17 Jan 1976, Sat Lexington Herald-Leader (Lexington, Kentucky) Newspapers.com
17 Jan 1976, Sat Lexington Herald-Leader (Lexington, Kentucky) Newspapers.com
Of course, the big deal in Lexington today is that Dick Enberg and Billy Packer are in town for a 2 p.m. Eastern UK-Vanderbilt game in Memorial Coliseum.
17 Jan 1976, Sat Lexington Herald-Leader (Lexington, Kentucky) Newspapers.com
30 Nov 1975, Sun The Montgomery Advertiser (Montgomery, Alabama) Newspapers.com
Two weeks ago, the Dolphins were 7-1, on a seven-game win streak and looking like Super Bowl contenders again. Then the Oilers and Colts beat them, and now the banner headline at the top of the sports page of this 1975 morning's Miami News reads, "It's 0-1 Morrall against 3-7 Patriots."
01 Dec 1975, Mon The Miami News (Miami, Florida) Newspapers.com
“Funny, the last time Miami played New England it was under similar duress,” Charlie Nobles writes. “The club had lost its season-opening game to Oakland and sat in the locker room at halftime against the Patriots pondering a 14-0 deficit. Head coach Don Shula did a little screaming, the players did a little soul-searching, then fullback Don Nottingham did a lot of running and Miami had a 22-14 victory.”
That was starting to make me feel better, but then Nobles really turned up the volume on my anxieties. Miami's Earl Morrall, he notes, turned pro when President Eisenhower was in office, while New England rookie Steve Grogan is "one of the league's hottest passing arms."
This game was blacked out in Miami--as it is in Madisonville (I'm finding no clips of it on YouTube). So I guess we'll all just have to pretend together.
02 Sep 1975, Tue The Miami News (Miami, Florida) Newspapers.com
Monday night after the Jerry Lewis telethon, we got to see Dolphins-Vikings on Channel 3. And, as you can see, even though it was just a preseason game, the rematch of Super Bowl VIII(!) was given significant play in The Miami News the following morning. It made 1A of the Minneapolis Tribune, too--though not with the above-the-fold, bigger-than-the-masthead alarm visible in passing by newsstands or vending boxes.
02 Sep 1975, Tue Star Tribune (Minneapolis, Minnesota) Newspapers.com
So somewhere between Dec. 21, 1974, when the Dolphins lost to the Raiders, and a Monday night not long after Oct. 4, 1975, is when I tipped into being more interested in the girls than the Dolphins. Now, as to trying to more precisely pinpoint this change, I noted a little braincell of decades-old innocent sadness when I scrolled upon the following story today inside the Sept. 2, 1975, Miami News.
02 Sep 1975, Tue The Miami News (Miami, Florida) Newspapers.com
It was a sense of genuine discovery this morning, as though I felt at the time this was really bad news (and I would've been right; neither Anderson nor Buoniconti played in NFL75) and hadn't revisited the original feeling since. The intensity of that memory might indicate that my girlcraziness hadn't quite claimed dominance in my heart by the time of Monday Night Football game. But there's no way it hadn't taken hold by the Bay City Rollers thing a month later. And while I never quit loving the Dolphins after that, I never again cared about them as much as I cared about the girls.
For pretty much my whole life I've thought it was kind of cruel that the amazing Dolphins turned me on at such a young age, only to never achieve that same success since. But as I type this morning, I see grace and blessing in the timing--the Dolphins were at their best when I was least encumbered in enjoying their success, and whatever disappointments I experienced with them in the years since never consumed me.
In fact, the last moment that the Dolphins actually seemed like they might win another Super Bowl--in the third quarter of the Dec. 21 Dolphins-Vikings game in Week 16 of NFL02--is literally when my eventual wife and I started dating. The 2002 Dolphins were fantastic until the fourth quarter of that game. Then I left Matthew's before the game was over to go see her, and then we decided that day that we would be a thing, and then the Dolphins lost to the Vikings and didn't even make the playoffs, and now we are still a thing.
