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The 1960 NFL season was the 41st regular season of the
National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ma ...
. Before the season, 33-year-old Pete Rozelle, the general manager of the Los Angeles Rams, was elected NFL commissioner as a compromise choice on the twenty-third ballot. Meanwhile, the league expanded to 13 teams in late January with the addition of the
Dallas Cowboys The Dallas Cowboys are a professional American football team based in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. The Cowboys compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East divis ...
, with a fourteenth team, the Minnesota Vikings, to start in . Also, the Cardinals relocated from
Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...
to St. Louis and became the St. Louis Cardinals, the same moniker as the major league baseball team. In the championship game, the host Philadelphia Eagles defeated the
Green Bay Packers The Green Bay Packers are a professional American football team based in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The Packers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the National Football Conference (NFC) North division. It is the th ...
by four points at earlier in , both teams had finished in last place in their respective conferences, combining for only three wins. This loss was Vince Lombardi's only post-season defeat as an NFL head coach. Following this loss in 1960, Lombardi's Packers won five NFL championship games in seven years, and easily won the first two Super Bowls. The NFL introduced the
Playoff Bowl The Playoff Bowl (officially known as the Bert Bell Benefit Bowl) was a post-season game for third place in the National Football League (NFL), played ten times following the through seasons, all at the Orange Bowl in Miami, Florida. It was or ...
, a game for third place between the runners-up from each conference. Played at the Orange Bowl in
Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at th ...
,
Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, a ...
, after the NFL Championship game, it benefitted the players' pension fund. The
Detroit Lions The Detroit Lions are a professional American football team based in Detroit. The Lions compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) North Division. The team play their home games at For ...
played the Cleveland Browns in the inaugural game and the Lions won by a point, the first of three straight wins by Detroit in the series. The two-time defending league champion Baltimore Colts led the Western Conference after their bye in Week 9, but lost the last four games to finish at .500 and fourth in the West. The New York Giants, winners of the Eastern Conference the previous two seasons, won only one of their final five games and finished third in the East. During this season, the American Football League (AFL) was launched as a competitor to the NFL. The two leagues co-existed for the entire 1960s, agreed to a merger in , and became one combined league in .


Draft

The 1960 NFL Draft was held on November 30, 1959 at
Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
's Warwick Hotel. With the first pick, the Los Angeles Rams selected running back Billy Cannon from
Louisiana State University Louisiana State University (officially Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as LSU) is a public land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The university was founded in 1860 near ...
. Because the league awarded the
Dallas Cowboys The Dallas Cowboys are a professional American football team based in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. The Cowboys compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East divis ...
franchise about two months later on January 28, 1960, this marked the only time that an NFL expansion team did not have the benefit of a college draft in its first year.


Expansion Draft

The 1960 NFL expansion draft was held on March 13, 1960, with the
Dallas Cowboys The Dallas Cowboys are a professional American football team based in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. The Cowboys compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East divis ...
selecting 36 players from the other 12 teams.


Conference races

All teams but Dallas played a home-and-away game against the other five members of their own conference, one inter-conference game, and one game against the new team (Dallas): Dallas, although assigned to the Western Conference, were a "swing team" and played each team once. This was the final season for the 12-game schedule in the NFL. A bye was required because of there being thirteen teams, with one team having a bye in each of the 13 weeks. The Cowboys' first game saw them take a 14–0 lead over the Pittsburgh Steelers on a Saturday night at the Cotton Bowl, with Jim Doran catching a pass from Eddie LeBaron for the first score, but lost 35–28.


