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During our 40-year tenure at the Baltimore Sun, we were fortunate to cover a number of memorable football games.  The ones that come immediately to mind were all NFL classics:

  1965-:With injuries forcing Tom Matte to become an “instant quarterback’’ and calling plays inked on his wrist band, the Colts and Packers go into overtime  in their NFL championship game at Green Bay. But the Packers win on a disputed field goal by Don Chandler that appeared to sail right. To this day, the surviving Colts insist they were robbed.

 1967-Playing the Dallas Cowboys on a frozen Lambeau Field with wind chill dropping the temperature to 33-below, legendary Packers’ coach Vince Lombardi gambles on spurning a short field goal attempt in the final seconds of regulation to force an over-time. Instead, quarterback Bart Starr slithers from one-yard out behind a strong block from guard Jerry Kramer to beat Cowboys, 21-17. Kramer authored a best-seller on the winning play.

 1969-Assigned to cover the Jets at Super Bowl III in Miami, we witness brash Joe Namath make good on his boast of upsetting heavily-favored Colts.

  1982:-With 51 seconds left, Dwight Clark makes spectacular leaping catch in the back of the end zone on a roll-out pass from Joe Montana to beat the Cowboys in NFL title game at San Francisco. Clark’s clutch catch is forever being re-visited on NFL highlights.

  All undeniable classics. But the news last month that former Maryland quarterback Jim “King’’ Corcoran had died of a heart attack at age 65, quickly rekindled memories of two unforgettable college duels with Navy immortal Roger Staubach, both won by the Terps..

   Their first encounter took place, November 10, 1961, before a sparse crowd on the Naval Academy’s Annapolis campus when Staubach was a plebe and Corcoran, a freshman. It was one, if not the best, offensive contest we ever personally covered, literally a thrill-a-minute.  In the first three quarters alone, the teams combined for eight touchdowns, with Corcoran and the elusive Staubach repeatedly providing key plays.

   On the second play of the game, Corcoran hooked up with end Andy Martin on a 77-yard TD pass. He also tossed a 13-yard scoring pass to halfback Kenny Ambrusko and later scored himself on a 4-yard keeper play. For the day, Corcoran completed 11 of 27 passes for 322 yards. But it was Ken Carter’s 23-yard field goal with only 13 seconds remaining that gave Maryland a 29-27 victory and assured the young Terps of a  perfect 5-0 season.  For Staubach and the young Mids, it was their only loss in seven games.

    We were watching from the stands in 1964 when the King and Roger the Dodger met again in the Crab Bowl Classic at College Park. It was a wild contest that will be remembered as much for controversy as Ambrusko’s 101-yard kickoff return  with 2.38 left  that gave the Terps a stunning 27-22 victory over Navy and Staubach, who had won the Heisman Trophy the previous year.

   Separated by only 30 miles, there was a palpable feeling of animosity between the schools in the Sixties. The Academy was viewed as an elitist national institution that produced countless war heroes and future presidents.  At the same time, Maryland was viewed as a blue-collar working-class school,  Said fiery linebacker Jerry Fishman, who would become the epicenter of the controversy that ultimately led to a 40-year break in the state rivalry, “Many Midshipmen thought they were far superior to the Maryland redneck coal miners.’’

   Twice during the game, Fishman would follow a successful defensive play by giving the finger to the Brigade of Midshipmen, who vigorously booed his loutish behavior. In the end, Fishman and King Corcoran had the final laugh.

   Staubach and Corcoran took dramatically different paths following their college days. After completing his mandatory five-year service commitment including a tour in Vietnam, Staubach joined the Cowboys in 1969, leading them to a pair of Super Bowl triumphs on his way to the Hall of Fame.

   Corcoran  would have pro tryouts with Denver, Boston, Philadelphia and the New York Jets, whose coaches all agreed that his talent for throwing a football did not make up for his flaky behavior on and off the field.  And so his whole NFL career can by summarized by appearing in two games for the then Boston Patriots in 1968 and completing 3 of 7 passes

  Perhaps Weeb Ewbank summed it up best after cutting Corcoran from the Jets in1968, when, ironically, he shared a dorm room with soulmate Joe Namath. Corcoran had completed 21-31 passes for 300 yards and a pair of touchdowns in a rookie exhibition game against the Colts in Baltimore.

  After the game, Corcoran was visited by a beauty queen in the Jets clubhouse.  Claiming he first earned the name “”King’’ for his sexual exploits with sorority girls at Maryland, Corcoran would disappear from the Jets’ training camp for three days.

  When he finally returned, Ewbank shouted, “What are you doing? I wouldn’t let Namath get away with a stunt like that. I like you, but I have to let you go.  Having you and Namath would drive me crazy. Besides, we’ve got a lot of money invested in Namath.’’

    In his own behalf, the King said, “I could do the job, but the NFL coaches didn’t buy the act.’’

    So Corcoran was destined to become a flamboyant star in football’s minor leagues.  When he led the Pottstown Firebirds to a second straight Atlantic Coast Football title in 1970, he became the central figure in Jay Acton’s heartfelt memoir “The Forgettables’’ that later became an HBO documentary.

    Always marching to a different drummer, Corcoran enjoyed a “love-hate’’ relationship with the Pottstown fans, Signed to a league-high three-year pact of $135,000, he spurned bussing with the team to road games, preferring to drive his $8,000 Continental accompanied by a local  beauty.

   Suspensions or fines failed to alter his gift for drawing unsuitable attention.  He insisted that there was a game during his college days at Maryland that he ordered a helicopter to remove him from the field after learning from  his coach Tom Nugent that he wouldn’t be starting. Unfortunately, bad weather grounded the flight

  Corcoran claims he first started his sideshow to gain notoriety as a promising senior high school quarterback in Jersey City. “”I wasn’t getting any recognition,’’ he would recall. “Who pay attention to anything happening in Jersey City?’’

   So he put his ever-active imagination to work.  In the grueling first half, everyone’s uniform became caked in mud.. This hardly proved a problem for Corcoran. He trotted on the field for the second half, wearing a squeaky-clean uniform, sporting sun glasses and having the equipment manager hold his helmet. The crowd went wild, screaming “Hail to the King,’’ and he responded by throwing five touchdown passes.

   “After we won that game, the kids from both schools rioted downtown that night and did a lot of property damage,’’ he remembered without any sense of guilt.  “But now I was getting real “ink.’ I went from an unheralded quarterback to second-string all-state and all the top college coaches started calling. It was the turning point in my life.’’

  Corcoran’s “”shtick’’ only improved over the years, but ultimately cost him a legitimate chance to play as a regular in the NFL. After his playing days ended in 1975 with the Philadelphia Bell of the World Football League, he wound up in Maryland court several times for reportedly pulling real estate scams., including obtaining down payments on Baltimore row houses he didn’t own.

  Still, he will be remembered best for his antics and zany behavior on and off the playing field. “”The King’’ was truly one of a kind and would be more appreciated today when bona-fide sports characters are extremely rare.

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