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We are now in the midst of the “where can I find a story” time, waiting for the Giants and Pats to actually take the field and play the damn thing (Super Bowl).
So, here’s one of those stories.
There are many in Maine, indeed, New England, who remember the days they were Giant fans. There was no NFL Patriot team in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The New York football Giants (to distinguish them from the baseball New York Giants, now in San Francisco) were the team whose games were televised in the Northeast.
Sunday afternoons were filled with the sounds of Chris Schenkel broadcasting Giant games in his smooth, articulate manner.
Giant fans rooted for linebacker Sam Huff in his thundering clashes against the Hall of Fame running back Jim Brown of Cleveland. Frank Gifford was a star young receiver and two senior quarterbacks named Y.A. Tittle and Charlie Conerly led the offense.
It was somewhat amazing that as much as the rivalry existed on the baseball side between the Yankees and the Red Sox, cheering for the Giants was completely acceptable.
That’s why the 1958 NFL championship game was such a heartbreaker for fans in New England when the Colts, led by Johnny Unitas, won in sudden- death overtime in a game that many consider to be the cornerstone of current NFL popularity.
The Colts tied the game at 17 with seven seconds left in regulation and won it at 8:15 into overtime.
There is a famous sports photograph of Colt running back Alan Ameche moving through a gaping hole for the game-winner in that affair at Yankee Stadium.
Those who cheered for the Giants then have that moment frozen in their sports memory.
I was one of those Giant fans growing up in Old Town.
The BDN paper route I had included a wonderful couple named Thompson who were professors at Maine and avid NFL/Giant fans. In fact, they used to keep stats for every Giant game as they watched on TV.
We compared notes on the Giants when I arrived on Friday evenings to collect the paper money.
That’s how tight the fans were to the Giants back them. Best of all for me, when one Christmas came around, my Christmas tip as their paper boy was a coffee table-size book commemorating the history of the New York football Giants.
I still have it.
There will be few Giants fans in Maine next weekend. This matchup is being hyped as a continuation of the Sox/Yankee, New York/Boston rivalry. That is great stuff for the game, as if a Super Bowl needed more hype.
In the meantime, there will be more than one person remembering back to Sunday afternoons and how Giants football took center stage.
It will again next Sunday, just the centerpiece has changed.
bdnsports@bangordailynews.net
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