Obrey Brown

Redlands Connection is a mixture of sports memories emanating from a city that once numbered less than 20,000 people. From the Super Bowl to the World Series, from the World Cup to golf’s U.S. Open, plus NCAA Final Four connections, Tour de France cycling, major tennis, soccer, NBA and a little NHL, aquatics and quite a bit more, the sparkling little city that sits around halfway between Los Angeles and Palm Springs on Interstate 10 has its share of sports connections. – Obrey Brown

Part 3

For Greg Horton, who blocked familiar foes on the Rams’ defensive line, that 9-0 NFC championship game loss to Los Angeles was his final game with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. A contract dispute, a hold-out, getting cut, all conspired to lead Horton temporarily back to the west coast.

Horton, a Redlands High School product, once stood across the practice field line against Fred Dryer and Jim Youngblood, Bob Brudzinski and Jack Reynolds — days when he played with the Rams before getting traded to Tampa Bay. Those were the guys now standing across from Horton in a rugged NFC championship game at Tampa in January 1979.

Only a week before that loss, Tampa Bay slugged its way past Philadelphia, 24-17, in an NFC Divisional playoff. Horton blocked for a pair of Ricky Bell TD runs, played on a line that surrendered no sacks, protecting QB Doug Williams on a 9-yard TD pass to TE Jimmie Giles.

It was a short-lived stay for Horton in Tampa.

Bucs’ coach John McKay, it seems, had gotten a full view of a University of Wisconsin guard, Ray Snell, who was considered to be a faster player at that position. Between Horton’s contractual holdout and Snell’s promising prospective, there was a switch at left guard made between the 1979 and 1980 seasons.

Horton was gone – back to L.A., in fact – where he played two games with the Rams before eventually getting cut.

Tampa, which allowed three short field goals to Rams’ placekicker Frank Corral in that 9-0 loss, eventually slumped to 5-10-1 in 1980 — no playoffs. McKay got the Bucs back into the playoffs two more times before a a combined 8-24 record in 1984 and ’85 led to a change.

Only a dozen sacks on a 1979 blocking corps that included Horton? In 16 games? A year later, the Horton-less Bucs’ line surrendered twice that amount, 24 sacks, still not a dismal total.  Williams’s QB play improved that 1980 season. Who knows how well the Bucs would’ve fared if Horton had stayed put?

Incidentally, those dozen QB sacks in 1979 included just seven knockdown for Williams; backup Mike Rae was sacked five times. It wasn’t an NFL record, but it was close.  Four years before the Bucs protected Williams so well, the St. Louis Cardinals blocked a little better for their QB, Jim Hart. They surrendered a mere seven sacks with a line that included Hall of Famer Dan Dierdorff and All-Pro Conrad Dobler.

As for Horton’s replacement?

Snell, taken as the 22nd overall pick in the 1980 NFL draft, spent five seasons blocking for Williams, at times alternating with lineman George Yarno while bringing in plays from the sideline. Snell started 46 of his 64 career games at Tampa Bay before getting dealt to Pittsburgh.

Horton, a 6-foot-4, 260-pound blocker, surfaced in the newly-organized United States Football League where he spent 1982 and 1983 with the Boston Breakers. He blocked for the highly underachieving RB Marcus DuPree (Oklahoma) in that short-lived summer-based league.

It was Week 10 – Saturday night, May 7, 1983 – when the Breakers showed up at the L.A. Coliseum to play the Los Angeles Express. L.A. beat Horton’s team again, 23-20. A little over 16,000 showed up in that massive 100,000-seat stadium to watch.

I’d been granted a field pass, something that never would’ve happened in an NFL game. Horton was gracious enough to visit with me during the game – and after. He had a few games left in the tank, but his pro career was nearing an end.

So, for that matter, was the USFL.

FROM NFL BACK TO HOMETOWN

Horton, born in San Bernardino in 1951, didn’t leave all his good works on the football field. He returned to Redlands, working businesses, growing up his family – his wife, Shirley, and two daughters – and participated in coaching and went heavily into the city’s legendary high school booster club, The Benchwarmers.

During his career, Horton had blocked against the likes of Alan Page and Carl Eller, Harry Carson and Randy White, plus “Too Tall” Jones – the player taken No. 1 overall in the same 1974 draft when he was plucked by the Bears.

