The Heidi Game :: Raiders History

As we all know, NBC made a regrettable and legendary mistake by cutting away from the Raiders-Jets game at the Oakland Coliseum and airing a children's special called "Heidi." I've included recaps from the Oakland Tribune and the New York Times, as well as articles on the aftermath of what what may very well be the greatest football game ever played.

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THAT CLUTCH RAIDER WIN

FRANTIC 14-POINT MINUTE

By Bob Valli
Tribune Sports Writer

With 50 seconds to play the raiders trailed New York by three points and the Super Bowl Special was beginning to take a course which would bypass Oakland.

Then, zingo, in less time than it took Jimmy Hines to win an Olympic Gold Medal, the American Football League Champions scored twice and Miami suddenly seemed a little closer.

Within nine frantic seconds yesterday, Charlie Smith carried over a 43-yard pass play and Preston Ridelhuber ran in a fumble recovery to give Oakland a dizzy, dazzling, desperation 43-32 cliff-hanger win over the Jets.

The two plays touched off an electrifying finish to a high voltage game between East and West powers but only the 53,381 fans jammed into the Oakland Coliseum saw the most frenzied finish of the year in pro football.

An NBC television executive in New York pulled the plug on the game with 1:05 left after Jim Turner kicked a 26-yard field goal to break a 29-29 tie.

He thought the Crockett Rocket had booted the Raiders out of the title picture and switched to a kiddies’ special. The blunder ignited NBC’s Manhattan switchboards with such velocity a fuse blew out.

Television missed one of football’s most exciting and exhausting minutes of emotion. In that minute Oakland fans saw despair turn to delirium.

Daryle Lamonica, who had already thrown three touchdowns and completed 19 of 32 passes despite a stiff back, fired a screen pass Smith to start a 78-yard uprising. Smith got 20 of it and the Raiders got another 15 because a New York player grabbed Charlie’s facemask.

From the 43, Lamonica sent Warren Wells deep and Fred Biletnikoff to the sidelines, as Smith curled out of the backfield and into the naked zone between his two wide receivers.

Defensive back Mike D’Amato chased the fleet Oakland rookie but lost ground with each step. Smith caught the pass on the dead run, turned on his sprint and zipped past safety Mike D’Amato to complete the touchdown play.

The capacity crowd, drained by repeated turnabouts, went berserk and so did the players.

Harry Schuh raced downfield to hug Smith, quickly joined by all the other Raiders on the field and a few exuberant fans from the end zone seats.

But it wasn’t over. Forty-two seconds remained on the clock and New York, which had forged ahead three other times, trailed by less than a touchdown 36-32.

Mike Eischied kicked off to Earl Christy at the 12. Howie Williams spun him around at the 15, Billy Budness belted him hard but clean, and knocked the football from his grip.

Ridlehuber scooped it up on the run at the two and went over the goal line for another touchdown. The Coliseum nearly collapsed from the roar.

“I never saw anything like this finish,” John Rauch said in the dressing room. “I never saw a game with so many turning points.”

Until the pass play that earned Smith a game ball and netted Ridlehuber one for his alert recovery, young Charlie wasn’t having a day he wanted to remember. Although he scored on a three-yard run for a 20-19 lead in the third quarter, the former Castlemont High sprinter had fumbled at New York’s one to give the Jets momentum to come from behind and he had a 65-yard touchdown pass from Lamonica nullified by a holding penalty.

Schuh was guilty of holding on the TD, which partially explains the huge tackle’s long gallop to be first to reach Smith in the end zone later.

“I thought I had lost the game with my fumble,” said Charlie. “It sure gave me a lift. But it turned out to be my best day in football.”

The pass play that decided the game had been used once earlier, with Wells as the primary receiver. Lamonica noticed, then, that Charlie was wide open and filed it in his mental playbook for future use.

“I knew their weak backer had to pick up Charlie fanning out of the backfield. That made it a one-sided footrace,” explained Daryle. “It’s the kind of match up a quarterback always tries to develop.”

“There were so many turning points which kept putting both teams back in the game, it’s impossible to discuss them all,” Rauch told reporters. “Smith’s touchdown pass was the decisive one but, in a game like this, it takes all kinds of breaks to win.”

He’s right. The game could have gone either way. From the start, it was a thriller. It could be replayed next month for the AFL championship.

The loss didn’t hurt the Jets. They’re 7-3 and still lead Houston by two and a half games in the East with four left to play.

The Raiders didn’t gain ground but, more important, they didn’t lose any. They’re 8-2, still tied with San Diego, a half game behind Kansas City.

