Daily Star sports section was a totally different story in the 1970s

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May 21, 2012

Daily Star sports section was a totally different story in the 1970s

Anonymous Daily Star The Daily Star Mon May 21, 2012, 03:30 AM EDT

The more things change ...

Well, sometimes things just change.

Case in point, today's sports front. It's slightly different than what you're used to seeing on a daily basis, but it's completely different than what you used to see 40 years ago.

Had there been a May 21 edition of The Daily Star in 1972, it would have been odd to say the least. That date fell on a Sunday, and The Daily Star doesn't have a Sunday edition.

There was, indeed, a May 22 edition 40 years ago, and it looks odd to say the least.

President Nixon made headlines a lot back then, stories often ran into each other and photos pretty much just had to be somewhere on the page. Even more strange was the absence of a true sports "section."

Sports news in the May 22, 1972 edition sort of suddenly appears on Page 14, with the top story titled, "Mays helps Mets to longest win streak ever."

The Associated Press, a national news service we still use today, cited two-run homers by Tommie Agee and Willie Mays as the keys to New York's 4-3 victory over the host Philadelphia Phillies that Sunday as the Mets won their 11th straight game. I assume the sports editor at the time hated Agee, since he's nowhere in the headline.

The names in this National League roundup should be familiar to even those who know little about the game. The Mets-Phillies write-up alone mentions New York teammates Mays and Tom Seaver, along with Philadelphia pitcher Steve Carlton (who "gunned down" a bunch of Mets but avoided jail time somehow). The Pirates' Bill Mazeroski and Billy Williams of the Cubs are other prominent names in the roundup. All five are National Baseball Hall of Famers who have returned to Cooperstown within the last four years as Induction Weekend special guests.

The rest of the page _ and the section for that matter _ is a mishmash of everything and anything that filled the space.

"Major linescores" are left-center, and five paragraphs about Oneonta State's John Hurley finishing 57th in a Syracuse marathon are next to that, followed by an AP photo from a Red Sox-Yankees game that begins the American League roundup on Page 15.

A write-up about a golf tournament in Margaretville, a few lines on the Oneonta Country Club's King of the Tournament and a story about Oneonta State's all-conference baseball selections completes the wrap around the MLB photo.

The rest of the sports section that day _ aka Page 15 _ has a photo of an Oneonta State men's soccer game in the top left, the AL roundup at left-center and harness racing entries at the bottom left. Those entries are interrupted by advertisements from The Novelty Lounge and Tommy's, who paid the newspaper to promote exotic dancers Sue and Joyce, respectively. I can only assume Sue was better looking because there's a photo of her; Joyce is merely a drawing.

"Trevino wins $35,000 at Memphis;" "Oneonta United beats State, 4-2;" and a baseball short titled "Walton wins" rounds out Page 15 _ not including the giant beer ad for eight-packs of Piels Real Draft.

Forty years later, John Hurley is still big into Oneonta running, O-State baseball players are still making all-conference teams, and the sports section still runs major league linescores.

We didn't go as extreme as our neighboring "news section," which blasted all the way back to 100 years ago. That's because we wanted to make sure Oneonta High baseball got the props it deserved for becoming the first OHS team to win back-to-back Southern Tier Athletic Conference championships. We couldn't do that with a 100-year-ago format because there were no action photos from high school games back then.

I'm not even sure if there were high school games back then ... or high schools for that matter. Remind me to ask Sue the next time she's in town.

Dean Russin is the sports editor of The Daily Star. Email him at drussin@thedailystar.com. Of course, it's the 1970s, so email doesn't exist.