[Tiger Fan]

JANUARY 2, 1968

NEW ORLEANS RETURNS TO AFA
Grid Loop Expands to 25 Teams

The American Football Association continued its recent trend of expansion with the addition of a sixteenth team. That, combined with the nine clubs in the National Football Association boosts the total of pro grid outfits to 25. The 25th entry is a familiar one to old time AFA fans as it marks the return of the New Orleans, complete with the same nickname.

The old New Orleans Crescents were born as a member of the short-lived Continental Football Conference with the Crescents, along with the Kansas City Cowboys and San Francisco Wings, being the three teams that survived and moved over to the AFA when the Continental loop folded up shop following the 1949 campaign. The Crescents previous stay in the AFA was a brief one as the club, after going 0-11-1 in 1950, folded up operations and disappeared, until the return of the Crescents in 1967.

The Crescents have no ties to the old CFC club aside from the nickname. They have a new stadium, which could house a big league baseball team as well, called Pontchartrain Park and has a capacity of 58,000. The owner is Jean-Baptiste "J.B." Marchand, who made his fortune in the shipping industry, and is heavily invested in the future of his city. Unlike the 1950 edition, the new Crescents did finally get New Orleans its first AFA victory, although it took until their 7th game and the club finished with a 3-11 record, good for last place in their division.

Speaking of divisions, the AFA did change to four divisions of four teams each with the addition of the Crescents but after much debate the playoff system was left the same so that only two of the four division winners would qualify for the post-season. That is likely to change going forward, in fact there are rumblings that the AFA and NFA will completely restructure their divisions and play an interlocking schedule. Up and including 1967 the only time a team would face an opponent from the other league is in the League Championship Classic Game.

The two playoff clubs to come out of the AFA in 1967 were the Houston Drillers and the Washington Wasps. Each boosted identical 10-3-1 records and they nosed out the Los Angeles Tigers for the semi-final berths. The Wasps strength was their passing game led by quarterback Pat Roberts (2549 yds, 16 TD) and second year wideout Dave Fitch (45 catches, 7 TDs). The Houston Drillers defense was not quite as imposing as it had been in previous years but still had plenty of talent led by veteran lineman John Padgett, linebacker Jim Griffin and safety John Wickman while 30-year-old Miller Bogert (1,706 passing yards, 11 TD's) continued to be the heart of the Drillers offense. The four-team playoff left the Kansas City Cowboys on the outside looking in despite the fact the Cowboys finished 10-4, marking their best season since 1951.

In the National Football Association the Miami Mariners made the playoffs for the third time in the loop's four years of existence. The Mariners lost their season opener in Denver but then reeled off 13 consecutive victories. There was a clear disparity between divisions in the NFA as four of the five teams in the East Division finished with a better record than the club that won the West. That would be the Los Angeles Olympians, who made the playoffs despite their 7-7 record.

Eldon McGoldrick of the New York Titans was named the Most Valuable Player after the 8th year pro out of Richmond State ran for 1,403 yards and had another 312 yards receiving. It was the second league MVP win for the halfback who was also named Offensive Player of the Year last season. This year the Offensive Player of the Year was Denver running back Mark Adams while the Defensive Player of the Year was Houston linebacker Jim Griffin.

PLAYOFFS

Miami and the Los Angeles Olympians met in the NFA playoff game, marking a rematch for their September meeting on the west coast that saw the visiting Mariners win rather easily by a 45-27 score. Miami, which reached the championship game a year ago, was a heavy favourite but the Los Angeles defense, led by lineman Bobby Powell, kept the score close. The only touchdown came in the second quarter on a 4-yard run by Miami back Ronny Pfister as the Mariners won a defensive struggle by a 16-3 score.

