A Dozen Things I Learned Researching, Interviewing, Writing ‘When It Was Just a Game’

A Dozen Things I Learned Researching, Interviewing, Writing ‘When It Was Just a Game’
Kansas City Chiefs' quarterback Len Dawson (16) gets ready to release the ball during the first Super Bowl, Jan. 15, 1967, against the Green Bay Packers at the Los Angeles Coliseum in Los Angeles, California. The Green Bay Packers won the game. AP Photo
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1. Pete Rozelle hung out in a Miami Hotel men’s room for a couple of hours and adjusted his tie, looked away, washed his hands whenever anyone entered. He later guessed that he had washed his hands 35 times while waiting before he got the news—at 33 he was the new NFL Commissioner.

2. At American Football League NY Titan games in the Polo Grounds, owner Harry Wismer would count the number of legs sitting in the park, and then multiply by four instead of dividing it by four to get an estimate of the attendance.

3. The “whammy” Super Ball was the inspiration for the name SUPER BOWL. Pete Rozelle and other powers thought up and suggested AFL-NFL Championship Game, the Pro Bowl, the Ultimate Game, the Big One….

4. Vince Lombardi out of Sheepshead Bay in Brooklyn, an altar boy at his local parish, had never held a head coaching position beyond the high school level when he showed up On February 2, 1959 as a tough talking and determined 45-year-for a meeting with the Green Bay Packer Executive Committee. They were interviewing him for the head coaching job. He wound up hired as head coach and general manager.

Harvey Frommer
Harvey Frommer
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