA Times website gives a great read on the situation. Seifert was a San Fran native and he acted as the Niners defensive coordinator under Bill Walsh and was on staff in three Super Bowl wins as an assistant coach. When he took over for Walsh in 1989 he led the team to two more Super Bowl victories in 5 seasons. The reasons were unclear for the resignation but George left as the winningest coach in franchise history at 98-30.
