| Box Office – Ben Hur (Charlton Heston, Jack Hawkins) Billboard #1 – I Want to be Wanted – Brenda Lee UK #1 – Only The Lonely – Roy Orbison |
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23 Oct 1960 – At The Polo Grounds – Fair – Att. 21,000
Houston Oilers 7 7 7 0 – 17
New York Titans 0 7 7 10 – 24
q1 02:50 – HO – Billy Cannon HB1- 29 run (George Blanda kick)
q2 14:50 – HO – Dave Smith FB1 – 3 run (George Blanda kick)
q2 03:10 – NY – Bill Mathis FB1 – 1 run (Bill Shockley kick)
q3 11:15 – HO – George Blanda QBA5/PK – 35 kick
q3 05:05 – NY – Thurlow Cooper RE4 – 2 pass (Bill Shockley kick)
q4 06:00 – NY – Bill Shockley PK/HB3 – 29 kick
q4 01:00 – NY – Joe Pagliei P/FB4 – 3 run (Bill Shockley kick)
RESILIENT TITANS SHOW NO MERCY
The New York Titans dealt Houston a severe blow to their title aspirations while strengthening their own case for the Eastern Conference. The game though will most likely be remembered for the injury to 2 of the Oilers star’s as well as the achievements of another injured player.
Houston began the game the brighter and had raced to a 14-0 lead with a brace of td’s from Smith and Cannon before the Titans managed to reduce arrears with a td of their own. But the talking point at half time had to be the stretchering off of both of Houston’s star receivers Bill Groman and John Carson. The Titans squad was not without their own injury worries as kicker and occasional RB Bill Shockley was also carrying an injury but had been persuaded to play by coach Sammy Baugh in a gamble that ultimately paid off. With the Titans trailing 14-17 the game turned on its head when George Blanda’s 27 yard FG conversion was ruled out for offside and his subsequent 32 yard effort missed the mark. That would have given Houston a 6 point lead but worse was to follow when a sublime interception by Oilers corner Mark Johnston was also ruled out for an infringement. The Titans made the most of their luck and eventually thanks to a personal foul found themselves in FG range. Shockley limped onto the pitch and amazingly converted a 29 yard kick to tie the scores. More woe befell Houston following the kick off when after another penalty they were forced to punt and Charlie Milward shanked his kick for just 16 yards. With 1 minute on the clock the Titans broke through the stubborn Houston defense to inflict the coup de grace as Joe Pagliei scored the Titans winning td. Houston almost snatched a draw in the last play of the game when Blanda connected with Charley Hennigan for a hail mary of 73 yards, however he was tackled 7 yards short of the end zone as the clock ran out.
While the result certainly wasn’t a disaster for Houston, the long term loss of both receivers will be far more keenly felt and the next game at Buffalo may define the rest of the season if the replacements fail to fill the boots of Groman and Carson.
| Player PASSING | Att. | Comp. | Yds. | Pct. | TD | Int. | Sck |
| George Blanda QBA5 | 28 | 17 | 164 | 60.7% | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Jacky Lee QBB5 | 1 | 1 | 8 | 100.0% | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Player RECEIVING | No. | Yds | Ave | Lg | TD |
| Charley Hennigan HB4(3) | 1 | 73 | 73.0 | 73 | 0 |
| John Carson TE1 | 3 | 26 | 8.7 | 16 | 0 |
| Jack Atchason SE4(2) | 4 | 25 | 6.3 | 8 | 0 |
| Billy Cannon HB1 | 3 | 15 | 5.0 | 8 | 0 |
| Bill Groman LE0 | 2 | 13 | 6.5 | 8 | 0 |
| Al Witcher SE4 | 3 | 13 | 4.3 | 5 | 0 |
| John White TE3 | 1 | 4 | 4.0 | 4 | 0 |
| Dave Smith FB1 | 1 | 3 | 3.0 | 3 | 0 |
| Player RUSHING | No. | Yds | Ave | Lg | TD |
| Dave Smith FB1 | 20 | 86 | 4.3 | 12 | 1 |
| Billy Cannon HB1 | 5 | 37 | 7.4 | 29 | 1 |
| George Blanda QBA5/PK | 5 | 22 | 4.4 | 8 | 0 |
| Ken Hall HB4/P | 1 | 10 | 10.0 | 10 | 0 |
| Eastern Conference | W | L | T |
| NEW YORK TITANS | 5 | 2 | 0 |
| HOUSTON OILERS | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| BOSTON PATRIOTS | 2 | 4 | 0 |
| BUFFALO BILLS | 2 | 4 | 0 |
| Western Conference | W | L | T |
| LOS ANGELES CHARGERS | 4 | 2 | 0 |
| DENVER BRONCOS | 4 | 2 | 0 |
| OAKLAND RAIDERS | 2 | 4 | 1 |
| DALLAS TEXANS | 2 | 4 | 0 |
Houston’s defense struggled all day to contain the Chargers 
As new seasons were being produced I began to want to play a wider range of consecutive seasons, if nothing else but to allow me to get through some of those bad Houston years……..Then unexpectedly in October 2020 the 1966 season was produced. At this point my focus had always been to try to replay only play-off games from the first Superbowl. With the advent of the ’66 season I could do just that and go back to the start. It also meant I could try out another idea that I had been mulling over of a knockout tournament that would allow me to use all the teams in the set in a relatively short amount of games. All of this to satisfy my obsession with record keeping. At time of writing the 1966-68 seasons are all available but may stall post 1968 unless follow on seasons become available. But that was it, ambitious enough for anyone. Then one day going over my old record books it dawned on me that the Oilers had only begun with the formation of the AFL in 1960. Just 6 years earlier than my current “start” point. I’ll admit that did set off some rather interesting ideas (well interesting to me at least) and had me thinking that it would be nice to go back to the very start of their history. As these seasons didn’t exist in Statis Pro nor I thought were they ever likely to, I shelved the idea, NOT before posting a message on a forum asking if one of the current makers of seasons would be prepared to do it. The expected tumbleweed response pretty much kaiboshed that idea and I decided to concentrate back on my original campaigns. 
Then, just a few weeks later another splendid fan of the game out of the blue announced he had produced the 1960 season. I had a Das Boot “ALARM” moment and from that point on it’s been pretty much going over and over in my head whether it just might be possible. In the end I couldn’t fight the “Stat Devil” on my shoulder telling me over and over how much joy there was to be had logging and recording every single game for what would no doubt be a lifetime………….. So there we are. I have decided that I’ll replay every game the Oilers (Houston and reluctantly Tennessee for completism) played. I don’t regard the Titans as their successors, they have no rights to Oilers stats, history or records so it will end when they Oilers name was retired in 1998. At least that gives me an end point.
However, if these Lone Star State locals reaction from beyond the grave when they got the news is anything to go by, I really feel obliged to give it a go. As they say “I may be all hat and no cattle, but I’m ready and rarin’ to go”. If you fancy hanging around for the long haul, stay tooned. I intend to start this project in April which is likely to be the earliest I can get the cards printed.
