Author Archives: Dennis Dillon

Unknown's avatar

About Dennis Dillon

Dennis covered the St. Louis Football Cardinals at the St. Louis Globe Democrat and was a longtime staff writer at The Sporting News.

71 Yards of Glory: Ron Yankowski’s Big Red Moment

Posted on by
2

In its entry for Arlington, MA, a town six miles northwest of Boston, Wikipedia lists 59 names under the “notable people” heading. Eleven of the 59 have ties to sports, including: John A. “Johnny” Kelley, winner of the 1935 and 1945 Boston Marathons; Tom McNeeley Jr., a former heavyweight boxing contender who challenged Floyd Patterson for the heavyweight title in 1961; and Tom Yewcic, a former quarterback for the Boston Patriots, a former catcher for the Detroit Tigers, and the only person ever to play two professional sports at Fenway Park.

Wiki’s entry for Picher, OK., a town tucked into the northeast corner of Oklahoma which once was a major national center of lead and zinc but is now a ghost town, identifies only one “notable person:” Joe Ron Looney, the lead guitarist for the country music band Rascal Flatts.

Neither entry mentions Ron Yankowski, who was born in Arlington; spent his formative years growing up on a farm in Picher; played football for a junior college national champion as well as Kansas State before forging a 10-year career in the NFL as a defensive lineman with the Cardinals.

Yankowski hardly had time to make a name for himself in Arlington—his family moved to Picher when he was just six months old—but to do all he did in football and not be recognized as a notable person from Picher? Let’s just say Yank fell through the Wikicracks.

“I think I was left out of a lot of stuff,” Yankowski said without a trace of bitterness. “It didn’t bother me because I’ve enjoyed life. To come from a small town and go where I went was kind of unbelievable. I really thank God for watching over me.”

Continue reading →

He Wanted to Trade Jim Hart. Then He Was Fired for Not Benching Him!

Posted on by
3

Bud Wilkinson was so upset that he wasn’t thinking clearly. The Cardinals head coach was talking about trading Jim Hart, the Big Red’s four-time Pro Bowl quarterback, to the New York Giants for Randy Dean, a third-year, backup QB.

This was September 30, 1979, in Los Angeles. The Cardinals had lost, 21-0, to the Rams, their fourth defeat in five games to start the season. The year before, Wilkinson’s first as head coach, the Cardinals had lost their first eight games before winning six of their final eight. But the optimism engendered by that finish was long gone.

Now, as Wilkinson and several other team members ate dinner together before their red-eye flight back to St. Louis (Ozark Airlines, the team’s regular carrier, wasn’t operating because of a flight attendants’ strike), the bewildered coach vented and talked about making changes. First, he threatened to cut a couple of players the next day (that didn’t happen).

“Then he voices frustration with Jim Hart, specifically a lack of mobility,” recalled a senior member of the Cardinals administration who was at the dinner. “He said you can’t win without a quarterback who can move, as in run. He said he would like to trade Hart in order to get a mobile QB.

Continue reading →

Big Red Legends Bring St. Louis Football Memories Back to Life

Posted on by
3

The football Cardinals left St. Louis almost 40 years ago, but the memories they forged during their 28-season stay in the LOU live on in the minds and hearts of their fans.

That was evident recently when dozens of enthusiastic Big Red devotees filled a room at the Missouri Athletic Club West and listened raptly as a quartet of former Cardinals players stoked those memories with their rich stories. 

Johnny Roland, Jim Otis, Eric Williams and Tom Ackerman (Photo courtesy of Missouri Athletic Club)

The event, “Big Red Sports Talk Happy Hour,” was presented by the St. Louis Sports Hall of Fame in collaboration with the MAC. KMOX Radio personality Tom Ackerman was the moderator.

The panel consisted of Pro Football Hall of Fame tight end Jackie Smith, running back Johnny Roland, fullback Jim Otis and linebacker Eric Williams. Three other former Big Red players—defensive tackle Bob Rowe, defensive end Ron Yankowski and kicker Mike Wood—also were in attendance.

Continue reading →

Remembering “Mr. Everything” Jerry Stovall

Posted on by
5

They called Jerry Stovall “Mr. Everything” because on a football field he could do almost anything.

