Super Bowl XIV: A Boy's Memoir (Radio-Days)

A man recounts his days as a boy in Pasadena (California), listening to the radio-broadcast of Super Bowl XIV, and its dollar significance!

A 'radio days' toast to the champagne-like Super Bowl XIV, which ironically started out as an underdog-shocker, a memoir offered by a young boy who listened to the 1979 football season broadcast on his home radio-set. Enjoy! 

----

====

I remember my golden years as a young American boy in sunny California, in fair Pasadena, where the Rose Bowl stadium was host to Super Bowl XIV, when the hometown favorite LA Rams, led by QB Ferragamo, were standing against the vaunted Terry Bradshaw led Pittsburgh Steelers. In those 'radio days' of the 1970s, America, and California (Pasadena) became a one-night dance.

It's odd to me now that I had remembered that game so fondly after hearing the full broadcast on my home radio-set in my Pasadena home. My mom gave me an early supper of Ovaltine and curried mashed potatoes and I sat down in front of my radio, hoping the Ferragamo-Rams would miraculously upstage the Bradshaw-Steelers in the home-town close stadium of the California Rose Bowl.

I grew up becoming a Rams (NFL) fan and Royals (MLB) fan, but that Super Bowl XIV is something that this boy will never forget, and afterwards, I swore I'd need some kind of candy cigarette!

Sure, I wished my parents had a large crystal TV, but all we had was this classic radio-set, which I still keep for sentimental purpose, since it was on this radio I heard the Rams Super Bowl broadcast and cheered on the home team from Pasadena, California.

As we all know, the Iron Curtain Steelers were something of a God's team. No one could upstage them. They'd outshined in legacy the likes of the Colts and Cowboys and were on pace to be the greatest undisputed NFL team in history. No one wanted to play Bradshaw's Steelers in the Super Bowl.

It was of course our beloved and glamorous LA Rams that got this odious task in the last season of the 1970s. Super Bowl XIV was played on 1/20/1980. It featured great play, cheering, and football fanfare! It was Pasadena (California) at its best. No one who's a Rams fan undervalues such a great challenge.

In fact, that night, as a young boy in a Pasadena (California), I made this funny children's comic book like doodle-drawing of a Marvel Comics villain called the Gray Goblin in honor of the Rams and their blue colors. I still keep this drawing for sentiment, since it reminds us of the defiance of Ferragamo!

Ferragamo's Rams came out shockingly defiant, and they scored and outscored the vaunted Steelers 7-3 in the first period and then stood their ground to only be behind 6-7 in the second period, maintaining a truly miraculous and completely unexpected 13-10 lead going into the Halftime Show. I stood up dancing in front of my radio-set in our Pasadena home that night.

However, the Steelers led by Terry Bradshaw came storming back against a suddenly weary LA Rams team and kept a lead through the second half which amounted to a final 31-19 heartbreak. Were it not for the prolific scoring of the second half, the Ferragamo Rams would've maintained that miraculous lead going into the shocking Halftime Show.

No Rams fan will forget what Ferragamo achieved that first half of Super Bowl XIV, and neither will I. The Rams weren't the Colts or the Cowboys, so this first-half shocking lead stunned everyone...even me, this little Rams fan, listening to the radio broadcast in Pasadena.

Now, I'm older and I still live in the California area. My wife is a Rams organization executive(!), and I support her work with the team I still cheer for, though we now watch NFL games on our Plasma-TV in our LA loft. I'm a grown man now, after all.

My wife is a very well-paid Rams executive officer, and I'm impressed with all she does with various organization management and marketing for the modern Rams, much different from that 1970s era Rams to be sure.

My wife bought me this Rams Christmas sweater last year. Can anyone guess why?

This was one California boy's radio-memoir of an unforgettable American sports moment, which I 'captured' miraculously on my Pasadena home radio-set. It's a day/night I won't soon forget...as a fan of American football. God bless America!

====

"Money is everything" (Ecclesiastes)