1968 AFL Championship: Raiders at Jets (4th Quarter)

[GialloHorror]

@GialloHorror Oh yeah, and of course, "The Ice Bowl" any known copies of that? Does anybody know?

[GialloHorror]

Is there any known tape of this game? I've been looking ofr this entire game forever to add it to my library. I've also been looking for Super Bowl V, and the "Sea of Hands" game between The Dolphins and Raiders from 1974.

It's amazing to see this! Thank you so much

[TheTzdope]

@GialloHorror there is no known tape of this jets-raiders game!

i've been searching for years!!

[GialloHorror]

@TheTzdope That sucks man. There are a few games I've been dying to see and never will.

This one, the 1968 NFL Championship game (Cleveland/Baltimore) Super Bowl I, II, and V. And both the 1966 and 1967 NFL Championship games between The Packers and Cowboys

[camvantasco]

This is awesome. You did a great job with this. It's really cool to hear Jim Simpson and Al D together on this broadcast.

[kevman1ification]

Man, what a crappy throw that was from Lamonica to Smith! Probably cost the Raiders the game. Great piece of history.

[4736dmr]

i was twelve years old and at that game; boy was it cold that day; looking back at it now, its funny how the afl and nfl played their champ games at the same time. i think both the colts-

browns and jets-raiders games began at 1 pm. shows how much the nfl looked down on afl back then.

[TheTzdope]

@4736dmr shea stadium was cold in october!!!

[pac401]

@TheTzdope That's because it's December 29th not October.

[lcolby11]

@TheTzdope hell yea

[BronxNYE206St]

The Jets playing at Shea Stadium miss those days.

[4736dmr]

i was 11 years old and at this game; what i remember most was i wore two pairs of thermal underwear, it was so frickin cold; its amazing how maynard made those catches at the end

[deeniemarie7]

Warren Wells had an incredible receiving record for the Raiders.156 receptions,23.1 yards per catch,42 touchdowns. That's a td for every 4 catch's. He averaged a whopping 26.8 yards a catch in 1969 47 receptions.He was cut by the Chiefs in 1967 pre-season ,can you imagine him and the great Otis Taylor on the same team.Too bad he ruined his career with the rape case,who know's what might have been.

[GialloHorror]

@deeniemarie7 Really interesting, I never knew about Warren Wells, but yeah sounds like  he and Otis Taylor would've been a force had they played together

[loyaldude10]

Weeb Ewbank, former Colt coach, then leading the Jets to SB against the Colts---interesting. What a pair of games the Jets and Raiders played that yr, with Raiders winning the heidi game

[impassable]

As good as football ever gets

[1thepner]

Excellent so far.... GREAT RADIO !!! Man, you gotta finish this. This game is a forgotten classic, all anyone remembers is the Super Bowl.  I'm 50 and this is a great period in football.

[TheTzdope]

@1thepner i say the same thing!

finish the dvd already, were not getting any younger!

i turned 50 last march!!

[6400az]

@TheTzdope

I turned 50 last Jan. I swear it was yeaterday I was watching Summeral and Brookshire on This Week In Pro Football.

[LSpear76RCN]

This is actually a much lower quality version of my work. I compressed the sample a lot. The original work is on my desktop hard drive. I need a processor and case to finish the repairs. When I fix it, I'll upload a higher quality version.

[NuisanceMan]

@LSpear76RCN, Very nice work. I really appreciate the painstaking effort you put in to synchronize the limited video elements you have with the audio...it really pays off. Even slightly out-of-synch audio-video can be a real pain to watch, but this is superb. Thanks so much for putting this up for all to see!

[graciemaemarie11]

lamonica..... choke artist... aaron brown did history a favor by pounding the loser, so the afl could get respect by allowing namath and dawson, two winners',to give the AFL respect....

[graciemaemarie11]

raiders are choke-shots

[graciemaemarie11]

lamonica was a loser, 3 straight choke jobs... he needed a old fart, blanda, to bail him out in 1970, aaron brown ended his dominance on jan 4 1970... after that, lamonica wasn't as feared... the chiefs d-line massaged him, and ended his aura...

[rowdymax1]

Warren Wells coulda re-written the record books but he washed- up by his 5th year...he was only 28 yrs old....he had 4.2 speed with great hands.

