OT: Great book on the glory years of the Detroit Lions
If you're of a certain age (old like me) and are a current or former fan of the Detroit Lions, you might find this newly published book to your liking: "When Lions Were Kings: The Detroit Lions and the Fabulous Fifties." I'd recommend it highly.
Its 330+ pages documents the formation of the championship-era Lions, beginning with the trade acquisition of Bobby Layne and the drafting of Doak Walker at the beginning of the decade in 1950. Layne and Walker are central figures in the book, but the amount of anecdotes about virtually every Lion of significance in the championship run is amazing; many of them are hilarious accounts of the incredible amount of teamwide boozing and nightclubbing that Layne was singularly responsible for.
Some of those boozy hijinks ended up involving law enforcement, including one mini-brawl involving some Lions in downtown Ann Arbor.
There's a considerable amount of information about the reality of being a professional player back then, including descriptions of salaries and contract negotiations, training camp regimen, rookie hazing, and interactions between players and coaches.
There are also sections dealing with 1950s racism and its effects on black and white players, the extent of on-field extracurricular violence and CTE, and what life was like in Detroit during the era.
Aside from Layne, there were numerous genuine characters on the team, including the head coach for most of the decade, Buddy Parker. Here's an anecdote courtesy of his wife:
That's taking a loss pretty hard.
In addition to the written accounts, there's also a wealth of visual material from those years:
The book is organized chronologically so it's an easy-to-follow read that's also entertaining as hell. It was a Christmas present from my wife, and she bought it at Nicola's in A2; it's published by Wayne State University Press and is available there as well:
https://www.wsupress.wayne.edu/books/detail/when-lions-were-kings
December 27th, 2020 at 8:12 PM ^
thanks don. just showed dear wife your post and asked her to order it for me. i know my sons (and maybe my daughters) will want to read it when i'm done. i wish my father was still alive, that was his era and he was friends with guys like joe schmidt and wayne walker back in the day. i would have loved to go over that book with him and have him fill in with some stories.
i note the picture on the cover with 3 completely different helmets worn, and only one with a face mask. times have changed.
December 28th, 2020 at 9:45 AM ^
My FIL attended the 1957 Championship game in which the Lions blasted Cleveland 59-14 at Briggs Stadium. I think he’s going to enjoy reading about all those characters.
The reason for the blue helmet is that it was mandated by the TV networks that broadcast the occasional night games the Lions played. Apparently the silver helmets disrupted the quality of the broadcast image, I’d imagine due to specular reflection.
That’s also the reason Layne is holding a white ball—they were used for night games.
December 31st, 2020 at 12:30 PM ^
FYI, you can google the 52, 53, & 57 championship games and get extended highlights on youtube!
Unfortunately, I didn't start following the Lions until thanksgiving day 1962 at age 10, a 9-7 loss to GB with 12 sacks by the Lions D.
We listened to it on WJR on our way to Michigan City, IN to visit relatives for a big family reunion.
January 8th, 2021 at 10:18 PM ^
You've combined the 2 Lions-Packer games in 1962. In the first game in Green Bay, Detroit held a 7-6 lead late when Milt Plum threw a costly interception which set up the GB game winning FG, final score 9-7.
It was the Thanksgiving day rematch in Detroit when the Lions overwhelmed the Packers offensive line with Karras, Roger Brown et al "meeting at the QB Bart Star" and sacking him 12 times. The Lions led 23-0 at the half and coasted to a 26-14 win, with GB getting a couple of garbage time TDs. It was Green Bay's only loss in a 13-1 regular season. The Lions finished 11-3.
December 27th, 2020 at 8:24 PM ^
"Detroit Lions" and "glory years" in the same sentence: how did I know it was about the distant past?
December 28th, 2020 at 3:39 PM ^
Books may be helpful for those who view the 50s as the distant past. Happy New Year!
January 5th, 2021 at 10:53 AM ^
In the context of professional sports in the United States, the 1950s is definitely a long time ago.
January 14th, 2021 at 1:24 PM ^
Are you saying 60-70 years ago isn't the distant past? We're talking almost 3 generations ago, that's a long time.
December 27th, 2020 at 8:53 PM ^
And then the Fords bought the team.
December 27th, 2020 at 9:30 PM ^
The Fords lack of interest in winning and an inconsideration of what the Lions meant to the community is nauseating.
December 28th, 2020 at 12:26 AM ^
Yeah, thinking the Fords don't want to win can ease the pain. It's a comforting excuse.
Here's the thing: they *do* want to win.
December 28th, 2020 at 9:50 AM ^
I agree that the Ford family has always wanted to win—the problem is that nobody in the Ford family has had a clue what constituted football competence in the front office, and so has hired a string of failed GMs, who in turn hired a bunch of coaches who fail.
