Green Bay Packers fullback Jim Taylor was one of the toughest players in the NFL during his Hall of Fame career. The former LSU star gained more than 1,000 yards for five straight seasons between 1960 and 1964. His best season came in 1962, when he led the NFL in rushing yards and touchdowns and was named league MVP. But in the NFL Championship game that year at Yankee Stadium, Taylor and New York Giants middle linebacker Sam Huff went head-to-head in one of the toughest battles within a game in NFL Championship history. This is the story behind the 1962 NFL Championship Game and the battle between Jim Taylor and Sam Huff which helped the Packers to a hard-fought win over the Giants.
Jim Taylor, Sam Huff and the Packers Hard-Fought Win Over the Giants: The Buildup
The Packers entered the game with a 13-1 record. They had the league’s top-rated offense and top-rated defense. They outscored their opponents 415-148 or an average of 29.6 to 10.6. They faced the New York Giants, who finished the season 12-2 to win the East. Allie Sherman, coach of the Giants, and Vince Lombardi, coach of the Packers, had worked together as assistants with the Giants under Jim Lee Howell. Now they were going to face off against each other for the NFL title.
The two teams had met the previous year in the NFL Championship in Green Bay. Lombardi won his first championship when the Packers crushed the Giants 37-0 in Green Bay. The rematch would be played in New York on a 25-degree day with the temperature dropping during the game. There was also the wind which was blowing at 27 miles per hour and gusting to 45, which made passing the football difficult. The wind chill was eight degrees above zero and the field was hard and frozen.
The First Half
After the Giants punted on their first drive, the Packers started to march down the field. Taylor gained 10 yards on a run, followed by a 10-yard pass from Bart Starr to tight end Ron Kramer. On the next play, the Packers ran the power sweep, Lombardi’s favorite play. Taylor gained 14 yards to get into Giants territory. Two plays later, a screen pass to Taylor got the ball to the Giants 29. The drive stalled when Taylor was stopped on a 3rd-and-1 by Huff, Rosey Grier, and Dick Modzelewiski. Jerry Kramer kicked a 26-yard field goal, and the Packers led 3-0.
In the second quarter, the Packers extended their lead. Packers linebacker Dan Currie forced a fumble which Ray Nitschke recovered in Giants territory. The Packers then ran the halfback option, Lombardi’s favorite trick play. Paul Hornung threw to Boyd Dowler for 21 yards to the New York eight. Taylor followed center Jim Ringo into the end zone to finish the drive and the Packers lead was 10-0.
“Huff mouthed off to me, saying ‘You stink, Taylor’” Taylor recalled. “But when I scored, I said, ‘How do I smell from here in the end zone?’ A couple of times, at the bottom of the pile, the Giants were twisting my leg – anything to win. But that’s OK – we wanted to win too.”
That was the score at halftime. Both teams missed field goals in the second quarter, with the Giants miss coming in the closing seconds of the half. The wind was part of the reason for the misses and the fact that neither quarterback could complete many passes.
Meanwhile, the battle between Huff and Taylor was heating up. Taylor suffered a cut on his arm and bit his tongue when he was tackled in the first half. He spent most of the game swallowing his own blood. Later, he suffered a cut on his arm that required stitches at halftime. Getting stitches in the bitter cold was painful and teammates heard Taylor screaming while he was being stitched up.
Jim Taylor, Sam Huff and the Packers Hard-Fought Win Over the Giants: The Second Half
The Giants got on the board in the third quarter to get them right back in the game. Erich Barnes of the Giants blocked a punt by Max McGee deep in Packers territory. Jim Collier of the Giants fell on the board in the end zone and the Giants pulled to within 10-7.
But the Packers benefitted the next time McGee punted. Sam Horner of the Giants fumbled the ball and Nitschke recovered at the Giants 42. Taylor ran a sweep to the left side for 12 yards. He was tackled by the Giants Andy Robustelli who punched the running back in the face. No flag was thrown. The drive ended when a Starr pass to Dowler fell short of the first down. Kramer kicked a 29-yard field goal to extend the Packers lead to 13-7 after three quarters.
In the fourth quarter, Kramer kicked another field goal, this one from 30 yards out. The Packers led 16-7 with just 1:50 left in the game. “I just aimed for the middle and prayed,” Kramer said.
Tittle drove the Giants downfield and reached the Packers four, but time expired and the Packers had won their second straight NFL title.
Taylor finished the game 85 yards rushing on 31 punishing carries. He also scored the only offensive touchdown of the game.
The Aftermath
Huff and Taylor were warriors who respected each other. Taylor isn’t human,” Huff said. “No human being could have taken the punishment he got today. Every time he was tackled, it was like crashing him down on a concrete sidewalk because the ground was as hard as pavement. But he kept bouncing up, snarling at us, and asking for more. I did everything I could to that [guy].”
“It was a brutal game,” Taylor said. “I got my tongue split and my elbow sewed up at halftime. Sam Huff was a great linebacker, a Hall of Famer. We went after each other pretty good.”
Jerry Kramer remembered how physical things got for Taylor. “If Taylor went up to get a program, Huff was supposed to hit him,” Kramer recalled in 2008. “Wherever Taylor went, Huff went with him. I remember sitting next to Jimmy on the way home and he had his topcoat on. [But] he never took it off. He had it over his shoulder and the guy was shivering almost all the way home. He just got the hell beat out of him that day.”
Defensive end Willie Davis also recalled the beating Taylor took. “The Giants really took it to him that game. He was literally beat up by the end of the game and even into the next week when they discovered he had a sickness. Still, he played a tough game, and he didn’t get one free yard.”
A few days after the game, Taylor found out he had played the contest with hepatitis. But Taylor kept on fighting and helped the Packers win a title. “I never took a worse beating on a football field,” Taylor admitted. “The Giants hit me hard and then I hit the ground yard. I got it both ways. I just rammed it right back at them, letting my running doing the talking. They couldn’t rattle me.”
“I think it was about as fine a football game as I’ve ever seen,” Lombardi said. “I think we saw football as it should be played.”
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