Big Red Draft History: 1967 NFL Draft

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As we move closer to the 2023 NFL Draft (April 27-29), The Big Red Zone is looking back on each of the 28 St. Louis Cardinals drafts (1960-87). This installment focuses on the 1967 Draft, which was held March 14-15, 1967 in New York.

After conducting separate drafts while competing for the same players for seven years, the NFL and AFL held their first common draft in 1967. As part of the June 1966 NFL-AFL merger, the two leagues collaborated in one two-day selection meeting that went 17 rounds and yielded 445 players.

The Cardinals made a trade right before the draft, sending running back Bill Triplett to the New York Giants in exchange for linebacker Jerry Hillebrand. The Big Red’s starting linebackers (Dale Meinert, Bill Koman and Larry Stallings) were getting older, so management obtained the younger Hillebrand, projecting him as a starter in the middle. Alas, Hillebrand lasted only one season in St. Louis and never made a start.

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Big Red Draft History: 1966 NFL Draft

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As we move closer to the 2023 NFL Draft (April 27-29), The Big Red Zone is looking back on each of the 28 St. Louis Cardinals drafts (1960-87). This installment focuses on the 1966 Draft, which was held on November 27, 1965, in New York.

Since 1966 was the last year the NFL Draft had 20 rounds, this seems like a good point to stop and evaluate the Cardinals’ drafts from 1960 (their first season in St. Louis) to 1966. In those seven drafts, the Big Red selected 151 players. According to our player ratings, based on what those players contributed to the Cardinals, this is the breakdown:

To say the Cardinals underachieved in those seven drafts would be generous.

In 1966—just like the year before, when they selected quarterback Joe Namath—the Cardinals lost their No. 1 pick in a bidding war with the AFL’s New York Jets. St. Louis chose Oklahoma linebacker Carl McAdams with the eighth overall pick.

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Big Red Draft History: 1965 NFL Draft

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As we move closer to the 2023 NFL Draft (April 27-29), The Big Red Zone is looking back on each of the 28 St. Louis Cardinals drafts (1960-87). This installment focuses on the 1965 Draft, which was held November 28, 1964 in New York.

For the second year in a row, the Cardinals’ draft turned out to be generally disappointing. Except for running backs Johnny Roland and Roy Shivers, both of whom had one more year of college eligibility (at Missouri and Utah State, respectively) and wouldn’t start their NFL careers until 1966, the team received minimal production from its 20 selections. 

The Big Red made a play for Joe Namath, taking the Alabama quarterback with their first-round pick (12th overall), but lost him in a bidding war with the New York Jets, who made him the first overall pick in the AFL Draft. The Cardinals dispatched two representatives to Tuscaloosa, AL to meet with Namath in his dorm room and try to sign him to a contract. Namath told them he wanted a $200,000 annual contract and a Lincoln Continental convertible.

“They said, ‘Oh, my god.’ The two guys fell off the bed,” Namath recalled in a 2021 podcast on The Exchange. “They went into this ‘My god’ motion and then it made me feel like a, I don’t know, a jerk.”

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Big Red Draft History: 1964 NFL Draft

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As we move closer to the 2023 NFL Draft (April 27-29), The Big Red Zone is looking back on each of the 28 St. Louis Cardinals drafts (1960-87). This installment focuses on the 1964 Draft, which was held on December 3, 1963 in Chicago.

1964 St. Louis Cardinals Draft Picks

From the December 15, 1963 edition of the St. Louis Post Dispatch.

After the 21-hour and 43-minute selection meeting ended around dawn on December 4, Cardinals team president Stormy Bidwill said, “We think it was a successful draft for us.” He should have rethought that thought. The Big Red couldn’t have gotten less production from the ’64 draft if their scouts had put on blindfolds and thrown darts at their draft board. Only three of their 20 picks made the team’s roster and 14—14!—never even played in the NFL.

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Big Red Draft History: 1963 NFL Draft

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As we move closer to the 2023 NFL Draft (April 27-29), The Big Red Zone is looking back on each of the 28 St. Louis Cardinals drafts (1960-87). This installment focuses on the 1963 Draft, which was held on December 3, 1962, in Chicago.

1963 St. Louis Cardinals Draft

Hall of Famer Jackie Smith was the Cards 10th round selection in the 1963 draft.

One year after one of the worst drafts in team history, the Cardinals had one of its best. Eight players made the roster (two more would join it in ’64) and four of those eight (strong safety Jerry Stovall, linebacker Larry Stallings, defensive end Don Brumm and tight end Jackie Smith) started as rookies. “I still can’t believe that a draft could be so productive,” coach Wally Lemm said. “Several of them were among the best players we ever had.”

