Recent Forum Topics › Forums › The Rams Huddle › The 1979 L.A. Rams recall their unlikely run to Super Bowl
- This topic has 1 reply, 1 voice, and was last updated 9 years, 2 months ago by
zn.
-
AuthorPosts
-
February 2, 2016 at 9:19 pm #38515
znModeratorThe 1979 L.A. Rams recall their unlikely run to Super Bowl and what might’ve been in loss to Steelers
http://www.latimes.com/sports/nfl/la-sp-1979-la-rams-20160202-story.html
The play haunts Vince Ferragamo, so much that 36 years later it can jolt the former Los Angeles Rams quarterback out of a deep sleep.
Ferragamo was driving the Rams toward a potential go-ahead score with 5 1/2 minutes left in the fourth quarter of Super Bowl XIV when, from the Pittsburgh 32-yard line, he threw a pass over the middle toward Ron Smith.
Out of nowhere, it seemed, Jack Lambert, the toothless linebacker who was the iron ore of Pittsburgh’s Steel Curtain defense, stepped in for an interception, Ferragamo’s only major mistake in an otherwise brilliant performance.
Terry Bradshaw threw a 45-yard pass to John Stallworth, and a Pat Thomas pass-interference penalty in the end zone gave Pittsburgh the ball on the one-yard line. Franco Harris scored to seal a 31-19 victory and the Steelers’ fourth Super Bowl trophy in six years.
The thrill of the Rams’ improbable run to their first Super Bowl after a tumultuous 9-7 regular season yielded to the frustration of blowing a 19-17 fourth-quarter lead in a game few people thought they could win.
“You always remember plays like that,” Ferragamo, now 61, said recently in his Anaheim Hills real-estate office. “You’re kicking and moving in your sleep, re-living them because they’re so vivid in your mind.”
His jet-black hair has faded to a salt-and-pepper gray, but the decades have not dulled Ferragamo’s memories of the 1979 season — his rookie year and the Rams’ last in Los Angeles before moving to Anaheim in 1980 and St. Louis in 1995.
With the Rams returning to Los Angeles in 2016 and Super Bowl 50 between the Denver Broncos and Carolina Panthers kicking off Sunday, memories came flooding back for a number of Ferragamo’s teammates.
“It was definitely Willy Wonka’s wild ride,” said All-Pro guard Dennis Harrah, 62, retired and tending to his ranch in Paso Robles. “We were not favored to win at Dallas or Tampa Bay in the playoffs, and we beat them both. I think we had the worst record of any Super Bowl team.
“But we got hot toward the end of the season, and everything started clicking with Vinnie at quarterback. How does that happen? I can’t tell you, but sometimes a team just comes together and starts to jell.”
The season began just a few months after the mysterious death of popular team owner Carroll Rosenbloom, who drowned while swimming in heavy surf off the Florida coast on April 2, 1979.
The Dade County coroner concluded that Rosenbloom, 72, had suffered a heart attack while swimming. A PBS documentary suggested that Rosenbloom, a known gambler, might have been murdered, giving rise to conspiracy theories.
A power struggle between Rosenbloom’s wife, Georgia Frontiere, and his son, Steve Rosenbloom, the team’s executive vice president, ensued. Georgia gained control of the team and fired Steve Rosenbloom in August.
“Carroll’s death was absolutely devastating,” recalled Hall of Fame defensive end Jack Youngblood, 66, who resides in Orlando. “He was like our father. He loved us and considered us all his adopted sons. When he passed, the hierarchy was a little unstable.”
Don Klosterman retained his general manager’s role and provided some front-office continuity, but the Rams stumbled to 4-5 after consecutive losses to Dallas, San Diego and the New York Giants in which they were outscored, 90-36.
A 24-0 win at Seattle pushed the Rams to 5-5 on Nov. 4, but they lost starting quarterback Pat Haden, who, after completing 13 consecutive passes, suffered a broken his right pinkie finger on the Kingdome’s artificial surface.
Ferragamo, the backup, was recovering from a hand injury, and quarterbacks Jeff Rutledge and Bob Lee struggled in a Nov. 11 loss to Chicago.
