Dec. 16, 1964 - The NFL’s championship game at Cleveland Dec. 27 will spotlight an assembly of the game’s brightest offensive stars.
The league’s final individual statistics for the season highlight Jim Brown (pictured last weekend at Yankee Stadium) and Lou Groza of the Browns, the Eastern Conference winners, and Lenny Moore, Raymond Berry, and John Unitas of the Colts, the Western champions.
Brown, the great Cleveland fullback, won the rushing title for the seventh time in his eight pro seasons, gaining 1,446 yards. The 28‐year‐old star has rushed for 10,768 yards, more than any player in NFL history. Groza, 40 years old, tied for second in points scored with Jim Bakken, the St. Louis kicker. Both had 115 points.
The touchdown leader was Moore, the Colt halfback, who set a league record by scoring 20 touchdowns. Unitas, who has never won the passing title, although generally recognized as the league’s best quarterback, placed fourth. Bart Starr of Green Bay was rated the No. 1 passer.
The passing leaders are determined by a formula that ranks percentage of completions, touchdown passes, percentage of interceptions, and average gain in yards per attempted pass.
Y. A. Tittle of the Giants, last year’s leader, dropped to 16th on the list, which rated 17 passers. Gary Wood of the Giants placed 13th.
Starr, the leader in 1962, was remarkably accurate. He completed 59.9% of his 272 attempts and was intercepted only four times for a record low percentage of 1.4. Starr finished the year with a record string of 225 attempts without an interception.
Berry, the Colt split end, raised his number of pass catches in a career to a league high of 506, but Berry’s 43 catches this year did not place him among the top 10 receivers, who were led by Johnny Morris, the Chicago flanker back.
Morris set an NFL record by catching 93 passes, wiping out the mark of 83 made by Tom Fears of the Rams in 1950. Paul Warfield, Cleveland’s most dangerous pass catcher, wound up in ninth place with 52 catches, nine for touchdowns.
Paul Krause, the Washington rookie safety, led in interceptions, with 12. The Redskins’ other rookie star, Charlie Taylor, placed sixth in rushing and eighth in pass receiving, an outstanding achievement.
Jim Brown was the only repeater among the individual champions, but Yale Lary of Detroit lost his punting title by ⅒ of a point to Bobby Walden, the Minnesota rookie who averaged 46.4 yards a kick.
The Giants had one leader, Clarence Childs, in kickoff returns. Thanks in part to a 100-yard return, Childs averaged 29 yards for each runback. Don Chandler of New York was the third best punter, but no other Giant player placed in the top 10 of any category.
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