With Week 1 set to start Sunday, here are my NFL77 rankings as of this moment on Friday, Sept. 16, 1977:
1. Colts 2472. Rams 233T3. Patriots 232T3. Steelers 232T5. Bengals 203T5. 49ers 2037. Vikings 2028. Raiders 2019. Broncos 19610. Bears 19511. Cowboys 19412. Chargers 18513. Washington 17314. Cardinals 16815. Dolphins 16716. Browns 15517. Chiefs 15218. Lions 150T19. Oilers 149T19. Giants 14921. Bills 13622. Saints 13623. Seahawks 13124. Eagles 13025. Jets 12626. Packers 12527. Falcons 11428. Buccaneers 96
Turning to baseball, the American League rallied from Jim Palmer’s start a couple of months ago but came up short:
NL 401 000 020 7-9-1AL 000 002 102 5-8-0WP: Don Sutton (1-0)LP: Palmer (0-1)Home runs: Steve Garvey, Greg Luzinski and Joe Morgan (National); George Scott (American)
In other news, the 1977-78 TV season is now underway, and Betty White's new program is cute:
It's incredible how much 1977 is available to revisit in 2024. I am an astronaut. Comments flow ...
The 1977 College Football Season is a cracker. Here's the top 20 after two weeks:
ReplyDelete1. Michigan: 2-0
2. USC: 2-0
3. Oklahoma: 2-0
4. Ohio St: 2-0
5. Penn St: 2-0
6. Texas A & M: 2-0
7. Texas Tech: 2-0
8. Colorado: 2-0
9. Texas: 2-0
10. Alabama: 1-1
11. Notre Dame: 1-1
12. Mississippi St: 2-0
13. Florida: 1-0
14. Nebraska: 1-1
15. Washington St: 2-0
16. Arkansas: 2-0
17. W. Virginia: 2-0
18. U.C.L.A.: 1-1
19. Houston: 1-1
20. B.Y.U.: 1-0
On September 24, 1977, Oklahoma will go to Columbus for a game with Ohio State, and that is a game you do not want to miss.
DeleteNebraska is at Alabama tomorrow on Channel 3.
ReplyDeleteI watched that whole game, and it was a good one.
DeleteThe Orioles forfeited a game at Toronto last night in 1977 when the umpires did not grant Earl Weaver’s request to have a tarpaulin removed from the mound in the Toronto bullpen down the left-field line. The Blue Jays led, 4-0, as a steady drizzle persisted, and Weaver kept his team from heading to the field for the fifth inning. He told the AP he was concerned about his players falling while drifting into foul territory on defense—the mound was only about four feet from the foul line. While Baltimore took the 9-0 loss, Boston beat New York, 7-3, to move into a tie with the Orioles for second-place in the American League East behind the Yankees. It’s the only division race not yet settled with each team having only about 15 games left to play.
ReplyDeleteA.L. East
ReplyDeleteYankees 90-57
Orioles 87-59 2.5 games behind
Red Sox 87-59 2.5
Tigers 69-78 21
Indians 66-81 24
Brewers 62-87 29
Blue Jays 49-96 40
A.L. West
Royals 91-54
White Sox 81-65 10.5
Rangers 80-65 11
Twins 79-68 13
Angels 69-75 21.5
A’s 56-88 34.5
Mariners 57-91 35.5
N.L. East
Phillies 91-55
Pirates 84-64 8
Cardinals 77-70 14.5
Cubs 75-70 15.5
Expos 68-78 23
Mets 58-88 33
N.L. West
Dodgers 89-58
Reds 78-70 11.5
Astros 74-73 15
Giants 68-80 21.5
Padres 64-85 26
Braves 56-91 33
Top 3 television shows of the 1977-78 season:
ReplyDelete1. Laverne & Shirley (ABC, Tuesday at 7:30 PM Central)
2. Happy Days (ABC, Tuesday at 7 PM Central)
3. Three's Company (ABC, Tuesday at 8 PM Central)
I wonder how often the top three shows of the year have been on back-to-back-to-back.
On September 15, 1977, the first episode of CHiPs airs on NBC.
ReplyDeleteOn September 24, 1977, the first regular episode of The Love Boat airs on ABC. There had been three pilot episodes between September 1976 and May 1977. But now it becomes a regular series.
ReplyDeleteOn September 29, 1977, Billy Joel will release "The Stranger."
ReplyDeleteKentucky opened the season with a 10-7 win over North Carolina on September 10. The Cats will play their first basketball game of the season on November 26, 1977 in Rupp Arena against Southern Methodist.
