Lakers’ history: 1960 emergency landing in an Iowa cornfield

Back in January of 1960, the Minneapolis Lakers nearly met disaster as their chartered DC-3 met with electrical failure.

In a clip from a 2010 episode of True NBA, the late Jim Huber narrates the story of how the Lakers plane nearly went down “in the midst of a Midwestern blizzard.�

“It started getting cold on the plane,� said “Hot� Rod Hundley. “The plane was in trouble.�

Trying to find their way back home from a Sunday afternoon game in St. Louis, the Lakers nearly lost interim coach Jim Pollard as well as Elgin Baylor, Tommy Hawkins, Hundley and six other players.

“For a time,� co-pilot Harold Gifford told the L.A. Times from his home in Woodbury, Minn., “we weren’t sure if we’d make it.�

Gifford managed to crash-land the plane in an Iowa cornfield, saving his passengers and the Lakers franchise.

“Before we touched down, it was deathly quiet on that plane,� Gifford said. “But as soon as we came to a stop, everybody just roared. Oh my God, it was overwhelming.�

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Twitter: @EricPincus

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