College All Stars win vs Detroit Lions 1958

[LeonardRachiele]

Until 1977, the Pro Football season started with the College All Star Game at Soldiers Field, Chicago .   This matched the NFL Champions from the previous year with the rookies about to enter the pros.  Some would even become teammates.  As might be expected, the NFL team generally won easily.  The final game in 1976 saw Pittsburgh Steelers won 24 to 0. There were two exceptions where the All Stars won.

In 1958 the All Stars defeated the Detroit Lions 35 to 19.  It was a bad omen for the season.  The Lions went from 8-4 in 1957 to 4-7-1 in 1958. The game was the 25th in the famous series played for the benefit of Chicago Tribune charities.
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Bob Mitchell's running, Jim Ninowski's passing, and Bobby Conrad's kicking gave the College All-Stars a 35-19 upset victory over the Detroit Lions on Friday night August 15th. Mitchell was on the receiving end of two sharp touchdown passes from Ninowski. He ran 84 yards down the sidelines after taking a flat toss in the second period for the longest and most spectacular play of the night and this was the inspiration the All-Stars needed. Conrad scored four beautiful field goals, for 44, 24, 24 and 19 yards. The Lions were favored by 13 points and the crowd of 70,000 went wild when the All-Stars took command after Detroit ground out an opening period touchdown.

Jim Pace of Michigan set off the All-Star scoring by running 57 yards to the Detroit 3 after taking a pass from King Hill of Rice just as the first quarter ended. The Lions pushed the Collegians back to the 11 from where, with the ball held on the 19, Conrad, a Texas A&M star, made the first of his field goals. Then came the 84-yard run of Mitchell, a University of Illinois product, teaming up on the receiving end of the first pass of the evening from Ninowski, a Michigan State graduate. This was quickly followed by an 18 yard touchdown pass by the same combination. With only two seconds left to play in the first half, Conrad made his longest goal, 44 yards, and the All-Stars left the field at halftime leading 20-7. Feelings ran high, and scuffles were frequent through the closely contested game.

From the way the Lions started it appeared nothing could stop the professional world champions. Detroit marched 80 yards after taking the first kickoff with Tobin Rote passing to Jim Doran to score on a 24 yard play. In the third period, after Lou Michaels of Kentucky led a swarm of All-Stars in tackling Rote behind his goal for a safety, the Lions opened up. Gene Gedman was the star of the march and slid nine yards off left end for the score. Again Conrad pushed the All-Stars further in front with a field goal at the start of the last quarter, this one good for 24 yards.

Chuck Howley, a guard from West Virginia intercepted one of Bobby Layne's passes and ran 39 yards for the final All-Star touchdown and Conrad made his fourth and last field goal of the game to push the All-Star total to 35. Ralph Pfeifer of the Lions plunged over from the 1 in the closing 30 seconds of the game to make the score 35-19.

The game was the 25th in the famous series played for the benefit of Chicago Tribune charities.














Chuck Howley, a guard from West Virginia intercepted one of Bobby Layne's passes and ran 39 yards for the final All-Star touchdown and Conrad made his fourth and last field goal of the game to push the All-Star total to 35. Ralph Pfeifer of the Lions plunged over from the 1 in the closing 30 seconds of the game to make the score 35-19.

The game was the 25th in the famous series played for the benefit of Chicago Tribune charities.