Today is the 43rd anniversary of the day that a little Swiss girl brought professional football to its knees. I've always thought it remarkable that one of the iconic games in football is known simply as the Heidi Game. Chapters in football history books have been devoted to the game. It wouldn't surprise me at all if a book dedicated solely to this one game was in the works. There were a lot of tears, and worse, from football fans and worried parents on November 17, 1968.
Technology was a little different back then but there was television. Professional football games were even televised. The New York Jets and the Oakland Raiders had emerged as dominant teams in the last years of the AFL. The Jets, at 7-2, were in position to clinch the East title when they visited the Oakland Raiders, also at 7-2, on that day. It was a huge game. Perhaps an AFL Championship preview. With a 4pm EST start, the game had to end by 7pm EST. NBC was expecting a huge audience for its made for TV movie. The 7-9pm block had to be free for Heidi. The movie was promoted for days on air and in the newspapers. In that far away era, single advertisers bought blocks of air time. Timex had paid a bundle for the Heidi block. NBC had never had a game go beyond three hours. The plan was to switch to Heidi at 7pm no matter what happened. Nothing could possibly happen. Unlike today, football teams ran the ball on most downs. Games move quickly. Oakland and New York didn't play that game this day. The Jets' Joe Namath attempted 37 passes. The Raiders' Daryle Lamonica attempted 34. It was a physical, close game with 19 penalties and all time outs used. Pretty much everything that could extend the game happened. It was also a fantastic game. Some consider it one of the greatest regular season games. At 6:45pm EST, parents started calling NBC asking if Heidi would start on time. A lot of parents started calling. After six lead changes, the Jets kicked a field goal for a 32-29 lead. 1:05 remained in the game. Heidi was coming up next as the Raiders offense was about to take the field. Football fans started calling NBC to demand their football. A lot of football fans started calling. The NBC switchboard crashed. Circuits blew. Fuses were replaced. In an hour, 26 fuses were blown. The NBC power players in New York wanted to keep the game on air to its conclusion. The blown switchboard and busy signals prevented any communication to the west coast to change the pregame instructions. Somebody in a cornfield somewhere around Iowa had to flip that switch to Heidi. That person went with the earlier instructions. Everybody east of the Sierras saw Heidi. Everybody on the west coast saw one of the most frantic endings in memory. Lost to the east was a quick touchdown on a pass from Lamonica to Charlie Smith for a 36-32 Raiders lead. The Jets fumbled the kickoff and the Raiders had another touchdown. From the time that Heidi hit the screens the Jets went from a title clinching 32-29 victory to a 43-32 defeat. Jets coach Weeb Ewbank, in Oakland, even received a congratulatory phone call from his wife, watching Heidi in New York.
Despite things not going the way those in New York wanted, they went the way they should. Timex would have killed NBC if Heidi was interrupted. Professional football was still growing back then. Football is king now, but it was still scrambling for attention then. This Heidi game put the AFL, the Jets and Namath on the front page of the New York Times. For those that missed the thrilling end to the game, the last 1:05 was shown the next night during the Huntley-Brinkley report. To prevent any possible future communication issues NBC put in a phone that was on a separate exchange. The Heidi phone. Its still there. The biggest change, football games must be shown to the conclusion. Football was on its way and Heidi helped get it there.
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