[1AirStreamDriver1]

@rowdymax1 ...Wells wasn't washed up, he was in jail for a rape conviction and San Quentin didn't have an AFL team.

[rowdymax1]

Warren Wells coulda re-written the record books but he washed- up by his 5th year...he was only 28 hyrs old.

[graciemaemarie11]

@rowdymax1 he was a rapist criminal thug, thats why, truth hurts, eh?

[rowdymax1]

Wow, they did call late hits back then..Jim Hudson on Warren Wells.

[rowdymax1]

We have a wig shop in Houston called "Verlon's Wigs"...I always think of the great NY Jet DE Verlon Biggs when i see it..lol.

[oneputtsteven]

The great Jim Simpson with the call!!

[tcufrogs1984]

Big Jets Fan - My Dad actually was part of the NY Jets Chain Gang working this game on that day. Have you finished your work on this game to where we could possibly buy the DVD from you of this game? Thank you.

[thefirstrayman]

@LSpear76RCN....I know this is Jim Simpson doing the play by play...but i thought that Merle Harmon was doing the play by play on WABC 77 at that time. This game was blacked out in the NYC area---could this be what the rest of the country was watching (and listening to)?

[LSpear76RCN]

@thefirstrayman this is the nbc radio broadcast. you may be referring to the local NY radio broadcast.

[ebmdirectmarketing]

@thefirstrayman Merle Harmon and Sam DeLuca (who recently passed away) was doing the play by play in NY on WABC radio. I was listening to the game with my brother in NY because games were blacked out in those days. Al DeRogatis then provided color commentary with Curt Gowdy in Super Bowl III. It was a great game

[TheTzdope]

@ebmdirectmarketing you probably watched the replay on channel 4 at 11:30 pm!

it was during christmas break 1968, i was 7 years old and in the second grade and who knew it would be our only championship win.  i'm now 50 years old and still waiting. maybe it will come soon??

[andyr1313]

I have a couple of 4th quarter audio highlights from the Raiders radio network with the late great Bill King- he was so great at conveying the emotion of a game without being a homer...

[melbz1266]

GREAT WORK 

[luvupokes]

Homefield Advantage did not start until 1975. The leagues rotated the home field in the playoffs; it was pre-determined before the season even started.

[marqstheman]

Raiders had a chance at the superbowl and they let it slip away. Wow that was cool footage of that game. Go Oakland!

[qmcsing]

@marqstheman Charlie Smith let it slip away, how could he not know that was a lateral???

[6400az]

@qmcsing

Yes, that's true. Some of these thing are just inexplicable.................h­ow did Morral not spot a wide open Jimmy Orr in the Supebowl.

[pbrick6301]

Was there some kind of rule back then that the defense couldnt advance a fumble?

[TheTzdope]

@pbrick6301 you could not advance a latteral.

fumbles were advanceable!!

[pbrick6301]

I always thought that the Serb receiver Notre Dame had a couple yrs ago #85 was alot like Bilitnikoff.

[TheTzdope]

@pbrick6301 he currently pitches for the cubs!

samardjza was a liitle bigger than bilintikoff!

[6400az]

Just a super game, I would liken it to the Ghost to the Post game. Just had everything.

Liked watching Lamonica play but I always thought he had a little bit of Craig Morton.......or even Fred Cox in him.

[PerroLuno]

I'd add a graphic of some type... probably featuring the score and time left... instead of having just a blank black screen between plays. The way you have it right now is pretty jarring and really disrupts the flow of the game. Other than that, pretty good work here!

[YitzO]

i was at this game.Joe Willie outrageous.To me... it was the greatest game of all time because a New York team won in a classic.When the Giants lost in the1958 NFL championship to the Colts,it was a disgrace losing to a bush town like Baltimore and being robbed by the horrendous officiating at all key moments.

[PerroLuno]

@YitzO Your type of arrogance is probably why a game featuring a New York team being defeated is considered the greatest ever. If you think Baltimore is "bush" you should probably do yourself a and drive upstate sometime to see what "bush" actually looks like.

[cidedwards31a]

although i consider this the era for sports in my life, there was room for improvement,posting the score more often was needed, and notice how both title games were being played at the same time,glad that they stopped that.I dont know if oakland wouldve beaten baltimore..lamonica didnt do well in the biggest games that he lead for oakland, but then again morrall had a bad day vs the jets and you had to respect the colts for their defense..

