A linebacker with a grudge, a QB who loved to air it out and an innovative kicker helped lift Washington to the kind of win the league may never see again. Get Your Commanders Tickets Here: https://bit.ly/3SpwKU3
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's the Sunday after Thanksgiving nineteen sixty six.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
The Burgundy and Gold is.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Set to host the Giants, a five to six Washington
team a one eight one New York team. Going into
this game day, nothing screamed the unprecedented. Perhaps the unbeatable
is about to unfold, But that's exactly what happened. This
(00:38):
is hail Tails stories from Washington football history.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
The highest scoring NFL game.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
By the time late November nineteen sixty six rolled around,
there was a group of players in Washington who were hissed.
This matchup ahead against New York was specifically circles on
their calendar.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
Hi, my name is Steve Thurlow. I was traded from
the New York Giants to the Washington Redskins in nineteen
sixty six in the middle of the season.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
Thurlow, linebacker Jim Carroll, and linebacker Sam Huff had all
been recently traded from New York. They weren't happy about
how the Giants and head coach Ali Sherman had handled
it all. So a game against the g Men was
an opportunity to get out the emotions, to show their
(01:41):
opponent what they were missing out on.
Speaker 3 (01:44):
I mean hate I don't want to say hat hates
a terrible word to use, but we had a tremendous
negative feeling toward Ali Sherman for having traded us. I'm
not so sure that that wasn't a natural feeling that
everybody who gets traded trading is being rejected. You can't
look at it as though they want they needed somebody else,
(02:06):
you know, to play a different position, and they were
willing to let you.
Speaker 4 (02:11):
Go for that.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
You know that that is the truth.
Speaker 5 (02:14):
You know.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
My feeling was we were pissed, you know that we
that we were traded, and the three of us had
talked about it all week.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
The bitterness was particularly acute for Sam Huff, the future
Hall of Famer, had won an NFL Championship with the
Giants and was named an All Pro six times.
Speaker 6 (02:36):
I think Sam would kind of mentioned that he had
talked to Wellington Marrior or one of the owners of
the team about the fact that he wanted to stay with.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
The team former Washington tight end Pat Richter, who played
for the team from nineteen sixty three to nineteen seventy.
Speaker 6 (02:53):
And they kind of assured him that it was going
to be part of the team forever.
Speaker 4 (02:59):
All along.
Speaker 6 (03:00):
We don't know, but he wasn't going to be traded,
and then for whatever reason, he was traded. Obviously it
was our benefit to have Sam on the team, but
he was probably looking at family situation and being living
out his career with the Giants where he had been
so successful for many years, and when that didn't happen,
(03:25):
then that kind of broke open the dam and he
kind of flipped with the religious of the Redskins.
Speaker 7 (03:32):
Obviously, puff Peppy Sam huff sprinted off the field after
practice yesterday like the young New York Giant linebacker he
once was. Huff said, the only thing that counts is
what's on the scoreboard. If I could help beat the
Giants fifty to nothing, I would, or any other team,
any other team, well, I do have my preferences, he
(03:56):
said mischievously.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
Animosity bubbled in the background, but so too did love,
at least for a pair of players, the kickers on
these two teams. They were brothers, Charlie and Peter Gogolak.
The journey to this point for these two was nothing
short of remarkable. In the mid nineteen fifties, the Gogolak
(04:29):
family had risked their lives escaping Soviet controlled Hungary. The
harrowing experience was detailed by Charlie's son Steve for a
college filmmaking course in the early two thousands.
Speaker 8 (05:10):
We had a family meeting at which it was decided,
I think, through pretty much the forceful desire of my father,
that this was our best chance to leave the country,
that we're going to leave the country.
Speaker 9 (05:24):
We had to pass a checkpoint and I was sitting
in the backseat of the car and the person who
drove the car, I did not know who that person was,
and basically that person showed an ID to Kevin I.
Speaker 8 (05:38):
D I thought that we were all cooked and done for.
When we came up to this checkpoint in front of
the chain bridge.
Speaker 4 (05:45):
We were told that once we arrived in this little town,
maybe about fifteen miles inside Hungary from the Austrian border,
we're going to go to this little house and there's
going to be a guide, somebody that going to help
us at night, in the middle of the night take
us across the border.
Speaker 8 (06:02):
And we finally got to where we heard German spoking
and it was Austrian soldiers or Austrian border guard on
the other side.
Speaker 4 (06:13):
And when the sun was coming up. We arrived a
little Austrian town, so we probably walked from I would
say probably from eight thirty nine o'clock at night till
six in the morning and stopped very, very seldom.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
It was.