He never played a down for the Bears, who were in transition from the Hall of Fame seasons from middle linebacker Dick Butkus and running back Gale Sayers. Gary Huff QB’d that Bears’ team – 4-10 under coach Abe Gibron in 1974. One year later, the Bears made a nice pick in the draft, picking up Walter Payton.

A curious side note about Gibron. A few years after her husband’s death, Shirley Horton confided that one of the reasons Horton wanted out of Chicago was that he wasn’t that convinced Gibron was the right fit as Bears’ coach.

“When he got to Tampa a few years later,” Shirley said, chuckling, “guess who the offensive line coach was?” Turns out it was Gibron. “Greg just laughed about that.”

That second season, 1975, the Bears were coached by Jack Pardee – another 4-10 record – with no real future in sight. Payton had a blocking corps of Jeff Sevy, Mark Nordquist, Dan Pfeiffer, Noah Jackson and Lionel Antoine.

By Horton’s third season, he was in L.A., playing backup on a Rams’ offensive line that included four No. 1 picks – Dennis Harrah, Tom Mack and Doug France, plus John Williams (Baltimore) – surrounding center Rich Saul.

That line was good enough that Horton was expendable, traded to Tampa midway into that 1978 rebuilding season.

The Rams were memorable during that 1970s run – playoffs each season under Chuck Knox (54-15 between 1973-77). Except for that little spurt when Horton replaced injured Dennis Harrah, it wasn’t until his trade to Tampa that his career got interesting. Twenty-eight of his 34 career starts came in Tampa.

A curious note, an extra Redlands “connection” was this: On Sept. 9, 1979, Tampa Bay beat the Baltimore Colts, 29-26, in a Buccaneers’ home game. Standing on the opposing sideline was another ex-Terrier, Brian DeRoo.

“It was the only time,” said DeRoo, “we ever faced each other in a game. Early in the game, though, Greg got thrown out for pushing a referee. I think it was after the first play.”

Also in that game, DeRoo caught three passes for 81 yards. One of those was a 67-yard bomb from Colts’ QB Greg Landry – a play that was highlighted one night later on ABC-TV’s Monday Night Football, halftime highlights narrated by Howard Cosell.

‘GUNNS’ DURING HIS BUFF DAYS

During his college years at Colorado – playing in the Big Eight Conference for the Buffaloes, Eddie Crowder head coach – Horton was a three-year starter for a team that finished 23-12 between 1971 and 1973. Future Oakland/Los Angeles Raider legend Cliff Branch was a Buffalo teammate.

On New Year’s Eve 1971, the seventh-ranked Buffaloes stopped No. 15 Houston, 29-17, in the Bluebonnet Bowl. A year later, the 13^th-ranked Buffs lost the Gator Bowl to No. 6 Auburn.

As for the Big Eight, Barry Switzer-coached Oklahoma and and Tom Osborne-coached Nebraska were the dominant teams.

While the Buffaloes dreamed of unsettling the legendary Sooners and Cornhuskers, Colorado might have been the closest team to contend with those national powerhouse teams.

Colorado’s only two losses in a 10-2 season (1971) came against the No. 2 Sooners, 45-17, and No. 1 Nebraska, 31-7. Horton, a sophomore, blocked against the likes of Oklahoma’s Lucious Selmon, whose brother, Lee Roy, would be a future NFL teammate in Tampa.

Yes, future Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Rodgers was on the field against Colorado in Nebraska’s victory over the ninth-ranked Buffs. The Huskers, 13-0 overall, wound up as national champions.

Fast forward a few decades. Past that 1974 NFL draft. Past his two non-playing seasons in Chicago. Past his initial years with the Rams. Past the main portion of his career in Tampa Bay. Past those two games in his Rams’ return, plus the USFL.

As mentioned in Part 1 of this series, I sat across from Horton at the lunch table in that Redlands burger joint. His hopes to launch a local business into orbit was on his mind.

His didn’t necessarily want to talk football.

Horton wanted to talk big plans.

He didn’t want to rerun his football career.

Horton wanted to attract clients.

All that football background – playing against a Heisman winner, college football’s top-ranked teams, NFL Hall of Famers, All-Pros, drafted by NFL heavyweight George Halas, playing for legendary coach John McKay, nearly reaching the Super Bowl with a remarkable worst-to-first team – seemed like a distant memory.

Horton had a business to organize.

“When will this story run?” he asked.

“Soon as I write it up.”

My hope was that the article came out all right. All mention of his business was sidelined by advertising and front office executives looking to block free advertising for his company.