Posted on 01/16/2008 4:58:00 PM PST by fkabuckeyesrule
Roughly 45 years ago, on Dec. 30, 1962, the Yankee Stadium championship rematch between the Giants and the Green Bay Packers was blacked out on local television sets. Enterprising fans fled to southern New Jersey, searching for the broadcast from Philadelphia, or to the north to receive the signal from Hartford.
The 1961 and 1962 N.F.L. championship games, each ending with a Green Bay victory over the Giants, had it all. Born on those afternoons was pro football’s first televised dynasty with Vince Lombardi as king, Paul Hornung as prince and Bart Starr as trusted knight. And although the Giants were twice defeated, by 37-0 in 1961 and by 16-7 the next year,
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
I remember reading about these games in David Mariness excellent book on Vince Lombardi “When Pride Mattered”. Lombardi was very upset about losing to the Eagles in the ‘60 NFL Championship that he used that game to motivate the Packers to win the championship the next year and the Packers under Lombardi won the rest of their championship matches.
the Giants were about as dominant as the Yankees in those days weren’t they, except thet never won the title.
Great article for cheeseheads to reflect on...even part timers.
The 37-0 game was a shocker because the Packers beat the Giants in a late regular season squeaker 20-17. The championship game was expected to be close as well.
The thing is Lombardi’s dream job for years was being Head Coach of the Giants, but he ended up turning them down before the 61 season.
In the mid fifties the Giants head coach was Jim Lee Howell. Lombardi and Tom Landry were part of his coaching staff. How history would have changed had Jim Lee Howell retired a couple of years earlier opening up the job before Lombardi went to Green Bay in '59
Back then we used to get all the Giants and Cleveland Browns games in the Boston area.
Will never forget the '58 "Sudden Death" championship game won by the Colts.
I was in high school living on LI at the time. My father drove with me and and a friend of mine down the Jersey Turnpike to someplace near Camden where we took a motel room for the afternoon to watch the game. There was deli across the street which supplied the food. I still remember traffic being quite heavy that afternoon. Most of the cars around us had between two and four guys in them who were almost certainly making the trip for the same reason. But every once in a while I remember seeing a car with an older couple in it, who were probably Sunday Turnpike regulars going to visit their grandkids. My guess is that the traffic on Turnpike was probably pretty light on most Sunday afternoons, and I just imagined such couples wondering why traffic was so heavy.
The article is incorrect about the game being available from Hartford. The Championship game was on NBC then and Hartford did not have an NBC affiliate. Regular season games were also blacked out, but they were on CBS and those games were available from Hartford. We would frequently drive out to an eastern LI bar to watch those games. (If my father didn't want to go, I would go to the house of a friend which was equipped with a super-antenna and we could see the game, albeit with somewhat snowy reception.) The closest NBC station in New England was in Providence.
ML/NJ
I remember watching the ‘62 game on television and being disappointed because I was a big Y.A. Tittle fan. Also I was in Nashville and the Giant’s running back was Phil King who had played his college ball at Vanderbilt.
A reporter once asked Lombardi what was the secret to good coaching. Lombardi replied, "Get good players."
BTW I recall watching the game live when Horning got leave from the Army to play. Seems like yesterday!
I get headers and bodies.
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