RetroSimba

Like a fabled Wild West gunslinger fast on the draw, Sonny Jurgensen had the quickest release of any quarterback.

“Swaggering onto the field and then back into more or less a pocket, he would pump quickly and release,” Gordon Forbes of the Philadelphia Inquirer observed. “The ball would spiral beautifully, like a horizontal top, sometimes incredibly close to the defenders and almost always against the chest of (the receiver).”

“He never puts his body into a throw,” receiver Pete Retzlaff told the Philadelphia Daily News. “He uses the arm, and that’s all. That’s why he can get rid of the ball so fast when he’s falling down or being tackled.”

Yet, for all his considerable skill in mastering the release, not even Jurgensen could overcome porous pass protection and a savage St. Louis Cardinals blitz.

In a 1964 game against the Cardinals, Jurgensen was sacked eight times _ the most sacks he suffered during 18 seasons in the NFL.

One of football’s all-time best passers as well as a notorious bon vivant, Jurgensen was 91 when he died on Feb. 6, 2026.

Name of the game

Christian Adolph Jurgensen III was from Wilmington, N.C. Everyone called him Sonny. As Jack Kent Cooke, who owned the Washington NFL franchise, told the Los Angeles Times, “Sonny Jurgensen is a perfect juxtaposition of words. Sonny Jurgensen. It rolls. It’s euphonious.”

At New Hanover High School (also the alma mater of Roman Gabriel), Jurgensen was captain of the football, basketball and baseball teams. He played college football at Duke and his poise and pin-point passing carried the Blue Devils to road wins against Ohio State and Tennessee.

According to the Durham Herald-Sun, Duke backfield coach and former NFL standout Ace Parker told Philadelphia Eagles general manager Vince McNally, “Jurgensen is one of the finest pro quarterback prospects I’ve seen in years.”

The Eagles chose Jurgensen in the fourth round of the 1957 NFL draft, but at his first training camp, “I was like a scared rabbit,” the quarterback recalled to the Philadelphia Daily News.

Jurgensen made four starts his rookie season but then Norm Van Brocklin arrived from the Los Angeles Rams and became the Eagles’ No. 1 quarterback. For three seasons, Jurgensen sat and learned from the Dutch master. Van Brocklin “had a tremendous influence on my career,” Jurgensen told the Daily News.

After leading the Eagles to the 1960 NFL title, Van Brocklin turned to coaching, taking over the Minnesota Vikings. His understudy, Jurgensen, stepped up to the starting role with Philadelphia.

Good times roll

Jurgensen liked to have fun and was fun to watch _ cool, bold, with a gambler’s disposition on the field. “When Sonny Jurgensen walks, you can hear the dice rattle,” Bruce Keidan of the Inquirer wrote.

Once, while wrapped in the arms of defensive tackle Bob Lilly, Jurgensen was about to go down when he slung a behind-the-back pass to Pete Retzlaff for a gain of 14 yards. Another time, according to Jack McKinney of the Daily News, Sonny was “rushed from the right, switched the ball to his left hand, stiff-armed the defensive end and drilled a pass, left-handed, to Billy Barnes” for 12 yards.

There seemed something special about everything Jurgensen did. As Ray Didinger of the Daily News put it, “The way he knelt in the huddle, picking at the grass as he called the next play. The way he swaggered to the line, looking over the defense with those smirking, pool hustler eyes.”

Jurgensen had the panache of a quarterback but the paunch of an offensive lineman. “He had this belly that spilled from beneath his numeral 9 like flour from a torn sack,” wrote Ray Didinger. Bob Quincy of the Charlotte Observer noted, “He excused his belly as his only sure blocker.”

“The paunch is deceptive,” Jurgensen told Shirley Povich of the Washington Post. “It’s simply the way I’m built.” Or, as he said to the Inquirer, “You don’t throw the ball with your stomach.”

The heavy belly was offset by a light heart. He liked a good laugh and looked for a good time. Once, when the Eagles were stinking up the field during a home game, frustrated fans began a chant, demanding Jurgensen’s backup, King Hill. “The only thing I resented about it was I noticed my wife was leading it,” Jurgensen said to the Inquirer. “”She’s a King Hill fan.” A Washington Daily News reporter once complimented Sonny on appearing thinner and asked what diet he was on. “Cutty Sark and water,” Jurgensen replied.

Beer was a favorite, too. “Sonny has a warm spot in his heart for malt, hops and barley,” Bruce Keidan wrote, “and years of indulging that affection have left him looking as though he recently swallowed a keg of draft, barrel and all.”

Bob Quincy noted, “Jurgensen diligently trained in nightclubs and corner pubs, cool retreats where he could strengthen his elbow.”

