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A Beauty Of A Book Review: Pro Football: The World of the NFL

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Good morning, Uni Watchers. It’s Friday — we made it!

Longtime pal and conrtibutor Jimmy Parker has authored many articles for Uni Watch over the years, and when I took over the ediorship from Paul back at the end of May, I asked Jimmy if he’d like to contribute more articles, on about a monthly-ish basis, and he heartily agreed. Jimmy is the proprietor of the most excellent Beauty Of A Game website, and he also goes by that handle on Twitter-X and Bluesky.

Mr. Parker returns today with another wonderful piece that’s part book review, part history lesson. Some of you may be familiar with the book, heck, some of you may have even owned a copy. I never owned this particular work of art, but growing up I had several similar ones (for both football and baseball). So this is not just a fun read, but it’ll be a trip down memory lane for a number of readers. If you like it, Jimmy tells you where he gets many of his finds. And if that fails, there’s always eBay.

Here’s Jimmy with…

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A Beauty Of A Book Review: Pro Football: The World of the NFL
by Jimmy Parker

One of the things I enjoy in my spare time is checking out used bookstores and thrift stores in search of old sports books. Not only are these avenues good for finding incredible deals, but I can also occasionally find some really great additions to the Beauty of a Game library. While the genre of sports books I usually purchase varies (general history, team history, biography, statistical analysis, etc.), one of my favorite types of sports book to find is a pictorial history. I’ve long been drawn to the look of things, how they’re designed and their overall aesthetic, so finding older books full of photographs or illustrations of sports’ bygone eras is always a thrill. Starting today and in the future I’ll be sharing with Uni Watch readers a glimpse into some of my best-loved books of this genre.

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One of my favorite finds of this type is a 1972 book, “Pro Football: The World of the NFL”. The book was written by Mike Rathet and the Editors of Pro Quarterback Magazine, at the time a monthly magazine focused on the league. The book features photographs and some analysis from the magazine’s pages, as well as some articles written especially for the book. At over 300 pages the book isn’t thin and while most of the photographs are black and white there are 64 pages of full-color photos showing us that era of the NFL in all its glory.

As I flipped through the book, one of the first things I noticed is that this was indeed football from another time, a time when the league wasn’t as buttoned up as it is today. This was a time when the league was just beginning to catch and would ultimately surpass baseball as America’s most popular sport.

Many photos show examples of a sport somewhat lacking in self awareness – when the game was more about the game itself and less about the appearance and the spectacle. Helmet decals are crumpled and torn.

Jersey numbering is frayed and unevenly sewn.

Ace bandages are used and applied in a style that today seems almost amateurish.

These are portraits of a sport before it fully understood the importance of visual branding and aesthetic presentation in addition to offering exciting on-field action.

But once I got past the photos that may look crude or amateurish compared to today’s in-game action shots, I quickly and easily fell in love with these photos of the game’s earlier era. It was almost like watching an old NFL Films documentary, and more than once I caught myself reading the accompanying copy in the voice of long-time NFL Films narrator John Facenda. Perhaps because there’s a quality to many of these photos that just “feels like” the football so often presented in those early NFL Films programs. It’s dirty. It’s tough. It’s not glamorous. These aren’t athletes so much as they are football players.

While several spreads feature multiple smaller photos, enhancing the visual impact of the action-packed photos, the book really excels when showing off the stars of the game in full-page pics. As quarterbacks have seemingly always been the stars of the league there are lots of QB shots included. There’s Jets QB “Broadway Joe” Namath calling a play at the line of scrimmage.

Chiefs legendary QB Len Dawson warming his hands the old-fashioned way while on the sideline.

Cowboys QB Roger Staubach about to be sacked by the Falcons’ Claude Humphrey, in a shot that shows both teams wearing 1969’s NFL 50th Anniversary patch on the shoulder of their jerseys.

Dolphins QB Bob Griese dropping back in the pocket.

But the book does go farther than its namesake magazine by featuring more than simply quarterbacks – there are running backs, linebackers, defensive ends and more.

All in all this is a great volume to flip through and just leisurely check out the photos. The book is a great collection of images capturing a unique time in the history of the NFL, as it was becoming our country’s most popular sport and big business. It’s a wonderful stroll down Memory Lane, even if my memories of most of these players are from later in their careers — or in the case of several, their post-playing acting careers.