New York went ahead 6-0 on 44-yard and 18-yard field goals by Turner, but Oakland took the lead on a 22-yard pass from Lamonica to Wells near the end of the first period.

The Raiders made it 14-6 on a classic 48-yard screen pass from Daryle to Billy Cannon. But, with five seconds remaining in the half, Joe Namath rolled out to ramble one yard for a touchdown.

The Jets tried for a two-point conversion and a tie but Babe Parilli’s pass fell incomplete. The failure created weird point totals the rest of the way.

Midway into the third quarter, Bill Mathis swept left end behind guard Dave Herman to score from four yards out for a 19-14 New York edge but Smith scored his first touchdown and Lamonica passed to Hewritt Dixon on a two-point conversion to make it 22-19.

After Charlie fumbled and Gerry Philbin recovered on the Jets’ three to open the final 15 minutes. Namath worked over rookie corner George Atkinson. Broadway Joe used Don Maynard as his blackjack, pitching 43 yards to midfield and the hitting his flanker again for 50 yards and a touchdown.

That put the Jets on top 26-22, and Turner kicked a 12-yard field goal for a seven-point bulge 29-22.

The Raiders had to “score” twice to tie it up. The first Lamonica to Smith bomb was erased but Daryle then went to Fred Biletnikoff on outs and posts to complete an 88-yard drive.

For Biletnikoff, the series was a dream. He had been taunted by Johnny Sample’s show-boating all afternoon but he made the veteran cornerback swallow his words by catching four of a game total of seven passes.

Then, slotted outside Wells in Oakland’s East formation, Fred raced behind safety Billy Baird to the corner to take a 22-yard TD score for the 29-29 equalizing.

Penalties figured prominently in several scoring sequences. He raiders were called for infractions six times and lost 93 yards, including a touchdown. The Jets had 13 penalties, lost 145 yards and had strong safety Jim Hudson ejected for protesting a call. He may hear more about it from league GHQ.

Although he had two passes intercepted and was dropped twice by Philbin, Lamonica hit for 314 yards and hiked his touchdown output to 20. It equals John Hadl’s for the season.

Namath snapped his six-game shut out streak with his touchdown pitch to Maynard and hit 19 of 37 throws for 381 yards without having one picked off.

However, the mod quarterback was bashed four times for 36 yards lost, twice by Ike Lassiter and once each by Ben Davidson and Dan Birdwell, and had two other passes batted away one by Carleton Oats.

Oakland’s defense gave up two scores on the ground but stopped New York’s rushing with just 67 yards. Matt Snell was closed off with 46 on 21 carries and Emerson Boozer lost 11 on four totes.

Namath virtually ignored George Sauer although the leagues leading receiver set up Joe’s TD rollout, indirectly, when he was pushed by Willie Brown and pass interference was called at the Oakland one.

Atkinson was Namath’s primary target. Twenty-two passes went to Maynard. Who caught 10 for a whopping 228 yards. But the rookie from Morris Brown College shouldn’t be discouraged; the same flanker caught an even dozen over all leaguer Kent McCloughan a year ago in the same stadium.

Rauch put McCloughan, bothered by a knee injury on the inactive list prior to the game and reserve linebacker Dave Ogas for the season to make room for Bill Fairband and Warren Powers.

For those who weren’t in the Oakland Coliseum yesterday, the AFL highlights will be televised next Sunday prior to the Raiders game in Cincinnati.

Unless the same embarrassed network exec decides to show a re-run of Heidi instead.

SULLEN JETS WANT RAIDERS IN REMATCH

By George Ross
Tribune Sports Editor

Joe Namath says otherwise, but the New York Jets want nothing better than a December 29 rematch with the Oakland Raiders in New York City to determine the American Football League championship.

They literally hate Oakland.

They certainly hate the Oakland Raiders.

And they don’t like you much either.

“I just want to get to the playoff. I don’t care who it is with,” Namath said yesterday while shearing the rolls of tape wearily off both his tortured knees and both ankles.

The patented cutter was dull and he struggled to cut away the thick wrappings over his scarred knee joints, keeping his head down and talking sometimes in a mumble, but not ducking questions.

Someone said he’d been crying coming up the tunnel from the Oakland Coliseum, but other Jets had been hollering and jeering as they passed the door to the officials’ locker room, and the Jets’ team doctor had even forced his way into bawl them out. It was a bitter, frustrating afternoon.

Tears and anger and sullen silence are a part of a bitter loss.

Namath, just missing with two passes in the early going when he may have iced it, later played more than well enough to win. He is a brilliant quarterback and runs his club well.

Someone offered “Hell of a game Joe,” but he wasn’t buying.

“It wasn’t worth a damn,” he said. “We lost it.”