So Ferragamo made his first NFL start the following week, completing nine of 22 passes for 171 yards and two touchdowns in a 20-14 Monday night win over Atlanta. That sparked a four-game win streak that clinched the division title in a weak NFC West.
Ferragamo’s regular-season statistics were mediocre. He completed 53 of 110 passes for 778 yards with twice as many interceptions (10) as touchdowns (five).
But at 6 feet 3 and 212 pounds, he was four inches taller than the 182-pound Haden and had a much stronger arm. The Rams, under second-year coach Ray Malavasi, started throwing the ball downfield more, and that opened up the running game for Wendell Tyler and Lawrence McCutcheon.
Several players on an offensive line led by Hall of Fame tackle Jackie Slater and Harrah returned from injuries, giving Ferragamo ample time to make better decisions.
“Vince was more of a deep-ball thrower, and Pat was more of a possession, medium-route guy,” said receiver Preston Dennard, 60, who resides in Albuquerque. “Vince didn’t care about interceptions. He just threw the heck out of the ball, and the coaches took advantage of the skills he had.”
Ferragamo, then 25, had a swagger that rubbed off on teammates.
“I was a young kid, an unknown, and expectations weren’t high,” Ferragamo said. “I played with no fear, and I think the guys really liked that attitude, the confident but relaxed way we would play.”
Said Youngblood: “Vinnie let the bad stuff roll off him, and he held on to the good stuff.”
The good times rolled through early December, the Rams developing a camaraderie and confidence players described as unique.
A season-ending 29-14 loss to New Orleans — in which the Rams rested several starters and were booed off the Coliseum field by fans disenchanted with the lackluster effort and the team’s impending move to Anaheim — did nothing to slow the Rams, who adopted the 1979 disco hit “Ain’t No Stopping Us Now” as their theme song.
“We had a mixture of seasoned, All-Pro veterans and young guys like myself who were talented enough to blend in, and we just had a common bond,” Dennard said. “At the end of the year, we were a totally different team with a different mind-set. We were focused. It was a true team effort.”
Looming in the playoffs were the Cowboys, one of the Rams’ nemeses of the 1970s. For six straight years, from 1973-78, the Rams were eliminated from the postseason by the Cowboys or Minnesota Vikings, four times in the NFC championship game.
The Rams were heavy underdogs on the road against Roger Staubach, Tony Dorsett and the Cowboys, who had whipped the Rams, 30-6, earlier that season.
“Before the game, Jack Youngblood told me, ‘Kid, this will be the biggest game you ever play in your life,'” Ferragamo said of his first playoff start. “The butterflies were there.”
It didn’t show. With a little more than two minutes left, Ferragamo fired a bullet from midfield over the middle to Billy Waddy, a speedy receiver who dropped so many passes he was once dubbed “Cement Hands.”
This one Waddy caught at the 27-yard line, even after it was tipped by a defender. Waddy split the Cowboys’ prevent defense and raced down the sideline for a 50-yard touchdown that gave the Rams a stunning 21-19 victory.
“The defense was on the sidelines going, ‘Oh my gosh!'” Youngblood said. “The pass was tipped, and he still caught it. Finally, something good was happening to us, rather than having to struggle and fight for every inch.”
Youngblood’s joy was tinged with pain. He suffered a hairline fracture of his left fibula, just above the ankle, in the second quarter against the Cowboys. But that didn’t stop him from leading the Rams to a 9-0 win in the NFC championship game at Tampa Bay a week later.
“My teammates were looking at me like, ‘There’s something wrong with this child,'” Youngblood said. “I was limping around like I needed crutches. The pain was excruciating. But it was Sunday, and that was my job. I was not about to let one ounce of that responsibility slip away because of pain.”
Youngblood’s grit inspired a defense that held the Buccaneers to 177 yards and pushed the Rams to their first Super Bowl berth.
“Jack’s toughness was beyond what you could humanly fathom,” Ferragamo said. “His strength and his will to go out there really gave the team an emotional lift.”