During three varsity seasons at LSU (1960-62), Stovall excelled as a running back, receiver, safety, punter, and kick returner. After his senior season in ‘62, he was a unanimous pick to the All-America team as a halfback, named the Southeastern Conference’s most valuable player, and finished as runner-up to Terry Baker in the Heisman voting.

“Jerry Stovall was one of the great all-around players of his era and a tremendous representative of LSU and the game of college football,” said Archie Manning, speaking as chairman of the National Football Foundation. “There simply wasn’t much he couldn’t do on a football field.”

Stovall, who also played multiple roles in nine NFL seasons with the St. Louis Cardinals (1963-1971), passed away on August 31, 2026 after a long battle with heart disease, according to Saturday Down South. He was 85.

A native of West Monroe, LA, Stovall compiled impressive numbers at LSU: 1,081 yards and 13 touchdowns as a rusher; 462 yards as a receiver; seven interceptions as a safety; and nearly 700 yards on special teams. He once held the school record for punting yards average in a season (42.1).

Continue reading →

The Next Great Quarterback

Posted on by
1

Marino, Montana May Have To Make Room For Neil Lomax

(Editor’s Note: This is a reprint of a Dennis Dillon article from the September 23, 1985 edition of The Sporting News)

Over the years, quarterbacks have formed the Ursa Major in the National Football League’s galaxy of stars.

In the 1960s, Johnny Unitas and Bart Starr were the luminaries. Terry Bradshaw, Roger Staubach and Fran Tarkenton shown as brightly as anyone in the next decade. Thus far in the ‘90s, indelible prints have been left by Joe Montana and Dan Marino.

But a new star is rising. He began his ascent gradually, then shot into the constellation last year.

That star is the St. Louis Cardinals’ Neil Lomax, the latest in the NFL’s lineage of passing princes.

Lomax clearly exhibited credentials last season, throwing for 28 touchdowns and 4,614 yards and compiling the NFL’s fourth-best passer rating (92.5). He was fifth in completion percentage (.616) and sixth in yards per attempt (8.24).

Montana and Marino wound up as the leading men in Super Bowl XIX and, afterward, a Pepsi commercial. Lomax then adjourned to less-than-cosmopolitan West Linn, Oregon, where he spent a predominantly quiet off-season clutching golf clubs and fishing rods.

And there’s the disparity. Montana and Marino have become celebrities off the field. Lomax’s star? After the season, it sets rather inconspicuously in the Pacific Northwest.

Continue reading →

Big Red Flashback: Cards-Vikings Faced Off in London in 1983

Posted on by
2

When the Jacksonville Jaguars play the Atlanta Falcons on October 1 at Wembley Stadium in London, it will mark the 43rd time the NFL has held a regular-season or preseason game on British soil.

The first time was 40 years ago today (August 6, 1983), when the Cardinals met the Minnesota Vikings in the Global Cup. It was the brainchild of John Marshall, a former Hollywood screenwriter whose International Promotions Limited company sponsored the exhibition game. The Super Bowl had been televised in England for the first time the previous January—viewers stayed up into the wee hours of the morning because of the time difference—and Marshall believed there was interest to be mined in American football.

Quarterbacks Jim Hart (L) and Tommy Kramer meet at the 50-yard line at Wembley Stadium on August 6, 1983.

The Global Cup was played on a Saturday. The Cardinals, who had been practicing for a few weeks at training camp at Eastern Illinois University in Charleston, flew out of St. Louis on a Global Airlines 707 charter that departed Lambert Field at around 7 p.m. Thursday and arrived at London’s Gatwick Airport at 10 a.m. Friday London time—some nine hours later. 

“It was a long, long, long flight,” former Big Red guard Joe Bostic recalled recently. 

Continue reading →

Big red Draft History: 1987 NFL Draft

Posted on by
2

The Big Red Zone concludes its series looking back on each of the 28 St. Louis Cardinals drafts (1960-87). This installment focuses on the 1987 Draft, which was held April 28-29 in New York.

Undeterred by three previous failed attempts at finding an elite quarterback in the first round of the NFL Draft (George Izo, 1960; Joe Namath, 1965; and Steve Pisarkiewicz, 1977) the Cardinals took one more swing in their final draft in St. Louis and selected Kelly Stouffer with their first-round pick in 1987.

In three seasons at Colorado State, Stouffer passed for 7,142 yards and 36 touchdowns. He was a first-team All-Western Athletic Conference pick as a senior. And he was named the most outstanding offensive player in the East-West Shrine All-Star Game. 