ReplyDeleteHere are my NFL77 Week 1 predictions:
ReplyDelete-- Colts 25 at Seahawks 14
-- Dolphins 21 at Bills 20
-- Browns 17 at Bengals 20
-- Cardinals 14 at Broncos 20
-- Jets 10 at Oilers 14
-- Chiefs 10 at Patriots 24
-- Chargers 17 at Raiders 21
-- Rams 21 at Falcons 10
-- Lions 10 at Bears 20
-- Cowboys 14 at Vikings 17
-- Packers 14 at Saints 20
-- Washington 13 at Giants 14
-- Bucs 10 at Eagles 17
-- 49ers 10 at Steelers 16
A few adjusted score predictions:
Delete-- Colts 25 at Seahawks 18
-- Cardinals 13 at Broncos 20
-- Jets 10 at Oilers 17
-- Chiefs 12 at Patriots 21
-- Rams 17 at Falcons 10
Start of the second half from Lincoln, Nebraska, on Channel 3:
ReplyDeleteAlabama 17
Nebraska 17
Also, the murmur of Keith Jackson and Frank Broyles with a sprinkling here and there of Bill Flemming is just fantastic to work to--almost as good as the loop of Season 3 Rockford Files music I was working to yesterday.
ReplyDelete
DeleteThis is one of the first games I can remember watching all the way through from start to finish without leaving the room.
The most recent time Alabama previously allowed 30 points in a game was Jan. 1, 1972, when Nebraska beat the Crimson Tide, 32-6, in the Orange Bowl.
ReplyDeleteOn fourth down from inside the Alabama 1, Nebraska sends its fullback, Rick Berns, flying over the line of scrimmage for a touchdown plunge. With 7:12 to play, the Cornhuskers now lead, 31-24 …
Alabama turns to Tony Nathan ...
ReplyDeleteBut that's not enough, and Alabama throws two interceptions. It's a happy dusk in Lincoln.
ReplyDeleteMore finals:
ReplyDelete— Akron 24, Western Kentucky 3
— Baylor 21, Kentucky 6
— Cincinnati 17, Louisville 17
— Indiana 24, Louisiana State 21
— Michigan 21, Duke 9
— Penn State 31, Houston 14
— Southern Cal 17, Oregon State 10
— Tennessee Tech 21, Murray State 19
— Vanderbilt 3, Wake Forest 0
— Washington State 23, Michigan State 21
— Wittenberg 17, Eastern Kentucky 14
Oh, how did I miss this yesterday? Ole Miss beat No. 3 Notre Dame, 20-13.
DeleteA.L. East pennant race on Saturday, Sept. 17, 1977: New York, 9-4 over Detroit, and Baltimore ore, 11-2 over Boston.
ReplyDelete1. Yankees 92-57
2. Orioles 89-59, 2.5 games behind
3. Red Sox 87-61, 4.5
We're getting closer to that famous Bart Giamatti article.
DeleteSunday, Sept. 18 results: New York, 6-5 over Detroit; Boston, 10-4 over Baltimore. Yankees now lead the Orioles by 3.5 games and the Red Sox by 4.5.
DeleteWeek 1 NFL77 on TV today:
ReplyDelete— Dolphins at Bills at noon Central on Channel 6
— Cardinals at Broncos at noon on Channel 12
— Cowboys at Vikings at 3 p.m. on 12
The 49ers are at the Steelers on Monday Night Football tomorrow night on Channel 6.
If you don’t get enough O.J. Simpson today, you can see him again on TV Wednesday night. He and Elizabeth Montgomery portray homicide detectives who are in love in a made-for-CBS movie, A Killing Affair.
ReplyDeletePrimer for today’s action:
ReplyDelete— The Raiders are defending champs and beat the Vikings in the Super Bowl.
— The Colts, Steelers, Cowboys and Rams won the other divisions.
— The Buccaneers and Seahawks have switched conferences. Tampa is now in the NFC Central, and Seattle is in the AFC West. The Bucs went 0-14 last season.
— The league’s new head coaches are Leeman Bennett (of Paducah!) with the Falcons, Key Meyer with the 49ers, Walt Michaels with the Jets and Red Miller with the Broncos.
— The league’s new quarterbacks are Joe Namath (formerly of the Jets) with the Rams, James Harris (formerly of the Rams) with the Chargers, Ron Jaworski (formerly of the Rams) with the Eagles, Craig Morton (formerly of the Giants) with the Giants, Randy Hedberg (a rookie) with the Buccaneers and Jerry Golsteyn (from the bench) with the Giants. Also, Joe Ferguson with the Bills and Archie Manning with the Saints are coming back from season-ending injuries in NFL76.
