John Delach

An incomplete and stingy obituary for Mike Battle appeared in the March 13 edition of Newsday. Originally written by the Los Angeles Times, it mostly paid attention to his college career at USC with the only reference to his short pro career as follows: “He was chosen in the 12^th round of the 1969 NFL Draft by the Jets and played for two seasons in 1969 and ’70.”

Battle’s only professional claim to fame was entirely omitted  by in this obituary.

This story is an excerpt from my book: “17 Lost Seasons” published in 2009.

The Giants and Jets agreed to meet in an exhibition game at Yale Bowl on Sunday, August 17, 1969. Tickets were at a premium, but, my cousin,  Bill Christman, my brother-in-law, Tom Donlon and I were able to grab three. We left early that Sunday morning. Tom drove and Bill practically came directly from the hospital where his wife, Del, had given birth to their second son, Tom, earlier that morning.

The atmosphere building up for the game ,0was tense. Norm Miller set the tone in the Daily News:

The Jets and the Giants stage their Fun City Bowl today for the championship of the five boroughs, and never has so much fuss been made over a happening meant to be only a trial run in the town of New Haven, Conn. The Jets, champions of all football, were four-point favorites over the Giants in the clash that has whipped up more fan enthusiasm in Our Town than anything since the old-time Giant-Dodgers baseball rivalries. More than 70,000 of the “in’ crowd will buck the terrible traffic jam and the inevitable heat to sit in Yale Bowl (game time 2 p.m.) Millions will listen to the live radio broadcasts on WNEW and WABC and millions more will watch the two taped TV replays, the first at midnight tonight on CBS-TV (Ch. 2) and the second at 8:30 tomorrow night on WOR-TV (CH. 9).

Miller was right about the traffic. We left early enough to beat most of it on the way to New Haven, but leaving post-game was impossible. We settled in to play touch football with other stranded fans. The game lasted until a chap who thought of himself as a jock punted my football onto the roof of a Yale field house. It was the perfect ending for a miserable day. The Daily News’ sports headline reinforced the pain that Giant fans felt:

Jets 37, Giants 14

Broadway Joe, 14-for-16 Hurls

3 TD Passes

Norm Miller was angry with Giants and gave them no quarter. “With all the prestige of the championship of the city as table stakes, Joe Namath cleaned out the Giants and left ‘em for broke.”

The Jets took a 17-0 lead when they again stopped the Giants offense forcing Big Blue to punt.

Jets rookie, Mike Battle, became an unlikely hero as he sealed Big Blue’s fate.  Battle, here-to-fore best known for his strange ability to chew, eat and swallow glass stunned the crowd with an 85-yard punt return with 1:45 left in the second quarter. Increasing the J.E.T.S. – Jets – JETS  JETS lead to 24-0 and crushing the Giants and their fans. Battle’s superb moment came when he vaulted over a would-be Giants tackler on his touchdown run. (This play would ensure that the Jets would retain Battle for the next two years of his otherwise uneventful NFL career.)

Giants head coach, Allie Sherman fared much worse. The Giants preseason record dropped to 0-4 and Dave Klein wrote, “Well Mara reacted to the Jets loss as though someone close to him had died. Mara missed a whole week of training camp for the first and only time since the war. Gene Ward wrote a column on Thursday where he tried to balance Sherman successes and failures, but he did acknowledge that …the Sam Huff trade being a goof which the fans will never forgive.

The last exhibition game against the Pittsburg Steelers on Thursday night played in Montreal, Canada decided Sherman’s fate. The Giants  lost to Pittsburg by a score of 17-13 while the sparse crowd sang “Good Bye Allie, we hate to see you go over and over again French and English.

The Giants locker room was in disarray and certain columists  were starting to report that the team was becoming unglued and subject to player feuds and dissatisfaction.

Alex Webster was appointed Sherman’s successor. Mara admitted: Of all the assistant coaches, Alex has had the least experience. But he could be an inspiring influence on a ballclub whose morale has ebbed. He loves the game, he loves the team and his popularity will go a long way toward giving everyone a lift.

It didn’t and  the long struggle continued for another ten years.