Monday, January 11, 2016

What's On TV Today (1970)?

Super Bowl IV, of course ...


Hoptown 1970 me thought about getting myself a ticket and going to Tulane Stadium for the game ...




But it feels like I just got back from Texas, and it's nice to be home ...


When Minnesota has the ball (with our cat, River!) ...


The Viking offensive backfield (with Topps on the color commentary here) ...




One of the matchups to watch today (I really should have Curley Culp in this picture, too) ...



The Chiefs' linebackers and secondary (but will Johnny Robinson even play?) ...





When Kansas City has the ball (mugs from the International House of Pancakes!) ...


The Vikings' front seven (beautiful board game from Ideal; you're totally right about industrial design, Go Heath) ...



More key matchup (maybe my calling is to open a gallery of the Topps cartoonist's work) ...




It's almost kickoff time, and here come the Chiefs ...


Our men in the CBS booth today are Pat Summerall and Jack Buck ...


Time to tune in to the game ...



161 comments:

  1. For some reason I've always liked the highlights of this game. Love the two uniforms in this one.

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  2. From that Noel Murray article at The Dissolve: "By emphasizing Stram’s big personality and colorful slang—enhanced with somewhat clumsy ADR of “players” and “coaches” agreeing with Stram—NFL Films reduce the complexity of football’s Xs-&-Os to one fun-loving guy. At the end of the film, over shots of a Vikings cheerleader crying and the Chiefs carrying Stram off the field, Facenda says that defeat is personal but that victory belongs to everybody. By letting fans see how Stram operated, NFL Films gave the game back to the people, showing that standing on the sidelines with a clipboard could be as cool as catching a touchdown pass."

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  3. Belated happy new year from Al Hirt. I've still got to go back and watch that Sugar Bowl at some point.

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  4. Things have gotten lively even before kickoff at Tulane Stadium.

    I would've been so terrified to be in the stadium seeing gondola being thrown around the field and stands.

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  5. All four NFL division races were runaways. Indeed, Minnesota's win in the Central turned out to be the closest, and the Vikings finished 2.5 games ahead of 9-4-1 Detroit and clinched with three games to play.

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  6. I like how Jack Buck and Pat Summerall work together to introduce the players. Here's Gene Washington to lead the Vikings out onto the soggy field.

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  7. Jack and Pat tell us that Minnesota's Grady Alderman is tall for a tackle. Topps adds that the charter Vike lettered in high-school basketball.

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  8. There's Tinglehoff, Minnesota's "perennial all-league" center. Glad I focused on him in my HP pregame above.

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  9. Summerall tells us that both Washington and the Vikings' other starting receiver, John Henderson, has "great speed," but Paul Christman told us during the NFL championship against Cleveland that neither Washington nor Henderson was a burner.

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  10. There's Dave Osborn. He's a native of Cando, North Dakota, and a product of North Dakota State University, which is a giant football power. The Bison won the 1965, '68 and '69 Division II national championships.

    Osborn was the NFL's second-leading rusher, behind Cleveland's Leroy Kelly, as a rookie in 1967. But it appeared his career might be over just one season later when he injured his knee in an exhibition game against Denver. The NFL was experimenting with two-point conversions in the preseason in 1968, and Osborn was hurt on a try. He actually kept on playing and ran a sweep for another conversion in the same game--then realized the severity of his injury. He bounced back to lead Minnesota in rushing in 1969, with 643 yards.

    "I don't have those fancy moves," Osborn was quoted as saying in an Associated Press story that circulated this week before Super Bowl IV. "I just hit into a guy, hoping to slide or roll off him and spin."

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  11. And there's Bud Grant, voted in 1950 as "Minnesota Athlete of the Half-Century" and this year as NFL coach of the year.

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  12. Incidentally, NFL MVP was Los Angeles quarterback Roman Gabriel; offensive rookie of the year, Dallas running back Calvin Hill, and defensive rookie of the year, Pittsburgh defensive end Joe Greene.

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  13. On the Kansas City side, we meet the defense. Here comes end Aaron Brown, who was a sophomore at the University of Minnesota when Viking Carl Eller was a senior. Brown said in an AP story this week that he believes that Eller is pro football's best defensive end.

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  14. And he's followed out by Bobby Bell, who was also at the University of Minnesota, one year ahead of Eller. Summerall tells us that Grant identifies Bell as pro football's best linebacker.

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  15. There's safety Jim Kearney. He was Otis Taylor's quarterback at Prairie View A&M. Actually, Taylor went to Prairie View as a quarterback, too. Per Page 19 of John Devaney's 1972 book, Star Pass Receivers of the NFL:

    A coach noticed Otis grabbing the ball one-handed. From that moment on, Otis was a receiver. ...

