Sports
Related: About this forumThe Heidi Game: 45 years ago today
The Heidi Game or Heidi Bowl was an American football game played on November 17, 1968. The home team, the Oakland Raiders, defeated the New York Jets, 4332. The game is remembered for its exciting finish, as Oakland scored two touchdowns in the final minute to overcome a 3229 New York lead.
It came to be known as the Heidi Game because the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) controversially broke away from the game, with the Jets still winning, to air the television film Heidi at 7 p.m. in the Eastern Time Zone.
In the late 1960s, few professional football games took longer than two and a half hours to play, and the JetsRaiders three-hour television time slot was thought to be adequate. However, in this instance, a high-scoring contest between the two bitter American Football League rivals, together with a number of injuries and penalties, caused the game to run long.
Although NBC executives had originally ordered that Heidi must begin on time, as 7 p.m. approached, and it became clear the exciting game would run long, they decided to postpone the start of the film and continue football coverage. However, when they tried to call the studio to implement their decision, they were unable to get through because so many members of the public were calling NBC to inquire, complain, or opine about the scheduled 7 pm cutoff, that the NBC switchboards were jammed.
As a result, the change could not be communicated, and Heidi began as scheduled, preempting the final moments of the game in the eastern part of the country--to the outrage of viewers there, who missed two Oakland touchdowns that turned the game around.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heidi_Game
RagAss
(13,832 posts)I was 10 and still have the image of my father and uncle ready to throw the TV out of our living room window.
ProfessorGAC
(64,852 posts)I loved the AFL, because as a kid, so many of their games were high flying shoot outs while the NFL was still 3 yards and cloud of dust. Certainly not aware enough of how the TV business works, all i can remember thinking was "What?"
GAC
Brother Buzz
(36,375 posts)And I was actually following the Raiders back in those days.
How bout them Forty-Niners?
wilt the stilt
(4,528 posts)and I was watching it on a color TV my Dad won on Treasure Hunt. I couldn't believe it.