“There’s this about it. We can’t play it over so we’d better forget about it,” he declared.

Others, not including coach Weeb Ewbank, had considerable difficulty controlling their views of the officiating which cost them 13 penalties and 145 yards. Joe has been schooled.

“I don’t think about the officiating,” he said. “You saw the game.”

Oakland’s coach John Rauch was saying, in the winning locker room, “No question, penalties played a big part in the game. It’s in how you look at it. If a penalty is for you it was right, if it’s against you it’s wrong.”

Ewbank hadn’t wanted to agree that the Jets’ strategy was to work the rookie cornerback George Atkinson, sending Don Maynard, one of football’s more gifted flankers, at him repeatedly. Namath was more candid.

“We knew he couldn’t be as good as Willie Brown on the other side and we knew he hadn’t played against Don before, Joe said. “And Don made some good catches.”

“Oakland has a good defense but not the best, certainly in the league,” he said. “There are two or three better defensive teams. No, I won’t say which ones.”

Some of the New York writers, who persist that there’s a vendetta between Namath and Oakland’s defensive end Ben Davidson asked about their confrontation but made little yardage.

Someone pointed out that Ike Lassiter, the other defensive end, had battered the outer ring of passer protection more, and Joe looked up, then went back to his tape cutting, worked it loose, waved off a cameraman shooting close-ups of his knees, thanked the press and headed for the shower.

Ewbank parried the questioners, said the Jets had played Maynard-on-Atkinson no more than they had previously played Maynard-on-McCloughan.

“Don caught 12 on McCloughan last year,” he pointed out, what’ll he catch, 10 today? I guess we played him about the same.”

“No, I don’t know why they threw (Jim) Hudson out of the game,” he said It sure didn’t help a bit. They say he grabbed a facemask. Losing him and having Larry Grantham hurt meant he had three rookies in there.”

Someone on the jets’ staff reported to him that an assistant coach was headed for the officials’ room and Weeb ordered:

“Get him out of there, it can only cost him money.”

The assistant coach was not identified but Associated Press reports said it was defensive backfield coach Walt Michaels, one-time Oakland assistant.

“We need fulltime people officiating who are dedicated to their jobs as we are to ours,” the AP quoted him. “I can’t believe we had that many face-mask penalties.”

Such a penalty put the ball on the Jets’ 43 from where Daryle Lamonica pitched a beautiful strike to rookie halfback Charlie Smith to pull the game out in the last minute of play.

Smith verified that he had been fouled on the previous play, that the 15-yarder was justly assessed.

In all of the offensive derring-do, a lot of fine performances will be passed over in the narrating of the clutch Oakland win.

The work of Oakland’s front four, particularly that of Lassiter, was exceptionally strong. The Jets strong running game was stopped – they gained a net of 68 yards – and Namath was under strong pressure.

He completed 19 of his 37 passes for 381 yards, but 228 of it was to Maynard, victimizing Atkinson on Single coverage.

Lassiter was beating the Jets’ right tackle all through the first-half until the Jets adjusted and double-teamed him. This permitted some opportunities elsewhere and Namath was throwing a bit sooner most of the time than he liked.

“I was coming down with both hands as he threw and whacked him across the shoulder,” Ben said. He had no quarrel with that call. He does explain the growing Raider persistence and improvement.

“We’re in a situation where we can’t lose another game,” he said. We’re playing a lot harder, more serious about it.”

The television people did their bit to keep alive the Davidson-Namath duel: Just before game time they beamed back to New York and elsewhere in videoland last year’s tribune photo of Ben sending Namath sprawling.

RAIDERS TOP JETS, 43-32 ON 2 SCORES IN LAST MINUTE

OAKLAND TALLIES ON PASS, FUMBLE

2 touchdowns in nine seconds halt jets from clinching Tie for division title

By Dave Anderson

Special to the New York Times

Oakland Calif., Nov. 17-
After achieving a 32-29 lead with 65 seconds remaining, the New York Jets lost today when the Oakland Raiders scored two touchdowns within nine seconds for a 43-32 victory in the final minute of a memorable American Football League game.

Nineteen penalties were recorded in the violent, almost vicious battle between these rivals, but the Jets appeared to have won it on Jim Turner’s fourth field goal, from the 26-yard line, for what would have been their fifth consecutive triumph, a club record.

Starting with the ensuing kickoff, Charlie Smith, a hometown rookie halfback who out-sprinted the Olympic 100-meter champion Jimmy Hines, when they were in rival high schools here, produced three big plays for the touchdown that put the Raiders, defending A.F.L. champions in quick command.