December 28th, 2020 at 5:20 PM ^
William Clay Ford never prioritized winning. It was a business to make money and success on the field was not relative to profits.
December 28th, 2020 at 11:59 PM ^
That's simply not true.
January 1st, 2021 at 11:46 PM ^
Actually, it is. Making a profit always came first; winning was an after thought. Until sometime in the 90’s, many clubs ran in the red unlike the Lions, which ran a profit every year since the Ford family has owned the team. The Lions by this measure are one of the few truly successful teams.
winning — bah!
now, it is virtually impossible for an nfl team to not make a profit.
December 29th, 2020 at 7:42 AM ^
When it comes to WCF, an expression comes to mind: "Avoid attributing to malevolence that which can be easily explained by incompetence."
Ford didn't hire Matt Millen because he believed that Millen would run the franchise into a ditch. He honestly thought that Millen would do a good job.
WC Ford was a fool with little or no ability to discern what constituted managerial talent.
December 29th, 2020 at 10:30 AM ^
Sure he hired Millen to win. By that time he realized his Lions legacy superseded his business reputation in a bad way. His blind loyalty to Russ Thomas and their strong arm negotiation tactics with player personnel is about all the evidence you need. You don’t have to believe it but the Lions were not a priority.
December 30th, 2020 at 9:43 PM ^
If a player held his ground he generally ended up getting paid what he deserved. The impression it left a lot of players was that Thomas needed to make a big deal of the process to show everyone - especially WCF - that he mattered.
But the Lions' org as a whole was not cheapskate. For assistant coaches it was considered one of the best stops in the league. Team policy was considered very generous on things like health insurance and moving allowances.
December 29th, 2020 at 2:05 PM ^
A fool yes. But also a kind, genial & generous fool. Something which BTW he had to grow into.
Story was WCF realized as a young man he was not going to rise high in the ranks at Ford. It made him a nasty guy, given to drink. Sometime in the 60's Russ Thomas at least metaphorically and quite possibly physically picked Clay up out of the gutter and slapped him around. Told him to start living up to the family name. Clay got the message and started getting his life in order. He repaid Russ by making him Lions' GM.
And it should be said there were some decent moments in that era. The '72 team may have been the NFL's best. The Monte Clark hire was a very good one even if it didn't work out. The NFC title game in '91 had a lot of Thomas' fingerprints on it.
December 29th, 2020 at 2:15 PM ^
"The '72 team may have been the NFL's best."
You mean the 8-5-1 team that missed the playoffs might have been the best team in the NFL?
Come on.
I know about the Ford-Thomas connection and why it came about. Ford's loyalty to Thomas might have been ethically justified on a personal basis, but it was bad for the franchise.
December 29th, 2020 at 9:01 PM ^
Loyal to a fault.
December 31st, 2020 at 12:44 AM ^
Sorry. I meant the '70 team. Here's a recent Jerry Green piece on that team:
January 3rd, 2021 at 11:32 PM ^
My father, gone 23.5 years now, used to tell me the story of WCF and Russ. And yes, WCF would get smashed and Russ seemed to always get him back home. WCF always felt a debt to Russ for that, understandably so. Rumors did circulate around Detroit in those days and some were true.
Russ did have an eye for talent but his problem was being too cheap to pay once they proved themselves. Ron Jessie was one example. Doug English sat out a year when we would have made the playoffs w/him but he made more in the oil sector than playing for the Lions.
I liked Monte a lot. Teams played hard for him. Even the 2-14 1979 season wasn't a series of blowouts for the most part. Was at a few big wins for Monte - 1978 Thanksgiving Day .vs Denver, 1980 vs. Minnesota, 1981 vs. Raiders.
December 28th, 2020 at 3:41 PM ^
And the team bought the farm.
December 27th, 2020 at 9:10 PM ^
I didn’t remember that color photography had been invented before the Lions were good. I think newspapers were printed on papyrus in that distant era.
Yale Larry was my dad’s favorite player, largely because of his graceful and effective punting style. My favorite was always Joe Schmidt
December 27th, 2020 at 9:16 PM ^
This was way back when the lions were eating folks at the Roman coliseum.
December 28th, 2020 at 12:51 PM ^
I was born in 1953 so I don't have any specific memories of the 1950s-era Lions, although I'm sure I was in the room with my dad plenty of times when he was listening to Van Patrick or watching on the tube.
My earliest specific memory of a Lions game was this one from 1960 that I watched with my Dad, with the Lions winning with a completely improbable walk-off TD catch and run. My dad went apeshit and so did I.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUlpWzBlEVM
I've read that for many years it was the longest walk-off winning TD pass in NFL history.
For all during the early '60s, my favorite Lion was Yale Lary.
January 8th, 2021 at 10:23 PM ^
Yale Lary was a great defensive back, part of the 4 L's defensive backfield along with HOF'er Night train Lane, Dick Lebeau and Gary Lowe. he was also the best punter in the league.
