OxfordPress.com

Next game: Saints at Bengals, 7:30 p.m. Saturday.

Radio: WTUE-FM (104.7)

TV: WKEF-TV (Channel 22).

GEORGETOWN, Ky. — Cincinnati Bengals fans who have a passion for the franchise's alumni surely remember Virgil Carter.

The former Bengals quarterback (1970-73) — on vacation from Helendale, Calif. — paid a surprise visit to training camp for the club's final morning practice here on Wednesday.

The team broke training camp at Georgetown College in the afternoon and headed home Cincinnati.

Carter met head coach Marvin Lewis, lunched with team president Mike Brown and drove to Cincinnati, where he plans to hook up with some former teammates and attend Saturday's preseason game against the visiting New Orleans Saints.

"It's a nice training camp, perfect for what you have to go through," Carter said. "But what amazes me is how little time they spend at camp anymore. When I played, we used to train for at least six weeks — two-a-days for five of them. It just went on and on and on."

The Bengals were 1-6 in 1970 when Carter took over for Sam Wyche and guided the team to seven straight victories, winning the AFC Central Division (8-6) in a "worst-to-first" climb to a championship in the Bengals' third year of existence.

On Nov. 15 that year, Carter became the only Bengals quarterback to rush for 100 yards in a game when he gained 110 on nine carries in a 14-10 victory over Cleveland in the first Bengals-Browns game at Riverfront Stadium.

Carter's visit — he was accompanied by his son, Chad Carter, and grandson, Jonah Hamilton — brought back a ton of memories of the glory days of the past.

"That whole march to the championship was important," Carter said, "but probably my proudest moment was returning to the Houston game (a 30-20 Bengals victory on Dec. 13 at the Astrodome) with 14 stitches in my tongue after having it almost lacerated off and finishing the game and us winning so we could have a chance to play for the playoff game the next week.

"Ron Pritchard gave me a forearm and basically severed my tongue within about a quarter of an inch and 14 stitches without anesthetic or pain pills were required at halftime. I played the second half and we engineered a victory. That, to me, summed up the spirit of that team and probably me as a quarterback — pretty brittle but yet gutsy.

"With the adrenaline in the game, it was OK, but when I got on the plane my tongue was swollen to the inside of my mouth. I couldn't even eat mashed potatoes on the airplane going home. I had to drink the juice of boiled round steak for a week. I couldn't talk. Sam Wyche was calling the plays in practice while I was handing off and doing the maneuvers. I lost about 15 pounds that week."

Carter, who turns 62 on Nov. 9, owns an insurance company in LaVerne, Calif., 25 miles east of Los Angeles. His firm writes malpractice insurance for 1,500 chiropractors in California.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2253 or cludwig@coxohio.com