Speaker 4 (06:30):
You know, it was a hell of a trip.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
The gogel Acts eventually fled to and settled in the US.
While in high school, Peter and Charlie, in the process
of figuring out how to fit into American culture, were
introduced to football.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
It started with older brother Peter.
Speaker 4 (06:49):
Went to see my first football game, and to my
total amazement, I realized, this part of the football game
is some kicking.
Speaker 8 (06:56):
I am not certain that he knew that there was
a kicking aspect of the game. You know, football sounds
like there's a foot involved someplays. But other than that,
I don't think you knew too much about it.
Speaker 4 (07:06):
I really didn't enjoy the game that much, but you know,
it has something to do, and you know, I like
the exercise. I liked the I did like looking tough
and putting the helmet on his shoulder, pans and anything else.
Speaker 8 (07:18):
And when the coach was looking for you know, maybe
a week before the first game, he said, do you,
We've got to find somebody to kick off, and so
Peter went at it, went at the ball from an
angle which was absolutely natural, sort of a forty five
degree type angle.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
The quote traditional way of kicking in American football had been.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
The straight on toe kick.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
The soccer style kick which Peter then Charlie showcased on
high school fields in upstate New York would go on
to change the sport forever.
Speaker 10 (07:52):
What was special about it is that nobody had ever
done it before.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
Charlie Goglack in twenty twenty five in.
Speaker 10 (07:59):
College kicked six field goals again Princeton against Rutgers. People
began to pay attention and said, hey, this must be
a pretty good way to kick.
Speaker 11 (08:10):
Against a longtime rival Rutgers. Princeton begins at sixty five
season at Palmer Studium on September twenty fifth. Highlight of
the game is a modern field goal kicking record by
Charlie Goglac. Here he kicks fifty two yards the long
list of his six against Rutgers. Princeton goes on to
win the game thirty two to six with the help
of Charlie's field goal barage.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
The pro football world took notice of the brothers after
a standout career at Cornell, Peter played two seasons with
the Bills in the AFL before being poached by Giants
owner Wellington Mara. Meanwhile, in the nineteen sixty six NFL Draft,
Charlie became the first placekicker to be selected in the
first round, as Washington took him with the sixth overall pick.
(08:54):
Individual brilliance aside, the Goglack brothers started their NFL career
on teams that were having a hard time. Washington Post
reporter Scott Allen paints the picture heading into that nineteen
sixty six Week twelve game the.
Speaker 12 (09:10):
Giants and the Redskins had played earlier that year at
Yankee Stadium. It was a very forgettable thirteen to ten
Giants win Washington Blue a ten to nothing lead. Neither
team was an offensive juggernaut. Neither team was particularly good
coming into the rematch. I think Washington was five and
six their first year under coach Auto Graham. The Giants
(09:33):
were in the midst of their worst season in franchise history.
They'd finished one twelve and one, so their one win
that season was against Washington. That thirteen to ten win
that I mentioned and on top of that, the Giants
were starting a quarterback, Tom Kennedy, who made his first
and only career start in that game. Their veteran earl
Morrile had broken his wrist a few weeks earlier and
(09:55):
missed much of the season. Sonny Jurgensen started for Washington,
so obviously people know that name, but Washington was by
no means an offensive juggernaut that year.
Speaker 7 (10:06):
November twenty seventh, nineteen sixty six. The Giants are coming
here today labeled as a smash flop direct from Broadway.
Hopefully the memory of the game last month in New
York will have the proper effect on the Redskins. They
were also favored that day, but managed to waste a
ten to nothing lead and lost thirteen to ten, ending
(10:26):
a three game winning streak in the process. Today they'll
be more concerned about not extending their three game losing streak.
Speaker 13 (10:40):
The New York Giants against the Washington red Skins eat
Goga line kicks off for the Giants.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
The onslaught started early, with Washington scoring three unanswered touchdowns.
Speaker 13 (10:56):
The Redskins now have it second and five of the
Giant five. Jurgensen to a d Whitfield for the first
score of the game. The Redskins lead six stood uping
take him down at eleven. Now at the Red Skin
thirty seven a d. Whitfield gets the handoff number seventy four.
Jim Snowden makes a fine screen block. Whitfield cuts back,
(11:19):
makes the touchdown. Kennedy goes back, but Chris Hanberger hits
him a wall the ball of shaking loose and Briggawins
picks it up a sixty two yard return with the bubble.
Speaker 14 (11:30):
I just remember it.
Speaker 1 (11:32):
Six time All Pro linebacker Chris Hanberger.
