The 1958 season was Detroit Lions' 29th in the National Football League (NFL), their 18th playing in Briggs Stadium, and their second under head coach George Wilson. The defending NFL champions failed to improve on their 8–4 record from the previous season and finished at 4–7–1, fifth in the six-team Western Conference.1958 Detroit Lions

Following the second game of the regular season in early October, the Lions made a major trade. Future hall of fame quarterback Bobby Layne, the Lions' primary starter for eight seasons and leader of three championship teams, was traded to the Pittsburgh Steelers for third-year quarterback Earl Morrall and two draft choices.

This supposedly led to Layne "cursing" the Lions, allegedly saying that Detroit "would not win for fifty years." The story is considered a hoax, as no contemporaneous account exists and Layne himself denied saying it. (Real or not, the "curse" bedeviled the Lions franchise for the next half-century, and beyond: as of 2024, 66 years after the trade, Detroit has not won another championship, and indeed has won only three playoff contests [two of them in 2023] in that time.) Meanwhile, after losing their first two games without Layne, the Steelers finished at 7–4–1, their best record in over a decade.

The Lions won only one game in the first half of the season (1–4–1), then spilt the final six games; one of the poorest performances by a defending league champion in NFL history. The preseason began on a sour note in mid-August as they lost 35–19 to the 14-point underdog College All-Stars at Soldier Field in Chicago, closing the margin with a late touchdown.

Preseason WeekDateOpponentResultRecordVenueAttendance 1 vs. College All-Stars L 19–35 0–1 Soldier Field 70,000 2 Cleveland Browns W 17–7 1–1 Briggs Stadium 36,662 3 New York Giants W 26–7 2–1 Briggs Stadium 33,090 4 vs. Chicago Bears L 17–24 2–2 Cotton Bowl 40,000 5 vs. Philadelphia Eagles L 24–31 2–3 Oklahoma Memorial Stadium 61,000 6 at Cleveland Browns L 7–41 2–4 Cleveland Municipal Stadium 35,543

Regular season

According to the team, a total of 42,154 season tickets were sold by the Lions for the 1957 campaign.Edward M. "Bud" Erickson (ed.), Detroit Lions Facts Book 1963: Press, Radio, TV. Detroit, MI: Detroit Football Company, 1963, p. 4. The Lions played their home games in Briggs Stadium (Tiger Stadium), which had a regular listed seating capacity of 46,194, with an additional 7,000 bleacher seats for football to bring total capacity to 53,194.

GameDateOpponentResultRecordVenueAttendanceRecapSources 1 September 28 at Baltimore Colts L 15–28 0–1 Memorial Stadium 48,377 Recap 2 October 5 at Green Bay Packers T 13–13 0–1–1 New City Stadium 32,035 Recap 3 October 12 Los Angeles Rams L28–42 0–2–1 Briggs Stadium 55,648 Recap 4 October 19 Baltimore Colts L 14–40 0–3–1 Briggs Stadium 55,190 Recap 5 October 26 at Los Angeles Rams W 41–24 1–3–1 L.A. Memorial Coliseum 81,703 Recap 6 November 2 at San Francisco 49ers L 21–24 1–4–1 Kezar Stadium 59,350 Recap 7 November 9 at Cleveland Browns W 30–10 2–4–1 Cleveland Municipal Stadium 75,563 Recap 8 November 16 San Francisco 49ers W 35–21 3–4–1 Briggs Stadium 54,523 Recap 9 November 23 Chicago Bears L 7–20 3–5–1 Briggs Stadium 55,280 Recap 10 November 27 Green Bay Packers W 24–14 4–5–1 Briggs Stadium 50,971 Recap 11 December 7 vs. New York Giants L 17–19 4–6–1 Briggs Stadium 50,115 Recap 12 December 14 at Chicago Bears L 16–21 4–7–1 Wrigley Field 38,346 Recap Note: Intra-conference opponents are in bold text. Thanksgiving: November 27.

Game summaries Week 10

Pro-Football-Reference.com

Standings

Roster Detroit Lions 1958 roster Quarterbacks 14 Earl Morrall 18 Tobin Rote

Running backs 40 Howard Cassady 26 Gene Gedman 35 John Henry Johnson 45 Dan Lewis 34 Ken Webb

Receivers 80 Jim Gibbons 84 Dave Middleton 87 Perry Richards 81 Tom Rychlec Offensive linemen 50 Charlie Ane C/T 67 Stan Campbell G 76 Lou Creekmur T 64 Doug Hogland G 73 Ken Russell T 66 Harley Sewell G

Defensive linemen 85 Gene Cronin DE/DT 53 Bill Glass DT/C 71 Alex Karras DT 72 Gil Mains DT 78 Darris McCord DE 74 Bob Miller DT 79 Gerry Perry DT/DE/K Linebackers 86 Bob Long OLB/DE 47 Jim Martin MLB/K 56 Joe Schmidt MLB 55 Wayne Walker OLB 57 Roger Zatkoff OLB

Defensive backs 41 Terry Barr CB 24 Jack Christiansen S 25 James David CB 28 Yale Lary S/P 43 Gary Lowe S 23 Dave Whitsell CB Reserve lists -- Hal Boutte WR (Military) 83 Jim Doran WR (IR) -- Steve Junker WR (IR) -- Jerry Reichow WR (IR)

rookies in italics

References