December 27th, 2020 at 9:17 PM ^
Thanks, Don, looks interesting, will order it tonight and I notice that there is a 45% off promotion right now.
If your interests are generally about the intersection of Detroit's history and its sports, rather than the Lions in particular, I really enjoyed this book and you may, too: "Terror in the City of Champions: Murder, Baseball, and the Secret Society that Shocked Depression-era Detroit"
https://www.amazon.com/Terror-City-Champions-Baseball-Depression-era/dp/1493030582/ref=sr_1_3?crid=OS3THLT42VPI&dchild=1&keywords=detroit+city+of+champions&qid=1609121460&sprefix=detroit+city+of+%2Caps%2C172&sr=8-3
December 27th, 2020 at 9:26 PM ^
And I have no idea why the formatting of my reply spills over the edges but happy to fix it if there is a way to do so...
December 28th, 2020 at 9:36 AM ^
I’ve been on the verge of buying that book several times—now I’ll pull the trigger. Thanks for the recommendation.
December 28th, 2020 at 3:22 PM ^
Well that didn't work, but I did accomplish making it a clickable link.
December 27th, 2020 at 9:54 PM ^
Just the thought of reading about great Lions teams confuses the hell out of me.
December 27th, 2020 at 10:28 PM ^
I missed the 50's. I got aboard the Lions train to nowhere about '65. And my favorite memories of that time were not players or games. It was radio play by play guy Van Patrick. Brought to you by Altes Beer and clothier Hughes Hatcher Suffrin.
Now I'm all nostalgic. My mother taking me and my brother to Hudsons downtown and we could hang in the toy department while she shopped. And a stop afterwards at Sanders for some ice cream. Or my dad taking us to catch Dave Bing and the Pistons in front of 2,000 or so at Cobo Arena.
December 28th, 2020 at 12:24 AM ^
Several family members worked for Hughes & Hatcher.
December 28th, 2020 at 1:01 PM ^
In the early '60s the Lions pre-game TV show featured Lions players modeling hats from Louis the Hatter.
December 31st, 2020 at 1:06 PM ^
I picked out "my own" first sports coat at the Grand River and Greenfield store. It was greenish brown hopsack weave - cool! Before that I always got my brother's hand-me downs.
December 27th, 2020 at 10:47 PM ^
November 22nd 1963. A sad day for Lions fans.
December 28th, 2020 at 11:39 AM ^
Hard to imagine that the JFK assassination would be the second worst thing to happen that day.
/s
December 28th, 2020 at 12:23 AM ^
You know your Lions' fandom has been a sorry waste when you realize that maybe Russ Thomas wasn't the most terrible GM after all.
December 28th, 2020 at 1:06 PM ^
By winning percentage, Millen's tenure is very probably the worst, but he was GM for "only" seven seasons.
Russ Thomas was GM for 22 years.
December 29th, 2020 at 12:03 AM ^
Russ also set up some pretty good people to staff the football side of management upon his departure. He talked about it freely to media in the months leading up to his corporate-enforced retirement. He wanted to leave a legacy.
Well, a legacy other than driving the town's fans batty for a quarter century.
December 28th, 2020 at 2:04 AM ^
Wow, this book seems as old as the bible. I guess I remember my Dad use to talk about how good the Lions were when he was a teenager in the 50s. My grandfather had season tickets since the 40s. He passed those seats on to my Uncle who has been just selling them on stub hub after the late 90s.
December 28th, 2020 at 8:25 AM ^
I'm 51...the Lions had glory years? Are we talking Eric Hipple, or Rusty Hilger?? Kidding aside, I don't even want to look at that book because it will just make the team of my lifetime even more maddening. At this point, I'd just like to see a Bennie Blades in the back end taking people heads off if the team maintains its losing culture.
December 28th, 2020 at 10:08 PM ^
Every time I see a "defenseless player" penalty I think of Bennie Blades. That guy would have been out of today's league in about 2 years the way he played.
I'm 52 and although I do wish the Lions had won something in my lifetime, it's been fun watching a lot of the players who've come through. I do believe the organization has valued good character. To the detriment of winning frequently.
December 31st, 2020 at 12:47 PM ^
Jack Tatum is the king of victimizing the "defenseless player"! And it ain't even close!
Ex OSU (under Woody Hayes) and Raider safety paralyzed Darryl Stingley (ex PU & NE Patriot receiver) with the most vicious hit in NFL history.
December 28th, 2020 at 11:44 AM ^
I met Lou Creekmur, #76 back at that time at a church sports banquet.
December 28th, 2020 at 2:22 PM ^
Thank you for remembering.
December 28th, 2020 at 3:28 PM ^
You should look like Don's twin by now.
December 28th, 2020 at 8:22 PM ^
24-12
Great name!
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