The “Other” St. Louis Cardinals

Jim Hart #17 & Wayne Morris #24 vs Chicago, 1980

(Jonathan-Daniel/Getty Images)

From 1960 until early 1988,  St. Louis Cardinals could mean baseball or football.  My formative years as a football fan were spent watching the football Cardinals on Sunday afternoons. A few of those teams were hideous, most of them were pretty entertaining. The Big Red did have a penchant for finding strange ways to win and lose football games.  The best of times for the football Cardinals were from 1974 until around Thanksgiving of 1977 when the Big Red were known as the "Cardiac Cardinals" because of their knack for repeatedly coming from behind to win.

At the Shoeless Joe Golf Classic this week, I had a chance to visit with wide receiver Mel Gray and running back Steve Jones. We start with  Gray's legendary "phantom catch" against Washington at Busch Stadium in November of 1975. The catch forced overtime and led to a 23-20 win for the Big Red...

When you hear someone refer to the "Cardiac" (insert team name here), Remember that the phrase started with the mid 70's St. Louis football Cardinals.