Joe Namath still The Man in '69 flashback
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In the late 1960s, perhaps only John, Paul, George and Ringo were bigger than Broadway Joe.
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Later today, countless pre-teen boys in the small Orange County, Calif., community of Rancho Santa Margarita will pull on their Mark Sanchez No. 6 New York Jets jersey and cheer on their high school hero. They will watch as Sanchez leads the Jets against the heavily favored Indianapolis Colts in the AFC championship game with a trip to Super Bowl XLIV on the line. Then, regardless of the outcome, they will head to the backyard or the playground and fight to be Sanchez in their pick-up games.
At least that's how we pre-teen boys did it in Beaver Falls the most recent time the Jets and Colts played in such an important game.
Has it really been more than four decades? That's frightening, almost beyond belief. It was Jan. 12, 1969, but it seems like yesterday in so many ways. We pulled on our No. 12 Jets jersey and cheered for our hometown hero -- Joe Willie Namath -- in the most significant Super Bowl of all.
Those boys in Rancho Santa Margarita should be so lucky.
The world has changed significantly in the past 40-plus years. Kids today have so many more entertainment options. But in '69, in our little corner of the world and so many others, sports were everything. We had The Great One, Roberto Clemente, who played in an era when 17 consecutive losing seasons were unimaginable and fans-- hard as this might be to believe -- weren't ashamed to call the Pirates their team.
And we had Namath, who was one of us even if they did call him Broadway Joe. He grew up strictly blue-collar, just as we were. His father, John, worked in the Babcock & Wilcox steel mill, just as my dad and so many other dads did. He had shot pool at the Blue Room in the heart of town on Seventh Avenue, just as we did. He had eaten the best pasta in the valley at Corner Tavern, just as we did. He had led Beaver Falls High to a WPIAL championship, just as so many of us dreamed of doing. He had taken a scholarship to Alabama and won a national title there, had signed to become a $427,000 bonus baby with the Jets and practically owned the most important city in the world ...
First Published January 24, 2010 12:00 am
