It’s that time of year when columnists remind viewers about what happened during the last 12 months. And this year, there’s a decade to access.
But thanks to HBO, I’m traveling down a different broadcasting path by recalling what happened 50 years ago.
On June 16, 1959, Lamar Hunt, who resembled a mild-mannered accountant, made sports history by announcing his intention to form a competitor for the firmly established National Football League.
Hunt’s low-key news conference on black-and-white screens was aired briefly on some national and local newscasts.
But few grasped the importance of Hunt’s announcement.
That’s why “Rebels With a Cause: The Story of the American Football League” (premiering 5 p.m. Thursday) is an engrossing, hour-long study of the birth of the Broncos and the seven other teams that formed a league few thought would succeed.
Numerous respected sports journalists, including the legendary Red Smith, scoffed at the efforts of a fledging football operation competing against the high and mighty NFL.
Footage worth watching
After all, are football fans really going to respect a league that features a team that wears second- hand brown-and-yellow uniforms and vertically striped socks?
Actually, “Rebels With a Cause” was initially aired in 1995, with this showing featuring introductory commentary by John Madden.
Still, there’s a timely atmosphere in this hour because the current NFL season has featured teams wearing throwback 1960 AFL uniforms.
One scene shows Broncos players and their fans celebrating as the ugly stockings are tossed into a huge bonfire.
“Rebels With a Cause” is a sports television history chronicle, showing how the medium grew while covering the league’s growth, beginning with Hunt’s announcement and ending with the merger following the Chiefs’ 1970 victory over the Vikings in Super Bowl IV.
This gridiron journey will tap football memories through archival film and tape, and interviews with players, coaches, executives and journalists who were key figures in a fascinating sports story.
And woven throughout the telecast is a thread of sad nostalgia because so many of the principals featured in the film are deceased.
Hunt, owner of the Dallas Texans and the Chiefs, died three years ago.
You’ll see agile quarterback Jack Kemp leading the Buffalo Bills to key victories and listen to U.S. Rep. Jack Kemp comment on how the AFL gained respectability.
The most bizarre archival footage shows the ending of the Boston-Dallas game at Boston University Field on Nov. 3, 1961.
On a dark, snowy afternoon, Boston turned back a last-play Dallas touchdown when a fan in a raincoat ran onto the field and knocked down Cotton Davidson’s end-zone pass attempt.
Officials let the play stand.
Limited Broncos face time
Broncos fans, looking for fascinating tidbits and historic film, might feel somewhat slighted.
But keep in mind the Broncos were regular losers during the league’s early seasons.
In addition to the sock-burning scene, there’s brief coverage of the first AFL game, played in Boston on Sept. 9 1960, when the Broncos beat the Patriots 13-10.
Also featured is rare footage of a 1960 preseason game in Golden, when coach Frank Filchock asked quarterback coach Frank Tripucka if he would mind playing the position. This led to Tripucka’s four-year Broncos playing career.
A grinning Tripucka also talks about the makeshift Broncos uniforms that forced him to rip his tight jersey so he could throw the football.
Several still photos of the late Bob Howsam and other team owners are featured.
Broncos fans with short memories might be jolted to learn that the “evil” Al Davis played a positive role in early AFL days and served as the league’s second commissioner.
Davis succinctly sums up the historic battle between the two leagues:
“We were like guerrillas in guerrilla warfare. As long as we hung around, we were a thorn in their side.
“They (the NFL) feared us. We weren’t afraid of them.
“We were proud of the American Football League. It’s something that will live on forever.”
Longtime Denver journalist Dusty Saunders writes about sports media each Monday in The Denver Post. Reach him at tvtime@comcast.net.
A classic by any other name . . .
Should a sporting event be labeled a “classic” after only two games? NBC and the NHL think so.
The result: The 2010 Bridgestone NHL Winter Classic, featuring the Boston Bruins and the Philadelphia Flyers, scheduled live from Fenway Park at 11 a.m. Friday.
Perhaps game attendance and TV ratings back up such hyperbole.
The first “classic” game (2008) at Ralph Wilson Stadium in Orchard Park, N.Y., drew 71,217 outdoor fans as the Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Sabres 2-1 in a shootout.
On last New Year’s Day, the Detroit Red Wings outscored the Chicago Blackhawks 6-4 at Wrigley Field, producing the largest NHL TV audience (4.4 million) for a regular-season game in 34 years.