With the Eagles, Jurgensen twice led the NFL in passing yards. He also threw a league-best 32 touchdown passes in 1961. (The only Eagle with more touchdown tosses in a season is Carson Wentz, with 33 in 2017.) In a 1962 game versus the Cardinals, Sonny had five touchdown throws, including three to Tommy McDonald. Video

Joe Kuharich became the Eagles head coach in 1964 and he wanted a different quarterback. When Jurgensen was traded to Washington for quarterback Norm Snead, “the bartenders in Philadelphia all wore black arm bands,” wrote Dave Burgin of the Washington Daily News.

Run for your life

The Washington team Jurgensen joined was a mess. “He played for Washington when a solid offensive block was rarer than a tax cut,” Bob Quincy wrote.

On Sunday afternoon, Oct. 4, 1964, while the baseball Cardinals were beating the Mets in St. Louis to clinch the National League pennant on the last day of the season, the unbeaten football Cardinals were at District of Columbia Stadium to play winless Washington.

It was a dark, rainy day in D.C. and the mood of the fans matched the weather. Jurgensen and his teammates were jeered and booed during player introductions. Then, early in the game, Washington’s best offensive lineman, guard Vince Promuto, injured a knee and was unable to continue. The Cardinals capitalized, sending blitzers in waves against the overmatched Washington line.

According to the Charlotte News, the Cardinals were “blitzing one, two, and sometimes even three, linebackers on the same play.” Cardinals head coach Wally Lemm told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, “That’s the most (blitzing) we’ve done in some time, but we had to do it against a quick thrower like Jurgensen.”

Blockers provided “horrible protection for poor Sonny,” the Washington Daily News reported, and, even with a quick release, Jurgensen couldn’t escape the rush. In addition to being sacked eight times for losses totaling 66 yards, he was intercepted twice. Pat Fischer returned one of the picks for a touchdown.

In the fourth quarter, with the Cardinals ahead, 21-10, the angry crowd screamed for backup quarterback George Izo. Coach Bill McPeak gave the people what they wanted. On Izo’s first play, he was sacked for a safety. The Cardinals won, 23-17. Game stats

“Gee, fellas, even The Almighty needs time to throw the ball,” Jurgensen said to the Philadelphia Daily News.

(Sonny got his revenge. In a 1965 game at St. Louis, he completed 12 of 14 passes, including three for touchdowns, and was sacked just twice in a 24-20 Washington victory. Game stats)

Odd couple

When Otto Graham, the straitlaced former Cleveland Browns quarterback, became Washington head coach in 1966, Jurgensen quipped to the Daily News, “I hear he’s a stickler for discipline _ a non-smoker, a non-drinker and a non-cusser. We ought to get on famously. There are only a few of us left.”

Jurgensen thrived, though, on the field. During Graham’s three seasons with Washington, Jurgensen twice led the NFL in completions and passing yards. He also threw a league-best 31 touchdown passes in 1967. That remains the Washington franchise single-season record.

“He can throw as well as anyone I have ever seen, barring none,” Graham told the Inquirer. “He’s a student of the game. He knows more football than I do, I think.”

Jurgensen alone, however, couldn’t make Washington a winner. The franchise hadn’t achieved a winning season since 1955, when Jurgensen was in college.

Then Vince Lombardi arrived.

Golden arm

Lombardi was a Sonny Jurgensen fan. He admired Jurgensen’s quick release and accuracy. With the Green Bay Packers, Lombardi won five NFL championships. Bart Starr was his quarterback. In the book “When Pride Still Mattered,” Lombardi biographer David Maraniss wrote, “Starr had been his brain on the field, the most committed and disciplined of his ballplayers, but in terms of pure talent he was not in the same category as Jurgensen.”

At first Jurgensen worried his fondness for fun would anger Lombardi, but as David Maraniss noted, “Jurgensen’s reputation as a playboy did not bother Lombardi. If anything, it reminded him of his favorite son in Green Bay, Paul Hornung. (Hornung) might break curfew, but he had uncommon talent and did not waste it. He was the best money player Lombardi had coached.”

Hornung, the Golden Boy, told Jurgensen, the Golden Arm, “Sonny, you’re going to love the guy.”

Lombardi immediately showed confidence in the quarterback, treating him like a leader. Jurgensen, in turn, bought in to Lombardi’s system. “It placed the emphasis on reading the defense and giving the quarterback fewer plays but more options,” David Maraniss noted. “As soon as Jurgensen got into Lombardi’s system, the game seemed to slow down. What had been chaotic suddenly made sense; everything became clear and comprehensible.”

