Inspire 21 Inspiring Words for the 21st Century

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.