Football in Baltimore
History and Memorabilia
Description/ReviewsSpecial Bonus Chapter
Page 1
The following is a special bonus chapter to Ted Patterson's Football in Baltimore: History and Memorabilia. Click on images for larger views.
As upsets go, it ranks at the very top. In boxing, Braddock over Baer, and, more recently, Rahman over Lewis. In basketball, Loyola of Chicago over two-time defending champs Cincinnati. We have to include the Mets over the Orioles in baseball and the Jets over the Colts in Super Bowl III. All of them memorable upsets.
And then there is the amazing rags-to-riches saga of the Baltimore Ravens in 2000-2001. Who would have thought, in their wildest dreams, that the Ravens would shock the sports world by winning eleven straight games, culminating with the "big enchilada," the Super Bowl, to sweep to the championship of the pro football universe? There was simply no warning, no hint, that, coming off an 8-8 season in 1999, the Ravens could improve that much, that fast. And when they failed to score even one lonely touchdown over a five-game span in October, thoughts of making the playoffs, let alone winning it all, were beginning to sound unrealistic. Call it destiny, call it miraculous, call it divine intervention, but after 30 years between Super Bowl victories, Baltimore, the town that the NFL tried to forget, was accepting the Vince Lombardi trophy from long-time antagonist, Commissioner Paul Tagliabue, igniting a "purple fervor" in Baltimore that had never been matched, not even in the glory days of the Colts.
The majority of the Ravens' players weren't even born when the Don McCafferty-led Colts won Super Bowl V in a 16-13 thriller over Dallas in January 1971. It was the last great hurrah for one of pro football's great franchises. Robert Irsay and Joe Thomas assumed control of the team in 1972, and, except for the 1975, 1976, and 1977 Bert Jones-led playoff teams, the Colts spiraled downhill. When Irsay did the unthinkable and hijacked the Colts to Indianapolis in 1984, the city of Baltimore was faced with getting on its hands and knees and groveling for a franchise, either an existing one or an expansion team. Nothing worked until Cleveland owner Art Modell also did the unthinkable and moved the tradition-laden Browns to Baltimore.
Under their new nickname and wearing purple, black, and gold, the Ravens posted just four wins in their first Baltimore season in 1996, and six in each of the next two seasons. In 1999 they won four of their last five games, including a 41-14 walloping of Super Bowl-bound Tennessee, to finish the season with a flourish, but still with a less than scintillating 8-8 record. Although there was little to cheer about, impressive crowds attended both Memorial Stadium and the Ravens' beautiful new Camden Yards home, which was renamed PSINet Stadium in a multi-million dollar naming-rights deal that Modell swung with the Internet company. Going to a game was more of a social event, without the passion reserved for a team fighting for a championship. A certain element of the fans still clung to their memories of the old Colts and refused to commit total allegiance to the upstart Ravens.
Thanks to the coaching of Brian Billick, the personnel decisions of Ozzie Newsome and his staff, and a rock-ribbed defense led by middle linebacker Ray Lewis, that all changed in 2000. The Colts would never be forgotten, but the Ravens were Baltimore's own, and the city climbed on board for one of the most memorable rides in NFL history. Couple the Ravens' success with the thrill and pageantry of having the Army-Navy game back in Baltimore after 56 years and some rip-roaring rivalries on the prep football front, and the 2000 season turned into something special--on all levels.
On Saturday, November 11, 2000, the Knights of City played the Poly Engineers for the 112th time, and, with two late touchdowns to break a 6-6 tie, won 18-6 before 5,200 fans at PSINet Stadium. City's Philip Harris returned a punt 61 yards to break the tie and help give the Knights the victory. Poly still leads the series 55-51-6.
In another gigantic upset, the McDonogh Eagles stunned favored Gilman 7-0 to complete a perfect 10-0 season. It was McDonogh's first win over the Greyhounds since 1996. Just a week before, Gilman's 29-game win streak was snapped at State College High in Pennsylvania. In the McDonogh game, the only touchdown was scored by the Eagles on Joe Benson's pass to 6-foot-6 wide-out Ryan Meehan in the second quarter. Gilman, without a first down in the game's second half, leads the overall series, 50-30-5. (Sadly, longtime McDonogh coach Howard C. "Dutch" Eyth--a Baltimore football legend, top college-football official, and key contributor to this book--died the following April after a short battle with cancer.)
The annual Turkey Day game between Loyola and Calvert Hall resulted in a thrilling double-overtime win for the underdog Cardinals.