Speaker 14 (11:35):
I think that was my second tier and with the team,
and I was on it. I think all the special
teams plus playing defense, and it was like I was
never off the field. The offense would go out, score touchdown,
and very quickly. Now we got to play defense, and
of course we didn't. We didn't play great defense.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
The Giants do get going offensively.
Speaker 13 (12:01):
Alan Jacobs all the way for the New York score
the Giants on the.
Speaker 1 (12:07):
Scoreboard, but New York never seriously finds its way back
into the contest.
Speaker 12 (12:13):
The game was put away early.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
Former Washington offensive tackle Ray Shanky, who played for the
team from nineteen sixty six to nineteen seventy five.
Speaker 5 (12:24):
And then it just was like who could score.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
The action suddenly just seems to be incessant.
Speaker 6 (12:31):
Well, it was kind of a crazy game, and there
it was just we scored.
Speaker 13 (12:35):
The give us to Whitfield and he is in scoring
his third touchdown of the afternoon by score, and around
the end with nobody there for the TV.
Speaker 5 (12:45):
And once it started, I mean, it became sort of
like you couldn't believe what was going on.
Speaker 13 (12:51):
We scored Joe don Looney, watch the speed he's in
for the touchdown, base car, third down.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
And two.
Speaker 13 (13:04):
Fine block and Gary Wood lets it go. Homer Jones
out in front of his man takes it for a
New York touchdown.
Speaker 5 (13:16):
He would think that somebody would say time out, you
know enough, we don't need any more scores, but it
just didn't. Everybody wanted more.
Speaker 13 (13:29):
It's second down and seven at the thirty two. Jurgensen
looking for a receiver and he spots Charlie Taylor. The
passes on the money and Washington has another touchdown more
and Jurgensen fires again the tailor more and Ernie Cooy
punts from his goal line. Ricky Harris takes it at
the forty eight yard line of Washington up the middle,
(13:51):
cuts back in and drives all the way for the
touchdown fifty two yard return.
Speaker 12 (13:58):
There didn't seem to be a lot of let's just
run the clock out and get out of here.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
Washington kept a lot of their starters in.
Speaker 13 (14:05):
But it is picked off by brig Owens. He's in
for the touchdown.
Speaker 6 (14:10):
Back and forth, and back and forth.
Speaker 13 (14:12):
It's third down and three brig Owens for the tackle,
but Thomas is in the end zone for a New
York TD Redskins ball first and ten at the forty five.
Bobby Mitchell gets the handoff from his half back spot
and he is gone all the way for the touchdown
on The score is now Washington sixty nine, New York
(14:32):
forty one. Google act tis an NFL record with a
point after and breaks the Redskins record for extra points
in one game.
Speaker 15 (14:41):
We didn't have the nets up in sixty six.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
Longtime Washington equipment manager Tommy McBean.
Speaker 15 (14:47):
So now the score is getting higher and higher, and
I'm running out of footballs. I wanted to save the
passing balls to continue the game. I threw the one
of the old balls to the referee, and the referee says,
what the hell is this? I said, we're running out
(15:07):
of the balls, man, I got they're just kicking them
in the stand. Let him kick the They're easier to
kick anyway. He said, fine, So that's we had to
use the old kicking balls at the end of the
game because we were running out.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
Finally, with football bags near depleted, the shootout is just
about over.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
They are about seven seconds left.
Speaker 12 (15:30):
One of the crazy things about this game is that
Washington scored their final touchdown with a little over a
minute ago on a Bobby Mitchell touchdown run. He had
been converted to receiver for many years, but Washington's other
running backs in this game either got hurt or got
tired from scoring so many touchdowns. So Mitchell comes in
at running back and runs for a forty five yard score. Afterwards,
(15:53):
Auto Graham is like he didn't even know the play
from the running back position, but still did it. That's
how good Hall of Famer he was. But yeah, Washington
scores on that touchdowns a little more than a minute
to play, the Giants get the ball back, and you
figure they can't wait to just take a few knees
and get out of there with that huge loss, but
instead Tom Kennedy has been reinserted in the game. At
(16:14):
this point, he thinks that it's there's like under ten
seconds to go. He thinks that it's third down, so
I guess to give the Giants another desperation play. He
throws the ball out of bounce, but it turns out
it was fourth down. So Washington takes over in Giants territory,
territory at their twenty one and you figure at that
point Washington is gonna take a knee or just run
(16:38):
the ball at the middle and end this game, which
is sixty nine to forty one at this point.