[cidedwards31a]

this is one of the first games i remember watching on tv.late 1968 I was in kindergarden..i rooted for oakland that day,cause i thought that their uniforms were cooler.i would later('69) become a lifelong dallas cowboy fan. all the great names here define football for me..banazak,boozer,namath,lamo­nica,wells,beltinikoff,maynard­,snell,davidson,etc...then theres the chunked up field,,that was football, always looked forward to games televised from Shea,loved the hot dog wrappers

[TheTzdope]

@cidedwards31ai'm glad you enjoyed those games from shea because i'm from new york and they were blacked out in those days including this game!!

[shire2005]

That Raiders team also would have beaten the Colts in the super bowl.

And yes divisions alternated home field. Home field was not based on record.

[shire2005]

That Raisers team also would have beaten the Colts in the super bowl.

[andyr1313]

Jim Simpson was such an underrated announcer- the Jets were so much more than Joe Namath- as a 13-year-old, I cried when the Raiders lost...

[2010metsfan]

Wow! How amazing it is to watch highligts of these old AFL games! My brother and I grew up favoring the AFL over the NFL. My team was the NY Jets and his was the Oakland Raiders...I remember how exciting it was the wide-open style offenses, the bump and run. The mighty NFL ended up picking up many of the attributes of the AFL...Now the NFL is ending up wussing up things with their emphasis on "late hits", etc.

[THEFOOTBALLFAN]

GREAT JOB! I have always wanted to see this game, and you've made it possible. Thank you!

[MoondogMayne]

Very cool. Thanks for your work. Interesting that Jim Simpson gave the score of the NFL Championship game that was being played at the same time as this game. I forgot that they used to do that.

[jln55]

Remember Flankers?

[TheTzdope]

@jln55 how about spilt ends?

and "reddogging"?

[jln55]

@TheTzdope I had '60s Fleer NFL football cards listing one guy as a OE or 'offensive end'. Another was listed as a 'defensive halfback'.

[zenmachinefilms]

Amazing that you've culled this together!

As one who works in broadcasting, here's the dirt: Any broadcast before 1971 is on 1" reel to reel video tape (NFL films shot film). So this original broadcast master tape is locked in a vault somewhere, and only a few dozen decks exist that can play it back.

In 1971 Umatic 3/4" tape came along. It would be used for well over a decade, and is robust.

What CBS/NBC/ABC need to do is convert those 3/4" to digital, and sell them as downloads. 

[TheTzdope]

@zenmachinefilms you think that NBC actually still has the full tape of this game?

do you have any idea on how to contact them?

[whatnxt2]

I remember having a GE portable black and white tv... I put rabbit ears on it and put them out my bedroom window... I got the telecast from channel 6 WFIL in Philadelphia. I could either get a perfect picture or perfect sound, so I got the picture looking great, and listened to the game on ABC 77 am, with Merle Harmon and Sam Deluca.....A great day it was...

[TheTzdope]

@whatnxt2i live in rockland and on stormy nights, i could often pick up stations from delaware, pennsylvania,baltimore, et...

[rentslave]

If JFK hadn't been killed,the NFL would still be blacking out home games:After the NFL played on the weekend of his killing,Mass.Congressmen Torbert MacDonald vowed that he would get even with Rozelle someday.In 1973,MacDonald became Chairman of a Committee regulating communications after Rozelle's buddy,Emanuel Celler,who took a payoff to allow the merger,was defeated in a primary.Mac Donald rammed through a bill lifting the blackout.Source:The Sporting News.

[Mcnzlea]

One person who attended that game was ESPN's Chris Berman. He and his dad were (and from what I understand still are) Jets season-ticket holders.

[Mcnzlea]

That's because Hartford was the closest station outside of most of NYC that carried this game. Channel 4 (WNBC) did show a videotaped delayed broadcast at 11:30 PM that night. Pro football TV blackouts in 1968 were automatic because it protected the best interests of the paying customers and the owners who depended so much on in-person fan support for much of their revenue.

That issue heated up five years later, in 1973, when the NFL conditionally allowed home games on local television.

[acrock21]

i wish the raiders could get another qb like lamonica

[lcolby11]

Lamonica lost the game,,LOL

[ebntje]

That is a great fact. Who was your uncle?And he did the radio broadcast? A belated thanks is in order !!! A long shot at this point but perhaps the Raiders vs Jets (minus Heidi) could be a possible AFC Championship Game this year

[hermanglimsher]

I like how they paused 10 seconds for station I.D.

