Thursday • March 28
CST 5:49 | EST 6:49 | MST 4:49 | PST 3:49 | GMT 10:49
Other Non-Flash Media Players
Ken Anderson and Bill McCartney
Bookmark and Share
David and Elliott are back in the huddle for another edition of Sports and Torts. This week, we feature former Bengals QB Ken Anderson and former Colorado Head Football Coach Bill McCartney.
Episode Segments:
 
Sports and Torts: Bill McCartney
Bill McCartney served as head football coach of the University of Colorado Buffaloes from 1982 to 1994, where he compiled a record of 93–55–5 and won three consecutive Big Eight Conference titles between 1989 and 1991. In 1990, the Buffs were voted national champions by the Associated Press, the first in school history
Listen to this MP3 file... Download this MP3 file... View this video file...

 
 
Sports and Torts: Ken Anderson
Ken Anderson was one of the best quarterbacks of his era. He played for the Cincinnati Bengals his whole career, and Bill Walsh was his quarterback coach. Anderson is considered one of the first quarterbacks to run what would become known as the West Coast Offense, and he was an extremely accurate passer who led the league in QB rating four times. Many feel that Anderson deserves consideration for the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Listen to this MP3 file... Download this MP3 file... View this video file...

 
Guest(s) Appearing on this Episode
Bill McCartney
Bill McCartney is the former head football coach of the University of Colorado. His team, the Colorado Buffaloes, won a co-national championship in 1990. In his first season the Colorado Buffaloes compiled a record of 2–8–1, but McCartney began rebuilding Colorado in the early 1980s by pointing to the success of Big Eight rival Nebraska Cornhuskers. McCartney stated that it would take five years to turn the Buffaloes into a winning program. After a disastrous 1–10 season in 1984, McCartney signed a contract extension.

Born on August 22, 1940 in Riverview, Michigan, Mccartney is also the founder of the Promise Keepers men’s ministry. In 2008 he came out of retirement to become the CEO and chairman of the board of Promise Keepers, after founding the Road to Jerusalem ministry.

He was inducted into the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame (1999) and the Orange Bowl Hall of Fame (1996) and has been honored as UPI Coach of the Year (1990), Big Eight Conference Coach of the Year (1985, 1989, 1990), and National Coach of the Year (1989).

He serves on the board of directors of the Equip Foundation, Gospel to the Unreached Millions, and Concerts of Prayer International and has been honored with personal awards including: Humanitarian of the Year from the Syl Morgan Smith Colorado Gospel Music Academy (1999); the Evangelist Philip Award from the National Association of United Methodist Evangelists (1999); the Fire-Setters Award from Revival Fires Ministries (1997); Layperson of the Year from the National Association of Evangelicals (1996); ABC News Person of the Week (February 16, 1996); the Chief Award from Chief, Inc., Phoenix, Az. (1996); the Spectrum Award from Sports Spectrum magazine (1995); and the Impact America Award from Point Loma College (1995).


Coach McCartney's Website

 
Ken Anderson
fter playing for and graduating from Augustana College (Illinois), Anderson was drafted 67th overall in the 1971 NFL Draft by the Bengals. He earned the starting job in 1972. He would become one of the most accurate short-range passers in the league, and was extremely effective at rushing the ball for a quarterback. Because Bill Walsh was Ken's quarterbacks coach, Ken is considered to be one of the first quarterbacks to run what would become known as the "West Coast Offense."

Anderson's best season was in 1981, although it started out very badly for him. In the Bengals opening game against the Seattle Seahawks, Anderson was intercepted 3 times in the first half and the Seahawks built up a 21-0 halftime lead. In the second half, Cincinnati coach Forrest Gregg benched Anderson and brought in third string quarterback Turk Schonert (second string quarterback Jack Thompson was injured at the time). With Schonert in command of the offense, the Bengals stormed back and won the game 27-21. Gregg considered starting Schonert or Thompson for the next game against the New York Jets, but decided to stick with Anderson after an impassioned discussion the two had during the week leading up to the game. Anderson took advantage of his second chance by throwing for 246 yards and 2 touchdowns, and the Bengals won the game 31-30.