    "Jim and I, we did some fantastic things at Prairie View," Otis said. "Jim would just tell me to go out there and run and then he'd whip that ball 50, 60, 70 yards. I would run with the drive of a trackman, and then at the last second I'd put my hands out. If you run with your hands out, you'll never get it."


    Maybe that's always been my problem--maybe I put my hands out too early.

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  16. And there's Johnny Robinson, the ex-Louisiana State star whose rib injury may or may not permit him to play today. Will Grimsley of the AP this week: "If Robinson can't play, (Willie) Mitchell goes in as the understudy with an opportunity to make people forget the two Green Bay passes that soared over his head for touchdowns in the first Super Bowl."

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  17. I really liked that commercial where everybody leaves the football stadium to look at the Impala, and it was great to see Herb Tarlek in the next GM commercial.

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  18. So, that commercial break also gave me to think about how this Chiefs team is different than three years ago in Super Bowl I.

    The big thing I remember about that game is that the Kansas City offensive line, despite being significantly bigger than Green Bay's defensive line, just could not keep heat off Len Dawson all day. Two of the Chiefs' starters that day--center Wayne "Cotton" Frazier and guard Curt Merz--are no longer on the team; in fact, neither played in the AFL or NFL this past season.

    In 1968, Kansas City's first-round draft choice was guard Maurice "Mo" Moorman of Louisville Saint Xavier's 1963 state champion and later the University of Kentucky and then Texas A&M. He's a starting Kansas City guard for Super Bowl IV.

    In this past 1969 draft, the Chiefs picked a center, Jack Rudnay of Northwestern, in the fourth round. But Rudnay injured his back in the College All-Star Game, and he didn't play at all this season. Instead, the Chiefs have plugged old E.J. Holub in at center. E.J., now 32, was a two-time All-American center at Texas Tech in the late 1950s, but he was a starter at linebacker with the Chiefs in Super Bowl I. We'll see what kind of go old E.J. can give it today against the Vikings' fantastic defensive line. Wikipedia: "Even after nine knee surgeries, Holub was a leader, a "holler guy", and he was a team player, enduring pain to lead his team. He would spend hours in the training room, watching blood and liquid drain from his knee, then go out to the field and perform as though he was suffering from no physical problem."

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  19. Bobby Bell is the only holdover linebacker for Kansas City since Super Bowl I. Holub is now the center, and Sherrill "Psycho" Headrick was allowed to move on to Cincinnati in the 1968 expansion draft. In the 1968 college draft, the Chiefs used first- and second-round picks to claim Notre Dame's Jim Lynch and Morgan State's Willie Lanier. Both of those guys are starting for the Chiefs today.

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  20. Kansas City's secondary is three-quarters different, with safety Robinson the only holdover. Out are corners Mitchell and chatty Fred "The Hammer" Williamson, as well as longtime safety Bobby Hunt. In their place, the Chiefs have manufactured a rising unit. There's Kearney, Taylor's old college quarterback, converted to safety, and Emmitt Thomas, an undrafted out of Dallas's Bishop College in 1966, and an All-AFL cornerback two seasons later. This year's addition was a first-round draft choice, Jim Marsalis from Tennessee State. Marsalis intercepted Joe Namath twice in the first round of the playoffs.

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  21. So that's some pretty good drafting by Kansas City since Super Bowl I: a starting guard, two starting linebackers and a starting cornerback picked in the first or second rounds in the last three drafts. Plus, in 1968, the Chiefs stumbled upon their fullback today, Robert Holmes of Saginaw Valley State, in the 14th round, as well as the quarterback who held things together while Dawson was out this year, Mike Livingston of Southern Methodist.

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  22. And they've done really well discovering gems outside the draft. In addition to Thomas, the cornerback, the Chiefs latched on to undrafted soccer-style Jan Stenerud to take over the placekicking and huge defensive tackle Curley Culp after he was cut last season by Denver.

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  23. Here's the coin toss. The Vikings send out Grady Alderman, Jim Marshall and backup running back Jim Lindsey. The Chiefs are represented by Buck Buchanan, Len Dawson, Jerry Mays and Jim Tyrer. Minnesota wins the toss.

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  24. John Mackey makes a pre-game presentation honoring the three Apollo XII astronauts, and Jack Buck just keeps talking right through it. Now here's Pat O'Brien reciting the national anthem, as Doc Severinsen, the Southern University band and choir play the song.

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  25. As soon as the Vikings' second play from scrimmage, Pat Summerall is already talking about a curiosity in Kansas City's defense that is going to challenge Minnesota all day. About 65 percent of the time, Summerall says, the Chiefs will align one of their two huge defensive tackles, Buchanan or Culp, directly over Minnesota's smaller center, Tingelhoff.

