The Browns’ rivalry with the Pittsburgh Steelers had already been smoking-hot for a quarter-century, but what happened 39 years ago today, on Oct. 10, 1976, poured a Terminal Tower-sized portion of gasoline onto the fire and turned it into a raging inferno which has never really been quelled.
That all came about when Cleveland defensive end Joe “Turkey” Jones not just sacked Terry Bradshaw with 10:42 left, but picked him up the Pittsburgh quarterback and drove him into the turf head-first at the bleacher end of Cleveland Stadium, sending the 76,411 in attendance into a frenzy and igniting any number of fights in the stands between passionate – and inebriated – fans from both teams.
Jones, who got the nickname of “Turkey” for being victimized in grand fashion in 1970 in the Browns’ then annual Thanksgiving turkey giveaway prank played on rookies, was penalized for unnecessary roughness, and Bradshaw was knocked out of the game with what was later diagnosed as a spinal concussion, leaving him without any feeling for over two days.
The Browns went on to win the game 18-16 over the two-time defending Super Bowl champions, mostly on the heroic efforts of a third-string quarterback by the name of Dave “Doc” Mayes, a dentist by trade. As noteworthy as all that was, along with the fact that it dropped Pittsburgh to a stunningly-poor 1-4 record, and that it marked the first time the Browns had beaten the Steelers since 1973, what has stood the test of time of time – overwhelmingly so – from that game has been that play by Jones. It has come to symbolize, well beyond anything else in the now 65 years that the teams have been playing, the fiery intensity of this Browns-Steelers rivalry.
The game was already brutally physical by the time Jones tried to plant Bradshaw like a tree. Browns quarterback Brian Sipe had been knocked out of the game with a concussion in the second quarter after absorbing a big hit. With Mike Phipps, who had begun the season as the starter before suffering a separated shoulder in the opener, still sidelined, the reins of the offense were handed over to the obscure Mays, whose only previous claim to fame had been the fact that he was the first African American quarterback in Browns history. With just a few African Americans playing the position anywhere in football at the time, that was a huge deal.
But Mays’ courageous effort made everyone forget about race. He was just a gutsy and resourceful quarterback on this day, taking full advantage of the great opportunity with which he had been presented to enjoy his 15 minutes of fame.
Mays was 5 of 9 passing for 70 yards, with no touchdowns or interceptions, but what stood out even more than his efficient effort in throwing the ball was the way his quick feet allowed him again and again to elude the heavy Pittsburgh rush and either buy time to find a receiver or scramble for yardage, turning negative plays into positive ones to bail the Browns out of trouble and sustain drives. He rushed three times for 14 yards, and each carry was a pivotal one.
Two Don Cockroft field goals of 43 and 28 yards accounted for all of the Browns’ scoring in the first half as they trailed 10-6. But with Mays beginning to get into a flow, the Browns got going in the second half, and especially in the third quarter when they scored nine unanswered points on Cleo Miller’s one-yard TD run and Cockroft’s booming 50-yard field goal to go ahead 15-10.
That was the score when Bradshaw was knocked out of the game early in the fourth quarter and replaced by Mike Kruczek. The Browns held on from there, adding a fourth Cockroft field goal, this one from 40 yards, to go ahead 18-10 and make it a two-score game (there was no two-point conversion rule at that time).
Kruczek then scrambled 22 yards for a TD to cut the deficit to 18-16 but, because of a stellar Cleveland defense, Pittsburgh could get no closer.
Although he scored the Steelers’ other touchdown on a one-yard in the first quarter, Franco Harris was no real factor in the game, gaining just 39 yards in 13 rushes. Neither was Rocky Bleier, who had but 25 yards in eight tries.
The Browns got 76 yards rushing in 22 carries by Greg Pruitt and 57 yards in 23 attempts by Miller.
Wide receivers Reggie Rucker and Pro Football Hall of Famer Paul Warfield, beginning his second tour of duty with the club, provided the big catches to keep the pass offense moving. Both had three catches. Rucker, who had led the AFC with 60 receptions in his first year in Cleveland in 1975, had 77 yards receiving, while Warfield added 65.
As much of a disappointing loss as it was to the Steelers, who would right themselves and win their final nine games of the season to finish 10-4 and make the playoffs, it was that much of a significant victory for the Browns, particularly defensively. They had allowed a combined total of 120 points the previous three weeks, all blowout losses. Included in that was a 31-14 decision at Pittsburgh in Week 2 in which they blew a 14-0 halftime lead.
Like Pittsburgh, the Browns surged the rest of the season, using the victory as a catalyst. They improved to 2-3 and went on to win seven of their last nine to finish 9-5 and just miss making the playoffs. The turnaround from a 3-11 finish the season before did, however, earn second-year head coach Forrest Gregg the AFC Coach of the Year award.
And oh, by the way, Doc Mays, as he is forever recalled by longtime Browns fans, never did anything else in the remainder of his short two-year stay in Cleveland. By the time Sam Rutigliano arrived as head coach in 1978, he was out of football altogether and back working full-time filling cavities, treating gum disease and doing root canals.
And to think that just two years earlier, he had dissected a defense full of future Hall of Famers.
We need to mention all this because while these other things are really cool and would be remembered forever in a normal circumstance, the memory of them has been lost to time because of the play by one Joe “Turkey” Jones, who, when it comes to the Browns-Steelers rivalry, is responsible for having lit the eternal flame.
*On a personal note, as a junior at the University of Akron, I attended the Browns-Steelers game that day in 1976 with my father and sat in the bleachers, now the Dawg Pound, which gave us a great view of the famous play by Turkey Jones. Other than that, what I will always remember about the game is the dream I had the previous night. I dreamed that the Browns, who were heavy underdogs, were going to spring the upset in a low-scoring game behind some booming field goals and the play of a nimble-footed back-up quarterback whom I didn’t recognize but, as I saw, wore No. 12. Really. I’m not making it up. I can still see the image I had in my mind that night of those two Browns players performing in the game from an angle that I would have had from my seat in the bleachers. Don Cockroft, who wore No. 12, had some of his longest kicks of the year. He hit three of 40 yards or more, including a season-best 50-yarder. That 50-yarder was the kick I saw him make at the closed end of the Stadium in my dream. And indeed, he hit it to that end of the Stadium in reality. But the back-up quarterback was, of course, Doc Mays, who wore No. 10 and had never appeared in a game to that point of the season. No one knew who he was going into that game. Was it some kind of sixth sense, a premonition? Or was it simply the combination of having eaten too much spicy pizza that night right before going to bed, and a mind that focused on sports, especially football and the Browns, 24/7/365 at that time? Who knows? I guess I could have placed a bet on the Browns and won enough money to pay for the rest of my college. But that would have required me to have some money to do so, and I did not. I was dirt-poor at the time. But, in having gone to that game with my dad, I have something much more valuable. It’s priceless, in fact. Oh, well. Thought you might like that little aside. I know I liked reliving it again as I described it to you.
