Lions may erase seven decades of pain and heartache with NFC final triumph over 49ers.
When we mention December 29, 1957, how long ago is that?
For starters, one of the day’s most heated clashes occurred at 8 p.m., when the “Ed Sullivan Show” on Ch. 2 featured special guests Red Buttons, John Wayne, and Sophia Loren, while the “Steve Allen Show” on Ch. 4 countered with Jerry Vale and Peter Ustinov.
The most popular films were “Around the World in 80 Days” with Shirley MacLaine and David Niven, “Pal Joel” with Frank Sinatra and Rita Hayworth, and “The Sad Sack” with Jerry Lewis and Peter Lorrie. Pat Boone’s “April Love” was the number-one song on the Billboard Hot Hundred. The Ford Skyline was the top-selling vehicle.
In New York City, negotiations between the Transit Authority and the Transit Workers Union broke down, and commuters braced for a debilitating bus and subway strike, which was narrowly avoided two days later while retaining the fare at 15 cents. In Washington, the federal budget was released at a tidy $74 billion, which with inflation equates to $802.5 billion in 2023 dollars (the budget in actual amounts was just $6.1 trillion).
And, yes, 55,263 fans packed old Briggs Stadium in Detroit, on the corner of Trumbull and Michigan Avenues, to see their beloved Lions — three-point underdogs against the powerful Cleveland Browns — rise up and defeat the Clevelanders, 59-14.
Tobin Rote threw for 280 yards and four touchdowns, Hopalong Cassady rushed for 48 more while catching a 16-yard touchdown pass, and the Lions limited the Browns’ Jim Brown — winner of both the Rookie of the Year and the MVP — to 69 yards on 20 carries, 29 of which came on a scoring dash that brought his team within 17-7, the closest they’d get all day.
The Detroit Free Press sports section headlined “Lions: From ‘Uncoachables’ to ‘Untouchables'” the next morning, celebrating a team that had been left for dead at 5-4 the week before Thanksgiving and then reeled off five straight wins, including a tie-breaker playoff in San Francisco three days before Christmas and this clincher three days before.
Of course, as the Motor City celebrated its heroes over the next several days, no one could have believed it if a football prophet fell from above and warned them of the devastation that would befall the city over the next 66 years.
The Lions, after all, were right up there with the Browns in terms of football dominance, having won three of the previous six championships. They’d won this game despite losing the finest and most popular player in franchise history, quarterback Bobby Layne, who shattered his leg in three places at the bottom of a dog pile in Week 11 against the same Browns. Rote rescued them that game and delivered them in this one.
And Detroit rose to the top of the NFL standings. And I enjoyed the view.
Yes. That happened a long time ago. That was the Lions’ last professional football championship game. The country admired Ike and adored Elvis. Queen Elizabeth was five years into her reign.
It went apart soon. The Lions went 4-7-1 in 1958, and they only appeared in the playoffs once from 1957 and 1982, losing 5-0 to the Cowboys in 1970. There would only be 12 playoff appearances between 1957 and 2023. There would be 23 seasons with double-digit losses, including a 0-16 in 2008.
