ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, January 26, 1997 TAG: 9701240047
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MADELYN ROSENBERG/STAFF WRITER
A brief history
The Green Bay Packers took on the Kansas City Chiefs in the first Super Bowl on Jan. 15, 1967. Of course it wasn't called the Super Bowl back then - it was the AFL-NFL World Championship Game. Regardless, the Packers won, 35-10.
The Pack played in the World Championship the following year, too - their last trip until today - beating Oakland, 35-14. By the time the Colts played the Jets in the third AFL-NFL championship, the name had changed to the Super Bowl, thanks to Lamar Hunt, organizer of the American Football League and owner of the Kansas City Chiefs. It was an accident, really.
"His daughter had one of those rubber, high-bouncing Super Balls," said Jeff Haza, who works in the communications office for the National Football League. "So he named it after that. It sounds simple, but that's how it happened."
The New England Patriots (originally the Boston Patriots) made it to the Super Bowl in 1986, but lost to Chicago, 46-10.
An original Patriot
At Cave Spring and William Byrd high schools, you may find more Patriot fans than Packer fans - at least, that's what Don Oakes is hoping.
Oakes, who has coached football at both schools, now teaches driver's education at William Byrd and is assistant wrestling and track coach at Cave Spring. In the early 1960s, he played as an offensive tackle for the Boston Patriots.
"I've always been a fan," he said.
In the days before the Patriots took on the moniker of all New England, the team played in Fenway Park. The stands were full, "but it's not like today with the bigger stadiums."
The money was less, too. "It was a living back then," Oakes said. "You didn't get rich off it."
This was when football on television was still in its early stages. ABC carried Oakes' Patriot games in Roanoke. "TV stations didn't have the power they have now," Oakes said. "It was a little snowy, I think."
Everybody's watching
Traditionally, Super Bowl games have not always been terribly exciting. (This year is no exception. As of Thursday the Packers were the 14-point favorite.) But that's never stopped anyone from watching. Of the 10 most-watched shows in television history, seven are Super Bowls. (The others were the last episode of ``M*A*S*H'' and two winter Olympic programs featuring Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan). Some folks watch for the commercials as well as the game.
Last year's Super Bowl was where we first saw the trailers for ``Independence Day,'' which was finally released six months later and went on to pull in $ 719 million, video sales not included. The Bud Weis Er frogs got their start during the Super Bowl, too.
The average price for 30 seconds of ad time this year is $1.2 million.
So what do they win?
Winners get the much-coveted Vince Lombardi trophy, a regulation-size silver football on a kicking stand. The trophy stands more than 20 inches high and is valued at more than $10,000. The winners also get Super Bowl rings with their team's name inscribed on the front, and $48,000 each. The losing players each get a $29,000 consolation prize. At the first Super Bowl, along with the rings, the winners got $15,000 apiece and the losers got $7,500.
This of course, does not count any contracts for shoes, Disney World or pantyhose the players get on the side.
Where are they playing?
Not in 5-degree Wisconsin, you can bet on that. And not in Massachusetts, plagued by record snowstorms these last two winters. The Super Bowl will be in the Louisiana Superdome, which has a seating capacity of 72,000. The New Orleans Convention and Visitors Bureau expects many more to show up, though, many of them hoping for scalped tickets.
Super Bowl XXXI's projected impact on New Orleans includes $46.2 million for hotel and motel rooms and $24.2 million for food and beverages.
A Civic Center Super Bowl
If you're still looking for a Super Bowl party, consider the one at the Roanoke Civic Center, a benefit for the Southwest Virginia Second Harvest FoodBank.
Kroger, along with a lineup of co-sponsors, will be laying a floor down over the ice and putting up two big-screen televisions.
Admission is three nonperishable food items for adults, one for kids.
Concession stands will be open, and other vendors will offer free samples.
"The donations to the food bank typically go down in January, after the holidays," said Archie Fralin, public relations manager for the Kroger Co. "We were looking for a creative way to refill it." The Super Bowl, Kroger decided, could spawn the food drive. "It's really becoming a holiday," he said.
The event also will feature face painters, jugglers and the Kroger Rocket Robot and Roanoke Express team members.
Doors open at 3 p.m.
When it comes to the Packers and the Patriots, the staff is split down party lines.
"I'm pulling for the Packers," Fralin said. "I can't speak for Kroger."
A Packer till death
Wisconsin Vault and Casket sells a Green and Gold Casket for $2,495. So far, 15 have been sold; only three are currently occupied.
Another Elvis sighting?
A few years ago when it came to merchandise sales, the Patriots were at the bottom of the league. The mascot at the time was called Pat Patriot, an upstanding little guy posing in the center's position, hiking the football. Three years ago, the Patriots traded him in for a newer model, still officially known as "Pat Patriot." Unofficially, he's referred to as "Flying Elvis."
"People think the face looks like Elvis with sideburns," a Patriots spokesman said. These days, the Super Bowl-bound Patriots are fifth in the league in merchandise sales.
