American Football · 1958 · New York, USA
The Greatest Game Ever Played
The NFL Championship goes to a first-ever sudden-death overtime, nationally televised at the dawn of the league's television era, in a game credited with turning pro football into a mainstream American sport.
Colts 23-17 Giants (OT)
Result
First sudden-death OT in NFL history
Overtime
~45 million
TV audience (est.)
The Baltimore Colts and New York Giants met for the 1958 NFL Championship at Yankee Stadium on 28 December in front of a national NBC television audience, then still a novelty for professional football. New York led 17-14 in the closing minutes when Colts quarterback Johnny Unitas drove Baltimore downfield for a tying field goal as regulation expired, forcing the league's first-ever sudden-death overtime period.
Unitas then led another long drive in overtime, mixing pinpoint passing with the Colts' ground game, before fullback Alan Ameche finished it with a one-yard touchdown run, giving Baltimore a 23-17 win and the championship.
An estimated 45 million Americans watched the broadcast, and the tense, back-and-forth finish is widely credited with proving to networks and advertisers that pro football could rival baseball for national attention. Decades on it is still commonly referred to as the Greatest Game Ever Played, a title that helped launch the NFL's rise to the country's dominant spectator sport.
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