East 36

West 7

January 15, 1966

At the end of the 1965 football season, it had become clear to Americans that the western half of the US was football-superior. Western teams had won the NFL championship, the Playoff Bowl, college football’s East-West game and the Rose Bowl. In fact, the West had won 15 of 16 pro games played with the East that season. This was the backdrop for the Pro Bowl of 1966. The coach of the Eastern Conference, Blanton Collier of the Browns, used this point as a rallying cry for his squad as they prepared to play the West coached by Vince Lombardi of the Packers. The game was attended by 60,124 at the Coliseum.

With just over nine minutes remaining in the first quarter, Paul Krause of the Redskins picked off 49ers’ John Brodie’s pass setting up a 41 yard field goal by Jim Bakken of St. Louis. Two minutes later, Frank Ryan of the Browns hit Cardinals’ Sonny Randle for 51 yards that put the ball on the West two. From there, Jim Brown of Cleveland carried it over and the score was 10-0 after one quarter. In the second quarter it was more of the same as Brown scored on runs of two and one yards and the halftime score was 23-0, East.

The only scoring of the third quarter was a 36 yard field goal by Bakken and the East led 26-0 after three. In the fourth quarter, Bakken added a 42 yard field goal before Mel Renfro of the Cowboys returned a pass interception for 20 yards and a score (he also had a touchdown return in the Pro Bowl the previous season). The West finally got on the board in the final moments when Brodie hit the Rams’ Tommy McDonald for a 31 yard touchdown. The final score was 36-7. It was the most one-sided victory in Pro Bowl history to that date.

In this game, the East threw eight pass interception and fumbled twice. Brodie threw six of the interceptions and was booed unmercifully by the crowd prompting one Lion to say, “It was so loud, I thought we were playing in Detroit.” Vince Lombardi summed the day up by saying, “You can’t give the ball up ten times and win.“ In all fairness, Lombardi was at a disadvantage because the NFL had denied him a last minute appeal to use his own quarterback, Bart Starr, in this game. Starr had previously been scratched due to injury, but had recovered enough to play. The incredible defensive effort was led by the Cardinals’ Dale Meinert, who was selected as lineman of the game. Jim Brown was elected as back of the game for the third time. He carried 21 times for 65 yards. The much anticipated match-up between Brown and rookie Gayle Sayers of the Bears never materialized as Lombardi inexplicably called Sayers’ number on only one offensive play, a 15 yard carry.

San Francisco's John Brodie (12) and the West were dominated by Bob Lilly (74) and the East defense.

Jim Brown carries around end for the East.

Brown fights to get loose with Butkus in pursuit.

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