Gifts in passing

 

 

WANTED: NFL QUARTERBACK FOR CONTENDING TEAM

Must be former member of the Los Angeles Rams

          College football programs around the country have earned a reputation for producing terrific professional quarterbacks.

You think of the University of Southern California teams that have recently produced three National Football League starters and, going back a few decades, you think of the Alabama teams that produced NFL heroes Bart Starr, Joe Namath and Ken Stabler.

But for championship-quality passers, few college programs can match the ultimate production line of the 1950s and early 1960s, the castoffs of the Los Angeles Rams.

During the stretch between 1960 and 1964, former Rams quarterbacks Norm Van Brocklin, Billy Wade and Frank Ryan quarterbacked non-Rams teams to the NFL title.

Van Brocklin tossed the scoring pass that won the 1951 championship for the Rams, the only title the franchise ever earned in Los Angeles, and he played in another title game with the Rams before moving to the Philadelphia Eagles.

Wade played behind Van Brocklin and then became the Rams starter before moving on to the Chicago Bears.

Ryan and Wade were teammates in Los Angeles until Wade moved on to Chicago. Ryan eventually left LA for Cleveland, where he joined the Browns.

Another former Ram, Zeke Bratkowski, served as Bart Starr’s backup during three championship seasons in Green Bay and one more ex-Ram signal caller, Rudy Bukich, also won a ring as a backup.

Even John Unitas once played for the Rams. Okay, it was a sandlot group known as the Bloomfield Rams, but history shows that Unitas was successful after leaving the Bloomfield squad. Just wearing a Rams uniform, regardless of the league affiliation, seems to have been all a passer needed in the 1950s to develop into an all-star.

Van Brocklin joined the Rams when the club already had Bob Waterfield, another future member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Waterfield was already a hero, having led the Rams to an NFL title when the team was still playing in Cleveland. The two great passers managed to co-exist for a time in LA and the Rams built one of the great offenses in league history. Waterfield retired after the 1952 season, leaving Van Brocklin pretty much on his own under center for a time.

But after falling to the Browns in the 1955 title game, things changed for the Rams. That’s when the Great Quarterback Development Program began.

Wade had joined the Rams in 1954. Bukich was with the club in 1953, was out of football for two years and then rejoined the club in 1956. By 1957 Bukich’s transitory 16-season career was in full swing. He eventually joined the Bears and was a backup for Chicago when they won the title in 1963.

But we’re getting ahead of the story.

In 1958, Sid Gilman was the Rams coach and there were reports that the coach and Van Brocklin did not see eye-to-eye on the matter of play calling. Van Brocklin wanted to call his own plays and Gilman, a great master of the passing game, felt it was the coach’s job. The Rams felt Wade was ready to step in for Van Brocklin and Los Angeles traded the Dutchman to Philadelphia.

The Rams’ take in the deal included a draft pick they used to select running back Dick Bass, who eventually set franchise rushing records.

Van Brocklin called his own plays in Philadelphia and, in 1960, became the only quarterback to beat a Vince Lombardi-coached team in an NFL title game.

Meanwhile, back in Los Angeles, the Rams were suffering. Ryan, a fifth-round draft pick out of Rice, joined the club in 1958 but Wade was the starter and the team went 8-4, finishing second in the Western Conference to Unitas and his Colts.

Wade passed for 2,875 yards, 18 for scores in 1958 but he also threw 22 interceptions. In 1959, Wade passed for 2,001 yards, but he tossed 12 scoring passes compared to 17 interceptions. The Rams finished 2-10 in ’59, last in the conference, and Gilman was gone.

Waterfield replaced Gilman as head coach in 1960 and both Wade and Ryan saw significant playing time. In addition, Buddy Humphrey was on the roster as a third passer, having joined the team in 1959 as a second round draft pick.

 The passing numbers in 1960 for the 4-7-1 Rams:

 

Wade: 106 of 182 for 1,294 yards, 12 touchdowns, 11 interceptions

Ryan: 62 of 128 for 816 yards, 7 touchdowns and 9 interceptions

Humphrey: 9 of 24 for 78 yards, no touchdowns, 2 interceptions

 

          Obviously, Wade had to go. The Rams sent him to the Bears, along with receiver Del Shofner and offensive guard John Guzik, in exchange for two players and a draft pick.

          The Bears improved from 5-6-1 in 1960 to 8-6 in 1961. Wade, the passer the Rams passed on, completed a 98-yard scoring toss to Bo Farrington for the Bears against Detroit on Oct. 8.