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Big Red Draft Results: 1962 NFL Draft

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As we move closer to the 2023 NFL Draft (April 27-29), The Big Red Zone is looking back on all of the 28 St. Louis Cardinals drafts (1960-87). This installment focuses on the 1962 Draft, which was held December 4, 1961 in Chicago. Although the Cardinals had 21 picks, it was arguably their least productive selection meeting. Wally Lemm, who was in his first season as the team’s head coach in 1962, summarized it succinctly. “We came up with only one player, Irv Goode, who helped us,” Lemm said in the 1975 book “Big Red,” written by St. Louis Globe-Democrat sports editor Robert L. Burnes.

1961 St. Louis Cardinals Draft

Irv Goode played 10 seasons in St. Louis and earned two trips to the Pro Bowl.
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Steve Jones: Big Red Super Sub

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Steve Jones experienced both good times and hard times in his National Football League career.

The 6-foot-1, 200-pound running back was a 5th-round draft choice of the Los Angeles Rams in 1973 but was slowed by a hamstring injury and traded to St. Louis in training camp.

During his brief stay with the Cardinals, Jones impressed some coaches, but there was no room in a crowded backfield that included Terry Metcalf, Jim Otis, Donnie Anderson, Ken Willard, and Eddie Moss.

“I was beginning to pick up the St. Louis system,” Jones told The News and Observer in a 1973 interview. “They liked the way I was playing. And I know Larry Wilson was upset when I was put on waivers.”

After being release by St. Louis, Jones signed with the Buffalo Bills but didn’t see much action playing behind O.J. Simpson.

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Big Red Draft Results: 1961

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As the NFL moves closer to the 2023 Draft (April 27-29), the Big Red Zone is looking back at each of the St. Louis Cardinals’ 28 drafts (starting in 1960). Each installment in the series will include a list of that year’s selections, a rating of each pick based on that player’s contributions to the Cardinals, and notes about some of the players. Feel free to debate. One thing we probably all can agree on: The Big Red had a lot of bad drafts even before George Boone arrived on the scene. 

1961 St. Louis Cardinals Draft

Ernie McMillan and Pat Fischer played a combined 32 seasons in the NFL
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Big Red Draft Results : 1960

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As the NFL moves closer to the 2023 Draft (April 27-29), the Big Red Zone will look back at each of the St. Louis Cardinals’ 28 drafts, starting in 1960. Each installment in the series will include a list of that year’s selections, a rating of each pick based on that player’s contributions to the Cardinals, and notes about some of the players. Feel free to debate. One thing we probably all can agree on: The Big Red had a lot of bad drafts even before George Boone arrived on the scene. 

1960 St. Louis Cardinals Draft

Larry Wilson, Charley Johnson, and Bob DeMarco all came out of the 1960 Draft and had long careers in the NFL.
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Big Red Flashback 1960: Cards Draft George Izo Number One

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With the 2023 NFL Draft on the horizon (April 27-29 in Kansas City), the Big Red Zone is looking back at each of the St. Louis Cardinals’s 28 drafts, starting in 1960. Each installment in the series will include a list of that year’s selections, an evaluation of each pick (based on what the player contributed to the Cardinals), and notes about some of the players. We begin the series with a story on the St. Louis team’s first draft pick: quarterback George Izo. 

During their time in St. Louis (1960-87), the football Cardinals took 24 shots at drafting quarterbacks. They missed on only 22 of them.

With the exceptions of Charley Johnson and Neil Lomax, the other quarterbacks drafted contributed little to nothing to the Cardinals, played for other teams, or never played a single snap in the NFL. Four of the misfires came in the first round, starting, well, right from the start.

Although the Cardinals were still in Chicago when the 1960 draft was held on November 29, 1959, that is recognized as the first draft class in the team’s St. Louis history. And with their first pick in that draft (No. 2 overall), the Big Red selected Notre Dame quarterback George Izo.

(Izo also was a “territorial selection” of the New York Titans in the 1960 AFL draft. He chose to sign with the Cardinals—for $15,000, including a $2,000 signing bonus—not only because the AFL was just beginning but also because Chicago was geographically close to Notre Dame and he thought he could parlay his college stardom and, hopefully, success in the NFL into a lucrative off-the-field career in Chicago business. He even received a lucrative offer from Chicago radio station WGN. Alas, the Cardinals moved to St. Louis in March 1960.)

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