1958 NFL Championship Game The 1958 National Football League Championship Game was played on December 28 , 1958 at Yankee Stadium in New York City . It was the first ever National Football League ( NFL ) playoff game to go into sudden death overtime . The final score was Baltimore Colts 23 , New York Giants 17 . The game has since become widely known as " The Greatest Game Ever Played " . The game was the 26th annual NFL championship game . The game marked the beginning of the NFL ' s popularity surge , and eventual rise to the top of the United States sports market . A major reason was that the game was televised across the nation by NBC . Baltimore receiver Raymond Berry recorded 12 receptions for 178 yards and a touchdown . His 12 receptions are a championship record that stands to this day . Background . Both teams finished the 1958 season with a 9 - 3 record . For the Giants , it was their fifth consecutive winning season , and they had won the NFL title in 1956 . In contrast , it was only the Colts second winning season in their entire history since their founding in 1946 . Batimore started off the season winning their first six games before losing to New York 24 - 21 in week 7 of the regular season . However , Colts starting quarterback Johnny Unitas was injured at the time and did not play in the game . Two weeks later , Unitas returned to lead the Colts to a critical come from behind win against hall of fame quarterback Y . A . Tittle ' s San Francisco 49ers . Trailing 27 - 7 at the end of the first half , Baltimore stormed back to win the game 35 - 27 , clinching the NFL ' s western conference and allowing them to rest their starters for the final two games of the year . New York started the season 2 - 2 before going on to win 7 of their last 8 games , including a critical 19 - 17 win over the Detroit Lions . In that game , New York fell behind late when the offense lost a fumble that was returned for a touchdown . But later on , they stopped Detroit punter Yale Lary on a fake punt attempt and drove for the go - ahead score . Then they secured the win by blocking a Lions field goal attempt as time expired in the game . Then in their final game , they managed to defeat the Cleveland Browns with Pat Summerall ' s game winning 49 - yard field goal on the final play ( the longest field goal made in the entire season among all NFL kickers ) . The win enabled them to advance to the Eastern conference playoffs , where they played the Browns again , this time shutting them out 10 - 0 . Game summary . The game got off to a rough start for both teams . On Baltimore ' s first drive , New York linebacker Sam Huff forced a fumble while sacking Johnny Unitas . Defensive back Jimmy Patton recovered the ball at the Colts 37 . One play later , Baltimore took the ball back when linebacker Gino Marchetti forced a recovered a fumble from quarterback Don Heinrich . But all the Colts managed to do with their next drive was lose another turnover when Unitas ' pass was picked off by Lindon Crow . After forcing a punt , Unitas completed a 60 - yard pass to Lenny Moore at the Giants 26 - yard line . But Baltimore ' s drive was halted at the 19 and Steve Myhra ' s field goal attempt was blocked by Huff . On the Giants next drive , Heinrich was replaced by Charley Conerly for the rest of the game . New York then drove to the Colts 30 - yard line , featuring a 38 - yard run by Frank Gifford . On third down , Conerly threw a pass to wide open fullback Alex Webster , but he slipped before the ball arrived and it fell incomplete . Pat Summerall then kicked a 36 - yard field goal to put New York on the board . In the second quarter , Baltimore defensive end Ray Krouse recovered a fumble from Gifford to set up a 2 - yard touchdown run by Colts running back Alan Ameche . On their next drive , New York got a big scoring opporunity when they recovered a fumbled punt from Jackie Simpson on the Colts 10 - yard line . But a few plays later , Gifford fumbled again , and Baltimore lineman Don Joyce recovered on his own 14 . The Colts subsequently drove 86 yards in 15 plays , including a 16 - yard scramble by Unitas on 3rd and 7 , to score on Unitas ' 15 - yard touchdown pass to Raymond Berry , giving them a 14 - 3 halftime lead . Then early in the third quarter , Baltimore reached the New York 1 - yard line . But on third down , Ameche was stopped for no gain , and the Colts turned it over on downs after Ameche was tackled trying to go wide at the 5 - yard line on a great play by linebacker Cliff Livingston , on a fourth down halfback option play . It was a huge reversal of momentum . The Giants then went 95 - yards in just four plays , scoring on Mel Triplett ' s 1 - yard touchdown run to cut the lead to 4 , with a score of 14 – 10 . The drive was highlighted by an unforgettable 86 - yard pass play from deep within the Giants own territory at the closed end of the stadium : Quarterback Charlie Conerly threw to Kyle Rote downfield left - to - right across the middle where Rote then broke an arm tackle at about mid - field ; then Rote fumbled when hit from behind at the Colts 25 , but NY Giant running back Alex Webster , who was trailing the play , picked up the ball and ran it all the way to the 1 - yard line where he was knocked out of bounds . The Giants then went ahead early in the fourth quarter with Conerly ' s 46 - yard completion to tight end Bob Schnelker setting up his 15 - yard touchdown pass to Gifford . On both of Baltimore ' s next drives they moved the ball into scoring range , but came up empty both times . First they drove to the Giants 39 - yard line , only to have Bert Rechichar miss a 46 - yard field goal . Then they got the ball back on the New York 42 following a fumble recovery by Joyce . But after driving to the 27 - yard line , Unitas was sacked twice in a row ( once by Andy Robustelli and once by Dick Modzelewski ) , moving the ball back 20 yards and pushing the Colts out of field goal range . Faced with fourth down and inches on their own 40 - yard on their ensuing drive , New York decided to punt with a little over two minutes left in the game ( on the third down play before the punt , Marchetti