Jurgensen led the NFL in completions and passing yards in his season with Lombardi, and Washington achieved a winning season in 1969. Its 7-5-2 record (including a 33-17 thumping of the Cardinals) was much like the 7-5 mark Lombardi posted in his first season at Green Bay in 1959.

In one year, Lombardi had turned the Washington franchise into a winner, but he didn’t live to coach another season. He died in 1970 at 57.

With George Allen as head coach, Washington became a perennial contender. The team became NFC champions in 1972, but Jurgensen tore an Achilles tendon in Game 6 and Billy Kilmer took over. Jurgensen watched on crutches from the sideline as the Miami Dolphins completed a perfect season with a 14-7 triumph over Washington in the Super Bowl. Washington fans were left to wonder what might have been if Jurgensen had played.

Two years later, in 1974, when Jurgensen was in his last season as a backup to Kilmer, George Allen gave him a start against the Dolphins. Jurgensen completed 26 passes for 303 yards and two touchdowns, leading Washington to a 20-17 victory. “I was 40 years old but I felt 16 that day,” Sonny recalled to the Philadelphia Daily News.

Jurgensen was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1983 and became a popular Washington sportscaster, partnering with former linebacker Sam Huff for highly entertaining radio broadcasts of Washington football games.

An aching back couldn’t stop John Brodie from being a pain in the neck to the St. Louis football Cardinals.

After a hospital stay for back treatment, Brodie had one of his best games as San Francisco 49ers quarterback, passing for three touchdowns in a 35-17 triumph over the Cardinals.

The game also was noteworthy for the satisfaction two former Cardinals, John David Crow and Sonny Randle, got catching touchdown passes from Brodie against the team that traded them.

Brodie spent 17 seasons in the NFL, all with the 49ers. Only Joe Montana has more career completions and more career passing yards as a 49er than Brodie.

Brodie also played professional golf and was a sports broadcaster for NBC. He was 90 when he died on Jan. 23, 2026.

Rooted in the region

Born and raised in the Bay Area, Brodie was an athlete at Oakland Technical High School. The Oakland Athletic League named him first-team all-city in football (quarterback) and basketball (forward). He and Frank Robinson competed against one another in basketball. In Oakland Tech’s 58-50 victory against McClymonds in February 1953, Brodie poured in 17 points and Robinson scored 14.

Brodie told the San Francisco Examiner he planned to enroll at Cal Berkeley. He changed his mind and went to Stanford instead. Brodie shared quarterback duties on the freshman team. When he reported for varsity spring practice in 1954, he was sixth on the depth chart. His superior passing skills vaulted him to the top. Brodie became varsity starter as a sophomore. “We can’t recall any Stanford athlete in the past 10 years who has developed as fast as Brodie has in the short space of a year,” coach Chuck Taylor told the Peninsula Times Tribune.

As a senior in 1956, Brodie was the NCAA leader in total offense and passing. The 49ers made him the third overall pick in the first round of the 1957 NFL draft, taking him ahead of Jim Brown.

Tough crowd

Brodie spent his first four NFL seasons in competition with incumbent Y.A. Tittle for the quarterback job. In his book “Open Field,” Brodie recalled, “On the practice field and during games, the tension between Tittle and me continued to mount … It got to be a very unhealthy situation. We were both using up a lot of effort fencing with each other.”

Tittle was traded to the New York Giants before the 1961 season and led them to three consecutive East Division titles. Brodie took over as 49ers starter and became a scapegoat for the team’s failure to make the playoffs during the 1960s.

Though he three times led the NFL in completions and passing yards, and twice was tops in touchdown throws, Brodie was a frequent target of boos at San Francisco’s Kezar Stadium. He had 224 passes intercepted, 90 more than any other 49ers quarterback all-time.

His relations with the paying customers worsened when Brodie benefitted from an attempt to leave the 49ers. It happened after the 1965 season when the rival AFL tried to entice players to jump over from the NFL. Brodie, paid $35,000 in 1965, agreed to a three-year $750,000 offer from the AFL Houston Oilers.

Soon after, though, the NFL and AFL arranged to merge, voiding Brodie’s deal. When Brodie threatened to sue, jeopardizing the merger plans, the clubs rushed to appease him. The 49ers made Brodie the highest-paid player, with a four-year contract for $915,000. The Oilers agreed to pay about half the cost.

In Brodie’s first three games as the richest man in football, the 49ers went winless, including a 34-3 loss to the Los Angeles Rams, who intercepted Brodie four times. San Francisco fans responded with a collective boo.