Today they would have 3 minutes of commercials.

[TheTruthfulAsshole]

Lamonica was an outstanding QB.

[hoosierlooker]

Was John Madden coaching the Raiders at this time?

[TheTzdope]

@hoosierlooker The head coach was john rauch. madden was an assistant on his staff, but would take over as head coach for the 1969 season!!

[amd77j]

I'd pay just to hear Jim Simpson and Al DeRogatis call this game. Simply great broadcasters back then. Thanks for posting!!!!

[parkman35]

Although both teams had over 400 yards of offense, the Jets were more balanced getting 144 on the ground and 266 in the air while the Raiders had 393 passing but only 50 on the ground with Pete Banaszak scoring what would be the Raiders last TD of the game for Oakland on a 5 yd run. But Namath had it going with Don Maynard that day. There was something about the Jets that was so cool. They were always so confident. I was glad when they beat the Colts in the Super Bowl

[SuperJM1980]

@parkman35 the raiders made the mistake by not running banasek more.

[bruhoboken]

@ebntje I believe you are right about home field advantage. The AFL had rotating home field advantage for the title games those years; East team was home even years and West teams odd years. Interesting, after the merger in 1970, home teams were rotated for the AFC & NFC title games for the first few years. In '72, the 15-0 Dolphins had to go to the 12-3 Steelers for that year's AFC title game. Thankfully, the Dolphins won. Go AFL!!!!!!!!!! One other note about this game:

[nickai22]

this is OUTSTANDING WORK THANK YOU SO MUCH. Can anyone clear up why Jim Simpson and Al D. are doing the game? All accounts had NBC's #1 team Gowdy/Rote doing the pxp? Was this the rebroadcast of the game that was shown later that night?

[TheTzdope]

@nickai22 this is the nbc radio call of the game!

gowdy and rote handled nbc-tv!!

[NYJYIK]

This is a great video. You cannot find this game anywhere. Supposedly NBC doesnt even have the tape of the game anymore. Just a highlight video. If you follow the right means you can make a lot of money on your DVD. Good Luck and great job.

[olidesking58]

Man this is great keep the great work.

[fairnorth]

As a Jets fan, I could not see this game live, because of the Black Out rule, which prevented home town fans from seeing their home team play. Later that night , NBC-TV replayed the game after the 11:00-pm news. But this was sunday night, and I had school the next day, so I could only watch the first quarter. They should put this game and the Heidi game on DVD. NBC-TV used great intro theme music on both telecasts !

[TheTzdope]

@fairnorth if memory serves me? the game was played during christmas vacation,

so you were most likely off from school and you probably either fell asleep or were summoned to bed by your parents!

[giles422]

great work so far. Suggestion? Use stills! News photos! Stick 'em in!

[MelC54]

The schedule rotated each year back at that time.

[sportsoracle]

Is that Jim Simpson announcing the game? He, Curt Gowdy, and Charley Jones defined AFL broadcasts in the 1960s.

[TheTzdope]

@sportsoracle It's simpson and Derogatis! so that means that gowdy and probably kyle rote handled the tv end of it. I thought that gowdy always worked with Derogatis, but my memory is a little foggy in those years. Because i was a kid not from anything else!

[etph1955]

The Game was blacked out in NYC.Channel 4 in NYC showed it on tape delay at 11:30 that night. Since the game was played during Christmas Vacation,I stayed up and watched it.

[TheTzdope]

@etph1955 Me too!!

I was 7 years old, but I had listened to wabc radio(the jet set radio network) with harmon and Deluca, so I knew the final score!!

[invincibleironman3]

L.Spear76RCN...definitely replay that Heidi Game. That should be a movie, in my opinion...it signaled the birth of the NFL on Television...the telephone lines were jammed, when they cut to the Heidi Game. An all-time classic in sports (which the Raiders were always a part of...for better or for worse.)

[ebntje]

The best game in Jets history.Better than the Super Bowl. How did the Jets get home field advantage. I thought Oakland had a better record.

Great footage. I had to listen to this on WABC radio 77...

