This Week in 49ers History: Week 7, 1950

The clocks roll back a whopping 64 years this week as we look at a week 7 matchup from the 1950 season, when the San Francisco 49ers took on the Baltimore Colts.

The 1950 season was the 49ers first in the National Football League. The team was forced to move leagues when the All American Football Conference folded after the end of the 1949 season. Just three AAFC teams made the transition, with the Cleveland Browns and Baltimore Colts joining the 49ers in the NFL.

This San Francisco side consisted of many players who went on to become legends for the club.

Behind center, the 49ers relied upon the charismatic quarterback Frankie Albert, who had steered the offense since its first ever season in 1946. At 5' 9" and 166 pounds, the uncharacteristically slight QB had a knack for making plays and was named to the Pro Bowl after the 1950 season.

49ers quarterback Frankie Albert

As well as quarterbacking the team, he was also the leading punter. This was relatively common in the era where every player had at least two roles on the team. After his playing days were over, Albert went on to become the head coach of the 49ers between 1956 and 1958.

Alongside Albert on the offense stood Gordie Saltau, who served as both a leading receiver and the kicker. He put up a team-high 44 points during the season.

The San Francisco rushing attack primarily consisted of future hall of famer Joe 'The Jet' Perry and 'Johnny Strike' Strzykalski. Both rushed for over 600 yards each in 1950, with Stryzalski also proving to be a venerable receiving threat out of the backfield. Alongside his 612 rushing yards, Johnny Strike also accumulated 178 receiving yards during the campaign.

Joe 'The Jet' Perry

With their first ever pick in the NFL draft, the 49ers chose Leo Nomellini. The Italian-born defensive tackle went by the nickname of 'The Lion' and was not only a successful football player, but a famous wrestling champion too. During the offseason Nomellini would wrestle in the NWA (National Wrestling Alliance), becoming a seven-time NWA World Tag-Team Champion.

On the field he was no less fearless, earning a Pro Bowl berth in his rookie season and compiling a career that included 10 Pro Bowl selections and nine All-Pro selections. Nomellini spent his entire 14-year professional career with the 49ers and was entered into the NFL Hall Of Fame in 1969.

In the AAFC years, San Francisco had become increasingly successful and reached the championship game at the end of the 1949 season. The club had hoped that the upward trend would follow them into the older and more established NFL, but their inaugural season was to be a difficult one.

After starting the 1950 season 0-5, the 49ers sealed their first win in a tense with the Detroit Lions, San Francisco emerging victorious 28-27. Even after that maiden victory, San Franciscans were still sceptical of the team's abilities against a winless Baltimore Colts team and only 14,800 people turned up at Kezar Stadium to watch the game.

This was to be the final year of the original Baltimore Colts franchise, which folded due to financial issues at the end of the season. They started life in the AAFC as the Miami Seahawks in 1946, but after several disasters the league confiscated the franchise and moved it to Baltimore, where the Colts were born in 1947.

The team's original colours from 1947 were green and silver, not the blue and white in which we know the Colts of today. They finished 7-7 in 1948, marking their most successful season.

During their first six games, the Colts lost by at least 10 points in each one, including a Week 6 thrashing by the Los Angeles Rams that saw Baltimore lose by 70-27 in what still stands as only the second time a team has conceded 70 or more points.

The Colts finished the 1950 season with another dubious record, becoming the only team in history to allow 50 or more points in four regular season games.

So the 1-5 49ers faced the 0-6 Colts in Week 7 but, records aside, the Niners were a much more talented side and entered the game as heavy favourites. As with any week in NFL history, however, the form guide was of little use.

The game

As could be expected from a match between two teams struggling for form, the first quarter was relatively quiet and finished scoreless.

San Francisco put the first points on the board when Emil Sitko found the end zone with a four-yard rush. This was Sitko's first and only season on the team and his only touchdown too. With Soltau hitting the extra point, the 49ers were up 7-0.

Y.A. Tittle in Baltimore colours

The Colts replied later on in the second quarter as Y.A. Tittle found Hal Crisler – who finished the game with 117 yards - for a 31-yard touchdown pass.

The 49ers' passing offense was struggling to get into rhythm against a Colts defense that was looking to prove its worth after being gashed for 359 passing yards and five touchdowns in the previous week's clash against the Rams.

Baltimore's secondary did a sterling job, intercepting three Albert passes, yet the defense could not stop 49ers fullback Joe Perry from having another big game, in which he amassed 162 rush yards on 16 attempts.

While the Colts were stopping the passing attack but enduring struggles against the run, the 49er defense was having the opposite problem.

Baltimore were held to a paltry 21 total rushing yards in the game and just could through a San Francisco front seven that included rookie sensation Nomellini.

Former 49er and pro wrestler Leo Nomellini

Instead the away team found that they were able to move the ball freely through the air with Tittle passing for 271 yards, although he was picked off four times.

The second half started much in the same way as the first, with the offensive difficulties continuing into a scoreless third quarter.

Albert stumbled in from a yard out to break the deadlock before a 13-yard field goal gave the 49ers a 10-point lead.

Thinking the game was all but won, the 49ers eased off the accelerator and almost paid the ultimate price as the Colts cut the deficit to three points with a one-yard Chet Mutryn score, only for the 49ers to survive and come through 17-14 after a tense finish.

The Colts, buoyed by their best performance of the season against the 49ers, went on to beat the Green Bay Packers 41-21 in Week 8 thanks to an amazing fourth quarter for Baltimore that featured a 96-yard rushing touchdown and three interceptions returned for scores.

That was to be the Colts only win of the season, though, as they slumped to a 1-11 record.

Meanwhile, the 49ers did not win again until they too beat the Packers in the final game of the season, San Francisco winning 30-14.

Thanks to their 3-9 season record, the 49ers would picked third overall in the 1951 NFL draft. With this pick they chose Yelberton Abraham Tittle, the man who they had faced in Week 7.

'The Bald Eagle' was originally drafted in 1948 by the Colts and was their starting quarterback during 1950. However, when the Colts folded at the end of the season, he was released and then redrafted by the 49ers, with whom he spent 10 seasons before being controversially traded to the New York 

Giants in 1961.

Tittle lead the Giants to three consecutive division titles in the most successful spell of his career, which he finished without winning an NFL crown.

An interesting side note to this game is that the 49ers had a player on their roster by the name of Clay Matthews while the Colts Kicker was called Rex Grossman, indicating that if you want your offspring to play in the NFL, maybe pick a name that already has some history in the league.

Thanks for reading,

Paul Kadwill