Super Bowl XIV, on Jan. 20, 1980, at the Rose Bowl, was dubbed “Dynasty vs. Destiny,” the Rams in the role of double-digit underdog to the three-rings-and-counting Steelers. Not that the Rams cared.
“That week of the Super Bowl we had our best practices of the year,” Dennard said. “We were upbeat, ready, and in our minds we were winning that game.”
They almost did. Before a crowd of 103,985, the Rams took a 19-17 third-quarter lead when Ferragamo handed the ball to McCutcheon, who ran right, pulled up and passed 24 yards to Smith for a touchdown. The Rams matched the Steelers on the scoreboard and blow for blow in the trenches.
“These were no Hollywood sissies,” Times columnist Jim Murray wrote of the Rams. “They were a scratching, scrambling, stubborn, socking team of alley fighters, swarmers spoiling for a scrap.”
The Rams twice intercepted Bradshaw passes in the third quarter, but it was the pick that wasn’t that stung the most. Midway through the quarter, Rams safety Nolan Cromwell stepped in front of a short pass intended for Lynn Swann near midfield.
“I turned and looked,” Youngblood said, “and the ball hit Nolan between the 2 and the 1” numbers on his jersey.
Had Cromwell made the catch, he probably would have scored for a nine-point lead.
“That’s the one thing from that Super Bowl I’ll remember, that I had an opportunity for an interception that would have really helped us,” said Cromwell, 61, who resides in the Seattle area. “At this level, you don’t get many of those opportunities. When you do, you have to make them count.”
Stallworth made an acrobatic, leaping catch above the outstretched hand of Rod Perry and turned it into a 73-yard touchdown that gave Pittsburgh a 24-19 lead early in the fourth quarter.
Then came Lambert’s interception — “I liked the pass,” Ferragamo said, “I just didn’t see him” — the Steelers’ late score, and that hollow feeling of what might have been for the Rams.
“Of course it haunts you — any time you go to the big dance, you want to win,” said McCutcheon, 65 and a scout for the Rams. “But when you put everything in perspective, we have nothing to hang our heads about.
“That 1979 team was probably the least talented of the eight Rams teams I played on [from 1972-79]. But for some reason, we never gave up, we played hard, and good things happened.”
February 2, 2016 at 9:22 pm #38516znModeratorfrom off the net
—
Canuckramsfan
About that January 1980 SBXIV in Pasadena….
I was a rookie Sales Rep, fresh outa the Canadian Navy, with about 500 bucks to my name…oh yeah, and my 1977 VW Scirocco. smiling smiley
Anyway, when Los Ramos shutout the Selmons & Doug Williams down in Tampa, I vowed…”If my Rams are going to SBXIV, then so am I.”
So I booked Friday afternoon as “Out on Sales Calls” with the Office Manager, and “borrowed” the Corporate Hertz Discount Car Rental card from his desk….and with my $199 RoundTrip air ticket in my pocket from long-defunked Western Airlines, snuck down to Vancouver Airport for my flight to LAX…Of course the newpapers were full of stories how tickets were going for $1000 or $2000 per pair, but despite those media stories I decided to go down to LA “on spec” and decided that if I could not score an affordable ticket I would hang out in the TailGate Party area by the RoseBowl or some Sports Bar….whatever…..the Rams were in the SuperBowl, and I wasn’t going to fooking miss the experience dammit!!!
All I packed was a carry-on Addidas sports bag containing my Rams Jersey, a pair of blue jeans, toiletries…and my Converse All-Stars. I had a total of $200 US Dollars, and a overdrafted MasterCharge Card (pretty sure it was still MasterCHARGE back then eh?)….anyhoo, I get to the Airport Waiting Room, take off my necktie, and go with the Jim Rockford look of weathered tweed sportsjacket, khakis….and my Rams ballcap!!!smiling smiley Not a minute passes and an enthusiastic Insurance guy (and great Rams fan) from Reseda California comes over and we start talking a blue streak about the Rams, our chances of winning, Youngblood’s broken leg, Vinny, Wendell Tyler, Billy Waddy, Cullen Bryant, Hacksaw…..and then the flight is delayed an hour. During that time I got to be quick friends with Ron, the father of three youngsters, who was returning home from burying his father-in-law in northern Washington State, near the Canuck border….hence him flying outa YVR.