Smith, a 200-pounder from Utah University, zipped out of the en zone with the kick off, to the 22-yard line. On first down, Daryle Lamonica, undeterred by his recent knee and back ailments, hit Smith for a 20-yard gain and a facemask penalty moved the ball to the Jets’ 43.

Lamonica’s 4th scoring pass

On the next play, Smith outraced Mike D’Amato, who had replaced the ejected Jim Hudson at safety, and bolted into the end zone with Lamonica’s fourth touchdown pass.

After a placement conversion by George Blanda, the Raiders held a 36-32 lead. But with 42 seconds remaining, the Jets had time to retaliate, if Joe Namath could match Lamonica’s passing accuracy. On his 37 passes, Namath had completed 19 for 381 yards, 10 of the to Don Maynard for 228 yards.

But on the Raiders’ low kick off, Earl Christy fumbled at the 12 when Bill Budness slammed into him. The loose ball was grabbed by Preston Ridelhuber, a reserve back, who leaped into the end zone.

Suddenly, the Raiders had scored twice to delight the sell out assembly of 53,318 at the Oakland Coliseum and to deflate the Jets, who had appeared on the verge of clinching a tie for their first Eastern Division championship.

Joe out for the season

Instead, the Jet’s advantage over the second-place Houston Oilers narrowed to 2 ½ games. In the Western Division, the Raiders remained tied for second place with San Diego, the Jets’ opponent next Sunday. Kansas City leads the Western Division by one-half game.

More significant to the Jets’ future, however, was the loss of Billy Joe, the No. 2 fullback, for the season.

Joe incurred torn ligaments in his left knee and will undergo surgery in Los Angeles tomorrow. Another casualty was Larry Grantham, the linebacker, with a concussion.

“It was a hard fought game,” Weeb Ewbank, the Jet coach said later, “but we all got out alive, so I guess you could call it a Mexican victory.”

Most Damaging Penalty

Of the 19 penalties, 13 were called against the Jets for a club-record 145 yards. As it turned out, the most damaging one was a facemask penalty against Hudson in the third quarter. His “unsportsmanlike” reaction resulted in his ejection and D’Amato’s appearance.

“I had noticed,” said Johnny Rauch, the Raider coach, “that Smith was open against D’Amato and when we needed that late touchdown, I suggested Lamonica use the same play.”

Smith ironically, had fumbled at the Jets’ 3-yard line on the first play of the final quarter when the Raiders appeared about to add to their 22-19 lead. Instead, Namath hit Maynard, operating against George Atkinson, a rookie cornerback, for 47 and 50 yards and a touchdown in two plays.

When Turner booted his third field goal, the Jets held a 29-22 lead with less than nine minutes remaining, but Lamonica directed an 88-yard drive culminated by a 22-yard pass to his flanker Fred Biletnikoff, with about four minutes left:

Slowly and precisely, Namath dissected the Raiders’ defensive unit – Connecting with Maynard, whose reception yardage set a club record; for a nine-yard gain, then hitting Maynard again. When a roughing-Namath penalty was levied against Ben Davidson, the ball was on the 18.

Turner calmly kicked his 28th field goal of the season, tying the A.F.L. record established by Pete Gogolak of Buffalo in 1965. And with 65 seconds remaining, the Jets appeared to have attained a treasured triumph. Instead, it vanished in the shock of a “last second” defeat.

JETS CUT FOR “HEIDI”; TV FANS COMPLAIN

By Thomas Rogers

Fans of Heidi, the diminutive Swiss orphan girl in the story of Johanna Spyri, were happy but professional football followers were irate last night when the National Broadcasting Company terminated its telecast of the New York Jets- Oakland Raiders game with one minute left to play and the outcome still to be decided.

At 7 P.M., New York time, N.B.C. abandoned its coverage here of the American Football League game in Oakland to begin a two-hour movie, “Heidi.” Viewers on the West Coast, however, saw the final minute of action, in which the Raiders rallied for two touchdowns to win, 43-32. A spokesman for N.B.C. in New York said that when an attempt was made to return to the game, it was over.

Thousands of angry fans flooded an N.B.C. switchboard with calls complaining of the decision to cut off the game. The load of calls, according to an N.B.C operator, caused the switchboard to break down.

Many callers, unable to reach N.B.C., called the Police Department and tied up emergency police numbers for several hours. Operators at the New York Telephone Company and the New York Times were also deluged with calls.

At approximately 8:20 P.M. WNBC-TV in New York ran a streamer under the movie’s pastoral, Alpine setting that gave the final score, explained that the Raiders had made two touchdowns to win and advised viewers, “Details on the 11th Hour News.”

