A few thoughts about Don Chandler, who began his career on the 1956 N.F.L. champion New York Giants and ended it on the 1967 Super Bowl champion Green Bay Packers. In between he was one of the best punters and place-kickers of his era. Chandler died Thursday in Tulsa, Okla., at age 76.
Don Chandler was part of two of pro football’s most celebrated teams: the late 1950s and early 1960s New York Giants and, from 1965 to 1967, the final three years of the Lombardi dynasty in Green Bay. In his 12-year career, he played in nine N.F.L. championship games, including the overtime classic at Yankee Stadium in 1958, and the Ice Bowl at Lambeau Field nine years later. He’s perhaps best remembered for one crucial kick in 1965 that many, including Chandler himself, thought he missed. It remains probably the most controversial field goal in N.F.L. history.
Chandler was a three time All-Southern Conference halfback and punter for the University of Florida before he was selected by the Giants in the fifth round of the 1956 draft (57th over all). He signed a contract for a $7,200 salary with a $500 bonus and reported to his first training camp at Saint Michael’s college in the Winooski Park section of Colchester, Vt. It was almost his last.
In late August, Chandler and another rookie, Sam Huff, decided to pack their bags and leave. Huff was later persuaded to stay but Chandler was determined to go home and forget about pro football. He later said he had hurt his shoulder earlier in camp and thought he was going to be cut anyway.
Chandler hitched a ride to the Burlington airport and was waiting for his flight when he was confronted with the full fury of one of the Giants’ assistant coaches. It was Vince Lombardi. “Now hold on!” Lombardi screamed. “You may not make this club, Chandler, but you’re sure as hell not quitting on me now!… Now get the hell back to Saint Michael’s and be at practice tomorrow morning!” (Jack Cavanaugh, “Giants Among Men”, Random House, 2008) Chandler immediately went back to the dormitory. It was his first exposure to the Lombardi mystique.
Over his 11 season as a full-time punter, Chandler averaged 43.5 yards per punt and finished in the top five in yearly average seven times. He was elected to the Pro Bowl in 1967 and was later named as the punter on the N.F.L.’s all-decade team of the 1960s.
Chandler was especially effective under pressure, when the offense was backed up deep in its territory. In nine years with the Giants, he averaged 51 yards per punt out of his end zone. Chandler, Detroit’s Yale Lary and San Francisco’s Tommy Davis were the best punters of that era.
Except for one field-goal attempt in 1959, the Giants used Chandler exclusively as a punter in his first six seasons, from 1956 to 1961. In 1962, after Pat Summerall retired, he also assumed the place-kicking duties. In 1963, Chandler made 18 of 29 field-goal attempts ( a high percentage for that time), and added 52 extra points to lead the league in scoring with 106 points.
Chandler used a black high-top with a square toe for field goals and extra points, and a standard low-cut shoe for punting. He frequently had to change shoes when the offense moved the ball across midfield. “Sometimes I feel like the one-armed paperhanger”, Chandler said. “The coach changes his mind and I have to change my shoe. The low one isn’t bad but lacing up the other takes time.” (Gene Hintz, “Kicking”, Green Bay Packer yearbook, 1965)
The Giants traded Chandler to the Packers in the spring of 1965. Lombardi was looking for a kicker because Paul Hornung made just 12 of 38 attempts in 1964. Hornung also missed two critical extra-points in one-point losses to the Colts and Vikings early that season. In his first year in Green Bay, Chandler set an N.F.L. record with a 90-yard punt against the 49ers.
In 1965 the Packers and the Colts finished in a tie for first place in the Western Division. The teams met in a playoff at Lambeau Field to determine who would play Cleveland in the championship game. Late in the fourth quarter, with Baltimore leading, 10-7, Chandler attempted a 22-yard field goal to tie the game and most likely send it to overtime. After striking the ball, Chandler looked up and immediately threw his head back in disgust, believing he had missed. As the Colts began to celebrate, the field judge, Jim Tunney, positioned behind the end line, raised both arms to signal that the kick was good. Chandler won it with a 25-yard field goal 13:39 into overtime. This time, the kick was right down the middle.
Did Chandler make that field goal? The end zone angle provided by NFL Films shows the ball well above and then clearly outside the right upright. The holder, Bart Starr, has always maintained that the kick was good and, as Bill Curry says, “Bart doesn’t lie about anything.” (NFL Films America’s Game: 1966 Green Bay Packers) The Colts never got over it. Tunney, who later worked three Super Bowls as a referee, told The Times in 2008: “I think I got it right. But every time I’d run into Don Shula, Tom Matte and John Unitas, even years later, they’d always tell me I was wrong.” (See video at top at about the 4:53 mark.)
The next spring, the owners voted to extend the height of the uprights from 10 to 20 feet above the crossbar and to station two officials in the back of the end zone on extra-point and field-goal attempts, one behind each upright.
A week after beating the Colts, the Packers defeated the Browns to win the first of three consecutive N.F.L. championships. Their wins against the Cowboys in 1966 and 1967 were followed by victories over Kansas City and Oakland in the first two Super Bowls. Late in the ‘67 season, Chandler decided that he would retire at the end of the year.
In Super Bowl 2 in Miami, Starr threw a long touchdown pass, Herb Adderley returned an interception for another score, and Chandler, playing in his last meaningful game, kicked a record four field goals as the Packers became champions again. After the game there wasn’t much celebrating. During the week, the players sensed it would be Lombardi’s last game as their coach. Many, like guard Jerry Kramer, had been with him from the beginning, in 1959. They knew an era was ending.
Now, as his teammates quietly showered, dressed and began to leave, Kramer just sat at his locker trying, as he says in conclusion in “Instant Replay,” “to keep my uniform on as long as I possibly could.”
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