The Playoff

At halftime, thanks to a fabulous 52-yd. field goal* by Lou ("The Toe") Groza, the Cleveland Browns led the Los Angeles Rams, 10-7. A year ago, when the two teams played for the National Football League championship, it was Groza's unerring toe which won the game, 30-28, in the last 30 seconds of play. In this week's playoff game at Los Angeles' huge Coliseum, football history seemed to be repeating itself.

But the Rams, championship playoff victims two years running, started rewriting the script in the second half. Against a team that had never lost a championship game--the Browns won four straight titles in the defunct All-America Conference--the hard-charging Ram line kept Cleveland's famed quarterback, Otto Graham, constantly bottled up. At the end of the third quarter the Rams were tied, 17 all, with the mighty Browns. The payoff play: a 72-yd. scoring pass from Ram Substitute Quarterback Norman Van Brocklin to End Tom Fears. The new champions: the Rams, by a score of 24-17.

*The professional football record: 54 yards, by Detroit's Glenn Presnell in 1934.

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