Best NFL Draft -- EVER

[Bathless]

The Chargers thread got me thinking about this. Rivers and Merriman for Eli looks real good for SD.

But which team had the best first round ever in the NFL Draft ?

I can't get past the Bears' 1965 Draft. With the #3 pick, they chose Mr. Butkus of Illinois. Then, with the #4 pick, they selected the Kansas Comet, Gale Sayers. Two Hall of Famers -- hard to top. They joined a certain Mr. Ditka, the Bears' #1 in 1961 and 5th overall. Getting Butkus and Sayers would be like getting both LTs (Tomlinson and Taylor) in one round -- . Amazing.

BTW, the Jints selected Tucker Frederickson of Auburn with #1 and the Niners were next with Ken Willard of UNC. The Cowboys followed the Bears, choosing Craig Morton (Cal) 5th. The St. Louis Cardinals used #12 to select Joe Namath of Alabama, but he signed with the Jets, who plucked him with the 5th pick in the AFL Draft (behind Jerry Rush, Jim Davidson, Larry Elkins and Sayers). Other notables in that 1st round: Donny Anderson of Texas Tech to Green Bay, Jack Snow of ND to the Vikings, and Mike Curtis of Duke to the Baltimore Colts.

See http://www.hickoksports.com/history/nfldrafts.shtml

BTW, there were only 14 teams in the NFL in those days, and 8 in the AFL.

Got others?? No NBA, pleeeeeeeze.

[bigmack]

'74 Steelers

Lyn Swan, Jack Lambert, John Stallworth, Mike Webster
That's four Hall of Fame players in five picks.

Gale "Magic" Sayers - Loved every minute of his career
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yttYXcTFGE

[Bathless]

Beautiful, mack. Absolutely beautiful. I now consider the '65 Bears' Draft the 2nd best, although that 1st round still can't be touched. Chicago had no 2nd or 3rd round picks, then took Jim Nance of Syracuse in the 4th round. Nance was an NCAA heavyweight wrestling champ (2x ??) -- I remember him beating Dick Arrington, All-America guard out of ND, along the way. None of the Bears' remaining picks were that memorable, except for the legendary Lou Bobich of Mich. St. in the 19th round.:lol:

I bow to the '74 Steelers.

BTW, more about Sayers. I once dated a girl whose brother was a 'beer executive' who kept giving us tickets to Giant games. This was, in fact, what I found most attractive about her, since she made getting to first base an ordeal. But I digress. One Sunday, it was Giants vs. Bears at Yankee Stadium. Chicago had Butkus, Ditka, O'Bradovich, Wade, etc. But Sayers was the show. I swear that the Giants never tackled him all day. They ran him out of bounds or he scored a TD, but they never tackled him. The man was beautiful. And on a sloppy field, it just wasn't fair -- like Ayrton Senna driving in the rain at Monte Carlo.

What I remember about Swann was a catch to beat ND for USC. My brother was at ND at the time, and Swannie ruined his decade.

[BillW]

'74 Steelers

Lyn Swan, Jack Lambert, John Stallworth, Mike Webster
That's four Hall of Fame players in five picks.

Gale "Magic" Sayers - Loved every minute of his career
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yttYXcTFGE

I know it doesn't count as the draft but Donnie Shell was picked up that year also as an undrafted free agent. 5x pro bowler and retired with most interceptions for a strong safety in history (51).

[Bathless]

What I remember about Swann was a catch to beat ND for USC. My brother was at ND at the time, and Swannie ruined his decade.

Oops. Got my years wrong. My bro had already graduated from ND by then -- it was Mike Garrett and OJ who ruined his decade. But I believe bro bet heavily on the Irish when Swannie beat them. I remember that his bride of about 2 months was very unhappy about that. But it worked out. They were divorced within a year.

Another memorable ND-USC game was in 1964. My father was sitting there with 14 winners on his college ticket and ND over USC. The Irish led 17-0 and dad was picking out the color of his new Buick. USC came back to win, 20-17, ruining Ara's first season and dad's ticket. But 14 of 15 paid a consolation, so pop got his Buick, anyway. Steve Davidowitz's father was the Buick salesman. My old man said Steve's dad was very upset with Steve's obsession with the horses.

[bigmack]

Dynamite, tip-top and super terrific stories Bath. Dick Butkus would regularly have his flattop haircut done @ my barbers and he would clue my brothers & I when he was comin' in. Quite a character that Butkus. Ramblin' around with the likes of Doug Buffone, Viril Carter, Jack Concannon et al.

Seems the names of those old hard heads were befitting of their style of play. These days there's a bunch of French derivation with Antwon's, Jarmelle's...

We had a guy in HS named Engleskershen -- Biggest head you've ever seen. He had a special helmet made for his melon. He rarely played but we'd howl with laughter when the coach would say "Hey Engleskershen, get out there" and he'd struggle to squeeze that helmet on even with it's modified widening, a site to behold.

[boomman]

What I remember about Swann was a catch to beat ND for USC.

When I think of Swannie, what I remember most is that unbelievable catch he made in the Super Bowl! Wow! Just saw that highlight again recently when he ran for governor.... Boom

[Dan Montilion]

What I recall about Lynn Swann was George Atkinson and Jack Tatum beating the hell out of him. So bad in fact that Chuck Noll called Atkinson and Tatum the criminal element.

[JPinMaryland]

I remember Shell even better. He was really unbelievable. THe one year that Houston went I think 15-1. Actually that year the top 3 teams in the AFC central had only lost once outside their own division. Pitt was like 14-2, Houston was like 15-1 and Cincy was 12-4. Only Pitt had lost outside the division! It was nuts.

Anyhow that year I was certain we would lose to the Oilers cause Campbell was unstoppable and had run all over us earlier in the season. In the play off game early second quarter, Shell hit him in the lower back as Campbell got twisted around in a pile up. He broke his ribs and did not return. What a huge hit that was. It was played on a rainy, icy field and there's one memorable play where Bleir caught a TD and went sliding and spinning through the end zone.

The other one I remember was against Walter Payton. Payton I had begun to notice after many games never, ever was knocked backwards. He hit people so hard he always landed with his head toward the goal line. ANd Shell I noticed, always managed to knock people over backwards, he always seemed to land with his head facing the opponents goal line.

So here comes Payton angling toward the side line and Shell has the perfect angle on him, what's going to happen next? They hit in a huge collision and guess what? They both end up, parallel to each other, and at right angles to the sideline! The perfect collision of unstoppable force and immovable object.

Oh and Shell could never, ever cover Ozzie Newsome of Cleveland. Newsome was the TE and Shell always had him in coverage. Ozzie was just too tall, e..g. 6'5" and Shell maybe 5' 10". So Shell would just resort to beating on Ozzie all day long. Newsome would be making like his 7th catch of the day and there'd be Shell right there step for step, just beating on his shoulders and arms but there was nothing he could do.