Coincidence? The spokesman didn't think so.
Delegate Cheesehead
Creigh and Pam Deeds may have baffled some of their friends when they sent out Christmas cards last month: There were the four Deeds children, sitting on the bleachers at Millboro Elementary School, wearing outlandish orange hats.
Cheeseheads!
Visitors to Deeds' office in Richmond - he's the state legislator representing a swath of territory from Botetourt County to Highland County - might also notice the same photo on his wall. And on his desk, the careful observer will find a picture of a certain football stadium - Lambeau Field in Green Bay.
"Green Bay, that's been my team for years," said Deeds, a 39-year-old lawyer from Bath County.
Last fall, he, his son and two brothers made the 17-hour drive to Green Bay to watch the Packers take on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. "One of the first things we did there was find Wal-Mart and get Cheeseheads," he said. Naturally, they dropped by Fuzzy Thurston's bar, Thurston being a famed offensive lineman on the Packer teams in the 1960s. After the game, they hung around the field to get an autograph from Antonio Freeman, the Virginia Tech alumnus who's now a Packer wide receiver.
"The Packers are a big part of my life," Deeds said. "They're just really special."
So how does a guy who grew up in Bath County become a Packer fan? Loyalty, Deeds said. Green Bay was the top team when he was a kid in the '60s, and he lay awake in bed at night reading and re-reading "Instant Replay," the book by former Packer lineman Jerry Kramer about the Vince Lombardi years. And when Deeds missed school because of an auto accident, his classmates knew just the thing to cheer him up: an autographed picture of Packers quarterback Bart Starr.
Deeds has stood by the Packers ever since. "I'll stick with my team, even when they're losing." Which, until recently, has been most of the time. "For almost 30 years, it's been a quiet, desperate time in the fall," Deeds said.
They're playing when?
The most-asked question in The Roanoke Times' sports department is this: When is the Super Bowl and on what station?
The Super Bowl is always the last Sunday in January (that's today). This is the first time the game is airing on Fox.
History of the Cheesehead
Cheeseheads are not the only products made by Foamations Inc., the Milwaukee company that first introduced the 1-pound wedge of headgear 10 years ago.
Chris Becker, a Cheesehead spokesman, rattled off a few of the lesser-known products: "Cheesehead baseball hats, Cheesehead cowboy hats, Cheesehead neckties, Cheesehead coasters, Cheesehead bow ties, Cheesehead purses"
Becker's official title at the 60-person company is "foam guy."
"We're not very tie-oriented," he explained. "Except for cheese ties."
The Cheeseheads, indigenous to Packers games, are made of polyurethane, which is poured into a mold. The result is a foamy chunk of cheese that is neither Swiss nor cheddar.
"There is no cheese like it," Becker said. "That's why we hold the trademark and copyright to it."
The privately held company does not give specifics as to how many Cheeseheads, which retail for $18 to $20 apiece, are sold each year. "Lots," Becker said.
Famous personalities who have accented their wardrobe with Cheeseheads include John F. Kennedy Jr., Tim Allen and Jay Leno.
One of the Cheeseheads worn by members of the Wisconsin delegation during the Democratic National Convention last year now resides in the Smithsonian.
Packers fan Frank Emmertt credited a Cheesehead for saving his life when he used it to protect his head during a plane crash.
For more on Cheeseheads, visit Foamations' Internet site at www.arcfile.com/cheesehead.
Speaking of cheese
At Christmas, Kroger sells cheese shaped like trees. In January, the cheese is shaped like footballs.
"We'll sell about 100 of those," said Bob Baker, manager of the Blacksburg Kroger on University Boulevard. "But they don't sell anything like our turkey cakes at Thanksgiving. Those are our biggest novelty items."
Taking stock
The Columbus Panhandles. The Louisville Brecks. The Dayton Triangles. Not familiar with them? Those are some of the teams that were part of the original American Professional Football Conference, formed in an automobile showroom in 1920 in Canton, Ohio. Of the teams formed at that time, only the Chicago Bears (formerly the Staleys), the New York Giants and the Green Bay Packers are still around. The Packers' first owner was John Clair of ACME Packing Co. The team went on to become the only publicly held franchise in the NFL. There are 1,915 stockholders.
``Fox Super Bowl Sunday''
Pregame: 2:30 p.m.
Game time: 6 p.m.
Station:
WJPR/WFXR (Fox 21/27)
Staff writers Ralph Berrier, Jack Bogaczyk, Dan Uthman, Dwayne Yancey and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
LENGTH: Long : 212 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: ERIC BRADY/Staff. 1. Roanoke County teacher Don Oakesby CNBwas an offensive tackle for the Boston Patriots in the early 1960s.
2. The four children of lifelong Packers fan and state legislator
Creigh Deeds sported Cheeseheads for their parents' Christmas card
last year. color. Graphics: 10 color illustrations. Charts. 1. Most
watched. 2. Five reasons to root for New England Patriots. 3. Five
reasons to root for the Green Bay Packers. color.