was knocked out of the game with a broken ankle . He refused to leave for medical treatment and watched the rest of the game sitting up on a stretcher on the sidelines ) . The Colts took over at their own 14 - yard line and Unitas engineered one of the most famous drives in football history — a " 2 - minute drill " before anyone called it that . After starting the drive with two incompletions , Unitas made a critical 11 - yard completion to Moore on third down . Following one more incompletion , he threw three consecutive passes to Berry , moving the ball 62 yards to the Giants 13 - yard line This set up a 20 - yard tying field goal by Myhra with seven seconds left to send the game into sudden - death overtime — the first overtime game in NFL playoff history . As Unitas later stated , the players had never heard of overtime before the game . " When the game ended in a tie , we were standing on the sidelines waiting to see what came next . All of a sudden , the officials came over and said , ' Send the captain out . We ' re going to flip a coin to see who will receive . ' That was the first we heard of the overtime period . " An NFL preseason exhibition game played three years earlier in Portland , Oregon had been settled by sudden - death overtime , but this was the first time an NFL game of any significance needed overtime to determine a winner . Bert Bell , the commissioner of the NFL , had just implemented the sudden - death overtime rule for this game . The overtime rule stipulated that a coin toss would be held at midfield . The available " player - captains " of the respective teams would attend it and the visiting team would choose heads or tails . The winning side of the toss would choose whether to receive the ball or kick off . Unitas called for the Colts and lost the toss . With Marchetti injured and on the sidelines , head referee Ron Gibbs gave the instructions to Colt co - captain Unitas , and Giants ' co - captains Rote and Bill Svoboda : ' The first team to score , field goal , safety , or touchdown , will win the game , and the game will be over . ' Don Maynard received the opening kickoff for the Giants and fumbled the catch , but recovered it on the Giants 20 yard line . After a " three - and - out series " , the Giants punted . On their ensuing drive , Baltimore drove 80 yards in 13 plays ( all called by QB Johnny Unitas ) on a tired NY defense . Ameche made several critical plays on the drive , catching an 8 - yard pass on 3rd and 8 from the Colts 33 , and later rushing 22 yards to the Giants 20 - yard line . Berry Also made a big impact , catching two passes for 33 yards , including a 12 - yard reception on the New York 8 . Following a 1 - yard run by Ameche and a 6 - yard catch by tight end Jim Mutscheller , Ameche scored on a third down 1 - yard touchdown run to win the game , 23 – 17 . This drive is known as one of the best drives in NFL history . During overtime , when the Colts were on the eight - yard line of the Giants , someone ran out onto the field of Yankee Stadium , causing the game to be delayed . Rumor has it , it was actually an NBC employee who was ordered to create a distraction because the national television feed had gone dead . The difficulty was the result of an unplugged TV signal cable , and the delay in the game bought NBC enough time to fix the problem before the next play . Players in the Hall of Fame . Seventeen individuals ( including coaches and administration ) who were involved in this game are members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame . They are : Aftermath . An estimated 45 million people watched the game on television in the United States . This audience could have been even greater except that because of NFL restrictions , the game was blacked out in the greater New York City area . Still , the impact from this game is far reaching . One year later , Texas billionaire Lamar Hunt would form the American Football League , which began play with 8 teams in the 1960 season . The growth of the popularity of the sport , through franchise expansion , the eventual merger with the AFL , and popularity on television , is commonly credited to this game , making it a turning point in the history of football . The game is , to date , the only NFL championship game ever decided in overtime . The drive by Baltimore at the end of regulation , with Unitas leading the team quickly down the field to set up the game - tying field goal , is often cited as the first instance of a " Two Minute Drill " , for which Unitas became famous . The Baltimore head coach was Weeb Ewbank . He would coach Baltimore to a second straight championship game win over New York the next season . Ewbank would eventually be fired from the Colts , and would take the job of head coach for the New York Jets . Ewbank led the Jets to victory over the Colts in Super Bowl III , also considered a monumental victory in the history of pro football . The Giants head coach was Jim Lee Howell , and he was aided by two coordinators who went on to greatness themselves . The defensive coordinator was Tom Landry , who left the team in 1960 to take over the then - expansion Dallas Cowboys and led them to two Super Bowl championships . The offensive coordinator was Vince Lombardi , who left the team following the game to take the head coaching position with the Green Bay Packers . Lombardi led the Packers to five championships in the 1960s , including the first two Super Bowls , and had the Super Bowl Trophy named after him after his death . Documentary . ESPN presented this game to a national audience on December 13 , 2008 . This presentation is a two - hour documentary which includes restored footage with colorization as well as a living room approach which included players past and present and fans . This was put together by ESPN Films and NFL Films . It also documents the controversial call on the field denying the Giants the first down with today ' s technology ( the officials got it right ) . Final statistics . Source : " The NFL ' s Official Encyclopedic History of Professional Football " , ( 1973 ) , p . 111 , Macmillan Publishing Co . New York , NY , LCCN 73 - 3862