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  26. I wonder if Summerall recognized that so quickly or if Stram or some other Chief tipped him off to look for the quirk.

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  27. Minnesota is into Kansas City territory on its opening possession, as, under terrific duress, Joe Kapp throws to tight end John Beasley on the Super Bowl trophy at midfield. Beasley runs across the Chiefs helmet and just inside the 40.

    "They keep criticizing his quarterbacking, but he always seems to get it done," says Buck.

    Back home, Topps adds, "John works in the silver-mining business."

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  28. Summerall: "As I look now, Johnny Robinson isin that Kansas City secondary, Jack."

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  29. Drive stalls at the 39, however, and Kansas City will be taking over at its 16 after a Bob Lee punt.

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  30. Kansas City and Stram in particular are renown for their boutique, pre-snap shifts in formation that force defenses to react just before the ball is in play. On first down, Summerall notes that Karl Kassulke, a Minnesota defensive back, was scurrying to get into position just as Dawson received the snap from Holub. The play turned out to be a standard handoff-and-dive to Robert Holmes, so no problem here--but Summerall sounds an ominous warning that Kassulke's primary task today is containing Otis Taylor ("with lots of help, no doubt"), and so this is something to watch as the game wears on.

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  31. On third-and-short, Dawson throws a quick pass to Frank Pitts, and Pitts yanks away from Viking corner Ed Sharockman and sprints to the Minnesota 36.

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    1. Sharockman is starting at Minnesota corner in place of injured Bobby Bryant.

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  32. The Vikings bring the linebackers on a blitz, and Robert Holmes is in position to contain Roy Winston--but Winston hurdles the 5-foot-9 fullback and envelops Dawson for an 8-yard loss.

    "We told you he was short," says Summerall.

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  33. What CBS's Summerall is talking about, probably, is an NBC report that Dawson--along with University of Nebraska coach Bob Devaney, Jets tight end Pete Lammons and quarterback Joe Namath, Lions quarterback Bill Munson, Rams quarterback Karl Sweeten--would be questioned in the wake of a federal bust of a gambling ring. Dawson acknowledged having a casual relationship with a restaurant owner in Birmingham, Michigan, who had been arrested.

    "I haven't slept too well the last month," Dawson is quoted as saying in an AP story in the week preceding the Super Bowl. Tom Flores, one of Dawson's backup quarterbacks, said it would be tough for Dawson to tamp down his worries about the investigation "because no one will let him forget it--the press, the fans. ... (But) if he's emotional about it, it wouldn't be that evident. Lenny's a meditating-type quarterback who controls his emotions very well. That's how he got the nickname 'Lenny The Cool.'"

    Devaney went so far to issue a statement that he had "never been involved in any activities that bring discredit to intercollegiate athletics."

    Namath, meanwhile, gave the finger: "Heck, a subpoena, that's nothing. That just means they want to talk to you."

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  34. The drive peters out, and here comes Jan Stenerud to attempt a field goal from about the Minnesota 48. Dawson is the holder, and sets up just at the bottom left of the big painting of the Super Bowl trophy. With the wind at his back, Stenerud sails the ball just over the crossbar at the front of the end zone. It's 3-0, Chiefs!

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  35. That 48-yarder is a new Super Bowl record, by five yards over Don Chandler against the Raiders.

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  36. Sports Illustrated put the Jets' Jim Turner on the cover of its Sept. 22, 1969, issue previewing the pro-football season. Inside, there was a big Neil Leifer photo essay, "A Lot of Kicks Coming," was the big, middle-of-the-issue spread.

    "Good kickers like the Chiefs' Jan Stenerud and those on the following pages are priceless. Last year a record 421 field goals were kicked and nearly a fourth of the regular-season games were won on kicks--and the Super Bowl."

    Then there was a feature on Turner by Robert F. Jones, "The Face of an Educated Toe."

    Whole bunch of kicker love from SI to kick off the new season.

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  37. Three-and-out for the Vikings ... Summerall thinks lining up Buchanan directly over Tingelhoff "might be causing the Vikings some problems with their assignments ..."

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  38. Roughing the kicker on Curley Culp, and the Vikings will maintain possession, now at the Minnesota 41 ...

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  39. Still nothing happening for Minnesota ... another punt, touchback ...

