Green Bay and Pittsburgh in the Super Bowl. Sure, I'll be watching as these two historic NFL clubs duke it out this weekend, but I think I'll be more curious about what the commercials will bring to the overall entertainment value of the big event. In other words, my team didn't make it to Dallas this year.
My team didn't make it in 1991 either, but it sure was a lot of fun watching the upstate-downstate rivalry heat up as the Buffalo Bills played the New York Giants in Super Bowl XXV, in Tampa, Fla.
One of the radio stations I worked at in the Binghamton area was a Giants affiliate at the time, and the station put on a Super Bowl party in Endicott. So as to not annoy station management or our advertisers, I put on a happy Giants face for the day, Sunday, Jan. 27. Our sales manager was a Bills fan, so he came at his own risk.
Gary Hurba owned The Baseball Card Shop on Main Street in Oneonta, but stocked up on Bills and Giants sports memorabilia just for the occasion. Being a die-hard Giants fan, Hurba said he'd be spending that Sunday on his knees about two feet away from the television set, "like I'm praying to the TV," as he watched the game.
Hurba had been invited to a Super Bowl party at a friend's house _ all Bills fans _ so he gracefully declined. Hurba had been a Giants fan since 1958 when he went to his first game at Yankee Stadium, where football was also played at the time. Later that year he recalled listening to the NFL Championship game on the radio, long before the Super Bowl arrived, and enduring the heartbreak as Alan Ameche scored in overtime as the Baltimore Colts defeated the Giants, 23-17.
The 1991 game was good for some friendly family feuds. Kaye Coates of Sidney, a self-described sports nut said she had backed the Bills since O.J. Simpson set rushing records in the early 1970s. Grant Coates, her husband, had been a Giants fan having grown up in Westchester County and weathered many lean years prior to the Giants' recent successes.
"I've always wanted a New York Super Bowl," Kaye Coates said. "I think we'll make a bet that the loser cooks dinner. He makes a great franks and beans. He's going to have a great dinner if I lose."
"I'm not going to give her a three-course spaghetti dinner," Grant Coates said. "I tell you what, I win, you wash all the dogs."
Good luck in getting game tickets if you wanted to make the trip to Tampa. Donald Blylington of Oneonta came by his tickets through his son-in-law winning them in a raffle. Bill Lewis of Oneonta was picked in a Giants' lottery of season ticket holders. Lewis paid $300 for a pair. A visit to nfl.com shows ticket prices in 2011 ranging anywhere from $2,444 to $22,729 each.
Albert "Sam" Nader, also a Giants season ticket holder, wasn't so fortunate in the lottery.
"I've been waiting since 1954," Nader quipped.
There were gatherings all over the area on game day. The Monday Night Football Club of Otego gathered at a member's home. The American Legion Hall in Laurens was packed. In downtown Oneonta, the Old Spanish Tavern, Copper Fox and Paradise Lost were crowded, noisy bars, split fairly even with Bills and Giants fans.
Steve Magistro of Oneonta was at Paradise Lost, then on Water Street, and told the Daily Star, "What I'd really like is a good football game. I was sick of the California teams." Many Super Bowls leading up to this one were total blowouts, sometimes a done deal by the end of the first quarter.
Magistro got his wish in 1991. This was Buffalo's first of four consecutive Super Bowl appearances. At the time this was called the closest Super Bowl in history. Bills fans will probably groan, recalling how Buffalo had the chance to win the game with eight seconds left, but placekicker Scott Norwood missed a 47-yard field goal attempt, wide to the right.
Surprisingly, the Super Bowl TV ratings were the eighth lowest ever at the time. The champion New York Giants turned down all victory celebrations, saying it wouldn't be right with war raging in the Persian Gulf.
Meanwhile, Kaye Coates was probably getting out the washtub.
This weekend, with the football season nearly over, we'll look forward to baseball in Oneonta, as it was in 1921.
City Historian Mark Simonson's column appears twice weekly. On Saturdays, his column focuses on the area during the Depression and before. His Monday columns address local history after the Depression. If you have feedback or ideas about the column, write to him at The Daily Star, or e-mail him at simmark@stny.rr.com. His website is www.oneontahistorian.com. His columns can be found at www.thedailystar.com/marksimonson.
Columns
Related Photos
-
Mark Simonson
Discussion
Welcome to our story comments feature. We welcome your thoughts and your opinions, including the unpopular ones. We only ask that you keep your conversations clean, civil and on the topic of the story you are commenting on.
Coinciding with our websites redesign, we launched our new story comments feature through Disqus.
Disqus gives users the ability to log into our story comments feature so that they may be able to track their conversations, receive emails when their comments get a reply or to even have your comments update onto your Facebook or Twitter accounts.
For the time being, our story comments feature will continue to have the ability to post comments anonymously. We reserve the right to require registration in the future using your name and verified email address.
Not all comments are deemed printable. Some are disqualified at the newspaper’s discretion for a number of different reasons. Please follow our Online Rules of Conduct at all times.