Through a quirk in scheduling and the fact they have never been in the same division the Houston Drillers and Washington Wasps were meeting for the first time. The Drillers, now in their seventh season, reached the championship game for the second time in their short existence with a 31-20 victory over the Wasps. Miller Bogert threw for 182 yards and two touchdowns while Keith Gladfelter, normally a reserve back, ran for a career best 130 yards to lead the Drillers attack.

AFA-NFA CLASSIC GAME

Houston and Miami were each making their second appearance in the AFA-NFA Classic and both were looking for their first win. The Drillers had reached the title tilt in 1965 but fell to the Boston Americans while the Mariners qualified a year ago but lost a heartbreaker in overtime to the Pittsburgh Paladins.

Houston set the tone for the game on their first possession as Bogert guided the Drillers on an 11 play scoring drive that took nearly seven minutes off the clock and culminated in a 14-yard touchdown pass from Bogert to Dan Hackbarth. A turnover deep in Houston territory allowed the Mariners to stay even with a 1-yard Don Eisenman touchdown run and the game stayed tight until late in the second quarter when the Drillers began to pull away. Miami was down just 3 points midway through the second period but the Drillers scored 27 unanswered points to cruise to a 44-14 victory. The win made the Houston Drillers the first of the post-1960 expansion clubs to win an AFA-NFA Classic Game.

AFA NOTES

• Quarterback Jim Rizzi became the first player in modern AFA history to throw for more than 15,000 career yards. The 35-year-old, who moved from Denver to San Diego this season but also had stops in Cleveland and Buffalo, entered the season about 100 yards shy of the mark and threw for 1,553 for the Admirals this season. Rizzi also has thrown 9 touchdown passes as he chases former Washington quarterback Tommy Norwood, who threw 110, for the lead in that category.
• Boston halfback Kevin Sova also crossed the 15,000 mark but in career rushing yardage. Sova topped the 1,000 yard mark for the 8th time in his career, one that has been spent entirely with the Boston Americans. Sova is the modern-era (post 1950) career rushing leader.
• Bobby Barrell Jr. had another fine season as the Kansas City Cowboys defensive end finished third in the AFA with 9 sacks. The son of the former FABL slugger was in his second pro season after playing his college ball at Coastal State.
• Six quarterbacks were selected in the first round of the draft including Dwayne Hathaway, who had guided St. Blane to a perfect season and a national title as a senior. Hathaway was selected 7th by the New York Stars but spent the season as a backup behind Jack Osterman.
• The AFA won the annual All-Star Classic, beating the stars of the NFA 17-10. A pair of Washington Wasps combined on the game winning touchdown, a 39-yard pass from Pat Roberts to Dave Fitch.

CUMBERLAND PUTS DEEP SOUTH BACK ON TOP
Explorers Perfect Season Leads to Third National Grid Title

Over the past couple of decades the elite teams from the Deep South Conference, and there are many, have established their conference to be the best section in collegiate football. Georgia Baptist, Noble Jones College, Bayou State, Central Kentucky and Cumberland have each been named number one over that time as Deep South schools were ranked number one in 10 of the past 22 years including a string of five straight in the late 1950s. There had been a three year drought, although Northern Mississippi finished second a year ago and Georgia Baptist ended up ranked third in 1964 but that drought came to an end as the Cumberland Explorers had a perfect 12-0 campaign to win their third National Title in the past 17 years.

Led by the best defense against the run in the sport, the Explorers ran the table but had a few close calls along the way. The biggest challenge came in their regular season finale against Central Kentucky with a James O'Donnell 67-yard scoring run midway through the fourth quarter providing the margin of victory in a 14-7 win over the Tigers. They also needed a big fourth quarter to defeat a much improved Baton Rouge State club 17-10. The Red Devils finished just 3-8 but that was a huge gain for a school that had entered the season with an 0-73 record over the past seven years and had been on the verge of being dropped by the Deep South.

As for Cumberland, led by O'Donnell's 1,473 yards rushing they were the class of the conference. The schedule-maker helped as they faced both Georgia Baptist and Noble Jones College at home and handily won each game from the pair of schools that finished tied for second in the Deep South and at 9-3 overall.