[LSpear76RCN]

@ebntje I think the Jets had home field advantage because the Raiders tied with the Chiefs for first place and had to have a playoff... or because the schedule was rotating by division each year... the Raiders played Houston for the 1967 title in Oakland.

[gfpirate]

@LSpear76RCN In the 1960s, at least through 1968, the league alternated home field between the Western and Eastern divisions every other year. The Jets were is the Eastern Division and it was their turn to play host.

[dblack1983]

@LSpear76RCN It was in NY because like the NFL, they rotated the championship game from each division winner every year ('66 was East champ, '67 was west champ, etc.)

[zoomping1]

@LSpear76RCN

The schedule was actually by rotation each year - Another example: Miami went undefeated in 1972, yet had to play the AFC Championship game in Pittsburgh that year. It wasn't until (I believe) 1973 that the NFL determined playoff seeding by best W-L record.

[graciemaemarie11]

@LSpear76RCN rotated,man

[dewaynecullen]

@ebntje my uncle was the color commentator for that game! Awesome.

[ChrisDutch]

@ebntje Back in the sixties record was not the deciding factor. The East and West alternated hosting the championship games.

[deepcosmiclove]

A team can't play better football than the Jets in the Superbowl. They had very few penalties; 5-28 yards and lost one fumble. Plus thet dominated the game and the Colts were good.

[MoondogMayne]

@ebntje Home field advantage rotated between East and West division champions in the AFL.

[MrMatt8204]

@ebntje I don't think home field in the NFL/AFL was determined by record until the mid-70's. It was determined on a rotational basis until then. The undefeated 1972 Miami Dolphins actually had to play the AFC Championship Game on the road that year in Pittsburgh.

[PerroLuno]

@ebntje According to AFL rules, the Eastern Division champs hosted in even-numbered years (and the Western Division champs in odd-numbered years). The NFL did the same thing until the early 70s.

[sashacougar]

@ebntje They alternated home field advantage between the division winners. West one year and East the next.

[maniabeatle01]

I would have thought this game would have been on the history of the Jets DVD if a copy still exsists.

[giles422]

hey, this is GREAT! NICE WORK! Do more when you get a chance

[JonesyLedZeppelin]

Great job!! This is fantastic!! I haven't seen this since it was on NBC and I was 7-years-old at the time watching with my dad. We were AFL fans. I was for the Chargers and Jets, while dad loved the Chiefs. One thing, we both hated the Raiders, LOL (but we liked them better than any NFL team).

[TheTzdope]

you know it's funny! oakland didn't go for the field goal at 27-23. two weeks later in the super bowl, shula faced a similar decision and passed up a field goal at 16-7.

In both cases, the jets defense came through on 4th downs!!!

[TheTzdope]

I love it!!  Can't wait until you can complete the entire game. I have been searching for years for something close to this. please check your home page for my e-mail address. THANK YOU!

[prchristman]

I amend what I posted earlier -- the game was broadcast on a Hartford, Connecticut UHF station (Channel 30), but my family could only pick up VHF stations (Channels 2 through 13) on our 1952 TV set. Yes, folks, that's the way it used to be!

[LSpear76RCN]

@prchristman Somebody has to have a copy. I'm sure it wasn't taped over, it was too big of a game. Maybe it will show up someday.

[prchristman]

I heard a rumor years ago that NBC still had the TV feed in its vaults. Perhaps, but I've never seen it. Many fans on various websites are also after it. Let's hope it's out there somewhere and will appear.

[prchristman]

This is quite good. The NBC-TV portions shown in the Super Bowl III pregame were pretty short. I doubt there were more than 30 seconds to a minute of TV clips preserved. It's a shame because the game was so important historically. It was blacked out in New York on game day. Nearby Connecticut stations didn't carry it either as I recall (for Long Islanders like us). Channel 4 in NY broadcast it on a delay at 11:30 that night. I guess the tape was taped over after that. Quite a loss.

[pmam2008]

This is outstanding! I have an old 8mm B&W highlight film of this game. It is similar to the footage of the highlight video thats out there, but has a little additional footage.

[LSpear76RCN]

Thank you. I might continue working on it in my spare time, adding in the NBC broadcast clips (shown during the pregame of Super Bowl III).

[kgmule]

I think you ARE THE MAN!!!! That's what I think. I have the radio broadcast and the half-hour highlight film...GREAT JOB on the merge brother.