Sports

By BRUCE LOWITT

To much of America, and certainly to the NFL, the American Football League was somewhere between a minor league and a joke.

Until Super Bowl III.

Until quarterback Joe Namath made good on a preposterous guarantee -- that his New York Jets would beat the seemingly unbeatable Baltimore Colts. They did, 16-7.

This AFL was the fourth league to challenge the NFL. The first three died within a year or two of their birth. But this one, which began playing in 1960, had network television money behind it.

By Bruce Lowitt

Realistically speaking, the 1973 Belmont Stakes wasn't a horse race -- unless you count the four thoroughbreds racing for second place. This third jewel of the Triple Crown was the coronation of Secretariat as the greatest race horse of all time.

He had won the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness, each time beating Sham by 21/2 lengths.

Now it was June9. Most of the bettors in the crowd of nearly 70,000 at Belmont Park expected the first Triple Crown winner since Citation in 1948. Secretariat was a 1-10 favorite.

By Bruce Lowitt

The nation waited for this moment for 38 years. And for the six months after the 1973 baseball season. And for the first four days of 1974's.

Fans looked forward to Henry Aaron's 715th career home run with hope in their hearts -- or venom in their veins.

To a segment of society, it wasn't Aaron chasing the home run record of Babe Ruth. It was ... well, a black man. Aaron was a racist's nightmare, excelling in a sport that for decades had been as white as the ball. And excelling in Atlanta, the heart of Dixie.

By Bruce Lowett

Gordie Howe's career was in its twilight. Wayne Gretzky was only a glimmer on the NHL horizon. Hockey was essentially a Canadian sport with limited United States appeal, mostly in the Northeast.

But the United States vs. the Soviet Union in anything was still big in the Cold War era, and the Olympics were as good a flash point as any.

The U.S. team beat the Soviets 3-2 en route to its gold medal at the 1960 Squaw Valley Olympics. But that was a different era.

Jesse Owens breaks records, debunks Aryan superiority.
-- By BRUCE LOWITT

The 1936 Berlin Olympics were to be Adolf Hitler's stage to validate Aryan superiority, the Nazis' belief in a master race. In three races and one long jump, American Jesse Owens, as much as anyone, laid waste that philosophy.

-- Author Unknown

It was with great pride and joy to watch the Colts, led by Head Coach - Tony Dungy, win their trip to the Super Bowl.  While, not a big football follower, there was good reason and insight to support and cheer with enthusiasm for Tony Dungy's Colts team?
 

"At Georgia Southern, we don't cheat. That costs money and we don't have any." -- Erk Russell / Georgia Southern.  

"Football is only a game. Spiritual things are eternal. Nevertheless, Beat Texas." -- Seen on a church sign in Arkansas prior to the 1969 game. 

"After you retire, there's only one big event left... and I ain't ready for that." -- Bobby Bowden / Florida State

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I went to the National.

By George Vecsey, New York Times - Published: April 30, 2008

-- By Bobby DoddÔÇ¿

Football is one of our great American games. It is the duty and responsibility of each of us to see that it is kept in its proper perspective, and that it is protected. We should see that it is used to attain the objectives that mean so much to our way of life.

We feel that the spectator can be most influential and instrumental in helping to achieve these objectives, if he will develop the right attitudes. May we suggest a few?