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  40. Incidentally, Tex Maule picked the Chiefs to win the AFL West (and the Jets to win the East). In his season preview of Kansas City, Maule had high praise for Stram, Dawson, Taylor, Pitts, Gloster Richardson, Garrett, Holmes, Mays, Buchanan, Bell, Lynch and Lanier. "The Kansas City secondary is still in a state of flux, but with the line and linebackers putting pressure on the passer, it should be able to do the job. If rookie James Marsalis, a first draft choice from Tennessee State, is as for real as he looked against Don Maynard in the Jets-All-Star game, it should do a good job." (The italics are Maule's.)

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  41. I suspect Otis Taylor is going to have his moments here shortly, and he already has a couple of catches. But with 2:06 to go in the first quarter, Dawson has been tenderizing the Minnesota defenses mostly with check-down passes to Frank Pitts and Mike Garrett and inside runs to Garrett and Robert Holmes.

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  42. First down, Chiefs ... Dawson sends Pitts for a turnaround near the Minnesota 30, and Sharockman rushing back into the play after playing Pitts deep plows through the receiver and is flagged for a penalty ... both Summerall and Buck confirm the officials' judgment.

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  43. Dawson has completed five of six for 73 yards, and then there's the 16- or 17-yard pickup on third-and-8 on the pass-interference penalty.

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  44. And Summerall points out that Kansas City's offensive line has handled Minnesota's defense thus far--big change for the Chiefs since Super Bowl I.

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  45. Third-and-4 ... Dawson play action ... spins in a deep pocket ... fires to the center of the end zone ... no! ... Earsall Mackbee intersects the ball's path to sprinting Taylor behind the goalpost and knocks down the pass ... Stenerud comes on for a 32-yard field goal try, and that's good ... 6-0, Chiefs.

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  46. Here's Love Boat "Doc," portraying some sort of maybe Soviet border guard, as part of a complicated commercial for the Chevy Nova.

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  47. Curley Culp discards Mick Tinglehoff and smooshes Dave Osborn for no gain on the Minnesota first down ... second, Joe Kapp hits John Henderson, but Jim Marsalis hits John Henderson, and Johnny Robinson scoops up a fumble after the catch ... Chiefs ball!

    Wikipedia says the Vikings were 12.5- to 13-point favorites coming into this game, but so far Kansas City appears to be the definitively better team. In last year's Super Bowl, the NFL Colts certainly did not seem outclassed by the AFL Jets in the first half. In fact, I spent most of the first half convinced that Baltimore was going to come from (a little) behind and blow out New York. But there's no weird sense like that so far to this game. The AFL Chiefs look like the better team; it feels like they should be further ahead than 6-0, and it appears like they're about to be after recovering the fumble in Minnesota territory.

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  48. But, no, on second down from the Minnesota 46, Dawson underthrows Taylor streaking for the end zone in the middle of the field, and free-safety Paul Krause fields an interception at the 6. The Vikings regain possession.

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  49. Minnesota possession:

    -- run for 3 into the middle;

    -- overthrow deep left for Gene Washington that the Chiefs' Emmitt Thomas comes closer to catching;

    -- illegal procedure as Joe Kapp gets tied up figuring out an audible (or "automatic") with Bobby Bell, Willie Lanier and Jim Lynch jumping around behind the defensive line, and

    -- overthrow deep right for Bob Grim that the Chiefs' Marsalis comes closer to catching.

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  50. Minnesota punts to the 44, and then Frank Pitts takes an end around to the Minnesota 25, and Alan Page jumps offsides as the Chiefs do their standards shift out of the triple-I initial set. The Vikings are hanging on for dear life.

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  51. I'm getting really excited about the Carol Channing halftime performance.

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  52. After another Stenerud field goal, it's 9-0. Kansas City's left tackle, Dave Hill, was injured on that possession.

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  53. Oh, man, now Minnesota fumbles the kickoff, and Remi Prudhomme recovers for the Chiefs at the Viking 25 or so. A marching band is playing Chuck Berry's "Kansas City" as the Chiefs' offense returns to the field.

    By the way, that tackle, Dave Hill, is back on the field, too.

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  54. Wendell Hayes takes a delayed draw to the 14 ... Dawson to Taylor to the 5 ...

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  55. Garrett angles through a giant gap in the line ... touchdown ... "Kansas City" again ... Stenerud again ... 16-0 ... 5:34 to go in the half.

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  56. Los Angeles Kings vs. the Detroit Red Wings, next Sunday 1970 on CBS.

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  57. Here comes Minnesota ... Kapp throws to Henderson, up to the Kansas City 41 ... again on first down, Kapp ... no, incomplete for Oscar Reed out of the backfield ... Kapp again ... SACKED! ... "Curley Culp was the first one through, and Buck Buchanan wraps him up" ... third down and very long ... overthrows Henderson ... nearly picked off by Marsalis ... and Fred Cox comes on for a 56-yard field-goal attempt ... which Warren McVea fields at the 10 and returns to the Kansas City 24 ... 3:24 to go ...