Speaker 10 (16:43):
It's close to the end of the game. Sam Huff
and other players that congregated there are some of them
as the leaders as a team, and so Sam said, okay,
you guys, that's going on three one two three, say
field goal, field goal team put in it. So theylled
at the top of the launch. Field goal team get
in there. So the field goal team, they thought they
(17:06):
were being sent in to kick a field goal by
the coach. Well, the coach who we send them in,
Sam Huff, was the one.
Speaker 5 (17:15):
I don't think he masked autogram. He just sent him
out himself.
Speaker 6 (17:19):
Sam was a big, bigger than white presidence of the team,
and obviously your leadership and nobody was going to say no,
let's not do it. Sam wanted to kick a field goal.
We're going to kick a field goal.
Speaker 3 (17:31):
I mean, we were all for it.
Speaker 1 (17:33):
Chirley Povich of The Washington Post would later write.
Speaker 7 (17:36):
This was perhaps the first field goal ever aimed at
the jugular.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
Charlie Goglack trots out and makes the kick.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
Another ball gone.
Speaker 12 (17:47):
I think the report was they lost fourteen footballs, three
hundred and fifteen dollars worth of footballs, which was a
lot back then. I guess they went for twenty two
to fifty apiece.
Speaker 1 (17:57):
Thirteen of those were lost on extra attempts and one
was thrown away as part of a brig Owens touchdown
celebration two.
Speaker 13 (18:06):
Yard return and a football in the stand.
Speaker 12 (18:10):
The football back then even said the Duke on it,
which was the nickname of the Giants owner. So it
was kind of like, this is happening against the Giants
and there goes your footballs too.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
Final score Washington seventy two, New York forty one.
Speaker 7 (18:33):
It was a great defensive battle, said Auto Graham with
a wry smile. Graham, the winning coach, was being funny
following a game that seemed hilarious to the capacity crowd
of fifty four hundred and thirty nine and to the Redskins,
but not the poor Giants.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
The players were happy, but probably the biggest winners of
them all weren't even on the field.
Speaker 10 (19:00):
I'm happy for my parents, who who've sat allegedly on
two different sorts of the field, but I'm not sure
that they did. But they sacrificed a lot for their
for their kids. Can you imagine that if it's something new,
(19:24):
A mother who escaped Hungary in nineteen fifty and her
her sons are all of a sudden, not just sety plays,
but DC Stadium that was that was a huge deal
to have two of her sons involved in this game.
And I from a purest point of view, I was
(19:48):
happy to win the game, and I would have been
happy for Peter if his kick won the game. I
could could not root against my brother.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
When questioned by the reporters about the final field goal,
Auto Graham insisted there were no nefarious intentions behind it.
He wasn't trying to make history on that front.
Speaker 7 (20:14):
Hell No, Graham said, I didn't know anything about records.
I wanted gogole Act to try a field goal. He
hadn't had a chance all day, and he missed two
against Cleveland last Sunday. I'm not one to run up
a score on anyone.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
The field goal ensured Washington broke the record from most
points scored by a team in a regular season game,
a record that had been previously set by the Rams
sixteen years prior with seventy points. Washington's nineteen sixty six
win over New York also holds the record for most
combined points in an NFL game, with one hundred and thirteen.
(20:50):
So many decades later, the question has to be asked,
if these records.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
Haven't been broken by now, will they ever?
Speaker 5 (20:58):
It's highly unlikely because because the idea is you want
to win, you got to win column and if you
if you're head by three touchdowns, you don't need four.
You don't need six touchdowns to be ahead. And what
you really want to do is be saving your team,
particularly in today's background, because your playoffs are so important.
Get to the playoffs. Your team health is important, and
(21:21):
so are you trying to hold out injuries and back
then it wasn't that way.
Speaker 12 (21:26):
For a game in nineteen sixty six to still be
the record for most combined points in an NFL game
is crazy when you think about almost sixty years later,
when you think about just the offensive explosion, the way
the game has changed in the years since.
Speaker 10 (21:47):
You know what they say, never say never. I think
it's held up a long time, from sixty six to
twenty twenty five, So that's other years for a record
to stand.
Speaker 1 (22:05):
This episode of Hailtal's was narrated, produce, and research by
me Hannah Liechtenstein, senior copywriter for the Washington Commanders.
Speaker 2 (22:13):
It was produced and edited.
Speaker 1 (22:15):
By Jason Johnson, Additional editing by Nick Leanos. Executive producers
are Ryan Yoakum and Kevin Klein. Additional voiceover help comes
from Bran Weinstein. Graphics designed by Zach Osborne and Matt Cashman.
Voting is now open for the twenty twenty five People's
Choice Podcast Awards. Vote now for Hailtales for best Historical Podcasts.