At 8:30 P.M., Julian Goodman the president of N.B.C., issued a statement the said:

“It was a forgivable error committed by humans who were concerned about the children who were expecting to see “Heidi” at 7 P.M. I missed the end of the game as much as anyone else.”

Another spokesman for the network added, “N.B.C. made a mistake. It regrets it deeply.”

He also said the policy of N.B.C. is generally to show athletic events “to their conclusion.”

It was the second time during the day N.B.C. abandoned its television coverage of a game before it was completed. Earlier, the network had left the San Diego-Buffalo game in the final minutes to show the beginning of the Jets-Raider game at 4 P.M.

The game at Oakland started at 4:03 and ended about 7:10. It was slowed by 19 time-consuming penalties and by numerous time-outs called by both teams.

The average professional football game lasts about 2 ½ hours.

TV: HEIDI V. SPORTS FANS

Despite Lovely Alpine Color Shots, Film Lacks Thrills Of Curtailed Cliff-Hanger

By Jack Gould

A pictorially beautiful, if dramatically rather turgid, production of “Heidi” was last night’s two-hour special that hopefully taught the National Broadcasting Company not to book a football game and a movie on a split second basis. The wondrous little girl little girl who brought so much happiness to the upper Alps should be named vice-president in charge of scheduling on the highest possible floor of radio city.

The final super exciting minute of the game between the Oakland Raiders and the New York Jets was rubbed out by N.B.C. in favor of its rigidly pre-arranged plan for proceeding at 7 p.m. with the TV adaptation of Johanna Spyri’s classic for children.

The decision to cut off the game, which saw the Oakland Raiders score two touchdowns after viewers thought the Jets had the game sewed up, was pure madness. The movie could have easily been picked up “while in progress,” as the saying goes in TV. The sanity of football fans would thus have been preserved and service to young viewers not significantly impaired.

It was more than an hour and 20 minutes before N.B.C. deigned to run a streamer reporting the outcome of the game that viewers did not see in its climactic moment; but of course there was no displacement of commercials that ran earlier.

To make matters worse, N.B.C. then elected to run the streamer as second time just as Heidi’s paralytic cousin Klara summoned up the courage to try walking. When it comes to doing the wrong things at the wrong moment, N.B.C. should receive a headless Emmy for last night’s fiasco.

Viewers, including those with young daughters were still boiling even after Earl Hammer’s adaption of Heidi had run its allotted 120 minutes. The N.B.C. switchboard was still jammed. Their point was not without merit, because “Heidi” fell far short of the TV-classic status that advance advertisements had modestly suggested. Cutting the film by a half hour, let alone a few minutes, would have been welcome and sensible editing.

The bright human feature of “Heidi” was the lovely young lady named Jennifer Edwards, the daughter of Blake Edwards, the producer, in the title role. He 10-year-old girl radiated an innocent beauty as she induced her grandfather (Michael Redgrave) to forsake a hermit’s existence on the exquisite slopes affording an uninterrupted view of the Alps.

Delbert Mann who directed the production on location in Switzerland and Germany, outdid himself in capturing the scenic wonder of the story’s setting, and on color TV a viewer could fairly feel the timelessness of nature’s creation. The peripheral travelogue was worth tuning in just for itself.

The adaptation was far less impressive in terms of persuasive theater. The story dragged on interminably, and Heidi herself was overwhelmed by the profusion of adults projecting thoroughly predictable lines and emotions. The two hours had a stiffness and sentimentality that made for very sticky going and were wanting in the spirited youth underlying tonic of inspired make-believe.

Walter Slezak, as the understanding Father Richter, imparted a touch of genuine characterization to his role and seemed alive. Mr. Redgrave’s portrayal was one-dimensional, and Maximillian Schell, as Heidi’s uncle, and Jean Simmons as the governess, were rarely more than suffering cardboard figures. In the difficult of the crippled girl whose mind would not let her walk, Zuleika Robson had intermittent moments of effectiveness.

Although the curtailed football game should not be a factor in considering “Heidi,” the incident did illustrate the ironclad economic and technical structure under which an America network operates in prime hours.

To have delayed all of “Heidi” until after the game would have meant, in turn, a delay in the start of “Bonanza,” and so on through the balance of the evening. Stations can be added or dropped from a network half hour or half-hour breaks, and any change can lead to substantial confusion in control rooms.

But undeniably, there is much to be said for the system of the British Broadcasting Corporation, which thinks nothing of letting programs run independently of the clock Of course, The B.B.C. is not at the mercy of spot announcements, the omission or inclusion of which in large measure determines the composition of American commercial television.

In case your interested, after the game of course, the DVD for Heidi is available for order through Amazon.com!