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  58. Jack Buck: "Don't write the Vikings off."

    Pat Summerall: "You might remember a couple of weeks ago, against the Los Angeles Rams, they went into the halftime locker room trailing, 17-7."

    OK, good point, fellows. I'll watch the second half.

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  59. Kansas City will come back from the two-minute warning with a third-and-9 from its own end ...

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  60. All through this break, during which CBS did not go to commercial, the Chiefs' marching band is just totally getting it done. I don't know what song they've been playing, but it's something along the lines of a peppy Sergio Mendes number. They sound great. And the Chiefs' cheerleaders--in their sweaters, pleated skirts and bobby socks--are dutifully pompomming away.

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  61. On third-and-9, the Chiefs run! "Surprise call," Summerall says. McVea goes on a sort of a misdirection sweep behind Louisville's Moorman, and ... FIRST DOWN!

    "Quite a call by Lenny Dawson," says Jack Buck.

    Buck and Summerall are in concert that this is a huge play because now the Chiefs will have the opportunity to run out the first half clock without giving the ball back to Minnesota with the wind at the Vikings' backs. Kansas City gets the ball and the wind to start the second half.

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  62. Out to midfield with 49 seconds remaining, Hank Stram decides to push the envelope and calls timeout ... third down ... oh, my! ... that could've gone badly ... Dawson drops into a shotgun formation--every bit of nine yards behind the center--and overshoots a middle screen for McVea ... the ball ricochets off Wally Hilgenberg's chest, and, honestly, Hilgenberg might've returned for a touchdown had he been able to clutch Dawson's bullet ...

    The Chiefs will punt ...

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  63. Buck says the shotgun formation "used to be known as the 'short punt.'"

    I'm going to be calling it the "short-punt formation" all of the time now.

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  64. 28 seconds to go ... somebody named Caesar Belzer (sp?) downs Jerrell Wilson's punt at the Minnesota 10 ... Pat says Caesar is a Kansas City special-teams standout.

    I've got to tell you. It's very rare that I hear a professional-football name from the last 60 years that I don't remember ever hearing before, but I do not ever remember hearing Caesar Belzer's name.

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  65. OK, here's "that fast-stepping, toe-tapping band from Jaguarland, the Southern University band," as Jack Whitaker puts it over the Tulane Stadium public-address system. The show is called "Way Down Yonder in New Orleans."

    Robert Holmes, the Chiefs' fullback, went to Southern; given Kansas City already has this one in the bag, I hope Hank Stram excused him from the locker room so he could go out to the stands during halftime to let him watch.

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  66. For about two years in my 20s, New Orleans was my favorite city.

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  67. Now here's some woman singing with Al Hirt. She's not Carol Channing.

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  68. Southern's band really is just terrific.

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  69. Now here's a re-enactment of the Battle of New Orleans, with canons and soldiers, including a few on horseback. Jack Whitaker on the PA: "When the smoke cleared, the British had lost one thousand nine hundred and seventy-five men killed, while the American casualties were six killed and seven wounded. The defeat of the redcoats saved this city and made the western expansion of our new nation possible."

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  70. Well, this is quite a production. Now we have a depiction of one of New Orleans's "jazz funerals," which is really an interesting tradition (I did not know that Jim Henson was from Mississippi), and now Doc Severinsen (of Oregon) has come on to join in on "When the Saints Go Marching In" and a big Mardi Gras blowout.

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  71. I feel certain I've told this story here before, but my mother, a cousin of hers and my mom's parents all took out on a giant road trip in early 1947--Evansville to Atlanta, to Florida, to New Orleans, to Mexico City (!), to the Painted Desert, etc. When they got to New Orleans, Mardi Gras was going on, and Mom says they had never heard of it.

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  72. And that's it. We're going to commercial and then the second half of the game. And here's the weird thing: Despite reports to the contrary, I never saw Carol Channing on the halftime show, and Jack Whitaker did not mention her in his thank you.

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  73. I'm pretty sure the thing on the side of the Vikings' helmet has gotten smaller since 1970.

    The Chiefs take the second-half kickoff out to the 15.

    After the game tonight on CBS: To Rome With Love, The Ed Sullivan Show and The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour.

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  74. Summerall, before a Kansas City third-and-6: "Minnesota is in a position where they might have to gamble a little bit."

    Indeed, the Vikings blitz linebackers, but Dawson unloads to Mike Garrett who catches and carries for the first down near the Chief 40 before Ed Sharockman's tackle.

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  75. Minnesota's Jim Marshall and the Kansas City tackle against whom he is aligned, Jim Tyrer, were teammates at Ohio State.

