Sixties Sports As I Saw It

My first exposure to spectator sports began when I began to copy my father in collecting baseball cards from the backs of Post cereal boxes. He had already amassed a big collection, and he helped me out by giving me cards and letting me get some off the new cereal boxes. Actually, since I was only about six years old, that's just about the only way I could have collected them. One day, he took me to see the New York Yankees spring training camp in Fort Lauderdale. They were still winning the American League pennant almost every year and had their top stars like Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris at the camp. My father tried to point out the players to me and what they were doing, but (according to his recollection) all I wanted to do was whine because I had forgotten to bring my baseball cards with me! My interest in baseball cards gradually faded and it wasn't until the 1965 World Series between the Los Angeles Dodgers (who won it) and the Minnesota Twins, that I actually sat down and started seriously watching the game as it was played. Somehow, I missed the entire 1966 season. Starting around 1967, I became more interested in spectator sports. I remember the exciting World Series that year between Carl Yastrzemski's Boston Red Sox and the legendary St. Louis Cardinals with Bob Gibson and Lou Brock.

During the NFL season that year, I got caught up in the divisional race between the Los Angeles Rams and the Baltimore Colts. The Colts, with Johnny Unitas as quarterback and Don Shula as coach, were undefeated that year, going into the regular-season ending game against their rivals with an 11-0-2 record. They had been my mother's favorite team for some time, too. But they lost that last game to the Rams, who ended up with an identical 11-1-2 record and beat the Colts in the tie-breaker to go on to the playoffs. Meanwhile, the Green Bay Packers, in their last glory-season under legendary coach Vince Lombardi, limped through their regular season and easily won their weak division with four losses. But they regained their preeminence in the playoffs, first easily knocking off Los Angeles and then winning the famous "Ice Bowl" game against the Dallas Cowboys with last minute heroics 21-17 for their second straight Super Bowl trip, which they easily won 33-14 over Daryle Lamonica's Oakland Raiders.

It wasn't until the following year that I really started following both college and professional football, from season's beginning to its end and from the viewpoint of a state of Florida fan. I rooted for Florida State, the University of Florida, the University of Miami, and the Miami Dolphins. The Dolphins were in their third year of existence under coach George Wilson and had a very good year (5-8-1) with that in mind. They were already forming the nucleus of the great Super Bowl teams of the early 1970s, especially with their offensive line, "no-namers" on defense, young quarterback Bob Griese, and running backs Jim Kiick and Larry Csonka (who I remember broke his nose that year). This was the year that the New York Jets stunned the Baltimore Colts 16-7 in the Super Bowl (I was rooting for the losers in that TV-blacked out game held in Miami). In college, the Miami Hurricanes started out well under coach Charlie Tate, although their early opponent USC ran all over them with their star running back O.J. Simpson. But a late season slump ended their year at a disappointing 5-5 and coach Tate retired after the season. The University of Florida had a moderately successful season (6-3-1), beating both of their cross-state rivals but getting creamed by Georgia. FSU, although they lost to Florida, had a great season at 8-3, winning a stunner at home over Houston (which had beaten other teams by 77-3 and 100-6 scores) 40-20 after leading at halftime 25-0. The Seminole offense was lead by the explosive quarterback/receiver combination of Bill Cappleman and Ron Sellers. Sellers would later star for the New England Patriots. FSU played in the first Peach Bowl ever in Atlanta, although they lost it to LSU 31-27. At that time, they were my favorite college team.

1968 also saw an extremely pitching-dominated season in major league baseball, where Denny McLain won 31 games for the Detroit Tigers and Bob Gibson pitched with a sizzling 1.12 ERA for the St. Louis Cardinals, who played for a second straight world series championship, this time against Detroit. But the Tigers, after being down three games to one, won the last three games and the Series, due largely to their other star pitcher, Mickey Lolich.

The spring of 1968 experienced my first watching of the Triple Crown in horse racing. I saw Dancer's Image win the Kentucky Derby, only to be disqualified with Forward Pass declared the winner. Then, Forward Pass won the Preakness outright, while Dancer's Image was disqualified yet again but for a different reason. So when the Belmont came around there was a good chance we would see a Triple Crown winner for the first time since 1948 (and in my first year of watching it). But the length of the Belmont course showed itself to be a big factor as Stage Door Johnny outlasted Forward Pass and the rest of the field to win it.

1968 was also the year of the first Olympic Games (winter and summer) that I ever saw, but I don't remember very much except that ice skater Peggy Fleming won the only U.S. gold medal in the winter games. I did get the feeling, even at that early point, that the games seemed to be more about the countries than about the actual athletes and their sports. Unfortunately, this feeling has yet to waver even to this day.

I did not begin to follow basketball until the fall of 1968, when the American Basketball Association's Minnesota Muskies decided they could do better down south and became the Miami Floridians (I still can't get over that stupid nickname) for the 1968-69 season. But I'll leave that for another time...