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Thanks Jimmy! Great stuff, as always.

Since May, Jimmy has done an absolutely fantastic piece on the Top 10 Sports Movie Posters of all time, as well as two wonderful articles on Norman Rockwell: Norman Rockwell — Uni Watcher? and Norman Rockwell — Behind The Scenes, and a look back at James Earl Jones’ Man Cave in The Sandlot. Another incredible piece from Jimmy was IDing souvenirs from Ebbets Field. His most recent offering was a review of “Movies with Balls”.

Did any of you have this (or similar) books growing up? Do you still have them? I’m sure I’m looking at this with the rose-colored glasses of nostalgia, but there was something very endearing about those football and baseball books of the early and mid-seventies.

Your thoughts?

 

 
  
 

Guess the Game from the Scoreboard

Guess The Game…

…From The Scoreboard

Today’s scoreboard comes from James Weil.

The premise of the game (GTGFTS) is simple: I’ll post a scoreboard and you guys simply identify the game depicted. In the past, I don’t know if I’ve ever completely stumped you (some are easier than others).

Here’s the Scoreboard. In the comments below, try to identify the game (date and location, as well as final score). If anything noteworthy occurred during the game, please add that in (and if you were AT the game, well bonus points for you!):

Please continue sending these in! You’re welcome to send me any scoreboard photos (with answers please), and I’ll keep running them.

 

 

Guess the Game from the Uniform


Based on the suggestion of long-time reader/contributor Jimmy Corcoran, we’ve introduced a new “game” on Uni Watch, which is similar to the popular “Guess the Game from the Scoreboard” (GTGFTS), only this one asked readers to identify the game based on the uniforms worn by teams.

Like GTGFTS, readers will be asked to guess the date, location and final score of the game from the clues provided in the photo. Sometimes the game should be somewhat easy to ascertain, while in other instances, it might be quite difficult. There will usually be a visual clue (something odd or unique to one or both of the uniforms) that will make a positive identification of one and only one game possible. Other times, there may be something significant about the game in question, like the last time a particular uniform was ever worn (one of Jimmy’s original suggestions). It’s up to YOU to figure out the game and date.

Today’s GTGFTU comes from Chris “CheisH” Hickey.

Good luck and please post your guess/answer in the comments below.

 

 

And finally...

…that’ll do it for the morning lede. Big thanks, once again, to the inimitable Jimmy Parker! Fun stuff today.

Make sure you keep checking back today, because we’ll have a piece from our own Anthony Emerson on the unveiling of a uniform that’s (literally) near and dear to him, plus he’ll have a Ticker as well. In addition to any breaking news that may happen, I’ll have a preview of this weekend’s uniform matchups later today.

Jimmer Vilk will take you through the weekend, and I’ll see you guys back here for Monday Morning Uni Watch.

Have a great weekend.

Peace,

PH

Comments (0)

    GTGFTU: November 20, 1983: Giants at Eagles. I was at another NFL game that Sunday-Browns 30 Pats 0. One of New England’s worst games ever.

    You got it, Charles!
    Ahh…back when uni-memorials were a touch more subtle, the Giants N’sOB were a bit more spacious, the Birds were a lot more stripe-y(now that’s a throwback worth seeing-but only of the helmet is the proper shade of green) and the Vet turf was a lot less forgiving (though it probably never was!).

    Nothing crude or amateurish about any of those photos. They’re beautiful. Like stills from a classic movie. Love those legit uniforms. Real sleeves. Real pants. Real socks. Matching cleats. No mono. No BFBS. No silly alt jerseys. No neon colors. Also dig the glimpes of the fans. Dressed like adults. Not a bunch of drunken fat slobs in face paint and XXXL jerseys, thinking they’re somehow part of the team.

    I agree – I think there’s something beautiful about those vintage photos. Thanks for reading and hope you enjoyed it!

    GTGFTS – I believe this is the scoreboard in the Rose Bowl with the score of the 1942 game between Duke and Oregon State College – but the game was played in Durham because of WWII. From what I can tell, the score is incorrect – at the beginning of the 3rd quarter, the score was 7-7 and OSC scored on a 4th and 11 to make it 14-7 Oregon, not the other way around…

    This picture was taken with the Rose Bowl queen in the foreground in the actual empty Rose Bowl. Somehow they got the score wrong while listening on the radio. link

    I don’t want to sound like I’m yelling at the clouds (even if I am), but I don’t know how anyone could look at those incredible old NFL photos and think, “I like today’s unforms better”. So tasty.