(22:36):
Go to podcast Awards dot com. Thank you to our
guests for their contributions, and thank you for listening.
It's the Sunday after Thanksgiving nineteen sixty six.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
The Burgundy and Gold is.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Set to host the Giants, a five to six Washington
team a one eight one New York team. Going into
this game day, nothing screamed the unprecedented. Perhaps the unbeatable
is about to unfold, But that's exactly what happened. This
(00:38):
is hail Tails stories from Washington football history.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
The highest scoring NFL game.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
By the time late November nineteen sixty six rolled around,
there was a group of players in Washington who were hissed.
This matchup ahead against New York was specifically circles on
their calendar.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
Hi, my name is Steve Thurlow. I was traded from
the New York Giants to the Washington Redskins in nineteen
sixty six in the middle of the season.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
Thurlow, linebacker Jim Carroll, and linebacker Sam Huff had all
been recently traded from New York. They weren't happy about
how the Giants and head coach Ali Sherman had handled
it all. So a game against the g Men was
an opportunity to get out the emotions, to show their
(01:41):
opponent what they were missing out on.
Speaker 3 (01:44):
I mean hate I don't want to say hat hates
a terrible word to use, but we had a tremendous
negative feeling toward Ali Sherman for having traded us. I'm
not so sure that that wasn't a natural feeling that
everybody who gets traded trading is being rejected. You can't
look at it as though they want they needed somebody else,
(02:06):
you know, to play a different position, and they were
willing to let you.
Speaker 4 (02:11):
Go for that.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
You know that that is the truth.
Speaker 5 (02:14):
You know.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
My feeling was we were pissed, you know that we
that we were traded, and the three of us had
talked about it all week.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
The bitterness was particularly acute for Sam Huff, the future
Hall of Famer, had won an NFL Championship with the
Giants and was named an All Pro six times.
Speaker 6 (02:36):
I think Sam would kind of mentioned that he had
talked to Wellington Marrior or one of the owners of
the team about the fact that he wanted to stay with.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
The team former Washington tight end Pat Richter, who played
for the team from nineteen sixty three to nineteen seventy.
Speaker 6 (02:53):
And they kind of assured him that it was going
to be part of the team forever.
Speaker 4 (02:59):
All along.
Speaker 6 (03:00):
We don't know, but he wasn't going to be traded,
and then for whatever reason, he was traded. Obviously it
was our benefit to have Sam on the team, but
he was probably looking at family situation and being living
out his career with the Giants where he had been
so successful for many years, and when that didn't happen,
(03:25):
then that kind of broke open the dam and he
kind of flipped with the religious of the Redskins.
Speaker 7 (03:32):
Obviously, puff Peppy Sam huff sprinted off the field after
practice yesterday like the young New York Giant linebacker he
once was. Huff said, the only thing that counts is
what's on the scoreboard. If I could help beat the
Giants fifty to nothing, I would, or any other team,
any other team, well, I do have my preferences, he
(03:56):
said mischievously.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
Animosity bubbled in the background, but so too did love,
at least for a pair of players, the kickers on
these two teams. They were brothers, Charlie and Peter Gogolak.
The journey to this point for these two was nothing
short of remarkable. In the mid nineteen fifties, the Gogolak
(04:29):
family had risked their lives escaping Soviet controlled Hungary. The
harrowing experience was detailed by Charlie's son Steve for a
college filmmaking course in the early two thousands.
Speaker 8 (05:10):
We had a family meeting at which it was decided,
I think, through pretty much the forceful desire of my father,
that this was our best chance to leave the country,
that we're going to leave the country.
Speaker 9 (05:24):
We had to pass a checkpoint and I was sitting
in the backseat of the car and the person who
drove the car, I did not know who that person was,
and basically that person showed an ID to Kevin I.
Speaker 8 (05:38):
D I thought that we were all cooked and done for.
When we came up to this checkpoint in front of
the chain bridge.
Speaker 4 (05:45):
We were told that once we arrived in this little town,
maybe about fifteen miles inside Hungary from the Austrian border,
we're going to go to this little house and there's
going to be a guide, somebody that going to help
us at night, in the middle of the night take
us across the border.
Speaker 8 (06:02):
And we finally got to where we heard German spoking
and it was Austrian soldiers or Austrian border guard on
the other side.
Speaker 4 (06:13):
And when the sun was coming up. We arrived a
little Austrian town, so we probably walked from I would
say probably from eight thirty nine o'clock at night till
six in the morning and stopped very, very seldom.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
It was.
Speaker 4 (06:30):
You know, it was a hell of a trip.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
The gogel Acts eventually fled to and settled in the US.
