West 19

East 10

January 13, 1957

The 1957 Pro Bowl was played before 44,177 fans at the LA Coliseum. The coaches were Chicago’s Paddy Driscoll and Jim Lee Howell of the Giants. The Giants had beaten the Bears 41-7 in the 1956 NFL championship game.

The West drew first blood when the Cardinals’ Ollie Matson fumbled the ball at his own 22, which Detroit’s Joe Schmidt recovered at the East 12 yard line. From there, it took just three plays to score as Chicago’s Ed Brown took the ball in on a quarterback sneak. In the second quarter the East tied it with a lot of luck. On the touchdown drive, Matson fumbled after a 10 yard gain, but Cards teammate Jack Simmons recovered the ball, gaining four yards in the process. As the Giants’ Frank Gifford tried to ram the ball across the goal two plays later from the one, he was hit by Lion Yale Lary and fumbled. But, Kyle Rote fell on the ball in the endzone for the touchdown. The score was tied at 7-7. Just before the half, the West blew an opportunity when Detroit’s Bobby Layne fumbled at the one after being hit by Ernie Stautner of the Steelers and Mike McCormick of the Browns. Failing to move the ball, the East punted and the West got the ball back at their own 45 with a minute to play. A 22 yard Layne pass to Green Bay’s Billy Howton set up Baltimore’s Bert Richichar for a 45 yard field goal attempt. It was good and the West led 10-7 at the half.

Three minutes into the third quarter, Sam Baker connected on a 52 yard field goal to knot the score at 10. But, Tobin Rote drove the West into field goal range again and Richichar connected again, this time from 44 yards. The rest of the afternoon belonged to Richichar, who kicked a 44 yard field goal and equaled Baker’s 52 yarder in the fourth quarter. The West defense did the rest by intercepting East passes twice and the final score was 19-10.

For the first time, the Pro Bowl MVP award was divided between two players. To the offensive player of the game went the George Halas award as it had for the first 6 Pro Bowls since 1951. But a new award was given for the lineman of the game and that went to Ernie Stautner of the Steelers. The win was big for Richichar, who won the Halas award with his four field goals. It was Richichar who had missed the field goal the previous year that had resulted in the questionable touchback at the end of the controversial game. “The West kinda got the shaft in last’s year’s Pro Bowl” Richchar said, “so this helped to make up for it.”
 

This magazine cover shows depicts action from the 1957 game.

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