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 The
largest AFL All-Star Game
crowd in history witnessed
the 1968 game. A crowd of
38,500 showed up at the
Gator Bowl in Jacksonville,
FL. It was a game of old and
new. The old being George
Blanda of Oakland at age 40
and the new being Joe Namath,
the young superstar of the
league.
In the first quarter, San
Diego’s Leslie “Speedy”
Duncan fumbled a punt at his
own 25 yard line. The East
quickly turned it into a 10
yard field goal by Mike
Mercer of the Bills. It
would only take about 10
seconds for Duncan to redeem
himself. Speedy took the
ensuing kickoff at his own
ten, shot up the middle,
eluded George Saimes of
Buffalo and went 90 yards
for the touchdown. In the
second period, Daryle
Lamonica of Oakland hit
Willie Frazier of San Diego
for a 3 yard touchdown pass.
Joe Namath of the Jets kept
the East in the game with a
35 yard touchdown pass to
his NY teammate, Pete Lammons. But, Lamonica
answered, hitting another
Charger, Lance Alworth, from
nine yards out. When Mercer
connected on his second
field goal, this time from
33 yards with :37 to go, the
West held a 21-13 halftime
lead.
Len Dawson of the Chiefs
took over for Lamonica in
the third quarter, but
neither team could sustain
any offense. The West
appeared to ice the game in
the fourth quarter when
George Blanda of Oakland hit
a 28 yard field goal to put
the West up 24-13. This
especially with the fact
that Namath was having
trouble finding his
receivers. But, Namath
connected with fellow Jet,
Don Maynard, for a 24 yard
touchdown pass. The
attempted two point
conversion failed and the
score was 24-19. By this
time, there was concern
among the crowd and players
that West coach, Lou Saban
of Denver, should reinsert
Lamonica into the game to
get the West going. But,
Saban elected to stick with
the pre-game plan of playing
each quarterback for a half.
With two minutes to play,
Larry Garron of Boston, a
last minute addition to the
East squad, took a pass from
Namath and carried it 26
yards to the West ten.
Garron then gained three to
the seven and Houston’s
Hoyle Granger bulled it 6
yards to the one. Namath
scored the game winning
touchdown on a sneak with
:58 left. Again, the two
point attempt failed and the
score was East 25, West 24.
Lamonica came back into the
game and drove the West
within field goal range.
But, ageless Blanda, the
AFL’s scoring leader for
1967, just missed the
attempt from 35 yards at the
final gun, wide by inches.
Namath and Maynard shared
the offensive MVP honors.
Namath established a record
by throwing for 249 yards
and Maynard’s 128 receiving
yards was also a record.
Duncan was elected the game's
defensive MVP and his 90
yard kickoff return was also
a record.
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