RULES OF CONDUCT:
We reserve the right to remove comments that are unacceptable, to wit:
1. False and inacurate statements.
2. Personal attacks. Explicit name-calling.
3. Harassing, harmful, vulgar, obscene and defamatory language.
4. Threatening statements or statements that suggest violence.
5. Hate speech of any kind.
6. Intolerant comments on religion, race, age, gender, sexual preference or disabilities.
7. Accusations of criminal activity.
8. Content that is harmful to children and minors in any way.
9. References to any type of sexual activity and other private matters.
10. Random and inflammatory statements that are off topic.
11. Advertising of any kind.
12. Typing in all caps.
WE ENCOURAGE REASONABLE AND COURTEOUS COMMENTS THAT:
1. Create conversation on issues of interest and concern to fellow readers and local community members.
2. Express opinions and contrarian views.
3. Stimulate debate with respectful language.
4. Stay within the boundaries of these rules.
WE RESERVE THE RIGHT TO SUSPEND OR TERMINATE ACCESS FOR:
1. Violating any of these Online Rules of Conduct.
2. Deliberately disrupting discussions with repetitive messages, meaningless messages or spam.
3. Misrepresentation of identity or impersonating another user.
WE WELCOME:
1. Flagging violations of these rules that you observe to our attention.
MONITORING:
We monitor comments regularly Monday - Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Approval of comments outside of this time (including weekends) will be sporadic.
Locals were eager for all-New York Super Bowl in 1991
- Big Chuck D'Imperio
-
-
My pal Brucie, savior of Sidney's hospital
Ask any hospital administrators if they've ever heard of a closed hospital in New York state that has ever been re-opened. They will say, "Impossible." In a half century of going through records you can't find any.
Continued ... - Catching a whiff of 'Vermont Vapor'
- Selections from the virtual mailbag
- Recalling days of 'Doughnut King'
- Opera great's visit still a thrilling memory
-
My pal Brucie, savior of Sidney's hospital
- Cary Brunswick
-
-
We've become our own worst enemies
The past month has been marked by a seeming unprecedented number of man-made tragedies, as distinct from those caused by violent outbursts of the natural world, such as earthquakes, hurricanes and tsunamis.
Continued ... - Plenty of blame to go around for Bangladesh horror
- Obama is going against his word on Social Security
- Reflecting on a Florida trip
- Those magnificent spies in their flying machines
-
We've become our own worst enemies
- Chuck Pinkey
- Guest Column
-
-
Records seizure is an insult to free press
Distrust of government secrecy has been elevated to an exceptional level with the disclosure the Justice Department covertly examined two months of Associated Press phone records to determine who leaked details to the AP about a foiled terrorist plot.
Continued ... - The evangelical view of same-sex marriage
- Manor's fate will be Otsego board's legacy
- A closer look at our economy - Part II
- Use fracking to fill budget gaps
-
Records seizure is an insult to free press
- Lisa Miller
-
-
A view from above
Fire towers in the Catskill Mountains have always been destination points, built to capture some of the region’s best views. These sentinel stations served an important role for the earliest possible sightings of forest fires in the remote mountain ranges. But the fire towers and those who manned them fulfilled a multitude of other roles as well.
Continued ... - Being a parent is a constant learning process
- Healthy doesn't have to mean expensive
- A family era ends with close of Potter series
- Independent stores make up for loss of Borders
-
- Mark Simonson
-
-
Sunday movies in Oneonta finally shown in 1934
You know an issue is divisive when a vote to resolve it is quite close. In Oneonta during the early 1930s there were probably plenty of discussions or arguments at the family dinner table or sermons from the pulpits on Sunday mornings, regarding whether or should be able to see a movie in Oneonta on Sunday.
Continued ... - Politics, fitness and landmarks dominated local news in May 1968
- Local people sought income in many ways in 1933
- Local windstorm in 1983 caused tense moments
- Disaster, expansions put people to work in May 1913
-
- Rick Brockway
-
-
Kids have sparkle in their eyes
When I was in my teens, old Bill Naatz told me about a stream north of Lake George where a man had panned out enough gold to make his wife a wedding band. It was all rumors, but to his grandson and myself, it sounded like the makings of a great adventure.
- People make the outdoors even better
- Turkey season has ups and downs
- Spring air isn't always the freshest
- Adriondacks keep growing and growing
-
Kids have sparkle in their eyes
- Sam Pollak
-
-
Using time off in the worst way possible
"You don't mean it," I pleaded. "You simply can't mean it!"
Continued ... - Terror lives on, and there's no end in sight
- Remembering the glory of their times
- Column on guns led to a barrage of (mostly) jeers
- No one is coming to take your guns
-
Using time off in the worst way possible
- William Masters
-
-
Schreibman tops Chris Gibson on women's issues
As the time to vote draws near, we need to remember how money can run politics more than we can. Raising funds is a prominent (if not the dominant) task of getting elected. Raising issues is also crucial, but those efforts are subject to distortion and fear-mongering.
- Republicans feelentitled to allthey can garner An entitlement is a legal benefit available from the government to individuals who are within a defined category of recipients, such as needing insurance for unemployment or health services.
-
Romney focuses on self; Obama emphasizes unity
Mitt Romney criticizes President Obama for saying a person's success is rooted in his community, and is not all his alone. Romney belittles this with his belief in individual initiative. He is better at the put-down than the push-up.
-
Romney shows little regard for common man
The Republicans in Congress have voted over and over, 33 times, redundantly and uselessly, to rescind what they call Obamacare.
-
Scouts' gay ban creates problem where none exists
The Boy Scouts of America's "emphatic reaffirmation" of its vow to exclude any and all homosexuals from its hallowed ranks is ill-considered and pathetic, especially in view of its having reviewed the matter for two years.
-
Schreibman tops Chris Gibson on women's issues