Anyway, after some time, Ron asks me some pertinent questions:
1. Where are my seats?
I tell him I only have 220 US Dollars, but I am only looking for ONE seat….so I am not without hope…also I tell him about my Plan B to hang out at the TailGate Party area or hit a local Pasedena sportsbar if I cannot score an affordable RoseBowl ticket.
To say that well-heeled businessman Ron was a tad shocked by my answer would be an understatement.2. Then the question that led to a 3 decade friendship…..Where are you staying in LA?
I tell him that I have that Corporate Hertz Rental Card, and I plan on renting a Full Size unit….maybe a Ford LTD (remember those land-yachts?) and park near the ocean and sleep in the back seat. I tell him that the Ford LTD Motel is only my Plan B though…..
Plan A is to hit the discos in the LAX Area and “get lucky” with a gal who has an apartment….and lives alone. Did I mention I was right outa the Navy and single??? smiling smiley
Okay, now Ron starts to look at me like I’m Mad Max….and in a very noble gesture, reaches into his pocket and pulls out a business card and writes his home phone number on it….and hiding his scepticism (though not very well) Ron says to me, “listen, if Plan A doesn’t work out at the disco….DO NOT SLEEP AT THE BEACH!! Call me instead, we have room for you at my house!”So long story short….I end up spending Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights at Ron’s house in Reseda…..I slept in a sleeping bag on the floor of the TV/Family Room and woke up that first Saturday morning to seeing 3 kids aged about 12, 9 and 6, standing there together, staring at this stranger on the floor of their house! After introductions were made and breakfast consumed….Ron was obviously a great dad eh….I drove off to Pasedena to hit some Hotel Lobbies and Ron scoured the local Classifieds looking for a cheap ticket for me. I still remember him sitting at his kitchen table, newpapers strewn all over, coffee cup next to the ashtray, drawing on his Malboro, with his reading glasses focussed on those TicketsForSale ads.
Scoring at the Hilton
Oh yeah, because I knew I had Ron’s number and a place to sleep that weekend, my Hertz rental ended up being a FireEngine Red Firebird…..gee, now I really was Jim Rockford eh!! Anyway, I had a road map of LA, and surrounding area (no GPS in January 1980 guys!) and found my way to the Pasadena Hilton Lobby. After about ten minutes a Hispanic lobby clerk I had spoke to earlier said he knew a guy who worked in the Parking Garage who “might have” an End Zone seat for around 300 bucks. I said I’d talk to his buddy, but it had to be here in the Lobby because I was waiting by one of the PayPhones in the bank of phones for Ron’s call (remember, also NO CellPhones in 1980) so I had called Ron to give him the Phone Number of one of the phones in the middle of that bank of about 20 phones in the Lobby. Meanwhile I made polite subtle enquiries of Hotel guests regarding “any SB tickets for sale?” (a nuisance I did not want to be!).No luck with my Lobby Trolling and then Ron did call to say the best single ticket he had found so far was $500 and when he called, the guy said it was sold last night already and his phone hadn’t stopped ringing all day”….Ron just said, very sympathetically….but also pretty despairingly….”I’ll keep trying buddy, but it doesn’t look too promising.”
Just as I hung up, and starting thinking that maybe just being at the RoseBowl, out with the TailGaters, hearing the roar of the RoseBowl crowd, live and in person, might be my only option now….
it was about 3:30 PM…..AND
I hear a guy on the phone next to me say, “Yeah, I’m selling BUT I ONLY HAVE A SINGLE TICKET…THAT’S RIGHT…JUST ONE…. and I say to the elder distinguished looking guy,
“Excuse me, but did you say you had a single SuperBowl Ticket to sell??!!”
and he said “yes”….
and I said, “I am only looking for a single….for me….where is the seat located?”
“Well, you’d be sitting with me…my son has a big real estate deal in Phoenix he cannot get out of, so we’d be on about the 10 Yard Line, about halfway up the Bowl.”
