The 1961 NFL QuarterbacksA friend of mine called this morning with a trivia question: Who were the starting quarterbacks for the NFL teams in 1961? I was able to get quite a few without looking them up:
NY Giants: Y.A. Tittle
Cleveland Browns: Milt Plum
Minnesota Vikings Fran Tarkenton
San Francisco 49ers: John Brodie
LA Rams: Roman Gabriel
Philadelphia Eagles: Sonny Jurgensen
Green Bay Packers: Bart Starr
Dallas Cowboys: Eddie LeBaron
Pittsburgh Steelers: ? (Friend said Bobby Layne; I'd forgotten that Layne went to Pittsburgh).
Chicago Bears: Billy Wade?
Baltimore Colts: Johnny Unitas
Washington Redskins: ?
St. Louis Cardinals: ? Jim Hart?
Detroit Lions: Frank Ryan?
Okay, after I wrote those all down, I
checked here. I was wrong about Ryan, he was the starter for the LA Rams, not Roman Gabriel. The immortal Sam Etcheverry was the starter for the St. Louis Cardinals. Earl Morrall and Jim Ninowski split signal-calling duties for the Lions, while Norm Snead lined up over center at Washington. Rudy Bukich actually threw a couple more passes than Bobby Layne.
But 10 out of 14 ain't too bad, considering that it's 44 years ago.