The traditional Turkey Day battle between Loyola and Calvert Hall turned into one of the most memorable games in the long series. In not one, but two, overtimes, Calvert Hall beat the Dons for the first time since 1988, 7-6, before 12,486 nail-biting fans at PSINet Stadium. After a scoreless tie in regulation, each team was given the ball ten yards from the end zone on alternating possessions. Loyola's first try ended on fourth down just short of the goal line. Calvert Hall then missed a 20-yard field goal.
Calvert Hall scored on a play that will go down as one of the most talked about in the 81-year history of the rivalry. Cardinal quarterback Bobby Griffin rolled right, cut inside, and was nearing the goal line when Don defender Clipper Lennon jarred Griffin with such force that the ball popped out of his hands. Wide receiver Jason Forrester snagged the ball out of midair and stretched over the goal line for the touchdown. Alec Knight kicked the point after, and it was 7-0, Cards.
Loyola got the ball on the ten and quarterback J. G. Guidera scrambled to the one, setting up fullback Sebastian Price's one-yard
1 Then on December 2, 2000, for the first time since 1944, Army and Navy returned to play in Baltimore--and the Midshipmen avoided a winless season by holding off the Cadets 30-28 before a record PSINet crowd of 70,685. The 101st meeting between the two service academies capped a festive week in which Baltimore rolled out the red carpet for the inter-service rivalry after an absence of 56 years. Said one fan, after watching the traditional march-on of both academies, the flyover of jet planes, and other pomp and circumstance preceding the game: "The Army-Navy game is the only game in which you've gotten your money's worth before they even kickoff."
A coveted program and ticket from the 101st Army-Navy game.
Navy had appeared to salt the game away when Brad Wimsatt picked up a fumble near the Army goal line and took it in for the score that made it 27-7, Mids, late in the third quarter. But Army blocked a punt, scored , and turned the momentum in their direction for a thrill-packed fourth quarter. A couple of questionable calls, one which nullified an apparent Army on-side kick recovery and the other a roughing the kicker that allowed Navy to run out the last 1:30, sealed the Cadets' fate and gave Navy their only victory of the season. The game was the seventh in the last nine meetings between the two rivals to be decided by four points or less, but the first in which Navy was victorious. In May 2001, discussions were already in progress to return the classic to Baltimore in the future.
Meanwhile, the Ravens assembled a storied season. No one was happier to see the 2000 training camp begin than linebacker Ray Lewis. Less than six months before, at a post-Super Bowl party in the Buckhead section of Atlanta, Lewis and his entourage had been involved in a double murder outside a popular night club. The next day Lewis was arrested, jailed, and charged with murder along with two of his friends. Without sufficient evidence, and after the courtroom testimony of several witnesses, murder charges against Lewis were eventually dropped. He pled guilty to obstruction of justice and got off with a suspended sentence. He was later fined $250,000 by the National Football League. Lewis maintained his innocence throughout the ordeal and was more determined than ever to have a great season in 2000.
The playoff-bound Ravens proudly pose for a group photo.
For Modell, the 2000 season was his 40th as an NFL owner. At 75, time was not on his side to secure an elusive Super Bowl trophy. Several times in Cleveland he had been on the brink of reaching the big game, only to be heartbroken by "the interception," "the drive," and "the fumble," catch phrases for three heartbreaking AFC playoff defeats. His last championship, his only championship, had come in 1964, when his Browns blanked the Colts 27-0 for the NFL title, two years before the Super Bowl debuted.
Modell, however, was always the optimist. "This is the best defense I've had in 40 years," he said about his 2000 team. "Our offense will be improved. But I'm not printing playoff tickets yet. Lots of things can happen, including injuries. We have, however, put ourselves in a position to win now." Prophetic words indeed.
True to form the Ravens won all four of their preseason games, exactly as they had done in 1998 and 1999. The Eagles fell first, 16-13, as quarterback Tony Banks hooked up on a seven-yard scoring play with newcomer Shannon Sharpe, a Hall of Fame-bound tight end who had signed with Baltimore after helping Denver to back-to-back Super Bowl wins in 1997 and 1998. Said the vociferous Sharpe after the game: "Anything less than a playoff run and we're going to be disappointed. That's not to brag or boast or anything, but that's the expectation that we have for ourselves. We know we have a very good football team here."
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Ted Patterson
with photography by Edwin H. Remsberg and a Foreword by Raymond Berry $33.00 hardcover 978-0-8018-6424-7 (16 ctn qty) 2000 304 pp. 190 halftones and 48 4-color photographs |
