North Platte High School’s Bauer Field at Memorial Stadium looks nothing like it did in 1967. It didn’t bear that name then. Until 1989, it was just “the Senior High Athletic Field.”
Broken Bow native and former Nebraska football player Kent McCloughan (No. 47) returns an intercepted pass for the Oakland Raiders during their American Football League exhibition game against the Denver Broncos on Aug. 27, 1967, at North Platte High School. Also shown is Oakland defensive end “Big Ben” Davidson (No. 83). McCloughan’s 36-yard return to the Denver 4-yard line set up the first of 17 unanswered Raider points for a 17-14 halftime lead. The Broncos scored a touchdown with 8:41 left in the game for a 21-17 win.
RICHARD ANDERSON, OMAHA WORLD-HERALD
Denver quarterback Steve Tensi (No. 13) throws a pass in the face of a fierce Oakland pass rush during the Broncos’ 21-17 preseason victory over the Raiders at North Platte High School on Aug. 27, 1967. Offensive linemen Bob Breitensen (No. 76), Ernie Park (No. 60) and Dave Behrman (No. 54) do their best to give Tensi time to throw as Oakland defensive linemen including Ike Lassiter (No. 77) and Tom Keating (No. 74) close in. The latter would be part of the Raiders’ “11 Angry Men” defense who intimidated AFL offenses during a breakthrough 13-1 regular season that sent Oakland to Super Bowl II.
THE NORTH PLATTE TELEGRAPH
And yet, on a sunny 84-degree Sunday on Aug. 27, 1967, the Denver Broncos and Oakland Raiders played preseason professional football where Super Bowl XLVI-scoring Bulldog legend Danny Woodhead would first gain fame early in a new millennium.
Sounds as unlikely as President Ronald Reagan speaking at the Wild West Arena in August 1987. Or barnstorming major leaguers playing postseason All-Star baseball at old Jeffers Field in October 1943.
North Platte’s Major League Baseball showcase
Contagious audacity brought the evolving phenomenon of modern pro football to North Platte — at perhaps the last possible moment it could— as William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody’s hometown was entering a decade of unprecedented economic success.
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The teams that played, each three-time Super Bowl winners today, also were on the brink of interesting times.
The Raiders were on the cusp of the national sports spotlight. The Broncos wouldn’t get there for a decade, but one can argue they were taking their first steps in that direction.
Their league, the American Football League, was already well on its way.
‘Centennial City’ victorious
In January 1967, the start of Nebraska’s centennial year and the month of the inaugural Super Bowl, North Platte leaders were enjoying the afterglow of a grand slam of pre-Christmas economic victories.
First, on Nov. 8, 1966, when voters in 10 counties approved a two-year vocational-technical school. On Veterans Day, North Platte was named “Nebraska’s Centennial City” in a statewide contest based on community improvements.
The Nebraska Game and Parks Commission chose North Platte Nov. 15 over Lincoln, Ogallala, Valentine and McCook to permanently host the two-year-old Nebraskaland Days starting in 1968. Interstate 80 then opened as far as North Platte on Dec. 9.
“Not The End — This Is Just the Beginning!” cheered the headline of a Telegraph editorial on Nov. 17, 1966.
“Now is the time for us to forget petty differences and jealousy and work even harder to make these and future projects a success so that North Platte and this area will become an even greater part of the state.”
Such was the local atmosphere that month when Max Anderson heard the Denver Broncos had an open date on their 1967 AFL preseason schedule.
Anderson, a KNOP-TV sportscaster, was president of a North Platte sports booster club organized in March 1956. Its name matched that of a pro football team of the 1950s’ past and future: the Buffalo Bills.
Club founders helped build Bill Wood Field and sell tickets for the new minor league North Platte Indians baseball team. American Legion baseball, NPHS sports teams and the revived 1960s semipro North Platte Plainsmen also benefited from their activities.
None compared with what Anderson was about to attempt.
He contacted Broncos business manager Paul Massey and urged him to fill his empty preseason slot with a “Centennial Bowl” game in North Platte, The Telegraph reported April 15.
“We knew it could be done, and we went out and did it,” Anderson told sportswriter Bob Houdesheldt.