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  76. A big penalty ruins that Kansas City possession, and the Chiefs' Jerrell Wilson zooms a terrific, long punt deep into Minnesota territory that prevents the Vikings from seizing much advantage in field position. Minnesota takes over at its 29.

    Next Saturday: Stockton-Geiberger and Weiskopf-Jacklin in the CBS Golf Classic.

    Buck: "Great action as another great sport has hit the CBS Sports scene. Watch it next Saturday on CBS!"

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  77. This YouTube video is actually the Canadian Broadcast Corporation relay of CBS's telecast, and it appears the CBC interlaced it own commercials in the show. One of them is for Red Cap Ale, and it features a celebrity endorsement from "Derek Henderson, Avalanche Expert." I wonder if that Derek Henderson was this Derek Henderson.

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  78. Dave Osborn cuts through the Kansas City line and barely picks up a third-and-1 at midfield with 6:22 to go in the third quarter.

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  79. The Vikings have something going ... Kapp completes to Oscar Reed to the Kansas City 4, and then Osborn darts, leaps, spins and flops into the end zone. Fred Cox boots through the extra point (President Obama should pass a law that "boots" can be used as a verb in relation to football kicking only if the kicker is a straight-on-style kicker, not soccer-style), and it's 16-7.

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  80. Dale Hackbart ("he really stuck his nose into that action," Buck enthuses) throws down the Chiefs' kick returner, Wendell Hayes, at the Kansas City 18, and you can sense a little momentum shift with about four minutes to go in the third.

    2 p.m. Jan. 24 on CBS: the ABA All-Star Game. "Rick Barry, Spencer Haywood, Louie Dampier and others," stumps Buck.

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  81. Garrett for 4 ... Hayes for 6 ... first down, Chiefs ...

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  82. Garrett for 4 ... illegal procedure on the Chiefs, back to the 27 ... Hayes for 4 ... third down ... end around to Pitts--behind Holub, Moorman, Hill and Ed Budde for 8 ... first down, Chiefs ...

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  83. Personal foul on the Vikings ... first down, Chiefs, at the 47 ... all of the officials looked like Fred Mertz ... Dawson to Otis Taylor on the sideline ... TAYLOR ELUDES EARSELL MACKBEE ... SHEDS PAUL KRAUSE ... TOUCHDOWN, CHIEFS!

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  84. It was pretty much all car commercials in the first half, and it's pretty much all beer commercials in the second.

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  85. First down, Minnesota, at its own 47 as the fourth quarter opens.

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  86. Willie Lanier, who looks like a freaking pro-football superhero, intercepts Kapp, and this thing is all Kansas City.

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  87. Wilson booms a more-than-70-yard-in-the-air punt back to Minnesota for a touchback.

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  88. Now Johnny Robinson intercepts Kapp.

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  89. Oh, OK, Canadians also shave. Here's a commercial for Gillette, set to a big orchestral sendup of "More."

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  90. One of the interesting things about Super Bowls to me is their shooting stars. Seems like some guy flames up as a big deal in the game or in the weeks leading up to the game and then pretty much disappears.

    I think of Fred "The Hammer" Williamson basically introducing himself to the popular culture in Super Bowl I, but it was basically the end of his football career.

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  91. Chuck Mercian and Ben Wilson were important running backs for the Packers up to and including Super Bowl II, but neither did much in pro football after that.

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  92. It's incorrect, of course, to say that Joe Namath "disappeared" after Super Bowl III--he still hadn't even made his great Brady Bunch appearance--but definitely he did not influence the competitive landscape of the NFL as I might've imagined he would in the years after that game. The really weird one for me with regard to Super Bowl III, though, was the Jets' other captain, Johnny Sample, who was one of the game's stars and then never played another pro-football game.

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  93. And, now in Super Bowl IV, we have Joe Kapp down with an injury.

    Look, I've watched this whole Super Bowl, and I watched the whole 1969 NFL Championship, and I got to even see some of the Vikings' playoff win over Los Angeles. If Joe Kapp had won this Super Bowl--heck, if Minnesota had won this Super Bowl and Kapp had even not played very well--I can tell you for sure that CBS was going to turn Joe Kapp into lovable, blood-and-guts Brett Favre before there was even a Brett Favre. These CBS guys loooooooooved Joe Kapp.

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  94. Replies
    1. It was weird because when I started reading about the NFL in the early 1970's, it was pretty easy to find all of these references to Joe Kapp, and yet his career was already over. Greg Cook was another person in this category -- as was Bert Yancey in golf.

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  95. Replies
    1. In Sports Illustrated's season-preview issue back in September, Tex Maule had assessed it still an open question whether Bud Grant would start Kapp or Cuozzo in 1969.

