I’ll be watching the Super Bowl with Cliff Brooks and other AC buds on Sunday; those Roos know who I’ll be pulling for: Quarterback Joe Burrow. A win led by this extraordinary Joe would be the first Super Bowl victory for the Paul Brown-established Cincinnati Bengals.
Joe Burrow will be attempting to exorcise the Bengals demons caused by Quarterback Joe Montana. The Bengals have two Super Bowls to their name, but both ended in defeat at the hands of San Francisco’s legendary Joe. Joe Montana’s Super Bowl 16 win over the Bengals made it clear he was no Joe Schmoe. His game winning drive in Super Bowl 23 left Bengals fans screaming “say it ain’t so, Joe.”
If Joe Burrow can pull off a win on Sunday, he’ll join a very exclusive club of Super Bowl winning QBs who also won a national championship in college. There are currently only two others in that category and they’re both named Joe: Joe Montana & Joe Namath. Joe Namath? You bet. Everybody knows “Broadway Joe.”
Joe Namath guaranteed victory for his New York Jets in Super Bowl 3 and then pulled it off. The win was another iconic Super Bowl moment. But a quarterback is nothing without the protection of his offensive line, so perhaps some of the credit should goes to yet ANOTHER Joe: New York Jets Offensive Line (OL) coach Joe Spencer.
In Super Bowl 3, Joe Spencer’s offensive line powered the Jets rushing attack to 150 yards on the ground and gave Joe Namath the protection he needed to throw for 200 yards in the air. The Jets OL secured 17 first downs versus just 6 for the Baltimore Colts, at that time considered the best team in football.
From Joe Namath: “They [Baltimore] were awfully good. Every inch we got we had to earn. Our offensive line was magnificent.”
From Joe Spencer: “Yeah, we did the impossible. Most people didn’t think we could run on the Colts, but we did. We had a question whether we could hold up at tackle against [NFL Pro Bowler] Bubba Smith. Baltimore was a great blitzing team [but] we knew how to handle that. It’s not a hard job to pass block for Namath. He reads defenses so well and has a quick release.”
This dominating effort by Joe Namath & Joe Spencer allowed the upstart AFL champion Jets to finally win a Super Bowl, facilitate the AFL-NFL merger, and solidify the Super Bowl as a major event in the American sport landscape.
Before Joe Spencer was helping Joe Namath win a Super Bowl, he was the head coach of Austin College Kangaroo football. Spencer guided the Roos to 6 winning seasons, before leaving AC in 1960 to pursue a coaching career in professional football. The AC Joe Spencer Award for Lifetime Achievement in Coaching is named in his honor and awarded at Legends in Sherman every summer.
Past Joe Spencer Award winners include: Gene Babb, Debra Hunter, Jerry Bishop, Gene Day, Donnie Duncan, Floyd Gass, Larry Kramer, Sig Lawson, Ralph “Slats” McCord, Vance Morris, Don Newsom, David Norman, Bill Snyder, Larry Tidwell, Mel Tjeerdsma, Claude Webb Jr., Butch Worley, and Bart Tatum, among others.
Former AC Athletic Director Bob Mason, the first Joe Spencer Award winner, called Spencer an “unforgettable human being, a gentle soul in a pro football lineman’s body.” Joe Spencer was inducted into the Austin College Hall of Honor in 1970, one year after he teamed up with another Joe to shock the football world in Super Bowl 3.
It’s true. An Austin College legend named “Joe” played a pivotal role in a Super Bowl victory which established the game as an American landmark. The story of Joe Spencer is also a Roo Tale (see the comments) and will be a part my third Austin College book. Titled “Rivals & Legends,” the book will tell the stories of AC competition against rival schools (“Rivals”) and members of the AC Hall of Honor (“Legends”). The Joe Spencer story will be in the “Legends” section; the book will hopefully be all done by Labor Day 2022.
Before Joe Spencer was a Roo coach, he was a player. Spencer anchored an offensive line that won a title for the Paul Brown-coached Cleveland Browns in 1949. Paul Brown, an Ohio coaching legend, would later become head coach of a new Ohio expansion team: the Cincinnati Bengals. Brown was the Bengals coach in 1969, when Joe Spencer & Joe Namath won Super Bowl 3. He was the Bengals owner in 1981, when Joe Montana crushed Cincinnati dreams in Super Bowl 16. Paul Brown passed in 1991, soon after Joe Montana stole a win from the Bengals in Super Bowl 23. All of the Joe Blows in Cincinnati are still patiently waiting for that first Bengals Super Bowl title.
Joe Namath? Broadway Joe says he’s pulling for Joe. And Marc? Marc’s also for Joe. Ohio native Joe Burrow has a chance to reverse the Super Bowl demons of Joe Montana, join an exclusive Super Bowl club alongside Joe Namath, and win the Paul Brown-coached franchise a championship just like Austin College Kangaroo Joe Spencer. Like the Jets in Super Bowl 3, Joe Burrow’s Bengals are not favored to win Super Bowl 56. A victory will require a performance better than your average Joe.
But I’ll be rooting for an extraordinary Joe Burrow effort alongside Cliff and my Joe Six-Pack buds from Austin College on Sunday. Go get ‘em Joe. Get out of bed, grab a cup of Joe, suit up like G.I. Joe, and pull off a Super bowl upset like Kangaroo Joe Spencer………for those long-suffering Bengals fans at Paul Brown stadium in Ohio.
This “little Roo” tale about Joe Burrow is dedicated to AC Kangaroos Joe Gossett, Joe Devine, Joe Jaska, Joe Kaupert, Joe Rupert, Joe Jordan, and Joe Bryant. “Little Roo” tale? Perhaps we’ll call it a “Joe-y.” Geez Marc, that was a lame “joe-k.” Cliff, I’m on my way to north Texas. If you are taking Super Bowl drink orders for the group, make mine a “Holy Joe.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPw4upXBdxo