I've got more girl stuff going in my life than ever now--the wife and since a daughter, a female cat and a female dog. Happily, totally girlcrazy, still. I'm excited about the 2022 Dolphins; I think they might end up being pretty good. Heck, I'm excited about the 1975 Dolphins, and I know they end up being not super. Mostly, though, I'm just trying to be breathy Patti York at the 1975 Jerry Lewis telethon--"so strong and bold as life unfolds its mystery to me."
NFL preseason games always feel like they are going to be so much fun to watch, and then I always get bored with them pretty quickly and end up doing something else with the flicker of the TV in the background. Maybe I'll work on this paint-by-number kit during today's game from the Yale Bowl.
I spent a fair amount of time in 2017 whipping up these NFL paint-by-numbers from YouTube screen shots and some online filter application (perhaps to some NFL preseason games in the background). Anyway, I really like this one of the Jets' Emerson Boozer.
Emerson Boozer (of Augusta, Georgia) ranked No. 22 in career rushing yards entering NFL75, right behind Clem Daniels and right ahead of Calvin Hill. No. 22 in career rushing yards today is LeSean McCoy, right behind O.J. Simpson and right ahead of Warrick Dunn.
I don't think that means much of anything, but I still think it's fun to think about. I sure like football, TV and the internet.
#SICoverOTD: July 28, 1975. Larry Csonka (and friends) re-create the Aug. 7, 1972 cover, this time without Csonka giving everyone the finger pic.twitter.com/w4K80DAqkx
No hard feelings, fellas. I will be rooting for the Memphis Southmen/Grizzlies in this evening's World Football League matchup against the Charlotte Hornets ...
09 Aug 1975, Sat The Commercial Appeal (Memphis, Tennessee) Newspapers.com
Dude never made more than 50 percent of his field-goal attempts in four seasons in San Diego, but he ended up catching on with the 49ers and kicking for their first-two Super Bowl winners in the 1980s.
You've probably been wondering what happened with my 1975 reports. Well, I decided to rethink things.
First, I've realized that it's unsatisfying to experience concurrent football and Christmas seasons. Also, I decided it's more important for my days of week to align than it is for my dates. And I also will note that I am considering at least one more trip back through 1975 (which would be my third at the HP) before turning the calendar to 1976 because 1975 was such a giant year for real me--first year I collected baseball, football and basketball cards; first year I really understood how the TV networks worked, first year in the Concord district, etc.
So, anyway, I might yet switch things up some more, but, for now, today for fake me is Tuesday, May 20, 1975, and the Channel 6 news just went off, and here's Johnny ...
Dear Future: You are going to read a lot of stuff from our time talking about all of our problems, and all of that stuff is pretty much going to be correct. But let me add, too, that, boy, oh, boy, do we ever live in a fantastic age! Sincerely, Now
For Christmas last year, my wife gave me the 1975 fall-season preview issue of TV Guide. My wife is awesome. So, anyway, that Sept. 6, 1975, issue includes previews of each of the new prime-time shows, so we'll look at those over the next seven days. Here's the Monday-night prime-time schedule (new shows in yellow):
The new shows don't much move the needle for 1975 me. I'd be all over the second season of Rhoda and would be trying out the new Phyllis show. This night, though, remains all about NFL Monday Night Football. The first Monday-night game of the season is Oakland at Miami on Sept. 22, 1975, so I'm even more excited than usual about this new season.
The May 12, 1975, Sports Illustrated has the Kentucky Derby on its cover, but my favorite Kentucky item in the issue is this "Faces In The Crowd" entry:
-- The Washington Bullets lead the Boston Celtics, two games to one, in the NBA Eastern Conference finals. The Chicago Bulls lead the Golden State Warriors, two games to one, in the West.
-- The Kentucky Colonels and Indiana Pacers are headed to the ABA finals.
-- Sonny Jurgensen retired.
-- A Nashville, Tenn., company is advertising some hip new fashions on Page 10.