While in high school, Peter and Charlie, in the process
of figuring out how to fit into American culture, were
introduced to football.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
It started with older brother Peter.
Speaker 4 (06:49):
Went to see my first football game, and to my
total amazement, I realized, this part of the football game
is some kicking.
Speaker 8 (06:56):
I am not certain that he knew that there was
a kicking aspect of the game. You know, football sounds
like there's a foot involved someplays. But other than that,
I don't think you knew too much about it.
Speaker 4 (07:06):
I really didn't enjoy the game that much, but you know,
it has something to do, and you know, I like
the exercise. I liked the I did like looking tough
and putting the helmet on his shoulder, pans and anything else.
Speaker 8 (07:18):
And when the coach was looking for you know, maybe
a week before the first game, he said, do you,
We've got to find somebody to kick off, and so
Peter went at it, went at the ball from an
angle which was absolutely natural, sort of a forty five
degree type angle.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
The quote traditional way of kicking in American football had been.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
The straight on toe kick.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
The soccer style kick which Peter then Charlie showcased on
high school fields in upstate New York would go on
to change the sport forever.
Speaker 10 (07:52):
What was special about it is that nobody had ever
done it before.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
Charlie Goglack in twenty twenty five in.
Speaker 10 (07:59):
College kicked six field goals again Princeton against Rutgers. People
began to pay attention and said, hey, this must be
a pretty good way to kick.
Speaker 11 (08:10):
Against a longtime rival Rutgers. Princeton begins at sixty five
season at Palmer Studium on September twenty fifth. Highlight of
the game is a modern field goal kicking record by
Charlie Goglac. Here he kicks fifty two yards the long
list of his six against Rutgers. Princeton goes on to
win the game thirty two to six with the help
of Charlie's field goal barage.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
The pro football world took notice of the brothers after
a standout career at Cornell, Peter played two seasons with
the Bills in the AFL before being poached by Giants
owner Wellington Mara. Meanwhile, in the nineteen sixty six NFL Draft,
Charlie became the first placekicker to be selected in the
first round, as Washington took him with the sixth overall pick.
(08:54):
Individual brilliance aside, the Goglack brothers started their NFL career
on teams that were having a hard time. Washington Post
reporter Scott Allen paints the picture heading into that nineteen
sixty six Week twelve game the.
Speaker 12 (09:10):
Giants and the Redskins had played earlier that year at
Yankee Stadium. It was a very forgettable thirteen to ten
Giants win Washington Blue a ten to nothing lead. Neither
team was an offensive juggernaut. Neither team was particularly good
coming into the rematch. I think Washington was five and
six their first year under coach Auto Graham. The Giants
(09:33):
were in the midst of their worst season in franchise history.
They'd finished one twelve and one, so their one win
that season was against Washington. That thirteen to ten win
that I mentioned and on top of that, the Giants
were starting a quarterback, Tom Kennedy, who made his first
and only career start in that game. Their veteran earl
Morrile had broken his wrist a few weeks earlier and
(09:55):
missed much of the season. Sonny Jurgensen started for Washington,
so obviously people know that name, but Washington was by
no means an offensive juggernaut that year.
Speaker 7 (10:06):
November twenty seventh, nineteen sixty six. The Giants are coming
here today labeled as a smash flop direct from Broadway.
Hopefully the memory of the game last month in New
York will have the proper effect on the Redskins. They
were also favored that day, but managed to waste a
ten to nothing lead and lost thirteen to ten, ending
(10:26):
a three game winning streak in the process. Today they'll
be more concerned about not extending their three game losing streak.
Speaker 13 (10:40):
The New York Giants against the Washington red Skins eat
Goga line kicks off for the Giants.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
The onslaught started early, with Washington scoring three unanswered touchdowns.
Speaker 13 (10:56):
The Redskins now have it second and five of the
Giant five. Jurgensen to a d Whitfield for the first
score of the game. The Redskins lead six stood uping
take him down at eleven. Now at the Red Skin
thirty seven a d. Whitfield gets the handoff number seventy four.
Jim Snowden makes a fine screen block. Whitfield cuts back,
(11:19):
makes the touchdown. Kennedy goes back, but Chris Hanberger hits
him a wall the ball of shaking loose and Briggawins
picks it up a sixty two yard return with the bubble.
Speaker 14 (11:30):
I just remember it.
Speaker 1 (11:32):
Six time All Pro linebacker Chris Hanberger.