It wasn’t that easy. Consider Massey’s list of competitors:
Albuquerque, New Mexico. El Paso, Texas. Salt Lake City. And Anaheim, California, and Seattle, both future hosts of National Football League teams.
Massey didn’t mention Lincoln’s Memorial Stadium in Lincoln. But North Platte’s upset win was “a feat the sports leaders in Lincoln were unable to accomplish, and they tried,” Telegraph veteran Jim Kirkman wrote in his April 17 “Dots and Dashes” column.
The Alliance Times-Herald indicated April 20 that the home of Bob Devaney’s Cornhuskers failed “because of the silly Big Eight rule against letting outsiders play on member gridirons.”
Anderson elaborated on the victory in a May 2 column by Omaha World-Herald sportswriter Conde Sargent.
“To be truthful, I got a cold shoulder at first,” he said. But new Broncos head coach and general manager Lou Saban — a 1964-65 AFL champion atop the “other” Buffalo Bills — was persuaded by North Platte’s proximity to Denver.
“We’d like to think we’re the local favorites here as well as in the Denver area,” Saban said after he and Massey signed the game contracts April 14 in North Platte.
Nebraska’s Centennial Commission made the game a statewide 100th birthday event. It paid for the game’s officials and halftime entertainment.
North Platte’s Buffalo Bills guaranteed a $50,000 payout — covered by 50 businessmen each pledging up to $1,000 — and pledged to temporarily expand the 4,100-seat NPHS field’s seating capacity to hold as many as 14,000.
It was “just another chain in the length of continuing successes that are putting North Platte on the map these days,” Kirkman wrote.
THE NORTH PLATTE TELEGRAPH
An opportune moment
Still, how could pro football in North Platte be a possibility even in 1967?
The NFL, nearing its 50th birthday, was riding a tidal wave of popularity powered by television and coach Vince Lombardi’s Green Bay Packers dynasty. It welcomed its 16th team in 1967.
Richer TV contracts also helped the then nine-team AFL to force the NFL to merge. A June 1966 agreement called for a single league starting in 1970, a common college draft and an annual interleague title game.
But equality on the field was another matter, as shown when Lombardi’s Packers routed the AFL champion Kansas City Chiefs 35-10 in that first Super Bowl on Jan. 15, 1967.
What’s more, neither the Broncos nor Raiders had tasted much AFL success.
Denver, which beat the Boston Patriots 13-10 in the upstart league’s 1960 debut, hadn’t had a winning season and won just 10 total games from 1963 to 1966. They finished 4-10 the latter year.
Oakland had fared a bit better on the field but likely wouldn’t have survived to see North Platte but for a $400,000 1962 loan from Ralph Wilson, owner of those “other” Buffalo Bills.
With future Pro Football Hall of Famer Al Davis as coach, general manager and part owner, the Raiders won 31 games over the next four years but finished second at 8-5-1 in both 1965 and 1966.
Neither team was top-drawer. Neither was their league. Not just yet.
‘Whiskey-soaked Buffalo hunter’
But North Platte quickly found fan interest from the Front Range to the Missouri River. The Raiders would be bringing two former Huskers: safety Warren Powers, a future NU assistant and Missouri head coach, and Broken Bow’s Kent McCloughan, an All-AFL cornerback in 1966.
North Platte’s Buffalo Bills swiftly sold more than 2,000 reserved $10 seats. They arranged to bring in Husker bleachers seating 6,800 that were being replaced by Memorial Stadium’s South Stadium addition.
The Kearney Chamber of Commerce bought a block of tickets. Up to 30 high school teams would see the game. With general admission tickets at $6 apiece, sellout prospects were bright, Anderson told Nebraska reporters.
But faraway sportswriters, especially in northern California, expressed their disdain with Old West stereotypes.
“Not since the last whiskey-soaked Buffalo hunter went roaring through town chasing a plump Cheyenne pinto have the good people of North Platte anticipated such fun,” wrote the Oakland Tribune’s George Ross.
“In case you haven’t heard of North Platte, it’s a few miles southwest of Gandy, Neb.,” added a writer for the Richmond (California) Independent.