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    2. Also, Maule had picked the Packers to come back and beat the Vikings in the NFL Central division. Maule had the Jets and Chiefs as his AFL division winners (not bad--he got the East and the Chiefs finished second in the West). His NFL picks were the Colts in the Coastal (they finished second), the Cardinals in the Century (third), the Packers in the Central (third) and the Cowboys in the Capitol (first).

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    3. Tex Maule really loved those Cardinal teams of the late 1960's. I wonder why.

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    4. Don Meredith just adored Larry Wilson, the St. Louis safety—I need to post about an NFL72 Monday Night Football broadcast involving those two—and I wonder if Tex Maule wasn't part of some Oscar Madison cabal in love with those guys. I can only assume that Wilson is legitimately as great as everyone from that period says he was, but he seems to have such a blinding, tough-guy appeal to the NFL CW of the day that I think it's also possible that the romantics just couldn't help but overrate even the guys around Wilson in those great, stark Cardinals uniforms.

      NFL69 Century Division final standings:

      Browns 10-3-1
      Giants 6-8
      Cardinals 4-9-1
      Steelers 1-13

      Central:

      Vikings 12-2
      Lions 9-4-1
      Packers 8-6
      Bears 1-13

      Capitol:

      Cowboys 11-2-1
      Redskins 7-5-2
      Saints 5-9
      Eagles 4-9-1

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    5. And Coastal:

      Rams 11-3
      Colts 8-5-1
      Falcons 6-8
      49ers 4-8-2

      Finally, here’s the report on the NFL69 Atlanta Falcons that I feel like I’ve been waiting my whole life to read. Thank you, TJ Troup and Pro Football Journal.

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  96. The Vikings turn chippy as the clock ticks toward the inevitable.

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  97. Alan Page got into it with Dawson on the last play, and now he's into it with Ed Budde. (Ed Budde's a handball player, notes Topps.)

    And there goes Dawson to the sideline, spelled by Mike Livingston. "Look at his teammates mob him," Buck says. "He deserves all the praise we can send his way."

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  98. Wendell Hayes is pulled off the field, too, relieved by rookie Ed Podolak.

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  99. That's it. The Chiefs hoist Hank Stram on their shoulders, and the CBC cut away quickly from the CBS feed.

    "This has been the final telecast in our series of NFL football for this year. Next season, changes in the league will permit CBC television sports viewers to see more games between the AFL and NFL teams--during regular-season play, of course."

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  100. Based strictly on the statistics and the fact that Super Bowl MVPs had always been quarterbacks to this point, I always figured Dawson's selection for the award was a little suspect. But who am I to argue with Jerry Mays in his post-game interview with Pat Summerall (in the clip in the previous comment)--or Jim Lynch in the great NFL Films America's Game production on Super Bowl IV. One thing that is easy to overlook now is that quarterbacks were largely calling their own plays in this era, and Dawson's play-calling in this game did seem spectacular.

    Incidentally, that whole America's Game--with the stuff about Dawson's overcoming injury, his father's death and the gambling questions; the stuff about Lanier and Lynch; the stuff about Hank Stram's clothes--is just terrific the whole way through. I highly recommend it. I nearly cried at about four different points.

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  101. The Associated Press coverage that circulated for newspapers the Monday after the Super Bowl had some interesting points ...

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  102. Dawson and Johnny Robinson were roommates, and they were both so nervous that they kept each other up the night before the game. I wonder if today's big stars still have road roommates. It seems like you always used to hear a lot about which players roomed together on the road, but now it seems like you never hear about that stuff.

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  103. "Coach Hank Stram kept firm control of his emotions and those of his players after it was over.

    "Center E.J. Holub grabbed Stram and tried to pull him into the dressing room showers, but Stram was having none of it. He snapped at Holub, "Not now," and other less exuberant players persuaded Holub to desist."

    I don't have a big problem with Bill Parcels in the way a lot of people to do, but two things I really wish his career hadn't introduced to pro football are the post-game Gatorade shower and Bill Belichick.

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  104. And the third thing from the AP coverage of Super Bowl IV:

    Jan Stenerud, the Chiefs' Norwegian-born, soccer-style place kicker who booted three field goals in the first 23 minutes of play to stake the Cheifs to a 9-0 lead, said he was just happy that the game wasn't close at the end.

    "I don't enjoy games when things get too close down at the end," he said. "I can hardly remember the game, I was so tense."

    Asked if he thought he might miss any of the three kicks when he put his toe into them, Stenerud laughed, "I have doubt on every one."

