GOING BEYOND THE SUPER BOWL

         Bill Olson, BHS-62, responded to our most recent story about the Boone connection with the forward pass in football. Specificially, he informed that on ebay, that Time Cover, September 26, 1927, featuring Boone native Howard P. Savage when he served as Commander of the American Legion, can be purchased for somewhere in the $30 to $50 range. Savage, of course, had a strong hand in the evolution of the forward pass in football.

        Bill wrote, "I read every issue of the Korner. I'll turn 80 in July and couldn't be better after health issues including having an abdominal aortic aneurysm fixed. Life is great, God is great and I love my connection with Boone via you. I still remember exactly where you sat in the balcony of the old BHS gym doing your announcing for basketball. It was so great watching the Johnny Malcolms, Jay Peterson's, the Mussers, Al Walker playing and Pinky Clifton coaching."

       Wow, what memories. Thanks Bill.

K-----K

     Back to my recollection of things I, the Kornerman, talked about at the speech, "Boone, My Kind of Town" I delivered to the Boone County Historical Society in October. Obviously, what I write now is much more detailed than the shorter "mentions" of this highlight that was made during the speech. 

     Super Bowl time is coming and who can ever believe that this year's event at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, February 11, will be the 58th "super official" edition. The first "super official" Super Bowl was held January 15, 1967, at Memorial Coliseum in Los Angeles. Green Bay was the 35-10 winner over the Kansas City Chiefs and the Packers quarterback, Bart Starr, was the Most Valuable Player.

     The Super Bowl pits the National Football League champion against the American Football League champion and the winner is proclaimed the NFL champion.

     Those "super official" games I have referred to are those games played SINCE 1967. HOWEVER, there were similar championship games prior to 1967. They simply were called "Championship" games and were not, at that time, called the Super Bowl.

     Now, here's our Boone connection.

     In the 1953 championship game, Boone area native, Jim Doran, caught a 33-yard touchdown pass from Detroit quarterback Bobby Layne that resulted in a 17-16 victory for the Lions over the New York Giants.

     Now, who's this Jim Doran? Born in Beaver, no high school football was available at that small school. As an incoming freshman at Buena Vista College in the fall of 1947, Doran decided he wanted to give this sport a try.

     Doran quickly transferred to Iowa State and became a sprinter, high jumper and shot putter for the Cyclone track team. As a member of the ISU football squad in 1948, a broken ankle in the season opener, resulted in a lost season. 

     In 1949, he helped the ISU team to a 5-3-1 record, its first winning football season in 14 years. Individually, Doran became a star. With 689 yards on 34 catches as an offensive end, he was named to the All-Big Seven team, broke the league's single-season receiving record by over 200 yards AND set an NCAA record against Oklahoma by catching eight passes for 203 yards.

     His college days ended in 1950 when he caught 42 passes for 652 and six touchdowns to earn first team All-American and All Big Seven honors. He ended his Cyclone career owning virtually every Iowa State and Big Seven receiving marks and invitations to play in both the Hula Bowl and East-West Shrine game.

     Moving to the pros, Jim was a fifth round pick (55th overall) in the 1951 NFL draft. In his first season with Detroit, he played both offensive and defensive end and in 1952, he was named the Lions Most Valuable Player on a team that won the 1952 NFL championship game.

     Doran finished his 11-year pro career with his participation on three NFL championship teams, a Pro Bowl berth in 1960 and two seasons with the Dallas Cowboys where he became their first ever Pro Bowl selectee and scored the first touchdown, ever, in Cowboy franchise history.

     With his playing career over, Jim became an assistant coach with the Pittsburgh Steelers in the 1964 and 1965 seasons prior to returning to his love of Iowa farming.

     Through the years there have been and still are many Doran connections to Boone County and Boone itself. Jim's parents were Boone residents for a time, his sons, uncles, aunts and various other family members have spent and still do spend time in Boone and the area. As a result, we've always claimed Jim as "one of our own" and a great one he was.

     Jim died at age 66 in June of 1994.

K-----K

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