My heart is pounding like a jackhammer as I blurt out, as casually as I can manage…”Um, how much were you looking to get for the ticket?
He says, “Well it’s a $30 face value ticket (remember this was 1980 eh!)….so how’s about 50 bucks?”worthy smiley
I thought I was dreaming…….everything had happened in like 20 or 25 seconds of conversation and I was handing over the 50 bucks and he was handing me my ticket to paradise……and we parted saying we’d see each other the next day at the game!!! SuperBowl XIV!!The BEST moment came when I came back to Ron’s house….he was still at the kitchen table, ashtray full of butts, still poring over newpaper classified. I had bought a case of beer (I knew from the Flight down Ron was a Coors guy) and a few small groceries and put them down on the counter. He looked at me sadly and said, “You know, you can go to your Tailgate deal if you want tomorrow, but you are welcome to stay here and watch the game on TV with us!”
So I just look at him and say, “Yeah, that’s sounds very hospitable Ron……
…..BUT GUESS WHO SCORED IN THE LOBBY OF THE PASADENA HILTON!!!?? as I flung the Ticket across the room at him!
I thought his eyes were going to pop out of his head as he held that ticket looking at it….it was a great moment for a couple of Rams fans.The game was peopled by a majority of Pittsburgh fans…..why? Because as we found out later, Dominic Frontiere, Georgia’s Hubby Du Jour at the time, stole thousands of SBXIV tickets from the NFL and sold them for cash to Western Pennsylvania Tour Companies and Travel Agents…..turns out Dominic did real jailtime for that and probably found out what the phrase “how’d you like to earn two cigarettes the HARD way sweetheart?” actually meant. Served Dominic right IMHO.
Wendell Tyler was heroic that game. The same way the refs let Bellicheck’s Thugs run roughshod over Faulk, Ike and Holt twenty years later in SB XXXIV….same, same in SB XIV where Pittsburgh hit Tyler out-of-bounds, piled-on, speared him….you name it. Tyler left the game about 4 times with injuries, but kept coming back in. Bradshaw was MVP that game…yet he threw 3 picks….BUT THAT 4TH ONE TO CROMWELL WUDDA CHANGED THE GAME!! Too bad….
When we started the 4th Quarter leading 19-17, the Rams fans in the stands were getting pretty confident….oh yeah, one things Los Ramos did that game was when they switched ends for Quarter Time, our Rams sprinted down as a unit to the other end, just to show Pittsburgh that they weren’t tired, nor intimidated, nor scared of the media darling Steelers. In the end, it took two perfect Bradshaw passes to beat us that 4th Quarter….AND the one TD to Stallworth missed Rod Perry’s ring finger by a micron….damm!!!
I remember the post game statements…..the Steelers were 11.5 point favorites and won by 12, thanks to Rams PK Frank Corral missing the XP after Lawrence DontCallMeLarry! McCutheon’s TD pass to Rod Smith…..anyway, Jack Youngblood after the game, when asked by some dufus talking head how it felt that the Steelers had covered? Youngblood, incensed, but gathered quietly said,
“You should go next door and ask the Steelers if it feels like they won THAT GAME by12 points!!”
Dennis Harrah, his left ear bleeding was crying silently.
Freddie Dryer said, “We left it all on the field. We played our hearts out.”….and that was good enough for me. I got back to the Office in Vancouver a little late on Monday morning after catching a dawn flight outa LAX….but I had been to the top of the mountain for a Rams fan from remote Canada, had made a new friend in the San Fernando Valley with Ron and his family…..and of course, it took all week for me to get my voice back.
That SBXIV experience was only one of many cherished memories over my nearly half century of following the Guys In The Horns. All those memories combine to form a belief in my mind and heart that being a Rams fan means you belong to a Great Fraternity of Guys who have followed a really truly storied Franchise, through thick and thin, through changing owners, changing coaching regimes, and even changing cities.
The one constant throughout all those changes in coaches and players is our affection (as I channel General Douglas McArthur at his West Point Farewell Speech) for
The Team,
The Team….and,
The Team. -
AuthorPosts
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
