It hasn’t happened since and it may have not have happened before.
Two football teams wearing the same jersey color.
With the Lions playing the Vikings twice over the next three weeks as Detroit battles to win the NFC North division, I reminded myself of the Sunday afternoon when I watched on our black and white television the game on October 11, 1964 from Minnesota when both teams started playing in white jerseys.
It was bizarre and frankly comical.
The only thing that really differentiated the teams in a pile up was that the Viking wore dark pants (purple).
Apparently, the Vikings and a handful of other teams had notified the NFL before the season that they were going to wear their traditional white away jerseys at home games so that fans could see the home colors of their opponents.
Minnesota claimed that the Lions were notified of this but Lion equipment manager Roy “Friday” Macklem denied ever being told. (Or maybe he just forgot when the team packed up at Tiger Stadium before heading to Metropolitan Stadium? Who Knows?)
The Vikings immediately rushed to have their purple home jerseys shipped to the stadium from their training headquarters.
In a weird scene, the game was briefly delayed in the second quarter when the Vikings were seen changing into the purple jerseys on the sidelines.
As it turned out, the Lions beat the Vikings 24-20 as the Lions’ “Fearsome Foursome” of Alex Karras, Roger Brown, Darris McCord, and Sam Williams were able to mostly contain Minnesota’s scrambling quarterback Fran Tarkenton, thanks partly to a wet and slippery field. The foursome was able to thrown down Tarkenton nine times totaling 96 yards of losses.
Detroit’s outstanding wide receiver Gail Cogdill caught a winning, 12-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Earl Morrall with 9:05 left in the fourth quarter.
The victory lifted the Lions into a virtual tie with the Baltimore Colts for first place in the NFL’s Western Division.
Lion fans were excited that just maybe this was the season Detroit would capture another world title since it had been seven years since their last one.
Of course, it wasn’t meant to be.
After finishing the season with a 7-5-2 record, fourth in the Western Conference, and just two years removed from the spectacular 1962 season when the team placed second with a 11-3 record, first year owner William Clay Ford shocked Lion fans just before Christmas when made his first mark by firing all of head coach George Wilson’s assistant coaches, Bob Nussbaumer, Aldo Forte, Les Bingaman, Don Doll, and Sonny Grandelius. Miffed at what Ford did, Wilson resigned as head coach two days later.
Ford and GM Russ Thomas then tapped Harry Gilmer as head coach who led the team over the next two seasons to a 10-16-2 before being fired.
Meanwhile George Wilson became the first head coach of the Miami Dolphins in 1966. He is the last former head coach of the Lions to become a head coach in the NFL after leaving Detroit.
Here’s a video of the game in question on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/SkolChantNation/videos/1964-jersey-change/1006603883010770/
