CRASH OF '76 WASN'T COLTS' PLAYOFF LOSS\Plane landing in stadium is what's remembered most.

Byline: Alan Robinson Associated Press 

Let's start with the plane crash.

That's actually the final - and most lasting - scene from the last time the Colts and the Steelers met in the AFC playoffs, in a frigid Memorial Stadium in Baltimore 20 years ago.

If the renowned Cowboys-Packers game nine years earlier is remembered as the Ice Bowl, perhaps the 1976 Colts-Steelers game should be called the Bizarre Bowl.

The Steelers won, but it turned out they were even bigger losers than the Colts. Baltimore, then the Colts' home, would ultimately lose, too - namely, the franchise.

But back to the airplane.

"Geez, what a crazy game it was," former Steelers running back Rocky Bleier said of Pittsburgh's 40-14 victory on Dec. 19, 1976.

"We were in the locker room after the game, getting undressed and watching the Oakland game - that's who we would play next - and the TV came back on and showed this plane had crashed into the seats. We hadn't seen it, or heard it."

Minutes after the game ended, a blue-and-white Piper Cherokee - yes, it bore the Colts' colors - plummeted into three rows of chair-back seats just above the baseball press box.

The pilot, Donald Kroner, was slightly injured and three city policemen also were hurt. It was later determined the pilot, who was charged with numerous offenses, intended to perform some sort of flying stunt, with the nationally televised playoff game as a backdrop.

The crash is now part of NFL folklore and viewed as more peculiar than tragic, but the consequences could have been much worse. Nearly 20,000 fans were still in the stadium when the crash occurred, and many had only just left their seats.

"How fortunate it was a blowout," said Bleier, now a Pittsburgh businessman and motivational speaker. "What if it had been an overtime game, or what if the Colts had won and everybody had been celebrating?"

Ted Marchibroda, then in his first tenure as the Colts coach, recalled that the crash spared him some discomfort.

"We were in the locker room and somebody said, 'A plane crashed into the stadium!,"' said Marchibroda, who will coach the Colts in today's AFC championship game in Pittsburgh. "We went out in the dugout and, sure enough, we looked up in the second tier and there it was.

"I think now it really saved me some embarrassment because we lost that game, but everybody was paying attention to that plane."

The Colts were 11-3 that season but, after the loss, would have only one more winning season before relocating to Indianapolis in 1984.

To the Steelers, their victory on that cold, cloudy, pre-Christmas afternoon quickly proved hollow and incomplete. What may have been the best team in Steelers history won its 10th in a row that day, but lost its two 1,000-yard running backs, Franco Harris and Bleier, to injuries.

Neither recovered in time to play in the Steelers' 24-7 AFC championship game loss in Oakland a week later. To this day, Bleier and many ex-Steelers are convinced they would have won a third consecutive Super Bowl if even a semblance of their offense had been intact.

"We didn't have a running game, so the Raiders just sat back and blitzed and took the passing game away," Bleier said.

The loss diminished what might have been the most determined comeback in NFL history. The Steelers rallied from a 1-4 start and the nearly season-long injury loss of quarterback Terry Bradshaw with a furious stretch of defense that has never been even remotely rivaled.

A defense led by Hall of Famers Mean Joe Greene, Jack Lambert, Jack Ham and Mel Blount shut out five opponents during a regular season-ending nine-game winning streak, and held three others to only field goals. Only one opponent, Houston, scored a touchdown during the unprecedented run.

"It's one of those could-have-beens," Bleier said. "People forget now because of the four Super Bowls, but we easily could have made it five of six and three in a row. It might never have been broken."

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A Piper Cheroke sits in the upper deck of Baltimore's Memorial Stadium moments after the end of the Colts-Steelers 1976 playoff game. Associated Press