The Oilman Classic game marked the 10th time that Cumberland played on New Year's Day and they did not disappoint, running their post-season record to 7-3 with a 16-0 victory over Southwestern Alliance champion Amarillo Methodist. O'Donnell, a senior halfback out of Bradford, TN., was once again the offensive catalyst, rushing for 152 yards in a game that was scoreless for the first 41 minutes.

*** Presidents Settle For Second ***

The Cumberland win in Dallas meant that the best the Lincoln Presidents could do was finish second in the final polls. Only an overtime loss to St. Ignatius prevented the Great Lakes Alliance champs from a perfect season of their own. Lincoln closed out its season with a 30-20 victory over West Coast Athletic Association winner Coastal California in the East-West Classic. The second place ranking was the highest finish ever for the Presidents and their first top ten appearance since finishing sixth in 1958.

Another Great Lakes Alliance school ended up third in the polls as the Wisconsin State Brewers finished in the top ten for the first time since the 1930s. The Brewers lost on the road to both Lincoln and Minnesota Tech early in the season to drop to 1-2, before reeling off 9 straight wins including a 41-24 victory over Canyon A&M in the Desert Classic.

Two other 10-2 schools rounded out the top five in Eastern Kansas and Charleston Tech. The Warriors led the way in the Plains Athletic Association before ending College of San Diego's bid for a perfect season with a 36-21 win over the Friars in the Sunshine Classic. College of San Diego finished 6th in the rankings. Charleston Tech was the winner of the South Atlantic Conference and rallied with 10 points in the final seven minutes to upset Georgia Baptist 20-17 in the Cajun Classic.

COLLEGE FOOTBALL NOTES

• Ken Barnette of Central Ohio was named the Defensive Player of the Year, a new award introduced for the first time in 1966. The Aviators sophomore defense end set a new single season record for sacks with 13, topping the mark held by another Aviator, Larry Parker, who had 11 as a senior in 1964. Barnette's also smashed the single game sack record, which had been five, with a showing against Utah A&M in October that may never be duplicated. He sacked Aggies quarterback Charles Ellison an astonishing 9 times in the game.
• Senior quarterback William Scott of Coastal California set a new AIAA record for pass completions with 142 in 1967. Scott completed 64.8% of his pass attempts in guiding the Dolphins to a West Coast Athletic Association title. His 1,572 passing yards was the second highest single season total ever record, trailing only the 1,590 thrown by former Wisconsin State signal caller Paul Scothorn.
• The top rusher this season Peter Lynch, a senior at Alexandria. Lynch ran for 1,909 yards on the season. The Generals finished 8-3. Lunch was named the Christian Trophy winner and also an All-American.
• St. Blane, which won the national title a year ago with a perfect 12-0 record, got off to a 4-0 start this season despite losing much of its offense to graduation. The Fighting Saints then endured a four game losing streak and had to settle for a 6-5 season.
• Other schools to join this year's edition of the Cumberland Explorers and last season's St. Blane Fighting Saints with perfect seasons and a national title win over the past decade include the 1963 and 1960 Georgia Baptist Gators, 1962 Lubbock State Hawks and both the 1958 and 1957 Noble Jones Colonels.

TURNOVER AT TOP OF ALL THREE DIVISIONS

All three of the marquee American Boxing Federation divisions saw a change at the top as each of the pugilists who held the world title entering 1967 failed to close out the season still on top.

The first to fall was heavyweight Norm Robinson who had an awful night at New York's Bigsby Garden on March 4 as he was making his 7th defense since winning the belt nearly three years ago. Will Flowers, a 28-year-old brawler out of Phoenix, AZ., caught the champ with a huge cross early in the second round. It was a punch that likely would have ended the night for most fighters, but Robinson gamely struggled back to his feet and narrowly beat the count from referee Johnny Addie. Robinson would be sent to the canvas again in the sixth and eighth rounds but somehow survived although the challenger had won each of the first nine rounds handily and was well ahead on all scorecards. Robinson would go the distance but be credited only with winning the 10th round and at the end of 15 Flowers would have a decisive victory with the judges on average scoring the bout 148-134.