Eastern

Philadelphia lost its opener at home to Cleveland, 41–24, then went on a nine-game winning streak. The breakthrough came in ''Week Six'' on October 30, when unbeaten New York (3–0–1), two-time defending conference champions, came off their bye and lost at home to St. Louis, 20–13, while the Browns and idle Eagles were both at 4–1. In ''Week Seven'', New York beat Cleveland, 17–13, and the Eagles beat Pittsburgh 34–7. The Eagles clinched the Eastern Conference after ten games at 9–1; they dropped a game the next week in the snow at Pittsburgh, and finished the regular season at 10–2, 1½ games ahead of Cleveland. Two of the wins in the streak were in consecutive games (November 20 and 27) against New York. In the latter game, the Eagles trailed 17–0, then 23–17, before Norm Van Brocklin threw two touchdown passes in the final quarter for a 31–23 victory. In the former, the Giants' Frank Gifford was severely injured in a tackle by linebacker Chuck Bednarik late in the game ''The Bridgeport Telegram'', Nov 28, 1960, p12 that almost ended his career. New York entered that November 20 game at 5–1–1, but won only once in the last five games, including a tie against Dallas - the Cowboys lost their remaining eleven games that year - and finished third in the Eastern at 6–4–2. The Giants won the next three conference championships for five in six seasons, but not the league title.


Western

The Western Conference race was one in which Baltimore,
Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...
, Detroit, Green Bay, and
San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
all had a lead at one time. The Bears fell back after a ''Week Six'' loss to the 49ers, 25–7. In ''Week Seven'', the 4–2 Colts and the 4–1 Packers met on November 6 in Green Bay. Two-time defending NFL champion Baltimore, which had lost an earlier match, won 38–24, to take the lead in the Western. In ''Week Ten'', the Colts (6–2) came off their bye and lost at home to San Francisco, 30–22, to begin a streak of four defeats. Baltimore's 20–15 loss to the Lions, and Green Bay's 41–13 win at Chicago, tied the Colts and Packers at 6–4 in ''Week Eleven''. After the Packers' 13–0 win at San Francisco, their record was 7–4, while the Colts, Lions and 49ers were all at 6–5. While San Francisco and Detroit both won the next week, the former beating Baltimore 34–10, the Packers had won the day before, beating
Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the wor ...
35–21 for the Western title, their first in 16 years. The new Dallas Cowboys lost their first ten games, but managed a 31–31 tie against the Giants at Yankee Stadium in New York on December 4. They finished at 0–11–1: as ties were excluded in calculating winning percentage prior to , the Cowboys had a winning percentage of , rather than . Conference leaders * A bye was required in 1960, as the league had an odd number of teams (13); one team had the bye each week.
The fourteenth team,
Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the List of U.S. states and territories by population, 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minne ...
, would join the league in , and the NFL subsequently initiated a 14-game regular season.


Final standings


Postseason


NFL Championship Game

*Philadelphia 17, Green Bay 13 at Franklin Field,
University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universit ...
, in
Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
,
Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; (Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, Ma ...
, on Monday, December 26.


Playoff Bowl

The
Playoff Bowl The Playoff Bowl (officially known as the Bert Bell Benefit Bowl) was a post-season game for third place in the National Football League (NFL), played ten times following the through seasons, all at the Orange Bowl in Miami, Florida. It was or ...
was between the conference runners-up, for third place in the league. This was its first year (of ten) and it was played three weeks after the regular season. *Detroit 17, Cleveland 16 at the Orange Bowl in
Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at th ...
,
Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, a ...
, on Saturday, January 7, 1961.


Pro Bowl

*West 35, East 31 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in
Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the wor ...
,
California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the ...
, on Sunday, January 15, 1961.


Awards


Coaching changes

*
Dallas Cowboys The Dallas Cowboys are a professional American football team based in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. The Cowboys compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East divis ...
: Tom Landry became the expansion team's first head coach. * Los Angeles Rams: Sid Gillman was replaced by Bob Waterfield.


Stadium changes

* The expansion
Dallas Cowboys The Dallas Cowboys are a professional American football team based in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. The Cowboys compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East divis ...
began play at the Cotton Bowl * The relocated St. Louis Cardinals moved to Busch Stadium (Sportsman's Park)


See also

* 1960 American Football League season


References


External links

*''NFL Record and Fact Book'' ()
NFL History 1951–1960
(Last accessed July 8, 2007) *''Total Football: The Official Encyclopedia of the National Football League'' () {{DEFAULTSORT:1960 Nfl Season National Football League seasons