Dec 12 , 1976

[Bigmoe]

So tomorrow is the 44th anniversary of Joe Willies last game.( as a Jet)
It was also Frank Sinatra's 61st birthday!
We had tickets for 6 years now and it was the end of another abysmal season 3-11 ( actually 3 seasons in a row of 3-11)
Lou Holtz resigned the week before ( coward couldn't stay one more week ?)
So of course me and my dad trudge the route -80 to the bridge , Harlem river drive , Triboro bridge , Astoria Blvd to the stadium 'ugh ( but we had a lot of fun)
Bengals destroy us , Joe throws pic after pic and in horror he's pulled in the 2nd half for Todd.
By coach 0-1 Holovak, what fuckin nerve!!!
Everyone knows it's his last game.
Cold ,drizzle all day
So we stay till about 5 min left, ( why did we stay that long?) get to the car and turn on the radio as we always did to hear the end of the game.. The great Marty Glickman does his poetic justice.
Marty : Ingrained in my memory
"Its a cold,......gray, ........miserable day at Shea, there's a wet drizzle in the air.
Theres a sign in the far corner " Thanks Joe "
And so it went
There is some film highlight about Joe Willies career where they actually have a clip,from the game, and you can see the hand written thanks on a big white sheet ( It was in the opposite end zone of our seats which were in the closed end of Shea) Fuckin portable metal bleachers.
Saddest memory out of a thousand as a Jet fan.
Yes sadder than this garbage now.

Hard to believe where all those years went

 

[Fudbutter]

Good post BM

I remember that day vividly. Coming in on the Long Island Rail Road talking about how it was Joe's last game and that it was a good thing as he could hardly move by that point. He proved it that day too.

Sat in those metal bleachers back then too. There were like 10 numbers for seating location but the bench could only hold 9 butts so the last to arrive would sit on the stairs. We used to have a lot of fun with some good folks which was imprtant because you couldn't see what was going on unless the ball was inside the 40 closed end. Thankfully, we moved to the Mezz the next year

Bad year, 1976. Bad team. not much hope. Todd looked like he was not the answer. 3 wins, one against the expansion Bucs and 2 against a bad Bills team and even those were by one score

Some good young players like Clark Gaines and Larry Faulk were on this team, but it took 5 seasons to see a winning team again.

Despite all this I would give anything to have Shea back again

 

[butterscotch]

So tomorrow is the 44th anniversary of Joe Willies last game.( as a Jet)
It was also Frank Sinatra's 61st birthday!
We had tickets for 6 years now and it was the end of another abysmal season 3-11 ( actually 3 seasons in a row of 3-11)
Lou Holtz resigned the week before ( coward couldn't stay one more week ?)
So of course me and my dad trudge the route -80 to the bridge , Harlem river drive , Triboro bridge , Astoria Blvd to the stadium 'ugh ( but we had a lot of fun)
Bengals destroy us , Joe throws pic after pic and in horror he's pulled in the 2nd half for Todd.
By coach 0-1 Holovak, what fuckin nerve!!!
Everyone knows it's his last game.
Cold ,drizzle all day
So we stay till about 5 min left, ( why did we stay that long?) get to the car and turn on the radio as we always did to hear the end of the game.. The great Marty Glickman does his poetic justice.
Marty : Ingrained in my memory
"Its a cold,......gray, ........miserable day at Shea, there's a wet drizzle in the air.
Theres a sign in the far corner " Thanks Joe "
And so it went
There is some film highlight about Joe Willies career where they actually have a clip,from the game, and you can see the hand written thanks on a big white sheet ( It was in the opposite end zone of our seats which were in the closed end of Shea) Fuckin portable metal bleachers.
Saddest memory out of a thousand as a Jet fan.
Yes sadder than this garbage now.

Hard to believe where all those years went

I love you Bigmoe but you hit a sour note on this one I loved the SB announcers But I hated Glickman on the Giants all those years & then he comes to the Jets......I could not stand his voice but worse then that was he would say "boozer around the end, he has an open field he is running down the sideline. he sidesteps a tackler, he is back in the open field, gaining more yards as he goes, now he is down. A three yard gain for Boozer. what the F______ three yards sounded like a 40 yard run. I do like the man & what he had to put up with in life but I wish he had stayed on the Giants where he belonged. Merle & Sam were my guys lol But I had days like that at Shea too. I got my season tickets the year after but I had been going to games since 74 but I can't say how lol as what happens at shea stays at shea.. First game was 1964

 

[butterscotch]

Big moe were you at the death game when the kid from NE was killed my the flying lawnmower. I saw that one coming was before it happened, Bl

 

[Bigmoe]

Big moe were you at the death game when the kid from NE was killed my the flying lawnmower. I saw that one coming was before it happened, Bl

yup
You want my story?

So the half time shows were not so bad
Bands like the Hawthorne Nj Caballeros , or the Skyliners from Long Island were actually good

So no band for this halftime We're playing Patriots
Dec 9th 1979 ( so we just passed that anniversary date)
Like it was yesterday.... So our seats are in the closed end of the endzone on the field again sitting in those fucking portable metal bleachers for those that remember )
So this guy is at mid field with what looks like snoppy on his house . No one knows whats going to happen but the house starts moving and actually takes off flying around the stadium , not so much over the fans, hilarious .

