RECOLLECTIONS
A Colts championship ‘lost in space’
“Don’t remember it at all,” Colts great Lenny Moore confessed on the golden anniversary of the game played Dec. 27, 1959 — and Moore had scored a touchdown! Teammates shrugged as well.
Hall of Famer Gino Marchetti, since passed, declared the game was “lost in space.”
Truth be told, the sequel had legs of its own. Trailing, 9-7, in the fourth quarter, the Colts intercepted three passes and exploded for 24 straight points — Johnny Unitas threw for one touchdown and ran for another — to salt the game away.
Bedlam ensued. Fans raced onto the field, lifted players to their shoulders and snapped up keepsakes, tearing wooden planks off the Colts’ bench and the helmet off Marchetti’s head.
They razed the iron goal posts and broke off the crossbar, a 10-foot section of which was grabbed by two enterprising City College students who hustled it home, cut the pipe into two-foot pieces and sold them to friends and neighbors. It seemed the Baltimore thing to do.