“The Broncos get another chance to beat an AFL club Sunday when they play the Oakland Raiders in North Platte, Nebraska. (North Platte, Nebraska?)” the San Francisco Chronicle’s Glenn Dickey chimed in.
“They’re celebrating Buffalo Bill Cody’s birthday in North Platte, apparently unaware the poor fellow is dead.”
Spark of ‘Broncomania’
But Raider beat writers had other reasons to be cranky: They had traveled north to Portland Aug. 19 and watched the defending AFL champion Chiefs humiliate their team, 48-0.
The Raiders “pretty much have to start from scratch to prove themselves,” San Francisco Examiner Walt Daly wrote the day before the NPHS game.
Worse, their foe was unexpectedly making headlines. And history.
The AFL-NFL merger deal also called a few interleague preseason games. After losing 19-2 to second-year AFL team Miami, the Broncos returned to Denver Aug. 5 and stunned the Detroit Lions 13-7 for the newer league’s first-ever victory against an NFL club. They won another Aug. 18, downing Minnesota 14-9 at home.
Neither opponent did well in 1966 or 1967, but the Vikings would win their division in 1968 and a Super Bowl trip in 1969.
The Broncos also had a promising rookie running back, Floyd Little, who would enter the Hall of Fame in 2010.
Suddenly Denver fans were clamoring for regular-season tickets — and they bought 1,000 tickets for the North Platte game after the Minnesota victory, The Telegraph reported Aug. 22.
“What is it with Lou Saban’s Denver Broncos?” the Colorado Springs Gazette-Telegraph wrote the same day.
“Maybe it’s the altitude,” a Rocky Mountain News writer replied.
Glimpse of
Fans in both cities, not to mention North Platte, found out soon after the 2:30 p.m. Sunday kickoff on Aug. 27.
The teams flew in Saturday, with the Broncos staying at the Holiday Inn (now Ramada by Wyndham) and the Raiders at the downtown Hotel Pawnee.
Judy Tollefsen of Kearney is shown after she was crowned Centennial Pro Bowl Queen during the “Centennial Bowl” preseason American Football League game between Denver and Oakland at North Platte High School on Aug. 27, 1967. The Nebraska Centennial Commission cosponsored the contest with North Platte’s Buffalo Bills Sports Booster Club as one of many statewide events during the 100th anniversary year of Nebraska’s admission to the Union.
RICHARD ANDERSON, OMAHA WORLD-HERALD
Despite Max Anderson’s predictions, only 6,600 people showed up for the Bronco-Raider showdown. The 50 businessmen behind the $50,000 guarantee wound up covering $10,000 from their pockets.
But Denver’s KBTV (now KUSA-TV) originated a live TV telecast that was blacked out in North Platte but relayed to a cable network and Oakland and San Francisco TV stations.
Denver and Oakland radio outlets broadcast the game live. Newspapers from Omaha to the West Coast sent writers. Not until Reagan’s 1987 presidential visit would North Platte again see such an influx of out-of-town reporters and broadcasters.
Broncos, Raiders clash — in North Platte
People ‘went bananas’ for pro game
By late afternoon, the Bay Area writers likely couldn’t wait to hop a plane from Lee Bird Field.
Denver opened with two long touchdown drives for a 14-0 lead before Kent McCloughan — with 500 Broken Bow friends watching — intercepted Bronco quarterback Steve Tensi and ran 36 yards to the 4. Oakland scored 17 straight points to move in front.
Oakland quarterback Daryle Lamonica (No. 3) looks downfield in the face of Denver linebacker John Huard (No. 58) during the Raiders’ 21-17 AFL preseason loss to the Broncos at North Platte High School on Aug. 27, 1967. Lamonica, then recently acquired from Buffalo, would become known as the “Mad Bomber” over eight years with Oakland that started with his team’s 13-1 1967 regular season and berth in Super Bowl II. Lamonica completed a 10-yard touchdown pass to Hewritt Dixon with 1:01 left in the quarter, giving the Raiders a 17-14 halftime lead.