Next up this guy has a lawnmower . We're like what's he going to do cut the grass ? Well , He had trouble getting it started but then it takes off at mid field, flys thru the goalpost then right above our seats. The crowd is cheering !!! Flys to our left starts to bank and dip and can't recover back up. It crashes into the crowd,yes on the Pats side but around the 10 yardline. Everyone was laughing but then I see people standing on seats waving for help. The ambulance comes on the field and they take the guys away. Some halftime show.
We learned about 4 days later the poor guy, a NE fan died from severe head trauma
I think if I remember it was his first game . Talk about bad luck .

After that they went back to some bands and throwing a frizbee to a dog catching it , running around.

 

[butterscotch]

yup
You want my story?

So the half time shows were not so bad
Bands like the Hawthorne Nj Caballeros , or the Skyliners from Long Island were actually good

So no band for this halftime We're playing Patriots
Dec 9th 1979 ( so we just passed that anniversary date)
Like it was yesterday.... So our seats are in the closed end of the endzone on the field again sitting in those fucking portable metal bleachers for those that remember )
So this guy is at mid field with what looks like snoppy on his house . No one knows whats going to happen but the house starts moving and actually takes off flying around the stadium , not so much over the fans, hilarious .

Next up this guy has a lawnmower . We're like what's he going to do cut the grass ? Well , He had trouble getting it started but then it takes off at mid field, flys thru the goalpost then right above our seats. The crowd is cheering !!! Flys to our left starts to bank and dip and can't recover back up. It crashes into the crowd,yes on the Pats side but around the 10 yardline. Everyone was laughing but then I see people standing on seats waving for help. The ambulance comes on the field and they take the guys away. Some halftime show.
We learned about 4 days later the poor guy, a NE fan died from severe head trauma
I think if I remember it was his first game . Talk about bad luck .

After that they went back to some bands and throwing a frizbee to a dog catching it , running around.

Yes I was above him in the mezz & saw it happen I had turned to a friend & said this is crazy with all the radio waves from the airport & flying over the crowd. He ducked but the plane went with him. Another friend that was closer said they wrapped his head in a towel & it turned red. It was his first & last game. His younger brother was next to him.

 

[butterscotch]

Reminds me of the guy that got shot at the Polo grounds in the 50's Took a young kid to the game & he sat down & slumped over shot dead from a kid outside the stadium from the projects. They say when they took his body away everyone ran for his seat blood & all. Dodgers giants poor guy did not get to enjoy his hotdog & beer.

 

[NewMFS62]

I love you Bigmoe but you hit a sour note on this one I loved the SB announcers But I hated Glickman on the Giants all those years & then he comes to the Jets......I could not stand his voice but worse then that was he would say "boozer around the end, he has an open field he is running down the sideline. he sidesteps a tackler, he is back in the open field, gaining more yards as he goes, now he is down. A three yard gain for Boozer. A F________ three yards sounded like a 40 yard run. I do like the man & what he had to put up with in life but I wish he had stayed on the Giants where he belonged. Merle & Sam were my guys lol But I had days like that at Shea too. I got my season tickets the year after but I had been going to games since 74 but I can't say how lol. First game was 1964

I hated that when we listened on the radio how would say "First, second or third down and goal" and never tell you what yard line the ball was on. Part of listening to a football game on radio was playing coach and predicting what play would be called. But that is based on the yards-to-go and we could never do that. And, when he announced for that "other" team in town, he never mentioned the Jets (or Titans) when he gave the out-of-town scores. Because of that, to this day, I never say, or type, the name of that team. When he came to the Jets, I didn't like him because of that.
Later

 

[butterscotch]

I hated that when we listened on the radio how would say "First, second or third down and goal" and never tell you what yard line the ball was on. Part of listening to a football game on radio was playing coach and predicting what play would be called. But that is based on the yards-to-go and we could never do that. And, when he announced for that "other" team in town, he never mentioned the Jets (or Titans) when he gave the out-of-town scores. Because of that, to this day, I never say, or type, the name of that team. When he came to the Jets, I didn't like him because of that.
Later

I know i thought he was so bad if they had lions on the field like the old days...I would have fed him to them......lol

 

[cheaterhater]

so, in 1976, I would have been 10 years old. I never paid too much attention to specifics back then. I knew my father watched football every week so I picked up a Namath book at a school book fair. probably the year before that, maybe 3rd grade and became a fan. should have paid better attention, as my father was a Giants fan. should have learned from that mistake.

my only memory of Namath playing, and it may be incorrect, was him coming off the bench to play. did he come back after playing for the Rams and retire as a Jet or something and they let him come of the bench for a play maybe? it's all blurry memory for me. 77 was when I really started watching

 

[butterscotch]

so, in 1976, I would have been 10 years old. I never paid too much attention to specifics back then. I knew my father watched football every week so I picked up a Namath book at a school book fair. probably the year before that, maybe 3rd grade and became a fan. should have paid better attention, as my father was a Giants fan. should have learned from that mistake.

my only memory of Namath playing, and it may be incorrect, was him coming off the bench to play. did he come back after playing for the Rams and retire as a Jet or something and they let him come of the bench for a play maybe? it's all blurry memory for me. 77 was when I really started watching

Never came back.