RetroSimba

Pete Retzlaff was a Philadelphia Eagles receiver who was difficult to defend because of the precise pass patterns he ran and his reliable hands. Initially a flanker and split end, Retzlaff became a tight end and was instrumental in transforming the position.

During his 11 NFL seasons (1956-66), all with the Eagles, Retzlaff developed a respect for St. Louis Cardinals safeties Jerry Stovall and Larry Wilson. In 1965, Retzlaff told The Sporting News, “St. Louis has the toughest defensive backs. Larry Wilson was real tough when he played me, but now I find Jerry Stovall even tougher to shake. Jerry has to be the most improved player at his position in the league.”

Retzlaff later told the Akron Beacon Journal, “Once, after we’d played in the Pro Bowl, Larry Wilson told me he always said I was the toughest tight end he ever tried to cover.”

Retzlaff had multiple impressive performances versus the Cardinals, but the best was the day Stovall and Wilson were out of the lineup because of injuries.

Thinking game

Retzlaff was born Palmer Edward Retzlaff in Ellendale, North Dakota. His father was a grain farmer and his mother was a German immigrant. As a high school student, Retzlaff was working a construction job when the foreman kept referring to him as Pete. The name stuck, Retzlaff told the Philadelphia Daily News.

A halfback at South Dakota State, Retzlaff was selected by the Detroit Lions in the 22nd round of the 1953 NFL draft and spent the next two years in the Army.

Lions offensive coordinator George Wilson determined Retzlaff would be better at split end than at running back, but they had no room for him, so Retzlaff was sent to the Eagles for the waiver price of $100.

Retzlaff, 25, earned a spot as a flanker with the 1956 Eagles. Two years later, Retzlaff and Raymond Berry of the Baltimore Colts tied for the NFL lead in receptions. Each had 56 in a 12-game season.

In 1960, with Norm Van Brocklin at quarterback, Retzlaff at split end and Tommy McDonald at flanker, the Eagles won the NFL championship. Retzlaff led the 1960 Eagles in receptions (46) and averaged 18 yards per catch.

“I learned more from Van Brocklin while he was quarterback than any one single individual,” Retzlaff told The Sporting News. “Van Brocklin gave me the basic philosophy that enabled me to go from there. He impressed upon me why it was necessary to do certain things and to think about them. He initiated an education that hasn’t stopped. He taught me how to think.

“You must constantly make adjustments and make your moves according to what your opponent does and according to the way a situation actually develops.”

Championship season

Two of Retzlaff’s best performances in 1960 came against the Cardinals. On Oct. 9, he had seven catches for 132 yards and two touchdowns in a win at Philadelphia. On Dec. 4, when the Eagles won their ninth in a row and clinched the Eastern Division title, Retzlaff made five receptions for 123 yards and a touchdown at St. Louis.

Retzlaff should have had a third touchdown in the Oct. 9 game, but the officials blew the call.

Van Brocklin connected with Retzlaff on a 36-yard pass. Retzlaff caught the ball at the St. Louis 1-yard line, fell backwards, “hit the ground on his rump and bounced into the end zone” untouched, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

The officials, who ruled the ball down at the 1, “obviously goofed because pro rules permit a player to move on the ground with the ball provided he’s not in the grasp of a tackler or had not been thrown by one,” the Inquirer noted.

Big move

In 1963, the Eagles moved Retzlaff from split end to tight end. Retzlaff resisted the shift initially because the position traditionally focused on blocking, not receiving. Like Jackie Smith of the Cardinals, Retzlaff helped make it an integral part of the air attack.

“To his pleasant surprise, Retzlaff found he could handle his blocking assignments, fight off linebackers and still run patterns and catch passes even more effectively than he did playing on the outside,” The Sporting News reported.

Washington Redskins head coach Bill McPeak called Retzlaff “the best tight end in the league.”

Baltimore Colts head coach Don Shula said, “He’s fantastic. No other tight end has the moves of Retzlaff and no one else at his position can go as deep as he does.”

The Sporting News concluded, “Retzlaff has been helped to stardom with the aid of good hands, tricky moves and the ability to run like a halfback, but his greatness stems from the perfect execution of his patterns.” Video

Said Cleveland Browns head coach Blanton Collier: “No one runs patterns better than Retzlaff.”

Retzlaff was a success off the field, too. He was a radio and television broadcaster in Philadelphia and he and Cardinals baseball pitcher Curt Simmons were owners of a resort motel in the seaside town of Wildwood, N.J.

Mighty mismatch

Nursing a bruised heel and sore ribs, Retzlaff didn’t practice the week before the Eagles played the Cardinals at St. Louis on Nov. 28, 1965, but there was no way he’d miss the game. His adversaries, Stovall and Wilson, were sidelined because of injuries, so the Cardinals were starting Monk Bailey, a second-year pro, and rookie Carl Silvestri as the safeties.

“Stovall is the best strong safety in the league,” Retzlaff told the Philadelphia Daily News. “I was glad to see him out.”

With his heel numbed by novocaine, Retzlaff, 34, made nine catches for 148 yards and three touchdowns. He leaped or dived for several grabs and most were “as spectacular as Jayne Mansfield doing the frug,” the Philadelphia Daily News noted.

For the beleaguered Monk Bailey, the experience was embarrassing.

“It would be easier playing golf for a living than trying to cover Retzlaff,” Bailey said to the Post-Dispatch. “If Carl Silvestri, Jim Burson and Pat Fischer hadn’t helped out at times, I’d have been beaten even more often. Retzlaff’s moves are in-out-in, yet always forward. If you let him get close to you, you’re dead.”

Bailey told the Philadelphia Daily News, “I felt like I was doing the twist on one play. I actually spun around three times on one of his patterns. When I was done spinning, I fell on my face in a patch of mud. My hand and nose guard stuck in it.”

On his first touchdown catch, a 23-yard pass from Norm Snead in the first quarter, Retzlaff “zigzagged against Bailey,” driving him deep, before turning and making the grab, the Post-Dispatch reported.

Retzlaff’s second touchdown was controversial. Snead rolled to his right and fired a five-yard pass to Retzlaff, who was inches from the goal post. The ball hit Retzlaff’s chest, caromed off the goal post and back into Retzlaff’s hands. The officials signaled a touchdown, but the pass should have been ruled incomplete because the ball becomes dead immediately if it strikes the goal post or crossbar.

After the Cardinals took a 24-21 lead, the Eagles drove downfield. When they got to the Cardinals’ 37, Snead connected with Retzlaff on four consecutive passes, concluding with the 11-yard touchdown strike for a 28-24 victory. Game stats

Retzlaff “outfought Bailey and (Jimmy) Burson for the pass that won the game,” the Philadelphia Daily News reported. “He fell in the end zone with the ball as Bailey and Burson collided and fell on him.”

In the huddle, Snead had called for Ollie Matson to be the primary target on the play. Retzlaff, who was supposed to be a decoy, ran to the corner of the end zone, started back and Snead found him.

“I looked for the old son of a gun all the way,” Snead said. “He’s the man to hit.”