The 1962 NFL season was the 43rd

regular season In an organized sports league, a typical season is the portion of one year in which regulated games of the sport are in session: for example, in Major League Baseball the season lasts approximately from the last week of March to the last week of Se ...

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 ...

(NFL). Before the season,

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

signed a contract with the league to televise all regular-season games for a $4.65 million annual fee. The season ended on December 30, when 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) NFC North, North division. It ...

defeated the

New York Giants The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Giants compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East division. ...

16–7 in the

NFL championship game Throughout its history, the National Football League (NFL) and other rival American football leagues have used several different formats to determine their league champions, including a period of inter-league matchups to determine a true national c ...

Yankee Stadium Yankee Stadium is a baseball stadium located in the Bronx, New York City. It is the home field of the New York Yankees of Major League Baseball, and New York City FC of Major League Soccer. Opened in April 2009, the stadium replaced the origi ...

. The Packers successfully defended their

1961 Events January * January 3 ** United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower announces that the United States has severed diplomatic and consular relations with Cuba ( Cuba–United States relations are restored in 2015). ** Aero Flight 311 ...

NFL title, finishing the 1962 season at 14–1; their only loss was to 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 Ford ...

Thanksgiving Thanksgiving is a national holiday celebrated on various dates in the United States, Canada, Grenada, Saint Lucia, Liberia, and unofficially in countries like Brazil and Philippines. It is also observed in the Netherlander town of Leiden and ...

Day at Tiger Stadium.

Draft

The

1962 NFL Draft The 1962 National Football League draft was held on December 4, 1961 at the Sheraton Hotel in Chicago, Illinois. The Washington Redskins used the first overall pick of the draft to select running back Ernie Davis, then subsequently traded him ...

was held on December 4, 1961, at

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

's Sheraton Hotel & Towers. With the first pick, the

Washington Redskins The Washington Commanders are a professional American football team based in the Washington metropolitan area. The Commanders compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) N ...

selected running back Ernie Davis from

Syracuse University Syracuse University (informally 'Cuse or SU) is a Private university, private research university in Syracuse, New York. Established in 1870 with roots in the Methodist Episcopal Church, the university has been nonsectarian since 1920. Locate ...

Major rule changes

*Grabbing any player's facemask is prohibited.

Hall of Fame Game

The preseason Hall of Fame Game in

Canton, Ohio Canton () is a city in and the county seat of Stark County, Ohio. It is located approximately south of Cleveland and south of Akron in Northeast Ohio. The city lies on the edge of Ohio's extensive Amish country, particularly in Holmes and ...

, debuted this year, following the morning

groundbreaking Groundbreaking, also known as cutting, sod-cutting, turning the first sod, or a sod-turning ceremony, is a traditional ceremony in many cultures that celebrates the first day of construction for a building or other project. Such ceremonies are o ...

for the

Pro Football Hall of Fame The Pro Football Hall of Fame is the hall of fame for professional American football, located in Canton, Ohio. Opened on September 7, , the Hall of Fame enshrines exceptional figures in the sport of professional football, including players, coach ...

on Saturday, August 11. The

and

St. Louis Cardinals The St. Louis Cardinals are an American professional baseball team based in St. Louis. The Cardinals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Since the 2006 season, the Cardinals ha ...

played to a 21–21 tie.

Conference races

The Green Bay Packers won their first ten games, until losing 26–14 on November 22 at Detroit. The Lions' win put them a game behind the Pack rather than 2 games behind, but in the final week, they lost to Chicago, 3–0. Even a Lions win would have been made moot when Green Bay's won 20–17 at L.A. to finish with a record of 13–1. In the Eastern conference, the Redskins were unbeaten after six games. Their four wins and two ties would have been an .833 record in later years, but in 1962, a tie game was not counted at all. In ''Week Seven'' (October 28), the Giants handed the Skins their first loss, 49–34. When Washington lost again the next week, 38–10 to Dallas, the Giants 31–28 win over St. Louis gave them a 6–2 record and the conference lead. The Giants rode a nine-game winning streak to capture the Eastern title and the right to host the title game against Green Bay.

Final standings

Postseason

NFL Championship Game

*Green Bay 16, New York 7 at

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

on December 30.

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 third year (of ten) and it was played a week after the title game. *Detroit 17, Pittsburgh 10 at

Orange Bowl The Orange Bowl is an annual American college football bowl game played in the Miami metropolitan area. It has been played annually since January 1, 1935, making it, along with the Sugar Bowl and the Sun Bowl, the second-oldest bowl game in th ...

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...

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, and to ...

, on January 6, 1963.

Awards

Coaching changes

Offseason

Wally Lemm Walter Horner Lemm (October 23, 1919 – October 8, 1988) was an American football coach at the high school, collegiate and professional levels and achieved his greatest prominence as head coach of the American Football League's Houston Oilers an ...

became the team's new head coach.

Pop Ivy Lee Frank "Pop" Ivy (January 25, 1916 – May 17, 2003) was a football player and coach who was the only person to serve as a head coach in the National Football League (NFL), the American Football League (AFL) and the Western Interprovincial ...

resigned after the twelfth game (5–7) in

. assistants

Chuck Drulis Charles John Drulis (March 8, 1918 – August 23, 1972) was an American football player and coach born in Girardville, Pennsylvania. He attended Temple University and played seven seasons in the National Football League. Drulis, along with his ...

Ray Prochaska Raymond Edward Prochaska (August 9, 1919 – March 9, 1997) was an American gridiron football player and coach. Prochaska was born in Ulysses, Nebraska, to Emil Prochaska and Marie Fredlick, having Czech and Moravian ancestry. He attended the ...

, and

Ray Willsey Ray may refer to: Fish * Ray (fish), any cartilaginous fish of the superorder Batoidea * Ray (fish fin anatomy), a bony or horny spine on a fin Science and mathematics * Ray (geometry), half of a line proceeding from an initial point * Ray (gra ...

served as co-head coaches for the final two games of that season, both wins.

In-season

Los Angeles Rams The Los Angeles Rams are a professional American football team based in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The Rams compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) West division. The Rams play ...

Bob Waterfield Robert Stanton Waterfield (July 26, 1920 – March 25, 1983) was an American professional football player and coach. He played quarterback for the UCLA Bruins and Cleveland/Los Angeles Rams and was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame i ...

resigned after eight games (1–7), succeeded by defensive line coach

Harland Svare Harland James Svare (November 25, 1930 – April 4, 2020) was an American professional football player, coach and general manager. Svare was a linebacker who played eight seasons with the Los Angeles Rams and New York Giants of the National Foot ...

(0–5–1).

References

*''NFL Record and Fact Book'' ()
NFL History 1961–1970
(Last accessed December 4, 2005) *''Total Football: The Official Encyclopedia of the National Football League'' () {{NFL seasons 1962