Thanksgiving is just around the corner and to many of us Boomers, Thanksgiving meant more than just turkey and dressing. It meant football games on television.
Go way back with me, if you will, to the early days of the National Football League.
Typically, my family made the long drive from Beckley, West Virginia to Raleigh, North Carolina to spend Thanksgiving with my grandmother, Mama Ida. Mama Ida had a black and white TV as did everybody in the 1950’s, but I was impressed that she got more than one station, living as she did in a fairly large town. In Beckley, we had one station and that was iffy.
In those days, the Packers played the Lions and the Cardinals played the Bears – every Thanksgiving.
It was really fun to watch football on TV back then, even though the teams often wore the same color uniforms – black and white. I also remember them playing in the rain and mud, then everybody’s jerseys looked the same. You couldn’t even read the numbers.
One neat thing about football in those days, there was no “be easy on the quarterback” stuff. They creamed each other, and you almost had to pin a man down like in wrestling, otherwise he would get up and take off again. On the ground meant really on the ground. Frequently, a runner being tackled would lateral to a trailing player who in turn lateraled to another player. You never see that anymore.
Also, in the old days, players played both offense and defense and the kicker or punter was just one of the guys. There were no specialists. Players went the full 60 minutes unless they broke and arm or a leg and sometimes they’d still play.
And equipment? They had helmets without faceguards and no one wore special gloves or padding. It was rough and tough football, and the annual pay for the star quarterback was less than ten grand. Football players had to sell cars or insurance in the off-season just to make ends meet. Most played pro football simply because it was fun.
Can you remember these great players?
Otto Graham, Lou Groza, Bobby Layne, Ollie Matson, Doak Walker, Norm Van Brocklin, Alan Ameche, Crazy Legs Hirsch, Chuck Bednarik, Sam Huff, Night Train Lane, Yale Lary and Emlen Tunnel? Now those were some great football players.
During the halftime I recall marching bands and pee-wee football as entertainment. They actually had kids’ teams with 10- and 12-year olds entertaining the fans and the television audience at half time, and there were few commercials to interrupt any action. That’s because they sold very few ads.
Football in the 1950s was fun to watch. With all the hoopla surrounding football today, with five football analysts on each network diagramming every play and some players even taking a knee during the national anthem, some of us Boomers long for the good old days when football was just game. A great game.