    More specifically, those great old photos illustrate how much better the overall aesthetics were when players actually wore sleeves (and socks, but don’t get me started). Some real beauties there. The old ‘Skins jerseys for example, as well as the really unique, and totally cool old Eagles and Jets sleeve designs.

    On the link that has several photos on it, the book misidentified Mercury Morris as playing for the Dallas Cowboys.

    “when the game was more about the game itself and less about the appearance and the spectacle. Helmet decals are crumpled and torn.”
    Miles Garrett didn’t have much better luck last night, his icy white helmet was showing even before the real Snow began…
    link

    Great photos, Jimmy, really cool. Another good one is The Great NFL Fun Book. It was geared more for kids, in 1979, and was a great introduction to NFL football and uniforms, in general.

    Funny that you mentioned that, I actually got The Great NFL Fun Book from a book fair in elementary school! It was awesome but I had forgotten all about it until Paul did an article about it awhile back (link) and it brought back so many memories.

    Thanks for reading and taking time to comment!

    The game was played to a packed house in Durham. It was moved from the West Coast precisely because fans could attend.

    I never liked Washington’s R helmet because it was just a knock-off of Green Bay’s, but my heavens the sleeve stripes on that jersey!

    Also the picture at the top is a reminder of how much better Dallas looked with grey pants than with …whatever that color is that they wear now.

    I think I had some athletic tube socks with that same striping when I was a kid. Thanks for reading and taking time to comment!

    That helmet and the stripes on the sleeves were all Vince Lombardi’s idea, if I’ve read about it correctly. He wanted the ‘Skins to look like his old Packers. But he got sick before he was able to coach that team in those uniforms and helmets.

    I’m obsessed with the late ’60s in the NFL, where the teams looked like they would through most of the ’70s (or even today!) but had no names on the backs of the jerseys. And then when the merger was completed in 1970, the old NFL teams unceremoniously slapped names on their backs to match the old AFL teams like it wasn’t a big deal.

    The late 60s and early 70s were such a transformative time in pro sports, especially football. Thanks for reading and taking time to comment!

    Thanks for the walk down Memory Ln., Jimmy!
    Back in grade school, each week we were marched down to the library…where we were ‘encouraged’ to check out a book. If these were available, I’d check them out, though I kinda recall the sports section having a dwindling inventory over time. Hmmmm…

    I always love visiting Memory Lane, glad you did too Chris. Thanks for reading and taking time to comment!

    The Washington “R” is familiar to me by the way of the quarter gumball machines. Trying get the complete league …25 cents at a time over a fall/winter…I ended up with several “R” and never did complete the set.

    I usually gravitated towards those in the gumball machines as well. Thanks for reading and taking time to comment Rick!

    Interesting how fifty-plus years ago they could match helmets and pants so much better than they can today (49ers and Cowboys.)

    One of the great joys of attending NFL games in the 70s and early 80s was the programs you could purchase. Full blown magazine with great photography. They worth worth saving. It’s too bad it’s a digital world now. Kids would really love them.

    My dad had a very similar book to this, with similar color photos from the same era. Looking through that as a kid is my earliest memory of football. I was more interested in baseball (and stirrups) at the time, but I remember being impressed by all of the color, the muddy uniforms, wrist-tape and spatting, the different types of facemasks on the helmets, and how everything looked just a little bit different from what was modern a few years later.

    I think the book we had was from NFL films. It was like this, but very large in every dimension. Like a coffee table book, but I remember it being thick and very heavy. I think it had a mostly lower-case, Helvetica-style, san-serif typeface.

    That era must have been especially good for those types of books, as I have several more in my library, which may get future book reviews. Thanks for reading and taking time to comment!

    Looking at those pics reminds this 60 year old guy how much a craved seeing color pictures of sports action & players when I was a kid. It was a day when over the airwaves tv + monthly magazines were the only things available to whet my appetite.

    Regarding the uniforms:
    At the time, some were considered flashy.
    I like them & wish the uniforms would stay the same, but with modern materials.

    I think those types of books really filled a need in that era for the exact appetite you referred to. Thanks for reading and taking time to comment!

    Great book, great review. I have a score of sports book that I adore, this one should be one of them.

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