By the time the season ended, Anderson had completed 62.6% of his passes for 3,754 yards and 29 touchdowns, with only 10 interceptions leading the NFL with a career-high 98.4 passer rating. He also gained another 320 yards and 1 touchdown on the ground. This performance earned him both the Associated Press and Professional Football Writers of America NFL Most Valuable Player Awards and the NFL Comeback Player of the Year Award. Anderson then lead the Bengals to their first ever playoff victory over the Buffalo Bills, and then he led Cincinnati to a 27-7 win in the AFC championship game (which later became known as the Freezer Bowl) over the San Diego Chargers, earning a trip to the first Super Bowl appearance in franchise history.

The Bengals lost Super Bowl XVI 26-21 against the San Francisco 49ers, but Anderson had a solid performance, especially in the second half, despite his team trailing 20-0 at the end of the first half. He completed 25 of 34 passes for 300 yards and 2 touchdowns, with 2 interceptions, and gained 14 rushing yards and a touchdown on 5 rushing attempts. At the time, his 25 completions and 73.5% completion percentage were both Super Bowl records.

The following season (1982), Anderson set an NFL record by completing 70.6% of his passes. But his team lost in the first round of the playoffs at Riverfront Stadium to the New York Jets. Anderson continued as the Bengals starting quarterback for the next 2 seasons, but in both seasons he threw more interceptions than touchdowns, was injured for stretches, and the Bengals failed to make the playoffs. In 1985 he was replaced by Boomer Esiason for the third game of the season, a home contest against the San Diego Chargers. From this point on, Anderson backed up Esiason before retiring after the 1986 season.

In his 16 NFL seasons, Anderson completed 2,654 of 4,475 passes (59.3%) for 32,838 yards and 197 touchdowns and 160 interceptions. He also gained 2,220 rushing yards and 20 touchdowns on 397 carries. His completions, passing yards, and touchdown passes are all Bengals records. His 2,220 rushing yards are the most ever by a Bengals quarterback. Anderson led the NFL in Quarterback Rating 4 times during his career (1974, '75, '81 and '82) and led the league in passing yards twice (1974, 1975). He was selected to 4 Pro-Bowls (1975-76 & 1981-82). Anderson was voted All-Pro in 1981, 2nd Team All-Pro in 1975 and 2nd Team All-AFC in 1974 & 1982.t the time of Ken's retirement following the 1986 season, he held NFL records for consecutive pass completions (20), completion percentage for a single game (20 of 22, 90.9%, vs. Pittsburgh in 1974) and completion percentage for a season (70.6% in 1982), as well as the Super Bowl records for completion percentage (73.5%) (since broken by Phil Simms) and completions (25; Tom Brady holds the current record with 37). Furthermore, Ken was ranked 6th all-time for passing yards in a career at the time of his retirement. Ken's record for completion percentage in a season stood for 27 years after his retirement (broken by Drew Brees in 2009). As of 2005, he is among the top 30 all-time leaders in pass attempts (24th), completions (18th), passing yards (21st) and passing touchdowns (28th). He led the NFL in passing yards and completions twice, and lead the league in fewest interceptions per pass attempt 3 times. He ranks seventh in NFL history for postseason quarterback rating, 93.5

After serving as a color analyst for the Bengals' radio broadcasts from 1987–1992, Anderson re-joined the team in 1993 as their quarterbacks coach, a position he held until 1996. After that, he served as the team's offensive coordinator from 1996–2000, and then again as the team's quarterbacks coach in 2001 and 2002. In 2003 he became a wide receivers coach for the Jacksonville Jaguars, and was their quarterbacks coach. He was fired after the 2006 8-8 season along with the offensive coordinator Carl Smith and special teams coach Pete Rodriguez by Jack Del Rio. In January 2007, new Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin hired Anderson as his quarterbacks coach under offensive coordinator Bruce Arians. On January 5, 2010, Mike Tomlin announced that Anderson would be retiring, effective immediately. Anderson earned a Super Bowl ring when the Steelers won Super Bowl XLIII.