January 15, 2000
Chapter 3:
Dark Days in the Dome
by Bob Hulsey
HoustonProFootball.com
It wasn’t that the Oilers started the new decade and the new league with a bare cupboard. They just did a better job of squandering talent than stockpiling it. Defensive back Ken Houston would have a Canton-esque career – as a Washington Redskin. Wide receiver Charlie Joiner would one day own the NFL career receptions mark – as a San Diego Charger. Kicker Roy Gerela would help win Super Bowls — as a Pittsburgh Steeler. The Oilers’ personnel moves in the early Seventies rivaled Astros’ GM Spec Richardson’s for ineptness.
The NFL, now a 26-team league with the ten absorbed AFL teams, fought among themselves as to which three teams would join the ten newcomers to form the new American Football Conference. The “losers” were Baltimore, Cleveland and Pittsburgh. Each conference would have three divisions and the new AFC Central Division would consist of Houston, Cincinnati, Cleveland and Pittsburgh for the next 25 years. Such are rivalries born.
On the field, retiring head coach Wally Lemm wanted to enter the NFL wars with a familiar face so he traded QB Pete Beathard and DB Miller Farr to his old team, the St. Louis Cardinals, for QB Charley Johnson. The strategy looked good when the Oilers stomped the Steelers, 19-7, in the season opener. Houston was 2-3-1 after six weeks but the Oilers collapsed as injuries crippled the team. They finished the year with a 52-10 drubbing in Dallas to close at 3-11-1.
One bright spot was the emerging play of WR-KR Jerry LeVias. The Southwest Conference’s first black football star, the SMU product electrified crowds with his broken-field returns and acrobatic catches. The 5-9, 170-lb LeVias, who produced 1,377 all-purpose yards in his first NFL season, said his small size was not a problem. “The bigger they are, the faster I run,” he noted. He was dealt to San Diego the next year.
In 1971, the Oilers drafted a cannon-armed QB from Santa Clara named Dante Pastorini with the third overall pick. For good measure, the Oilers used their next pick on QB Lynn Dickey of Kansas St., setting up a quarterback controversy that simmered for years. Pastorini became the team’s punter, and eventually won the starting QB job once Charley Johnson was benched. It was not a pleasant internship for Pastorini who suffered a tremendous beating. It led one sportswriter to verse: “Oh, sing the woes of Dan Pastorini. His line can’t hold back a half-baked weenie.”
If left standing, Pastorini had some interesting targets to look for. Speedster Ken Burrough was acquired from New Orleans where he struggled early. Jim Beirne and Charlie Joiner led the team in receptions. Robert “Tank” Holmes and ex-Houston Cougar Dickie Post were added to the backfield. Alvin Reed teamed at tight end with Mac Haik, now known in Houston for his car dealerships.
Ed Hughes became the new head coach but Adams lost confidence in him quickly when he fired an assistant coach in mid-season without Hughes’ input. The Oilers began 1-9-1. They won the last three against Pittsburgh, Buffalo and San Diego to finish respectably.
It wasn’t enough to save Hughes’ job. Impressed with the results Bill Peterson had at Rice University, Adams hired him as his next head coach. Peterson proved to be overmatched and is remembered now mostly for his tongue-tied malapropos. During training camp, he instructed the team, “I want each one of you to focus on just one word this year – Super Bowl.” Upset with the team’s posture during the National Anthem, Peterson blurted, “I want you men to stand on your helmets with the sideline under your arms.”
After two losses, the Oilers upset the Jets, 26-20, and prepared for only their second appearance on Monday Night Football’s national prime-time stage. Their 34-0 loss to the Oakland Raiders left ABC with a one-sided blowout, punctuated by a disinterested fan sitting all alone in one section of the Dome. As the camera zoomed in, the fan flipped the finger in disgust. Quickly, commentator Don Meredith went into spin control. “They’re Number One in the nation,” he quipped.
The Oilers managed 89 yards of total offense that night. They ended the 1972 season with a 1-13 record, finishing with a 61-17 fiasco in Cincinnati. ABC left Houston alone for several seasons afterwards.
Like their baseball co-tenants, the Oilers went on a trading frenzy. Ken Houston went to the Redskins for five players but only one, TE Mack Alston, proved any good. Veteran C Bill Curry was brought in from Baltimore to anchor the line. TE Dave Parks arrived from New Orleans to confuse opposing defenses with WR Billy Parks who came from Dallas. DE Tody Smith, younger brother of legendary Colt Bubba Smith, came in the same Cowboy deal while DE Al Cowlings (someday to find fame driving a Ford Bronco down an L.A. freeway) was acquired from Buffalo. With the top overall pick in the draft, the Oilers chose hulking DT John Matuszak from the University of Tampa. More on “Tooz” in the next chapter.
The architect was Adams’ old AFL rival from San Diego, Sid Gillman. The bow-tied coaching legend was hired as General Manager and, after an 0-5 start, Gillman stepped in when Peterson’s “lifetime” contract was cancelled. The results didn’t change, however. The Oilers endured another 1-13 campaign, beating only the equally woeful Colts. They would have had the first pick in the 1974 draft had it not been traded away. The Cowboys used it to select DE Ed “Too Tall” Jones.
Gillman sent away next year’s top pick for San Francisco RB Vic Washington who proved a bust. Sid drafted, then cut a slow, steady wideout named Steve Largent, who would eventually make the Hall of Fame and the U.S. Congress. But Gillman did have an eye for talent. He traded Matuszak to Kansas City for DT Curley Culp. Role players like RB Ronnie Coleman, LB Ted Washington and DB Willie Alexander were developing. Pastorini found a favorite receiver in Burrough and the team began to gel.
One amazing find was a bespectacled 5-9, 165-lb speedster named William Johnson from tiny Widener College in Pennsylvania. He had the moves of a water bug and the guts of a middle linebacker. He was soon known throughout the league as Billy “White Shoes” Johnson. He started out as a kick returner, gaining almost 1,200 yards in returns as a rookie but he wasn’t satisfied with that. Soon, he had the ball on pass plays and reverses and scored three times. And each TD was celebrated with an end zone dance that can’t be adequately described – a gyrating, knee-wobbling, impromptu extravaganza that got more flamboyant with each score.
After a 1-5 start, the Oilers ran off four straight wins. They fought the powerful Cowboys in a 10-0 “moral” standoff and finished with upset wins over division rivals Pittsburgh and Cleveland. Suddenly, the Oilers were 7-7 and no longer the laughingstock of pro football
When the season ended, Gillman quit both of his jobs. Bud Adams thought Gillman was spending too much of his money and Sid was fed up with justifying the costs. Gillman did leave Houston with a foundation to build on and a hand-picked successor that hardly anyone around the league had heard of – Oail Andrew Phillips, Jr.. His friends called him “Bum”.
Bob Hulsey has a journalism degree from the University of Texas at Austin. He has worked in print and radio covering sports throughout Texas since 1976. He presently works for a telecommunications company in Austin.
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