O’Donnell: Loveland’s TD catch touched foundational point of ‘85 Bears
THERE ARE SEASONED BEARS FANS WHO DREAM of walking into a time tunnel and emerging right about now in the autumn of 1985.
That would be just as Mike Ditka's Super Bowl-bound champions were emerging from the weekend after Halloween at 9-0. Realistic projections of a perfect, mystical 19-0 season were growing.
Today, with first-year head coach Ben Johnson closing in on being worthy of the adjective “dynamic,” any hint, any whiff of that magic time can stir Chicago football souls.
Last Sunday at Cincinnati, Johnson, Colston Loveland and Caleb Williams provided one.
MAYBE IT WAS FOR most dedicated Bears archivists only. But Loveland's clutch 58-yard snag-and-split to beat the Bengals 47-42 summoned memories of another tight end and another amazing end-game touchdown.
It was Sunday, Nov. 13, 1977, and the fourth season of Jim Finks as chief revivalist in Lake Forest wasn't going so well.
Coach Jack Pardee's third edition was 3-5 and coming off a 47-0 beat down at Houston. Only the presence of a 2-6 Chiefs team pared some of the gray Edmund Fitzgerald dreariness at Soldier Field.
At the half, Kansas City (+6 1/2) led 17-0. On WBBM-AM (780), improbable analyst Brad Palmer told a frustrated audience, “The Bears can't expect to sit out a half of football and win games.”
BUT THAT AFTERNOON, with a mix of providence and luck, they could.
Young Walter Payton — then all of age 24 — did his part all day, eventually finishing with 192 yards rushing on 33 carries. His third TD of the second half gave the Bears a 21-20 lead with 2:02 remaining.
Mike Livingston, Ed Podolak and KC responded with a bang-bang scoring drive that pushed the Chiefs back on top 27-21.
The Bears offense marched out to begin at its own 43-yard line with 19 seconds left.
QB Bob Avellini nailed Robin Earl for a gain of 20. There was :10 on the clock and the direction-challenged Monsters a long 37 yards from salvation.
Greg Latta was the tight end, set left. The Chiefs defense tried to jam him.
Bad idea.
LATTA SHOOK THE CHECK and sprinted toward the end zone, all alone. Avellini lofted a high pass, “Not quite a 'Hail Mary' but close,” he later said in a 1997 replay of the landmark finish.
Latta raced under the ball, looking over his left shoulder. It dropped into his arms like gold from the colonnades.
The Bears won 28-27. More importantly, they then ran the regular-season table, winning their final five games and making an NFL postseason for the first time since George Halas' 1963 champions.
LATTA'S MOMENT BEGAN A RUN of four playoff appearances in the next nine seasons. The streak culminated in the unforgettably theatrical shuffle-up to Super Bowl XX.
During a 1986 appearance at The Sports Page in Arlington Heights — arranged by Latta — Payton was asked what was the single most important moment on the Monsters' road to the Lombardi Trophy.
“Off the field, it was the hiring of Jim Finks the year before I got here (1974),” “Sweetness” replied. “On the field, it was the day at Soldier Field when Greg Latta caught that touchdown pass from (Bob) Avellini. That play set a new tone for us.”
THE SIMILARITIES BETWEEN what Latta did all those years ago and what Loveland accomplished at Paycor Stadium are striking.
Ben Johnson is not likely to have eight more seasons to get the Bears to a Super Bowl.
But for the faithful tailgaters and fanatic hearts, the combo platter of promise progressing and stunning good fortune will never be turned away in the South parking lot of Soldier Field.
Call it a happy time-tunnel thing.
* * *
THREE GREAT YOUTUBE SELECTIONS on Greg Latta's organization-altering TD:
--- “1977 Week 9 — Chiefs vs. Bears” (2:10);
--- “3 Seconds From Elimination (Howard Cosell version)” (0:58); and,
--- “1977 Greg Latta catch” (2:36) — Crisp context by Brad Palmer but no video of actual play, only Joe McConnell's call on AM-780. … Pat Benkowski was McConnell's spotter that day and Dave Eanet was making his bones as WBBM radio's on-site producer.
LATTA PLAYED THREE MORE SEASONS for the Bears before retiring in 1980. He was subsequently plagued by high blood pressure and kidney problems and died at age 41 in his native Newark, N.J., in September 1994.
In a final coda, his son Brandon Latta was a star running back alongside QB Jarrett Payton for the 1997 St. Viator High varsity.
Jim O'Donnell's Sports and Media column appears each week on Sunday and Wednesday. Reach him at jimodonnelldh@yahoo.com. All communications may be considered for publication.