I am ashamed of myself. Very ashamed. I was reminded of my gross negligence of this blog as I made the long drive from Russell to the Denver metro, where I am meeting a very dear friend Wednesday night.
Westminster, the northwest suburb which straddles Adams and Jefferson Counties, is where I last posted. Over THREE MONTHS AGO. Terrible.
In that 30 July post, I noted it was the 50th anniversary of the disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa, the once and future leader of the Teamsters Union, outside a suburban Detroit restaurant. The hit was ordered by Anthony “Tony Pro” Provenzano, who ran afoul of Hoffa when the two men were incarcerated in a federal prison in Pennsylvania in the late 1960s. Provenzano, who was convicted of murder in a New York State court in 1978 and died in 1988, probably killed Hoffa himself, then hired goons to incinerate the body. I don’t believe his body was buried under Giants Stadium in New Jersey as some theorized.
A little more than three months after Hoffa’s disappearance, Michigan was again the scene of America’s attention.
It wasn’t the Michigan Wolverine football team, which was 7-0-2 with one game remaining before their annual bloodletting vs. the Ohio State Buckeyes in the sixth skirmish of the “Ten-Year War” between Wolverine coach Bo Schembechler and Buckeye boss Woody Hayes.
In their first season playing in the Pontiac Silverdome (known then as Pontiac Metropolitan Stadium), the Lions were flailing in mediocrity under second-year coach Rick Forzano. Detroit wasn’t as bad as NFC Central rivals Chicago and Green Bay, but nowhere near the gold standard that were the Minnesota Vikings.
The Tigers were in hibernation after a 57-105 season. Little could anyone know that futility would be surpassed in future years.
The Pistons featured one of the NBA’s greatest centers, Bob Lanier, but he had little help. The team played before thousands of empty seats at Cobo Arena.
The Red Wings were routinely selling out the Detroit Olympia, but their glory days were long gone. Gordie Howe was playing in the World Hockey Association. Terry Sawchuk was dead. Steve Yzerman was 10 years old.
On the evening of 10 November 1975, millions of football fans (and many non-fans) tuned to ABC to watch the Kansas City Chiefs and Dallas Cowboys battle at Texas Stadium.
This would have been a showcase game–if it were 1971.
The Chiefs went into steep decline after losing a 1971 AFC semifinal to the Dolphins in two overtimes. It was the NFL’s longest game, lasting 82 minutes, 40 seconds of playing time, and was the last football game at Kansas City Municipal Stadium.
Arrowhead Stadium opened in August 1972, and one month later, the Chiefs hosted their first regular season game…losing to the Dolphins 20-10. The Chiefs also lost to the putrid Eagles and woeful Chargers at home that season, although they somehow beat the hated Raiders for their first win in the stadium.
Kansas City finished 8-6 in 1972 and 7-5-2 in 1973.
In 1974, the bottom fell out.
After the Chiefs went 5-9, owner/founder Lamar Hunt fired Hank Stram, the only coach the franchise ever knew to that point. Despite three AFL championships, and victory in Super Bowl IV, Hunt was ready to turn the page.
The Chiefs’ carnage began during the ’74 season when Stram traded starting defensive tackle Curley Culp to the Oilers for the highly overrated John Matuszak, the bust of a number one overall draft pick from 1973. It would get worse after 1974 when all-time great linebacker Bobby Bell retired.
Kansas City started 0-3 under new coach Paul Wiggin before crushing the Raiders 42-10 at Arrowhead.
The Cowboys were the NFL’s winningest team between 1966 and 1973, capturing Super Bowl VI and falling by a field goal in Super Bowl V.
However, many expected 1975 to be a rebuilding year for Tom Landry’s club. Dallas went 8-6 and missed the playoffs in 1974, finishing third in the NFC East behind the Cardinals and REDSKINS. After the season, defensive stalwarts Bob Lilly and Cornell Green retired.
Dallas proved the naysayers wrong, starting with back-to-back home wins over the Rams and Cardinals, two of the four NFC playoff teams of 1974, then spoiling the opening of the Silverdome by routing the Lions 36-10 on Monday Night Football.
The Cowboys entered their second meeting vs. the Chiefs trying to erase the sting of a 30-24 overtime loss to the hated REDSKINS at RFK Stadium.
Dallas defeated Kansas City 27-16 in 1970 at Municipal Stadium. The Cowboys came into the game after they were destroyed 54-13 by the Vikings at Minnesota, but
The game had special meaning to Lamar Hunt. He still lived in Dallas part-time. He graduated from SMU. He was forced by the Cowboys to abandon his hometown after the Dallas Texans defeated the Oilers in two overtimes for the 1962 AFL championship.
