My Father’s Love of Sports “Back in the Day”
As I’ve explained before, my father was a prolific athlete at George Washington High School (GW) in Alexandria being named All-State in football, basketball, and baseball in the late 1930’s before WWII. No doubt, he had a love of sports which he followed throughout his entire life, and as his son, the Baby Boomer also loved sports and was fortunate enough to be his tag-along.
After each sporting event we ever attended (and there were a ton of them) one of my arms would always become very sore. That’s because my dad would get excited several times during an event elbowing me in the arm on his side saying, ” What a play! Did you see that?”.
My parents, always being supportive of all my endeavors, never missed a baseball or football game where I was a teammember even though I may not even play. That’s defined as a true sports fan!
In fact, my dad was a coach for Civitan Club–the team I was with in little league. He certainly wasn’t easy on me and there certainly wasn’t any favoritism shown. He and I also competed together in a number of father/son golfing and skeet shooting events when I was a teenager.
Anytime we’d go to a GW ballgame, no matter the sport, a good number of folks would always come by to say “hi” and pass a few minutes reminiscing about the “good old days”. My dad enjoyed that very much. In fact, the gymnasium at GW was named for the sportswriter from the “Alexandria Gazette”, Jack Tulloch, who was a huge fan of my dad and wrote about him and his heroics often.
We attended most of the W-L basketball games in the early to mid-1960’s as they won three state championships during that time with Morris Levin being the coach and a history teacher at the school. GW also had a good team and the games between the two were epoch in that era which meant my arm would be particularly sore after one of those games. W-L had the Hummer brothers amongst their many talented players and GW had a true competitor in player Skeeter Swift. Basketball was my dad’s favorite sport by far both as a player and a fan. The highlight of our seeing a basketball game together was the 1970 NCAA Final Four at Cole Field House/University of MD. UCLA with John Wooden as coach and player Sidney Wicks won over Jacksonville and their center Artis Gilmore–I had another sore arm after that encounter!
My father was a 50-year season ticket holder of the Washington Redskins from 1952-2002 as the team had moved from RFK Stadium to Landover, MD and the team was sold to Daniel Snyder. Until the 1961 season, the Redskins played their home games at old Griffith Stadium before moving to DC Stadium later renamed Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium (RFK Stadium) in 1969. Head coaches during that time were Herman Ball, Dick Todd, Curly Lambeau, Joe Kuharich, Mike Nixon, Bill McPeak (my first time attending games), Otto Graham, Vince Lombardi, Bill Austin, George Allen, Jack Pardee, Joe Gibbs, Richie Petitbon, and Norv Turner when my dad decided just to give his tickets away the last couple of years.
DC/RFK Stadium could really rock and, at times, I felt it was going to fall to the ground as the fans could create quite a raucous. The game I KNEW the stadium was going to fall was in October, 1973, playing archrival the Dallas Cowboys as safety Ken Houston for Washington stopped Cowboys fullback, Walt Garrison, on the one-yard line as time ran out in the game securing a 14-7 Redskins victory. I can only imagine what my arm would’ve felt like after that game as I was saved by wearing some layers of clothing.
Dad would only agree to take me out of school one day a year and that was in April for the opening day of Major League Baseball (MLB) with the first game and only game of the day being played in Washington where the POTUS would throw out the first pitch of the season. I started being able to go to this memorable game while at Wilson Elementary School where the Senators played at old Griffith Stadium before moving to DC Stadium in 1962. This was a real treat and we’d always go with a neighbor in Colonial Village who secured the tickets named Johnny. His nickname for me was “Runner” which is something I’m no longer able to do today.
As a side note, I distinctly remember a small man who was blind, always wearing a red baseball cap, selling small brown paper bags of roasted peanuts in front of old Griffith Stadium and for years in front of DC/RFK Stadium for both baseball and football games. He worked alone taking your money and handing you a bag of what were very delicious peanuts as I recall. Stopping there as you entered the stadium was a must! He didn’t look it, but he had to be rich for all the peanuts he sold over all those years!
Once the Senators had moved to DC/RFK Stadium, my dad would take me to 10 or so games/year. We’d always get tickets in the same section near the Senators dugout and the same usher would clean our seats, present us with a program, and sometime during the game a game ball which utterly thrilled me. Dad would, of course, be generous with the usher ensuring the same treatment for the games we would attend. Each year, and we did this for a number of years until the Senators left town for good, we’d always attend a twi-night double header with the NY Yankees. I still remember their line-up with Yogi Berra or Elston Howard behind the plate, Moose Skowron first base, Bobby Richardson second base, Tony Kubek at shortstop, Clete Boyer third base, Yogi Berra and Hector Lopez in left, Mickey Mantle in center field, and Roger Maris in right–what a line-up!! Their pitchers included Whitey Ford, Jim Bouton, Al Downing, and Ralph Terry.
After the Senators moved on from Washington, we’d head off for Baltimore to catch a few of the Orioles games. Naturally, I became a fan and followed them closely as their team was loaded in those days. Andy Etchebarren and Elrod Hendricks catchers, Boog Powell first base, Davey Johnson second base, Mark Belanger and Luis Aparicio at shortstop, Brooks Robinson on third, Curt Blefary in left, Paul Blair center field, and Frank Robinson in right. Jim Palmer and Dave McNally were the pitching aces.
Dad was able to secure tickets to the 1966 World Series where Baltimore took out the LA Dodgers in four straight. We were at both Game 3 and Game 4 and saw both Dave McNally pitch for Baltimore and Don Drysdale for LA in Game 4. Wow, what an experience–one that I’ll never forget!!
My father was passionate about golf and his golf game where he was a “scratch” golfer for many years. After a weekend round of golf, my dad would hurry home so he could watch Jimmy Demaret host “All Star Golf” and later “Shell’s Wonderful World of Golf which was a weekly “must see” since PGA golf tournaments weren’t normally being televised “back in the day”. We’d sit in the living room, he in his comfy chair and me on the carpet in front of him to watch the show. Dad would enjoy a Gunther Beer or two in a cold glass and would always add salt to it which would explode to the top of his glass like a nuclear blast once the salt had hit the bottom of the glass–I was always amazed by that!
In June 1964, my father took me to the final two rounds (both being played on Saturday) of the golf U.S. Open at Congressional Country Club. Ken Venturi won the tournament that year and had been struck by heat exhaustion which I can remember seeing him struggle and actually stagger around the course being very fortunate not to have suffered a heat stroke.
Due to my father’s love of sports “back in the day”, I was so very fortunate to have experienced being a spectator for all of these events as his tag-along. Dad was a good man and very generous who would rather give than receive. We lost my dad in 2007 at age 85. It’s amazing to me that he never spent one day in a hospital and that he would now be 103. I really didn’t enjoy or look forward to receiving all the sore arms over the years, but I wouldn’t mind having one now!