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The 1972 College All-Star Game |
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Note: By 1972, the Chicago All-Star Game was clearly in trouble. The following article sums it up:
All-Star Violence Ed Levitt Oakland Tribune July 27, 1972
Professional football's season-opening showcase, the College All-Star game, is foundering in a sea of apathy.
Tonight's televised affair, misnamed to start with as it long ago passed out of the hands of the colleges, has been dying since professional football pushed so far ahead of these pick-up college teams. It's no longer a contest. And it does no one, except the newspaper charity sponsoring it, any good.
The National Football League, stuck with a contract that commits its champions to play the collegiates once every year, shrugs its collective shoulders and asks, "Why rock the boat?"
The promoting officials persist in the delusion that a hastily assembled team of rookies (and a lot of them won't even make it in pro ball) belong on the same field with the Dallas Cowboys.
"The pros hurt the game," they claim. "They tell their kids on the All-Star squad to take it easy- "It's only an exhibition, so why knock yourself out and get hurt?"
Meanwhile, they refuse to consider a change of format.
One possibility which would make sense in July is the Pro Bowl, now held in mid-January in Los Angeles as an anti-climax to the season. The argument against it contends that the sponsors hold a long-term contract and wouldn't relinquish a game they spent many years to build. But baseball once had two All-Star games in one year. What's to keep the football people from having two Pro Bowls five months apart?
Another possibility would be to put on a game that pits the NFL champions against the Canadian champions- the best pro teams of two countries meeting head-on. Besides the obvious merits of the game, and the odds of drawing 100,000 to see the battle, it's better for the players.
The pro champs are men who don't have to worry about making their teams. They can get in shape just as quickly in an All-Star camp. The College All-Stars, on the other hand, miss two valuable weeks at a time when they should be fighting for a pro job.
Great prospects have been beaten out of starting positions because they couldn't catch up. They arrived in camp too late. It made it too tough.
Almost as tough as facing the Cowboys.
That was the story of the 39th annual College All-Star game Friday night as Morton led the world champion Dallas Cowboys to a 20-7 win over an All-Star team that was better than expected on defense but listless on offense.
It was the ninth straight victory for the pros over the collegians.
Morton entered the game when Roger Staubach was shaken up late in the first half and tossed two touchdown passes. Sullivan, the Heisman Trophy winner, entered the game in the final quarter, and led the Stars to their only touchdown.
Sullivan's performance- he completed eight of 15 passes for 64 yards- raised a question. Why didn't Nebraska Coach Bob Devaney insert him earlier to replace ex-Nebraska star Jerry Tagge, who couldn't get the Stars moving for three quarters?
Devaney said he thought Tagge could move the team. He said he thought the key play was a fumble by Tagge early in the third quarter with the Cowboys holding a 10-0 lead.
Tagge was rolling right when the ball seemed to slip from his hand. He kicked it toward the sidelines, and Dallas' Bob Lilly fell on it at the Star 41, Four plays later, Morton tossed 24 yards to Bob Hayes, clear over the middle, and it was 17-0.
Morton had entered the game with six minutes left in the half after Staubach was sandwiched among three All-Stars as he ran for a first down at the Stars 18-yard-line.
He threw one incomplete pass, then hit Ron Sellers, newly, acquired from the New England Patriots, in the right corner of the end zone for the score.
The other Cowboy scores came on a 30-yard first quarter field goal by Mike Clark and a 33-yarder on the first play of the fourth quarter by Austrian soccer-style kicker Toni Fritsch.
When Sullivan entered the game down 20-0, he promptly moved the Stars 80 yards in 16 plays. The key plays were a 30-yard burst by Robert Newhouse of Houston, who becomes a Cowboy today, and a 13-yard fourth-down pass from Sullivan to Villanova's Mike Siani that put the ball on the one-yard line. Newhouse plunged over from there.
The high spot for the All- Stars was the play of the defense, led by LSU's Tommy Casanova, who roamed all over the secondary, batting down passes, harassing receivers , and making tackles.
Other defensive standouts for the All-Stars included backs Tom Darden of Michigan, Tom Myers of Syracuse and Willie Buchanon of San. Diego State; linebackers Jeff Siemon of Stanford and Mike Keller of Michigan, and linemen Sherman White of California, Pete Lazetich of Stanford, John Mendenhall of Grambling and Larry Jacobson of Nebraska.
For the Cowboys, the game was something to yawn about.
"They played well," Coach Tom Landry said of the All- Stars. "But we won the game."
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Heisman trophy winner, Pat Sullivan, signals an All-Star touchdown as Robert Newhouse of Houston scores. |
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Roger Staubach launches pass in first quarter as Cowboys block Sherman White (70). |
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Jeff Kinney tires the Cowboy line of Lee Roy Jordan (55) and Chuck Howley (54). |
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Roger Staubach was injured and had to leave the game.
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CHICAGO,
July 28 (AP)- Backup quarterback Craig Morton got in early and had time
to do his thing. Backup quarterback Pat Sullivan got in late and his
thing was to no avail.