Few of the 64,000 filing into Texas Stadium knew of a tragedy going down 1,400 miles northeast of Irving.
As the Raiders were crushing the Saints 48-10 in Oakland, the SS Edmund Fitzgerald set sail from Superior, Wis., bound for Detroit with 26,000 metric tons (29,250 short tons) of iron ore (taconite) pellets.
Helming the Edmund Fitzgerald was Captain Ernest McSorley. The 63-year old planned to retire earlier in 1975, but he took one final voyage to help pay his ailing wife’s medical bills.
McSorley’s crew included 28 other men ranging in age from 20 to 63.
The weather forecast for Lake Superior was ominous, not surprising for November. A storm which slammed Oklahoma two days prior rapidly intensified and shifted northeast, and the National Weather Service predicted a storm would pass near the largest of the Great Lakes early Monday.
Capt. McSorley had a reputation among Great Lakes pilots for being aggressive, but this time, he played it safe (or so he thought) by taking a more notherly course, hugging the Ontario shore, where he thought he would miss the worst of the storm.
McSorley had made a mistake, one which would turn fatal in short order.
The Edmund Fitzgerald encountered winds of 52 knots (96 km/h; 60 MPH) and waves three meters (10 feet) high.
This move separated the Edmund Fitzgerald from another vessel, the Wilfred Sykes, which was sticking to the recommended route despite the storm.
Shortly after McSorley encountered the rough weather in Canadian waters, the NWS issued a storm warning for winds approaching 50 knots (93 km/h, 58 MPH).
The forecast was accurate.
By 1:50 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, wind speed had picked up to 50 knots. Snow began to fall at 2:45, greatly reducing visibility (driving in a blizzard is terrible enough; try doing it on the open sea with no points of reference).
The Edmund Fitzgerald was starting to take on water by 3:30. Forty minutes later, McSorley slowed the boat to allow the freighter Arthur M. Anderson to get close and assist with radar guidance. He was attempting to reach Whitefish Bay, where he felt he would be safe and could assess the damage.
The Arthur M. Anderson soon encountered hurricane-force winds and rouge waves of 11 meters (35 feet).
At 7:10 p.m. EST, just as the Chiefs’ buses were pulling into Texas Stadium, McSorley radioed the Arthur M. Anderson and said “We are holding our own”.
YEAH, RIGHT.
A few minutes later, the Edmund Fitzgerald was on its way to the bottom of Lake Superior, entombing 29 men in their watery graves.
As Howard Cosell, Frank Gifford and Alex Karras set the scene in Irving, the Coast Guard reported the Edmund Fitzgerald was missing.
Many in Kansas City and Dallas didn’t learn of the tragedy until after the Chiefs defeated the Cowboys 34-31. Most on the West Coast probably didn’t find out until the next morning, because they didn’t stay up for the 11 p.m. news.
It is likely McSorley struck objects on the bottom of the lake as he sailed closer to Canada, where the depth is too shallow for a large freighter like the Edmund Fitzgerald to pass. By striking the lake floor, it tore holes through the bow and allowed water to creep in.
In 1976, Canadian singer Gordon Lightfoot memorialized the disaster with his ballad “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald”. Lightfoot, who reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 with “Sundown” in 1974, got to #2 with the tale of the Edmund Fitzgerald.
The Chiefs posted their second consecutive 5-9 season in 1975, the second of 12 consecutive non-winning seasons. Paul Wiggin was fired midway through the 1977 season with a career record of 11-24.
Three more Chiefs legends retired after 1975: defensive tackle Buck Buchanan, receiver Otis Taylor and quarterback Len Dawson.
Landry led the Cowboys to Super Bowl X, as his team upended a pair of 12-2 teams, the Rams and Vikings, on the road in the NFC playoffs.
Dallas led the defending champion Steelers into the fourth quarter, but a blocked punt which went out of the end zone for a safety swung momentum in Pittsburgh’s favor. Later in the final period, Terry Bradshaw threw a 64-yard touchdown pass to MVP Lynn Swann. Bradshaw was leveled by Cowboys defensive tackle Larry Cole on the play, leaving him with a concussion.
The Cowboys cut the gap to 21-17 (there was no two-point conversion in pro football from 1970-93) on a 34-yard pass from Roger Staubach (Captain America) to Percy Howard. It was the only reception of his NFL career.
Staubach’s Hail Mary attempt was intercepted by Glen Edwards, preserving the second of what would be four Steeler championships in six seasons.
The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down, on the big lake they call Gitche Gumee…
Foots Prints 