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  105. Maule has some terrific, terrific stuff from the Vikings' defensive coordinator, Jack Patera, about how confused Minnesota was by Kansas City's shifting, throwback offense. And then he pivots to how the Chiefs' defense befuddled the Vikings, too--mostly by occupying Mick Tinglehoff with Buck Buchanan or Curley Culp.

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  106. Replies
    1. I have seen a later iteration of Izenberg's book that goes up through Super Bowl VII. I think that was the last version Izenberg did, because I've never seen one that went beyond Super Bowl VII, and I've looked at many copies.

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  107. Also, I have an old TDK-cassette copy of the Fleetwood Records LP about the Chiefs' season, Hail to the Chiefs. somewhere out in the garage, and I still have a cassette player in our van. So that's going to be a good 50 miles of vacation driving some day when the ladies of my house are napping.

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  108. As great as the America's Game, Tex Maule and all of the other stuff are, though, for my money, there is one indispensable piece of art that developed from Super Bowl IV. And that is NFL Films' 24-minute The Super Bowl, Kansas City Chiefs vs. Minnesota Vikings.

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  109. A couple of small things that I find interesting about that movie ...

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  110. You've probably heard of Lloyd Wells, the scout who helped land a lot of African-American talent to the Chiefs and who famously got Otis Taylor to Kansas City instead of Dallas by wrangling him out of a Richardson, Texas, motel with some kind of deception that is described in PG-, R- and X-rated terms depending on your source.

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  111. Well, Wells spent Super Bowl IV on the Chiefs' sideline. He is seen and heard a number of times in the NFL Films production, standing right behind Hank Stram and cheering on the Chiefs. I've seen that he was a part-time Kansas City scout, so I would not have guessed that he would've been on the Super Bowl sidelines.

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  112. So, good for Lloyd Wells, and good for the Chiefs!

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  113. Another guy you see on the sideline several times is giant Ernie Ladd. Ladd had been a star defensive lineman with the Chargers, Oilers and finally the Chiefs throughout most of the 1960s, but he was injured before the 1969 season, never played pro football again and ended up moving on to a successful career as one of pro wrestling's villains. Ladd was actually one of the first interviews that CBS had in the post-game Chiefs locker room after Super Bowl IV. And, in NFL Films' show, you see him getting a bear hug from Mike Garrett and helping care for shaken-up Otis Taylor on the sideline.

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  114. I thought it was really curious when Ernie Ladd ends up being one of CBS's first interviews in the Chiefs' post-game locker room, given that he didn't actually play in Super Bowl IV. I found it interesting, then, to go back and watch the NFL Films show again and see Ladd multiple times on the Kansas City sideline. At one point, he receives a leaping bear hug from Mike Garrett (Ladd was 6-foot-9), and, at another, he helps care for Otis Taylor after the receiver is shaken up.

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  115. So, anyway, again ... good for Ernie Ladd, and good for the Chiefs.

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  116. Of course, the big movie star of The Super Bowl, Kansas City Chiefs vs. Minnesota Vikings is Hank Stram. Wikipedia's "Hank Stram 'miked for sound'" section is, not surprisingly, great.

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  117. I've really fallen in love with Hank Stram over the last few months following this 1969 season and Super Bowl IV, but I'm going to say only three more things about Hank Stram here:

    1. I love it that he referred to himself as "The Mentor." I love that.

    2. When I was a kid, I genuinely believed Barney Rubble had to be based on Hank Stram.

    3. Listening to Hank Stram doing the Monday Night Football radio broadcasts with Jack Buck was a freaking joy.

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  118. Oh, one more thing:

    4. "Hank Stram" is one of the best names of all time.

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  119. But beyond the insights into the 1969 Chiefs (like Lloyd Wells's and Ernie Ladd's prominence among the team) and even beyond Hank Stram's star turn, there is so much about The Super Bowl, Kansas City Chiefs vs. Minnesota Vikings that is so great. I don't know enough about filmmaking to be able to unravel each of those threads, but, of course, the score and John Facenda's narration are among them.

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  120. There's also just the rhythm of the thing--how it cuts, for example, from the run-up to the Super Bowl straight into the Southern University drumline ... how and where it works in squealing or sobbing cheerleaders ... how it bounces back and forth from shots from in front of and behind Stram ... how it takes the time to follow Carl Eller's following the up-and-down arc of a Jan Stenerud field goal ... the joy of repetition of "65 Toss Power Trap" ... the isolation on Stram's and the players' voices around the spot on the key third-down pickup before the last Kansas City touchdown.

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  121. I don't know everything that's going on and working together to make The Super Bowl, Kansas City Chiefs vs. Minnesota Vikings so great, but I do know this: Again, I am so thankful for Steve Sabol's work.

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