THE NORTH PLATTE TELEGRAPH
Oakland running back Clem Daniels (No. 36) gains yardage against Denver defenders including defensive back Lonnie Wright (No. 42) in the second quarter of the Raiders’ 21-17 preseason loss at North Platte High School on Aug. 27, 1967. Daniels led all running backs on both sides with 71 yards on 12 carries.
THE NORTH PLATTE TELEGRAPH
But after a scoreless third quarter, Tensi completed a 42-yard pass to Eric Crabtree and reserve quarterback Scotty Glacken scored his second touchdown from 1 yard out with 8:41 left.
Denver won, 21-17, its third in a row.
“‘Go Broncos go’ was the cry from the fans after only four minutes of play,” Telegraph sportswriter John Martinez wrote. “And go they did …”
Said McCloughan: “I’m glad I played halfway decent here, but I would rather win the game.”
The future arrives
He would, soon, though the Raiders lost again Sept. 3, 13-10, to NFL San Francisco in the teams’ first-ever meeting to close the preseason.
The same day, the Broncos drew 35,488 to Bears Stadium (later Mile High Stadium) and beat Boston 26-21 in their AFL regular-season opener.
Denver had won four straight as they took the field Sept. 10 — at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum.
A Sept. 11 Rocky Mountain News headline told it all: “Yikes! It’s a Denver Massacre in Oakland/Raiders Rip Broncs in 51-0 Runaway.”
For Al Davis, head coach John Rauch and his team, “Raider Nation” was born that day at Denver’s expense.
Oakland rampaged to a 13-1 record, then whipped the Houston Oilers 40-7 for the AFL title. But in Lombardi’s last game, Green Bay easily beat the Raiders 33-14 in Super Bowl II in January 1968.
A year after that, the Jets upset the NFL’s Baltimore Colts 16-7 in Super Bowl III. Kansas City followed with a 23-7 triumph over the Vikings in January 1970, winning full respect for the AFL as the merger became final.
Oakland had to wait seven years more before John Madden, one of Rauch’s assistants in North Platte, coached the Raiders to their first world championship with a 33-14 Super Bowl XI win over Minnesota.
Five Raiders who took the NPHS field would join Madden and Davis in the Hall of Fame: center Jim Otto, kicker and backup quarterback George Blanda, guard Gene Upshaw, wide receiver Fred Biletnikoff and cornerback Willie Brown. Running back Pete Banaszak and ex-Bronco kicker Errol Mann also played in North Platte and for Madden’s 1976 champs. Denver’s 1967 Oakland blowout launched a nine-game losing streak. The Broncos finished 3-11, though the Raiders had to hold them off to win 21-17 in Denver that Nov. 5.
Saban returned to Buffalo after the 1971 season, two years before the Broncos finally posted a winning season under his successor John Ralston.
On New Year’s Day 1978, a delirious Mile High crowd saw Denver vanquish Oakland 20-17 for its first Super Bowl berth. They lost the big game four times before winning it all 20 years later.
Union Pacific’s Bailey Yard, the world’s largest, opened in 1968. Nebraskaland Days went off as expected that summer. “The Mall,” Mid-Plains Community College, Great Plains Medical Center, the North Platte Recreational Complex and Parkade Plaza debuted during the 1970s.
The local Buffalo Bills remained active until at least 1988, four years after Max Anderson, who turned to radio broadcasting, died in North Platte at age 55.
Kirkman, mayor from 1984 to 1992, had praised the “legion of North Platte faithful” who helped realize Anderson’s pro football dream on Sept. 1, 1967.
“From the start it was one of those impossible things for a community the size of North Platte,” he wrote. “But with the kind of guts that are putting North Platte on the map these days, the extravaganza was attracted here, was underwritten and took place almost without a hitch.”
And if North Platte and its people impressed no one else among those California sportswriters, they impressed Ron Reid of the San Mateo Times.
“North Platte is a city of 17,180 whose ambition and public spirit far exceed its population,” he wrote a day after Kirkman’s postgame column.
“So while it may be true that North Platte is ‘square,’ ‘un-hip’ and ‘out of it’ geographically, that city needs no sympathy from any other part of the country.
“Perhaps envy instead.”
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