Despite that resume, several other quarterbacks had been rated higher than Stouffer, and many NFL scouts were surprised that the Big Red deemed him worthy of the sixth selection overall.

“We wouldn’t have taken him if we didn’t think he was,” said George Boone, the Cardinals’ director of personnel. “He may be even better than that. But time is going to determine that one.”

Continue reading →

Big Red Draft History: 1986 NFL Draft

Posted on by
1

The Big Red Zone continues its series by looking back on each of the 28 St. Louis Cardinals drafts (1960-87). This installment focuses on the 1986 Draft, which was held April 29-30 in New York.

Going into the 1986 NFL Draft, Gene Stallings knew defensive end was a priority for the Cardinals.

The team Stallings had inherited after succeeding Jim Hanifan as the team’s head coach had put up some disturbing defensive numbers in 1985: 34 touchdown passes allowed (most in the NFL), 13 interceptions (fewest), and 32 sacks (second to last). Only 13 of those sacks came from defensive ends.

The Big Red selected Michigan LB Anthony Bell and UCLA kicker John Lee with their first two picks in the 1986 NFL Draft.

More concerning was the uncertainty about Curtis Greer, the Big Red’s best pass rusher. Greer, who had started every game but one in the previous four seasons and had led the team with seven sacks in ’85, had undergone surgery immediately after the season for a knee that had bothered him most of the year. There was no guarantee Greer would be ready to go when the ’86 season started. (In fact, after having some cleanup surgery during training camp, he missed the entire season).  

Continue reading →

Big Red Draft History: 1985 NFL Draft

Posted on by
Reply

When Luis Sharpe signed a free-agent contract with the Memphis Showboats of the United States Football League two weeks before the 1985 NFL Draft, the Cardinals suddenly had a big hole to fill.

A first-round draft pick in 1982, Sharpe had started at left tackle all 41 games in his first three seasons with the Big Red, but now it looked like he had been lost to the upstart USFL. The Cardinals hoped to find his replacement in the Draft.

Trouble was, four of the best tackles were snatched up before it was the Cardinals’ turn to pick in the first round—Lomas Brown (Lions), Ken Ruettgers (Packers), Kevin Allen (Eagles) and Jim Lachey (Chargers)—so the team went to Plan B and selected Mississippi defensive end Freddie Joe Nunn with the 18th overall choice.

A few months earlier, Big Red coach Jim Hanifan and his staff had coached the North team in the Senior Bowl, and Nunn’s performance for the South squad had impressed Hanifan.

“He roared in on us all day long from defensive right end,” Hanifan recalled. “It’s going to be a pleasure having him on the same side of the fence. … He can create havoc for us as a pass rusher right away.”

To mitigate the loss of Sharpe, St. Louis picked Wisconsin’s Scott Bergold in the second round. Bergold had been a defensive tackle in college but Hanifan, who had coached Bergold in the Senior Bowl, said Bergold would be converted to offensive tackle in the NFL. Although that plan didn’t work out, Sharpe re-signed with the Cardinals before the 1985 season and played another 10 years with the team.  

Continue reading →

Big Red Draft History: 1984 NFL Draft

Posted on by
1

The Big Red Zone continues its series looking back on each of the 28 St. Louis Cardinals drafts (1960-87). This installment focuses on the 1984 Draft, which was held May 1-2 in New York.

When the Cardinals selected University of Tennessee wide receiver Clyde Duncan with their first-round pick (17th overall) in the 1984 NFL Draft, no one was more surprised than Duncan himself.

“It was a really a shock. I had no idea I would go in the first round,” said Duncan, who did not make a significant impact as a receiver at Tennessee until his senior season, when he caught 33 passes for 640 yards and six touchdowns.

The Big Red chose Duncan even though they could have taken the more highly rated Louis Lipps, a wide receiver from Southern Mississippi. 

Cardinals owner Bill Bidwill (R) greets 1984 top pick Clyde Duncan.

In his first two seasons in the NFL—his only seasons—Duncan had a combined four receptions for 39 yards and one touchdown. In his first two seasons, Lipps caught 104 passes for 1,994 yards and 21 TDs for Pittsburgh.

There was only one problem with Duncan. He couldn’t catch the football. 

Continue reading →