— Running back Ricky Bell, the No. 1 overall draft choice, reportedly will start for the Buccaneers; running back Tony Dorsett, the No. 2 (and the 1976 Heisman Trophy winner), reportedly will not for the Cowboys.
Noon-kickoff finals:
ReplyDelete— Dolphins 13 at Bills 0 (I had Miami, 21-20)
— Bucs 3 at Eagles 13 (I had Philadelphia, 17-10)
— Chiefs 17 at Patriots 21 (I had New England, 21-12)
— Washington 17 at Giants 20 (I had New York, 14-13)
— Browns 13 at Bengals 3 (I had Cincinnati, 20-17)
And now we get word of a big upset in Atlanta: The Rams (with Joe Namath) get out to a 6-0 lead but then can't get anything going. The Falcons (without Steve Bartkowski) win, 17-6 (I had Los Angeles winning, 17-10).
ReplyDelete“Who would know more about the Rams than the new Atlanta coach, Coach Bennett?” says Tom Brookshier on Channel 12 of Paducah's Leeman, a former Chuck Knox assistant coach. “It must have been, of course, one of the great wins, I think, in Atlanta history.”
"It really has to be," confirms Pat Summerall.
I've attended three regular-season NFL games, and this was the first of them. I really hope the person who has been posting all of these CBS telecasts eventually gets to this Rams-Falcons game because I think there's a fair chance I could actually pick out my parents, my brother Kurt and me from a wide crowd shot--I wore a green-and-white T-shirt with a giant 12 on the front (in honor of Namath). This weekend in Atlanta--in which we all traveled in a Datsun B210 and visited Underground Atlanta the night before the incredibly hot, sunny afternoon in Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium--is among my absolute favorite memories, and it would be amazing to get to see us together there on TV.
ReplyDeleteMad props to my parents for us getting us down to Atlanta for this game so we could represent Paducah on our main man Leeman's big day!
ReplyDeleteBrookshier and Summerall, of course, are telecasting CBS's big-dog game of the day: Cowboys at Vikings (Minnesota leads, 7-0, in the first quarter). I am surprised to see that this game and Lions at Bears both kicked off at 1 Central this Sunday afternoon. I didn't remember that any of these games kicked off any time other than noon or 3, but they did.
ReplyDeleteAt halftimes, the Packers are beating the Saints, 24-0, in the Superdome, and the Bears are beating the Lions, 27-10, in the Silverdome. And now we have Chuck Connors with a word for Radio Shack--and specifically the Radio Shack product catalog.
ReplyDelete“I’m the kind of guy who likes to read about the electronic gear I buy,” he says. “That’s why this Radio Shack catalog really turns me on—pictures, specifications, lots of hard facts and prices that I know are right on the deck.”
As a paid-by-the-word marketing hack for technology companies, I just want to say that I thought the Dodgers never gave Chuck Connors a fair shake and that The Rifleman was a fine piece of American television.
Connors refers to Radio Shack in this commercial as "The Shack."
Oh, my ... there exists a YouTube channel, "RadioShack Catalogs," which promises "an Archive of 1939-2011 Radio Shack Catalogs...and much more!" It has 166,000 subscribers.
DeleteI'm disappointed to learn that Freshen Up gum was discontinued in 2019. I'm not much of a gum guy, but I did like that squirty Freshen Up gum.
ReplyDeleteI believe I also would like Perkins, though I've never tried one.
ReplyDeleteOther Sunday finals:
ReplyDelete— Bears, 30-20 over the Lions (I had Bears, 20-10)
— Cowboys, 16-10 over the Vikings in overtime (I had Vikings, 17-14)
— Oilers, 20-0 over the Jets (I had Oilers, 17-10)
— Broncos, 7-0 over the Cardinals (I had Broncos, 20-13)
— Raiders, 24-0 over the Chargers (I had Raiders, 21-17)
— Colts, 29-14 over the Seahawks (I had Colts, 25-18)
Then, on Monday night, the Steelers slugged the 49ers, 27-0 (I had the Steelers, 16-10), as Don Meredith returned to the Monday Night Football in place of Alex Karras.
ReplyDeleteSo that means that, of the 14 Week 1 NFL 17 games, five were shutouts. The 49ers, Bills, Cardinals, Chargers and Jets will still be looking for their first regular-season points this coming weekend.
Meanwhile, in baseball's A.L. East, New York lost at Boston, 6-3, and Toronto won at Baltimore, 3-1. This leaves the Orioles and Red Sox both 3.5 games behind the Yankees.
ReplyDeleteOh, my word, Lou Grant is great!
ReplyDeleteIt was Fish's last Barney Miller last night in 1977. I had forgotten they gave him a $1,000 New York municipal bond, which was a pretty great joke in real New York of 1977.
ReplyDelete