25 BEST MOMENTS AT YANKEE STADIUM: NO. 24
PAT SUMMERALL'S KICK
By BRIAN COSTELLO
April 13, 2008
As both New York baseball stadiums prepare to close, The Post looks back at the 25 most memorable moments in the history of Yankee Stadium. This week, No. 24.
Dec. 14, 1958
The Giants and Browns met with the Eastern Conference title in the NFL in the balance. Cleveland held a one-game lead in the standings going into this game. The Giants needed to win to force a playoff game.
The game was played during a snowstorm that helped the Browns' ground game. Cleveland running back Jim Brown scored a dynamic, 65-yard touchdown on the Browns' first possession. Brown gained 148 yards in the game.
The Giants trailed 10-3 in the fourth quarter, but rallied to tie the game at 10-10 before a crowd of 63,192. Knowing a tie would give Cleveland the title, the Giants then drove the ball to where they thought kicker Pat Summerall might be able to win it for them.
Summerall had missed from 46 yards and 32 yards earlier and made one from 46 yards. This would be a 49-yard field goal with Charlie Conerly holding. Summerall took the field with 2:07 left to play. He booted the ball through the wind and snow and uprights to force a playoff game the following week at Yankee Stadium. There is some debate whether the referees could even see the ball through the snowstorm. It is unlikely Summerall or any of the players at the line of scrimmage saw the ball go through.
With the field covered in snow, it is not known for sure if the field goal was 49 yards or longer. Summerall has said he thought it was more than 50 yards.
"Who could tell in all that snow? That's OK. It gets a little longer every year, anyway," he said in an interview years later.
The Giants prevailed the next week, 10-0, holding Brown to a career-low 8 yards, to make the NFL Championship Game against the Colts. That game, won by the Colts 23-17 on Alan Ameche's touchdown plunge in overtime, is still hailed by many as the greatest NFL game ever played.
The kick made Summerall famous. He played four seasons for the Giants, then went on to have a long broadcasting career.
