The Vikings did have future Hall-of-Famers in offensive linemen
Mick Tinglehoff and Ron Yary, and defensive players known as "the Purple People
Eaters": Alan Page, Carl Eller and Paul Krause. Also, head coach Bud Grant and
general manager Jim Finks. Joe Kapp was then the quarterback: Hall-of-Famer Fran Tarkenton had been their quarterback, and would be again, but, at the time, he was the starting quarterback for the New York Giants.
The Chiefs, with
Hall-of-Famers Len Dawson, Emmitt Thomas, Buck Buchanan, Curley Culp, Willie
Lanier, Bobby Bell, Johnny Robinson and Jan Stenerud, plus coach Hank Stram and
owner/AFL founder Lamar Hunt, weren’t having it. They proved beyond any doubt
that the AFL was as good as the NFL, winning 23-7.
This was the last game
played before the AFL-NFL merger was complete. Neither the Chiefs nor the
Vikings have won an NFL Championship in the half-century since.
I've already done one of these for the Vikings, who won the NFL or NFC Championship in the 1969, 1973, 1975 and 1976 seasons, but lost Super Bowls IV, VIII, IX and XI, and haven't been back in the 43 seasons since.
The Chiefs haven't been back to the Super Bowl since, either. They've reached the AFC Championship Game in the seasons of 1993 and 2018; the Divisional Playoffs in 1971, 1991, 1995, 1997, 2003, 2015, 2016 and 2019 (this season, and they could go further); and the Wild Card round in 1986, 1990, 1992, 1994, 2006, 2010, 2013 and 2017.
But it's been exactly 50 years since they won, or even played in, a Super Bowl. How long has that been?
*
There are 30 players from that team still alive, including Hall-of-Famers Dawson, Thomas, Culp, Lanier, Bell, Robinson and Stenerud. Also among the survivors are Otis Taylor and Ed Budde, who should be in the Hall; and Mike Garrett, who won the 1965 Heisman Trophy at the University of Southern California. Buchanan died in 1992, Stram in 2005, Hunt in 2006.
There were 16 teams in the NFL, and 10 in the AFL. To balance things out, 3 teams were switched from the prospective National Football Conference to join the AFL teams in the American Football Conference: The Baltimore Colts, the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Cleveland Browns. As a result, of the 1st 14 AFC Championships, 5 were won by former NFL teams.
Only 3 stadiums in use in the 2019 NFL season were in use in the 1969 NFL and AFL season: Lambeau Field in Green Bay, the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, and the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum. Come the kickoff of the 2020 season, Lambeau will be the only one still used, as the Los Angeles Rams move into SoFi Stadium and the Raiders move to Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas.
The Chiefs moved from Kansas City Municipal Stadium to Arrowhead Stadium in 1972. The Vikings moved from Metropolitan Stadium to the Metrodome in 1982, then to TCF Bank Stadium on the campus of the University of Minnesota in 2014, as the Metrodome was torn down, and U.S. Bank Stadium was built in its place, with the Vikings moving in for the 2016 season.
There was a team in Baltimore, but it was the Colts, not the Ravens. There was a team in Houston, but it was the Oilers, not the Texans. There was a team in St. Louis, but both it and its replacement have since moved away. And the Raiders have now moved 3 times. The Rams have changed metro areas twice and stadiums 5 times.
The Dallas Cowboys, the Miami Dolphins, the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Denver Broncos, the San Francisco 49ers, the New England Patriots (then still named the Boston Patriots), the Baltimore Ravens, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the Seattle Seahawks and the New Orleans Saints had yet to win their 1st NFL Championship.
The Dolphins, the Steelers, the Broncos, the 49ers, the Ravens, the Buccaneers, the Seahawks, the Saints, the Cincinnati Bengals and the Atlanta Falcons, had yet to reach their 1st league championship game, under the Super Bowl name or otherwise.
And the Ravens, the Buccaneers, the Seahawks, the Carolina Panthers, the Jacksonville Jaguars and the Houston Texans did not yet exist.
All of those facts were then true. They are not true anymore.
The NFL was celebrating its 50th season. Some of its founding fathers were not only still alive, but still involved: George Halas with the Chicago Bears, Art Rooney with the Steelers, and Dan Reeves with the Los Angeles Rams – no relation to the Cowboys running back of the same name, later to be head coach of the Broncos, Giants and Atlanta Falcons.
The defining football players of my childhood? Roger Staubach had recently joined the Cowboys after finishing up his U.S. Navy commitment. O.J. Simpson and Mean Joe Greene were in their rookie seasons. Terry Bradshaw was in his senior year year of college, and would be the top pick in the 1970 NFL Draft. Walter Payton was in high school. Joe Montana and Earl Campbell were in junior high. Lawrence Taylor was in grade school.
NFL games were played on Sunday afternoon, unless Christmas Day fell on a Sunday, in which case they were moved back to Christmas Eve. There was no Monday Night Football (that would come in the next season), Thursday Night Football or Sunday Night Football. Howard Cosell had not yet announced a regular-season NFL game, and Joe Buck was 8 months old. He probably made more sense then than he does on the air now.