Speaker 14 (11:35):
I think that was my second tier and with the team,
and I was on it. I think all the special
teams plus playing defense, and it was like I was
never off the field. The offense would go out, score touchdown,
and very quickly. Now we got to play defense, and
of course we didn't. We didn't play great defense.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
The Giants do get going offensively.
Speaker 13 (12:01):
Alan Jacobs all the way for the New York score
the Giants on the.
Speaker 1 (12:07):
Scoreboard, but New York never seriously finds its way back
into the contest.
Speaker 12 (12:13):
The game was put away early.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
Former Washington offensive tackle Ray Shanky, who played for the
team from nineteen sixty six to nineteen seventy five.
Speaker 5 (12:24):
And then it just was like who could score.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
The action suddenly just seems to be incessant.
Speaker 6 (12:31):
Well, it was kind of a crazy game, and there
it was just we scored.
Speaker 13 (12:35):
The give us to Whitfield and he is in scoring
his third touchdown of the afternoon by score, and around
the end with nobody there for the TV.
Speaker 5 (12:45):
And once it started, I mean, it became sort of
like you couldn't believe what was going on.
Speaker 13 (12:51):
We scored Joe don Looney, watch the speed he's in
for the touchdown, base car, third down.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
And two.
Speaker 13 (13:04):
Fine block and Gary Wood lets it go. Homer Jones
out in front of his man takes it for a
New York touchdown.
Speaker 5 (13:16):
He would think that somebody would say time out, you
know enough, we don't need any more scores, but it
just didn't. Everybody wanted more.
Speaker 13 (13:29):
It's second down and seven at the thirty two. Jurgensen
looking for a receiver and he spots Charlie Taylor. The
passes on the money and Washington has another touchdown more
and Jurgensen fires again the tailor more and Ernie Cooy
punts from his goal line. Ricky Harris takes it at
the forty eight yard line of Washington up the middle,
(13:51):
cuts back in and drives all the way for the
touchdown fifty two yard return.
Speaker 12 (13:58):
There didn't seem to be a lot of let's just
run the clock out and get out of here.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
Washington kept a lot of their starters in.
Speaker 13 (14:05):
But it is picked off by brig Owens. He's in
for the touchdown.
Speaker 6 (14:10):
Back and forth, and back and forth.
Speaker 13 (14:12):
It's third down and three brig Owens for the tackle,
but Thomas is in the end zone for a New
York TD Redskins ball first and ten at the forty five.
Bobby Mitchell gets the handoff from his half back spot
and he is gone all the way for the touchdown
on The score is now Washington sixty nine, New York
(14:32):
forty one. Google act tis an NFL record with a
point after and breaks the Redskins record for extra points
in one game.
Speaker 15 (14:41):
We didn't have the nets up in sixty six.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
Longtime Washington equipment manager Tommy McBean.
Speaker 15 (14:47):
So now the score is getting higher and higher, and
I'm running out of footballs. I wanted to save the
passing balls to continue the game. I threw the one
of the old balls to the referee, and the referee says,
what the hell is this? I said, we're running out
(15:07):
of the balls, man, I got they're just kicking them
in the stand. Let him kick the They're easier to
kick anyway. He said, fine, So that's we had to
use the old kicking balls at the end of the
game because we were running out.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
Finally, with football bags near depleted, the shootout is just
about over.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
They are about seven seconds left.
Speaker 12 (15:30):
One of the crazy things about this game is that
Washington scored their final touchdown with a little over a
minute ago on a Bobby Mitchell touchdown run. He had
been converted to receiver for many years, but Washington's other
running backs in this game either got hurt or got
tired from scoring so many touchdowns. So Mitchell comes in
at running back and runs for a forty five yard score. Afterwards,
(15:53):
Auto Graham is like he didn't even know the play
from the running back position, but still did it. That's
how good Hall of Famer he was. But yeah, Washington
scores on that touchdowns a little more than a minute
to play, the Giants get the ball back, and you
figure they can't wait to just take a few knees
and get out of there with that huge loss, but
instead Tom Kennedy has been reinserted in the game. At
(16:14):
this point, he thinks that it's there's like under ten
seconds to go. He thinks that it's third down, so
I guess to give the Giants another desperation play. He
throws the ball out of bounce, but it turns out
it was fourth down. So Washington takes over in Giants territory,
territory at their twenty one and you figure at that
point Washington is gonna take a knee or just run
(16:38):
the ball at the middle and end this game, which
is sixty nine to forty one at this point.
Speaker 10 (16:43):
It's close to the end of the game. Sam Huff
and other players that congregated there are some of them
as the leaders as a team, and so Sam said, okay,
you guys, that's going on three one two three, say
field goal, field goal team put in it. So theylled
at the top of the launch. Field goal team get
in there. So the field goal team, they thought they
(17:06):
were being sent in to kick a field goal by
the coach. Well, the coach who we send them in,
Sam Huff, was the one.