Flowers would fight twice more in 1967, earning TKO wins over Charlie White and Harry Rankin, who is now 0-for-3 in title shots.

A few weeks later welterweight champion Mark Nock would suffer a similar fate, losing a decision -although this one was much closer than Robinson's loss- to fellow Englishman Anthony Warwick. The 36-year-old Warwick is an interesting champion as he went 12 years without fighting before reentering the sport in 1964. He made his debut as an 18-year-old in 1949 and was 12-1 when he quit the sport to take a factory job and play semi-pro soccer. In 1964, at the age of 32 he returned to the ring and has not lost since resuming his career. He knocked out Nock to claim the title and scored a split-decision over Italian champ Carl Rondinelli before knocking out former champion Matt Leach in December.

Finally it was middleweight Lyman King who's latest reign at the top of his division came to an end in December. King has held and lost the title three times now after the Seattle fighter was outpointed by Charlie Kincaid in Las Vegas. It is the 24-year-old Kincaid's second turn at the top of the middleweight division as he briefly held the belt a little less than two years ago when he beat George Quisenberry but lost to Guy Williams in his first defense.

The Year That Was
Current events from 1967

• January 8–26 – Operation Cedar Falls, the largest ground operation of the war to date, as U.S. forces clear out the “Iron Triangle” near Saigon, highlighting the escalation of American involvement.
• January 23 – U.S. ratifies 25th Amendment which clarifies presidential succession and procedures for dealing with presidential disability, a key concern after JFK’s assassination.
• January 27 – Apollo 1 Tragedy. During a launch pad test at Cape Kennedy, astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger B. Chaffee are killed in a cabin fire. It’s NASA’s first fatal accident and leads to major safety overhauls in the Apollo program.
• April 23–24, 1967 – Soviet cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov becomes the first person to die during a spaceflight when Soyuz 1 crashes upon reentry due to parachute failure. It’s a devastating setback for the USSR’s space program.
• June 5–10 – Six-Day War as Israel launches a preemptive strike against Egypt, Syria, and Jordan, capturing the Sinai, Gaza Strip, West Bank, and Golan Heights, reshaping Middle East geopolitics.
• June 12 – The U.S. Supreme Court strikes down laws banning interracial marriage, a landmark civil rights decision.
• June 17, – China tests first hydrogen bomb, escalating Cold War nuclear tensions.
• July 23–27 – Detroit Riot. One of the most destructive urban riots in U.S. history erupts in Detroit, leaving 43 dead and thousands injured, highlighting racial tensions.
• September 29 -President Lyndon B. Johnson publicly pledges not to withdraw from Vietnam, reasserting America’s commitment despite rising protests at home.
• October 2 – Thurgood Marshall is sworn in and becomes the first African American justice on the U.S. Supreme Court, a historic civil rights milestone.
• October 9 – Che Guevara executed as the revolutionary leader is captured and killed in Bolivia with CIA assistance, ending his global guerrilla campaign.
• October 21– March on the Pentagon as over 100,000 anti-Vietnam War demonstrators rally in Washington, D.C., in one of the largest protests of the decade.
• November 3–22– Battle of Dak To takes place as heavy fighting in the Central Highlands results in major casualties on both sides, including the costly assault on Hill 875, intensifying debate in the U.S. about the war’s direction.
• December 3- South African surgeon Dr. Christiaan Barnard performs the first successful heart transplant, marking a milestone in medical history.
• December 23 – A suspension bridge between Ohio and West Virginia collapses, killing 46 people, shocking the nation and leading to major infrastructure reforms.