“Brodie spent most of the 1960s getting booed,” the San Francisco Chronicle noted. The boos sounded “like waves of thunder rolling overhead,” Brodie said in his book. Boos weren’t the worst of it. Above the tunnel leading from the locker rooms to the field at Kezar Stadium, fans hurled bottles and cans at their quarterback. “Brodie had to wear his helmet after games as he ducked into the tunnel,” the Chronicle observed.

A teammate, linebacker Dave Wilcox, told the newspaper, “If we lost, you knew not to walk off the field with Brodie.”

In his book, Brodie recalled, “Stadium officials built a wire cage with cyclone fencing over the exposed part of the ramp. That didn’t stop some of the fans. They fell into the habit of dropping hot pennies through the mesh, aiming for the space between the back of the neck and the shoulder pads.”

Cardinals provide cure

Fans figured to be in a foul mood for the 49ers’ 1968 home opener against the Cardinals. The 49ers had looked awful in Week 1 at Baltimore. Former 49ers quarterback Earl Morrall threw two touchdown passes and led the Colts to a 27-10 victory. Brodie was intercepted three times and had no touchdown throws.

In the week leading up to that first home game, Brodie’s back stiffened. He spent Thursday and Friday in traction at a hospital. On Sunday, he was in the starting lineup against the Cardinals.

Brodie completed his first five passes. On second-and-nine from the Cardinals’ 29, receiver Sonny Randle came into the huddle and told Brodie to look for him. Randle exploded off the line and got between defensive backs Brady Keys and Larry Wilson. He caught Brodie’s throw and spun into the end zone for his 65th and last NFL touchdown reception. (Sixty of those came as a Cardinal.) It was special for him to score one against his former team. “This one had to be the biggest thrill of them all,” Randle told the San Francisco Examiner.

After the Cardinals tied the score at 7-7, the 49ers were at the 50. John David Crow, the former Cardinals running back who converted to tight end with San Francisco, told Brodie that safety Mike Barnes, filling in for injured Jerry Stovall, could be beaten over the middle. Crow caught Brodie’s pass at the 15 and ran into the end zone from there.

Gleeful about scoring against his former team, Crow flung the ball high into the stands. In those days, clubs discouraged that by making the player pay for the football. “I don’t care if the ball cost $100,” Crow crowed to the Chronicle. “I feel that good about it.”

Randle said he and Crow had talked before the game about wanting to play well against the Cardinals. “You like to feel you always put out 100 percent,” Randle told the Peninsula Times Tribune, “but today we reached down for a little more.”

When Brodie trotted off the field with 3:23 remaining and the 49ers safely ahead at 28-10, he received a standing ovation from the Kezar Stadium crowd. Later, in the locker room, Brodie winced from the pain in his back as he took off his shoulder pads. “When I’m out on that field, I don’t feel a thing,” he told the Peninsula Times Tribune, “but I can assure you it is hurting plenty now.” Video

From football to fairways

Brodie took the 49ers to the NFC title game in both 1970 (when he won the NFL Most Valuable Player Award) and 1971. His pro football career ended in 1973, but he wasn’t done with sports. Brodie was a football and golf broadcaster for 12 years with NBC. He also was an expert at bridge and backgammon and competed in the world dominoes championship. When he turned 50 in 1985, Brodie joined the Senior PGA Tour.

Golf was a passion for Brodie. According to the Los Angeles Times, he taught himself to play as a youth. At Stanford, he earned two varsity letters in golf.

Brodie played the PGA Tour in 1959 and 1960 during the NFL off-season, but made only nine cuts in 29 tournaments. Brodie “was good but not good enough,” Arnold Palmer recalled to the Los Angeles Times. “Maybe he was just a step or two away from where he actually could do it.”

In the 1959 U.S. Open at Winged Foot, Brodie shot 76-77 and missed the cut by three strokes, but was a stroke better than 19-year-old amateur Jack Nicklaus.

On the Senior PGA Tour, Brodie drove well, hit solid irons but wasn’t a good putter. He played in 230 Senior PGA Tour events between 1985 and 1998, winning once.

The victory came in 1991 at Los Angeles when Brodie prevailed in a playoff with George Archer and Chi Chi Rodriguez. On the first playoff hole, Brodie needed to make a four-inch birdie putt for the win. As Brodie eyed the shot, Chi Chi Rodriguez, ever the entertainer, “took out a handkerchief and placed it over Brodie’s eyes like a blindfold,” the Associated Press reported.

Brodie laughed and, with eyes wide open, sank the putt, triumphing over a field that included Arnold Palmer, Gary Player, Lee Trevino and Billy Casper.

For Brodie, winning a pro golf tournament was as thrilling as anything he achieved in the NFL. “Golf is the most demanding sport in the world,” he told the Louisville Courier-Journal. “It’s the best and most challenging game to play.”