Speaker 5 (17:15):
I don't think he masked autogram. He just sent him
out himself.
Speaker 6 (17:19):
Sam was a big, bigger than white presidence of the team,
and obviously your leadership and nobody was going to say no,
let's not do it. Sam wanted to kick a field goal.
We're going to kick a field goal.
Speaker 3 (17:31):
I mean, we were all for it.
Speaker 1 (17:33):
Chirley Povich of The Washington Post would later write.
Speaker 7 (17:36):
This was perhaps the first field goal ever aimed at
the jugular.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
Charlie Goglack trots out and makes the kick.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
Another ball gone.
Speaker 12 (17:47):
I think the report was they lost fourteen footballs, three
hundred and fifteen dollars worth of footballs, which was a
lot back then. I guess they went for twenty two
to fifty apiece.
Speaker 1 (17:57):
Thirteen of those were lost on extra attempts and one
was thrown away as part of a brig Owens touchdown
celebration two.
Speaker 13 (18:06):
Yard return and a football in the stand.
Speaker 12 (18:10):
The football back then even said the Duke on it,
which was the nickname of the Giants owner. So it
was kind of like, this is happening against the Giants
and there goes your footballs too.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
Final score Washington seventy two, New York forty one.
Speaker 7 (18:33):
It was a great defensive battle, said Auto Graham with
a wry smile. Graham, the winning coach, was being funny
following a game that seemed hilarious to the capacity crowd
of fifty four hundred and thirty nine and to the Redskins,
but not the poor Giants.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
The players were happy, but probably the biggest winners of
them all weren't even on the field.
Speaker 10 (19:00):
I'm happy for my parents, who who've sat allegedly on
two different sorts of the field, but I'm not sure
that they did. But they sacrificed a lot for their
for their kids. Can you imagine that if it's something new,
(19:24):
A mother who escaped Hungary in nineteen fifty and her
her sons are all of a sudden, not just sety plays,
but DC Stadium that was that was a huge deal
to have two of her sons involved in this game.
And I from a purest point of view, I was
(19:48):
happy to win the game, and I would have been
happy for Peter if his kick won the game. I
could could not root against my brother.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
When questioned by the reporters about the final field goal,
Auto Graham insisted there were no nefarious intentions behind it.
He wasn't trying to make history on that front.
Speaker 7 (20:14):
Hell No, Graham said, I didn't know anything about records.
I wanted gogole Act to try a field goal. He
hadn't had a chance all day, and he missed two
against Cleveland last Sunday. I'm not one to run up
a score on anyone.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
The field goal ensured Washington broke the record from most
points scored by a team in a regular season game,
a record that had been previously set by the Rams
sixteen years prior with seventy points. Washington's nineteen sixty six
win over New York also holds the record for most
combined points in an NFL game, with one hundred and thirteen.
(20:50):
So many decades later, the question has to be asked,
if these records.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
Haven't been broken by now, will they ever?
Speaker 5 (20:58):
It's highly unlikely because because the idea is you want
to win, you got to win column and if you
if you're head by three touchdowns, you don't need four.
You don't need six touchdowns to be ahead. And what
you really want to do is be saving your team,
particularly in today's background, because your playoffs are so important.
Get to the playoffs. Your team health is important, and
(21:21):
so are you trying to hold out injuries and back
then it wasn't that way.
Speaker 12 (21:26):
For a game in nineteen sixty six to still be
the record for most combined points in an NFL game
is crazy when you think about almost sixty years later,
when you think about just the offensive explosion, the way
the game has changed in the years since.
Speaker 10 (21:47):
You know what they say, never say never. I think
it's held up a long time, from sixty six to
twenty twenty five, So that's other years for a record
to stand.
Speaker 1 (22:05):
This episode of Hailtal's was narrated, produce, and research by
me Hannah Liechtenstein, senior copywriter for the Washington Commanders.
Speaker 2 (22:13):
It was produced and edited.
Speaker 1 (22:15):
By Jason Johnson, Additional editing by Nick Leanos. Executive producers
are Ryan Yoakum and Kevin Klein. Additional voiceover help comes
from Bran Weinstein. Graphics designed by Zach Osborne and Matt Cashman.
Voting is now open for the twenty twenty five People's
Choice Podcast Awards. Vote now for Hailtales for best Historical Podcasts.
(22:36):
Go to podcast Awards dot com. Thank you to our
guests for their contributions, and thank you for listening.
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