Professional Football Researchers Association Forum

Todd Pence wrote:The 1978 Buc opener against the Giants was also on a Sat. night. This page offers an explanation:

http://www.bucpower.com/crawford88.html

Denis Crawford used to be a regular around the forum and appeared at several PFRA meetings but not the last couple. His book on the 1979 Bucs was a very good read.

I for one liked the Saturday night Bucs games to open the season. I like the schedule quirks of that kind.

Rupert Patrick wrote:

Todd Pence wrote:The 1978 Buc opener against the Giants was also on a Sat. night. This page offers an explanation:

http://www.bucpower.com/crawford88.html

Denis Crawford used to be a regular around the forum and appeared at several PFRA meetings but not the last couple. His book on the 1979 Bucs was a very good read.

I for one liked the Saturday night Bucs games to open the season. I like the schedule quirks of that kind.

From 1959-61 and 1963-67, the Rams' first home game was either on Friday or Saturday night. Not sure why the hiatus in 1962.

59: SAT - WK 1
60: FRI - WK 1
61: SAT - WK 2
63: First TWO homrgames on Saturday night.
64: SAT WK 2
65: SAT - WK 2
66: FRI - WK 2
67: FRI - WK 2

Pittsburgh and Cleveland used to play the Saturday night games in the 50's in Cleveland I believe, in early October.

The Boston Patriots would regularly play their home games on a Friday night in the early years of the AFL.

One question: those Saturday Night games in Tampa were broadcasted by CBS as if were on Sundays? I remember in the old Game Plan magazines from that time that the prime time national televised games by ABC were listed separately in the regular season schedule (Monday Nights, plus a Sunday Night at Dallas, and some three Thursday Night games) and that those games in Tampa were listed, but the network didn''t appeared in the list.

Teo wrote:One question: those Saturday Night games in Tampa were broadcasted by CBS as if were on Sundays? I remember in the old Game Plan magazines from that time that the prime time national televised games by ABC were listed separately in the regular season schedule (Monday Nights, plus a Sunday Night at Dallas, and some three Thursday Night games) and that those games in Tampa were listed, but the network didn''t appeared in the list.

Those Saturday night games were just broadcast in Tampa and the visiting team market.

Rupert Patrick wrote:Pittsburgh and Cleveland used to play the Saturday night games in the 50's in Cleveland I believe, in early October.

Actually 1963-70, though they did play a few of the Pittsburgh games on Saturday nights during the 50's.

I'm still alive!!!

I am in the final semester of graduate school to obtain my MA in History......so, my ability to write for fun has been curtailed somewhat.

To answer the questions about broadcasts: As far as Tampa television is concerned, the 1977, 1978, and 1979 home openers did not sell out, so they were not on Tampa television.

In 1981 the season opener against Minnesota did sell out and it was covered locally by our independent UHF station WTOG-44. I'm not sure why CBS did not carry the game in Tampa, but I do know that WTOG had the contract to broadcast Buccaneer pre-season games for years. My guess is in that WTOG won the local bidding war to cover the game since it was not part of the CBS regional slate. It's possible the same carried true in Minneapolis, Detroit and New York as stations in those cities may have bid on the rights to carry the visitor feed.

Denis Crawford wrote:I'm still alive!!!

I am in the final semester of graduate school to obtain my MA in History......so, my ability to write for fun has been curtailed somewhat.

To answer the questions about broadcasts: As far as Tampa television is concerned, the 1977, 1978, and 1979 home openers did not sell out, so they were not on Tampa television.

In 1981 the season opener against Minnesota did sell out and it was covered locally by our independent UHF station WTOG-44. I'm not sure why CBS did not carry the game in Tampa, but I do know that WTOG had the contract to broadcast Buccaneer pre-season games for years. My guess is in that WTOG won the local bidding war to cover the game since it was not part of the CBS regional slate. It's possible the same carried true in Minneapolis, Detroit and New York as stations in those cities may have bid on the rights to carry the visitor feed.

Good to see you on the forum again Denis. Over the years a number of people have sort of faded away and I was worried you might have been one of them. Happy to see you still lurking about.