Roger Staubach Remembers Pitt-Navy 1963
PITTSBURGH (93-7 The Fan) - Fifty years after leading his Navy Midshipmen to a big victory over the Pitt Panthers, Pro Football Hall of Famer Roger Staubach looks back with Vinnie & Cook on Sportsradio 93-7 The Fan.
On Oct. 26, 1963, Staubach helped Navy beat Pitt, 24-12.
"It was a heck of a game," Staubach remembers. "We won, and that was Pitt's only loss. We were No. 2 in the country by the end of the year after we beat Army, so it was a big year for us. That Pitt game was a very positive part of our '63 season."
Staubach played at Navy during an era that was sandwiched between the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Vietnam War. He served in Vietnam as a logistics officer, and many of his fellow Midshipmen were also a part of the war effort.
"I had some of my teammates that were Marines who were out in the field. I lived with a couple of them who become Navy SEALs. Vietnam was a really big part of our era. A lot of our players were either pilots or fought in Vietnam, and we lost a few," he said.
As the quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys, Staubach won two Super Bowls, but lost two to the Pittsburgh Steelers. He admits that the loss in Super Bowl XIII still stings.
"We were really a good team," he says. "It was just unfortunate that the Steelers were one of the best teams in the history of the National Football League. Bradshaw was fantastic. Lambert was a mean son-of-a-gun. He had no teeth, and I can still picture him over there across the line," he said. "They had a great defense. I never really met L.C. (Greenwood), but I met him on the field and he knocked the heck out me a few times! They were just a great, great football team, and so were we."
Hear Staubach's entire interview with Vinnie & Cook below, as he also looks back on how he and his teammates reacted to the Kennedy assassination.
