LOVERRO: Interesting event in Lions history spawned famous Plimpton book

The Detroit Lions don’t have much of a championship history. Their appearance Sunday in the NFC championship game against the San Francisco 49ers is their first since the 1991 title game when they were pummeled by Washington 41-10. They haven’t won an NFL championship since 1957.

But they have one particular unique chapter in franchise history that took place 60 years ago during the 1963 NFL season when a Sports Illustrated writer reported to Lions training camp to play quarterback — and wrote a memorable book about the experience.

“Paper Lion” was the story of George Plimpton’s time in Lions training camp to try out for quarterback — a remarkable notion that illustrates a time when football was a game, not a billion-dollar juggernaut, and such arrangements could be considered.

When the book was published in 1965, Saturday Review called it “the best book written about pro football — maybe about any sport — because Plimpton captures with absolute fidelity how the average fan might feel given the opportunity to try out for a professional football team.”

Nearly 60 years later, the book still holds up, in part because it is so unique because there are few comparables. Author Stefan Fatis joined the Denver Broncos in training camp in 2006 to try out to be the kicker and wrote a book called “A Few Seconds of Panic.” But it didn’t have the impact of “Paper Lion,” which would be made into a film in 1968 starring Alan Alda as Plimpton.

Plimpton, who passed away in 2003 at the age of 76, was not a likely choice to undertake this kind of writing project. He came from a wealthy New York family that supposedly traced its family roots back to the landing of the Mayflower. He would become the editor of the influential literary magazine “The Paris Review” and was close friends with the likes of Norman Mailer, Truman Capote and Ernest Hemingway.

But he carved out this path of participatory journalism. In 1958, before an exhibition game at Yankee Stadium between teams composed of players from both leagues and managed by Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays, Plimpton pitched a half-inning against Mays’ National League team. He wrote about it in the 1961 book, “Out of My League,” the first of many such books about his experiences sparring against light heavyweight champion Archie Moore, part of the boxing book, “Shadowbox” (my favorite Plimpton book); “Open Net,” when Plimpton trained as a goalie with the Boston Bruins and played in a preseason game, and “The Bogey Man,” his attempt to play professional golf, and other books. He would even make another attempt at playing football in 1971, joining the Baltimore Colts and playing in an exhibition game against, of all teams, the Lions. That book was called “Mad Ducks and Bears,” but it was as much about his friendship with Lions players Alex Karras and John Gordy as it was about his time with the Colts.

Plimpton, who had no particular athletic experience save for Sunday football games in Central Park, would become close friends with Karras, who, ironically, was not in camp with the Lions in 1963 when Plimpton had his time with the team. The Hall of Fame defensive tackle had been suspended for the 1963 season, along with Green Bay Packers running back Paul Hornung, for betting on NFL games. Yet Karras was also a significant part of the book “Paper Lion” because of the stories teammates would tell Plimpton about the colorful defensive tackle. Karras would later become close to Plimpton, naming one of his sons after him.

Though Karras wasn’t part of the 1963 Lions, he was a big part of the movie five years later, which probably launched his career as an actor. He would appear in many films after retirement — notably as “Mongo” in Blazing Saddles” — and television as well, including the television sitcom “Webster,” on which he starred and co-produced with his wife Susan Clark. The series ran from 1983 to 1987 on ABC.

What is also of note between the book and the film is in 1963, Joe Schmidt was one of the Lions players, a Hall of Fame linebacker. When the film came out in 1968, Schmidt was the Lions coach and played himself in the movie. Also playing himself in the “Paper Lion” film was Vince Lombardi, the legendary Green Bay Packers coach, turning down Plimpton’s request to work out with the Packers. There was no such meeting written about in the book.

Here is an excerpt from the book about the five plays Plimpton ran — which lost 29 yards — as quarterback in an intersquad scrimmage: “The offensive team in their blue jerseys, about ten yards back, on their own twenty yard line, moved and collected in the huddle formation as I came up, and I slowed, and walked toward them, trying to be calm about it, almost lazying up to them to see what could be done …. I took a few tentative steps toward Bob Whitlow, the center, waiting patiently over the ball. I suddenly blurted out: ‘Well, damn it, coach, I don’t know where to put my … I just don’t know …’ The coaches all crowded around to advise, and together we moved up on Whitlow, who was now peering nervously over his shoulder like a cow about to be milked.”

On Sunday, Jared Goff will be behind center as the Lions quarterback trying to make history, joining a very short list of Detroit quarterbacks of note. George Plimpton, with five losing plays in training camp in 1963, wrote his way onto that list.

• You can hear Thom Loverro on The Kevin Sheehan Show podcast.