The Lost Super Bowls: 1961 to 1965 - A Fictional Scrapbook - Softcover

Danyluk, Tom

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9781534699342: The Lost Super Bowls: 1961 to 1965 - A Fictional Scrapbook

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1534699341 ISBN 13: 9781534699342

Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2016

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The Lost Super Bowls is historical fiction - a scrapbook of fictional articles by imaginary sportswriters from make-believe newspapers, all dressed in archival photography and original color artwork. It's fantasy football wrapped in a history lesson, the buildup and recap of five AFL-NFL "World Championship" games - from 1961 to 1965 - that were never played. Only the names are real...legendary figures, like Lombardi and Stram, Alworth and Adderley, Ditka and Kemp. Historic venues like Green Bay's City Field, the Dallas Cotton Bowl and Pasadena's Rose Bowl. It's the winter of 1961. Joe Foss, commissioner of the wobbly American Football League, issues the first of his many telegrams and missives to the rival NFL, requesting that the two leagues create an annual "World Championship Football Game." Foss' gang is struggling and needs a boost. The NFL, however, led by Pete Rozelle, scoffs at the invitation, thus triggering a war between the leagues that would carry deep into the spring of 1966. A merger was finally announced that June. The first Super Bowl game - Kansas City versus Green Bay - wouldn't be played until January of '67. But what if, by some shocking stroke of prescience, the NFL had agreed to Foss' initial proposal? Simply put, football's Super Bowl era would have begun five years earlier - in January, 1962. There'd be five more title games now cemented in the record books. There'd be five more of those fine Sabol highlight reels in the archives of NFL Films. There'd be five more chapters of pro football history that author Tom Danyluk calls The Lost Super Bowls. "Everything you can imagine is real," says the artist, and The Lost Super Bowls presents football history in that very way, a time machine back to those early AFL-NFL battles that never were. It's George Blanda and the Houston Oilers trying to bomb their way past the '61 Packers, Vince Lombardi's first champion. It's Sid Gillman unleashing his lightning bolt strikes on the Monsters of the Midway. It's the mighty Jim Brown slamming horns with Sestak and Saimes and the rugged Bills' defense of 1964. It's the sports pages of The Lost Super Bowls. Sit back and read all about it!

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From the Author

The price tag on this one is steep, I wholly agree. The reason, however, is a good one.
I chose to publish The Lost Super Bowls in full color rather than black and white because of the original artwork included - particularly the program covers from these fictional games. Printing them in black and white wouldn't have done them justice. Had I chose black and white, then the cry would have been "Cheapskate! You should have printed these in color!" I could hear the shouts and objections in my head as the decision was being made, the angry fists slamming off the table. All right, all right! Color it is!! I think you'll find it was the right decision.

From the Back Cover

WESTERN UNION TELEGRAM Joe Foss - A.F.L. Commissioner JAN 14 1961
1111 Southland Center Dallas TX
Pete Rozelle - N.F.L. Commissioner
1 Rockefeller Center New York NY

Dear Pete:

After careful consideration and a six-month committee investigation, the owners of the American Football League are inviting the N.F.L. to play in a world championship football game.

We feel that the country's millions of fans deserve a true world series game, that such a playoff is the proper climax for the pro football season and is a necessary reward for the loyal fans of both leagues.

We also agree that this game would, from the beginning, be the showpiece of all football games in America.

This invitation was not issued prior to our initial season because it was felt time was needed to assay the relative strength of our league. Such strides in quality of play were made this season that we now consider such a playoff game is necessary to the continued progress of professional football.

For these reasons, we announce ourselves ready today to meet with N.F.L. officials and negotiate arrangements for this proposed playoff - the series to begin between the 1961 champions of both leagues.

The invitation has no deadline for acceptance but we need to have our schedule completed by early April and I understand the N.F.L. has the same objective....