If you keep certain photographs long enough, I suppose they can become priceless, in a way.
The Astrodome is long gone, torn down several years ago as no longer state-of-the-art. The Rams are no longer in L.A., and not even in Anaheim where they would later move. The Oilers are no longer in Houston, having changed names to the Tennessee Titans after moving out of state, too. It's kind of sad when you think about what eventually happened if you were a fan of either team.
The reason we spent this short weekend with Brian Bauries's parents in Houston is that I had a pair of tickets to the Rams versus the Oilers in the Astrodome. I had had season tickets to the Rams in the Coliseum and was able to get tickets to this game before I left for Texas. The Oilers were in the midst of back-to-back 1-13 losing seasons; and, as you can see from this photograph at half time, the stadium had plenty of empty seats.
The Rams had former San Diego quarterback John Hadl, another of those mad bombers from old AFL teams. The score was closer than it ought to have been, but Hadl hit Harold Jackson with a couple of touchdown bombs and, I believe, the final score was 31-26. I had never been in a domed stadium before. The usherette, when I told her I was a Rams fan, said that she often rooted for the visiting team since the Oilers were so bad in those years.
Brian Bauries, being home, had other things to do, so that's why our flight mate was with us on this trip and with me at this game. Really nice guy, but I do not recall his name either.
This was the first season under new head coach Chuck Knox, and the Rams were 12-2, best record in the NFC and NFL. Looking back, what I never understood is that the Rams had beaten the Dallas Cowboys that season, as well as having a better record than Dallas (12-2 vs 10-4); however, under those old playoff rules, the Rams had to travel to Dallas for their playoff match up. It still makes no sense when we all know now how important home field is and how teams go to great lengths to secure it these days.
That was the playoff game where the Rams were about to tackle Roger Staubach in the end zone but he just got the pass away. He hit Drew Pearson over the middle. Two Ram defenders hit him the moment after the pass arrived. But by hitting him from either side simultaneously, they bounced off and he was left standing, running all the way to the end zone for the deciding score. The Rams lost out again.
(The following year, they had the same record as Minnesota, but had beaten the Vikings in the regular season. However, with the rotating playoff format among division winners regardless of overall record or head-to-head games, the Rams again had to travel to play a key playoff game versus the Vikings, losing a 13-10 heartbreaker.)
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