Sixty-six years ago today, on December 29, 1957, the Detroit Lions won their latest NFL championship, beating the Cleveland Browns, 59-14. It was the fourth time in six years that the two teams had met for the title: Detroit won the matchup in 1952 and 1953, and Cleveland won it in 1954. I wrote about the 1954 title game earlier this week.
Detroit scored two touchdowns in every quarter of the 1957 blowout. Tobin Rote threw four touchdown passes and ran for another. Steve Junker, who passed away just this month, caught five passes for 109 yards and two touchdowns. Jim Martin kicked eight extra points, tying the NFL Championship Game record that Cleveland’s Lou Groza had set three years before–against the Lions. The record still stands.
I wanted to feature a Steve Junker card for this post; unfortunately, he never appeared on a regular issue card. (Beckett says he appeared on a 1953-1959 Lions McCarthy postcard, but I don’t have it.) So today’s card of the day is the 1958 Topps Lions team card, which pictures the entire 1957 Lions team. Junker is in the middle row, just left of center. This is one of my “interactive” team cards: If you go to the card’s page in the Gallery, then move your cursor over the image of the card, you can see who all of the players are.
Junker, unfortunately, hurt his knee the following year and sat out the 1958 season. He came back to play two more seasons for the Lions and two for the Washington Redskins.
You can see all of the Gallery’s interactive team cards here.
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