The Rams were 4-10 in ‘61 and they had another two-headed quarterback, as Bratkowski had joined the Rams after five years with (of all teams) the Bears. The Rams’ passing numbers in 1961:

 

Bratkowski: 124 of 230 for 1,547 yards, 8 touchdowns, 13 interceptions

Ryan: 72 of 142 for 1,115 yards, 5 touchdowns and 7 interceptions

 

          Ryan never finished a season with the Rams without throwing more interceptions than scoring passes and he was dealt to Cleveland before the 1962 season. In fairness, he did not play on great teams in Los Angeles.

          The Rams drafted Roman Gabriel in the 1962 selection process and he became the franchise quarterback for the next decade. Gabriel handed off to Bass many times. In the mid-sixties, Gabriel was throwing touchdown passes to Tommy MacDonald, the flanker who caught a scoring pass from Van Brocklin in the 1960 championship game.

          In 1963, it was between Gabriel and Heisman Trophy winner Terry Baker for the Rams’ starting job.

          Wade took the Bears to the championship in 1963, beating the New York Giants 14-10 in the title game. Ironically, Wade scored both Chicago touchdowns on a pair of quarterback sneaks after Chicago defenders intercepted New York passes. In that championship season, Wade completed 192 of 356 passes for 2,301 yards. He also threw 15 scoring passes to only 12 interceptions.

          In Los Angeles, Gabriel and newcomer Bill Munson were in competition for the Rams’ starting job in 1964. Harlan Svare was now the coach and the team went 5-7-2, good enough for fifth in the Western Conference.

          Wade and the defending world champion Bears finished sixth.

          In Cleveland, Ryan was handing the ball to Jim Brown and it was working. In 1964, Ryan and the Browns beat Unitas and the Colts 27-0 for the NFL title. Ryan threw three touchdown passes in the title game. His 1964 season stats were impressive: 174 of 334 for 2,404 yards. He led the NFL with 25 touchdown passes and had 19 interceptions.

In 1967, Gabriel and the Rams won the Coastal Division championship, then lost to the Packers in the Western Conference title game. It was the Rams’ first post-season game since the loss in the ’55 title game.

The soap opera-like conclusion to the story was a short-lived consolation game for the second-place teams in the Western and Eastern conferences, played in Miami. Gabriel and the Rams beat Ryan and the Browns, 30-6.

Gabriel was named the NFL MVP in 1969. He finished his career with, yes that’s right, the Eagles. Though he never won an NFL championship, Gabriel did make a movie with John Wayne. It was titled, The Undefeated.

          To be sure, other former Rams quarterbacks have enjoyed success with different franchises. Ron Jaworski reached the Super Bowl with – wait for it – the Eagles, losing to the Raiders. And Kurt Warner, who in 2000 passed the Rams to their first NFL title since the 1951 game that Van Brocklin won, nearly won the Super Bowl with the Cardinals in 2009.

Bratkowski won three championship rings with the Packers in 1965, 66 and 67, backing up Bart Starr. Decades later Jeff Rutledge, who was with the Rams from 1979 through 1981, won Super Bowl rings as a backup for both the 1986 New York Giants and the 1991 Washington Redskins.

By one measuring stick, the Rams franchise is the winningest in NFL history because it is the only franchise to win championships in three cities (Cleveland, Los Angeles and St. Louis). By nearly any measuring stick, the Los Angeles Rams were the givingest team in the league in the late 1950s and early 60s.

No other professional franchise developed a more successful group of quarterbacks for other teams.

 

Attempts         Complete        Yards        TDs           Ints

 

V. Brocklin   

Rams               1,897               1,011               16,114       118            124   (104 games)

Non Rams       998                  542                  7,497          55             54     (36 games)

Career              2,895               1,553               23,611       173            178   (140 games)

 

Wade

Rams               1,116               603                  8,572         56              68   (69 games)

Non Rams       1,407               767                  9,958         68              66   (59 games)

Career              2,523               1,370               18,530       124            134  (128 games)

 

Ryan

Rams               373                  181                  2,674          15             23   (40 games)

Non Rams       1,760               909                  13,368        134           88   (86 games)

Career              2,133               1,090               16,042        149           111 (126 games)

 

Bratkowski

Rams               449                  234                  3,088           17            29   (26 games)

Non Rams       1,035               528                  7,257           48            93   (106 games)

Career              1,484               762                  10,345         65            122 (132 games)