The NFL still had kickoffs from the 40-yard-line, and the goalposts on the goal line instead of the end line. Head-slaps, "horse-collar tackles" and "bump and run coverage" more than 5 yards from the line of scrimmage were still legal, all of which sounds insane with what we now know about what football does to the human body, especially to the human brain.
In baseball, there was an American League team in Washington. All but 1 of the 24 teams about to start the MLB season (including 4 new expansion teams) were playing in stadiums with permanent lights, but only one, the Houston Astros, was playing on an artificial turf field, and only the Astros were playing under a dome (retractable or otherwise).
There was no designated hitter, and no regular season interleague play. The 1st season of divisional play and Playoffs had recently concluded: Now, if you won over 100 games and another team in your League won more, so long as you still won your division, you were no longer out of luck.
Current Chiefs had coach Andy Reid was 11 years old, and probably already weighed 250 pounds, 20 of it mustache. Giants head coach Joe Judge and Jets head coach Adam Gase weren't born yet. Nor were Aaron Boone of the Yankees, Carlos Beltran of the Mets, Alain Nasreddine of the Devils, Walt Hopkins of the Liberty, Chris Armas of the Red Bulls or Ronny Deila of NYCFC. Barry Trotz of the Islanders was 7, Mike Miller of the Knicks was 5, David Quinn of the Rangers was 3, and Kenny Atkinson of the Nets was 2.
The Chiefs dethroned the Jets as World Champions of pro football. The other defending World Champions were the Mets, the Boston Celtics and the Montreal Canadiens. The Heavyweight Champion of the World was Joe Frazier.
The Olympic Games have since been held in America 4 times, Canada 3 times, Japan twice, Russia twice, Korea twice, Germany, Austria, Bosnia, France, Spain, Norway, Australia, Greece, Italy, China, Britain and Brazil. The World Cup has since been held in Mexico and Germany twice each, and once each in America, Argentina, Spain, Italy, France, Japan, Korea, South Africa, Brazil and Russia.
There were 25 Amendments to the Constitution of the United States. You had to be at least 21 years old to vote, but 18 to be drafted -- as writer P.F. Sloan and singer Barry McGuire put it, "You're old enough to kill, but not for votin'."
The Environmental Protection Agency would begin operation the following December 2. The 1st gay pride parade would be held in 5 months, on the 1st anniversary of the Stonewall Riot. Title IX and Ms. magazine were 2 years away; legalized abortion, 3 years away. The idea that people of the same gender could marry with all the rights and protections of regular couples was considered ridiculous -- but then, so was the idea that corporations were "people" and entitled to the rights thereof.
The President of the United States was Richard Nixon. Former Presidents Lyndon Johnson and Harry Truman, their wives, and the widows of John F. Kennedy and Dwight D. Eisenhower were still alive. Gerald Ford was the House Minority Leader. Jimmy Carter was about to be elected Governor of Georgia. Ronald Reagan was about to be re-elected Governor of California. George H.W. Bush was a Congressman, but was about to be defeated in a run for the Senate.
Bill Clinton was in his Rhodes Scholarship at Oxford University, and had recently -- legally, if suspiciously -- avoided being drafted into the Vietnam War. George W. Bush was serving in the Texas Air National Guard. Donald Trump got a deferment. Barack Obama was 8 years old. Joe Biden also had a medical deferment, and his was far less suspicious. He had just begun the practice of law, and was launching his 1st run for office, for New Castle County Council in Delaware, which he would win.
The Governor of the State of Missouri was Warren Hearnes, for whom the University of Missouri's basketball arena is named. The current Governor, Mike Parson, was 13 years old. Since Kansas City, Kansas borders Kansas City, Missouri, I'll include their information, too: Their Governor was Robert Docking, and their current Governor, Laura Kelly, was a student at Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois.
The Governor of the State of New York was Nelson Rockefeller. The Mayor of the City of New York was John Lindsay. The Governor of New Jersey was Richard J. Hughes, for 9 more days, at which point he turned the office over to the Governor-elect, William T. Cahill. As for the current occupants of those offices: Andrew Cuomo was 12 years old, Bill de Blasio was 8, and Phil Murphy was 12.
Canada's Prime Minister was Pierre Trudeau. He was young (50), dashing and charismatic. It was as if John F. Kennedy was singing lead for the Beatles – in French. Canada was also about to get its first Major League Baseball team, the Montreal Expos. And a group called The Guess Who was about to become Canada's biggest rock band ever (to that point). For the first time ever, Canada was hip -- and I don't mean "tragically hip." Especially if you were an American worrying about being drafted. Trudeau's son Justin was born nearly 2 years later.
The Pope was Paul VI. The current Pope, Francis, then Jorge Mario Bergoglio, would not be ordained until later in the year. René Samuel Cassin, The United Nations' International Labor Organization had recently been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
Elizabeth II was Queen of England -- that still hasn't changed -- but she was just 43 years old. Britain's Prime Minister was Harold Wilson. There have since been 10 Presidents of the United States, 9 Prime Ministers of Britain and 5 Popes. There were still surviving veterans of the Spanish-American War and the Boer War.
The English Football League was won by Everton, the "blue club of Liverpool." The FA Cup was won by West London team Chelsea, their 1st time winning it. Feyenoord of Rotterdam became the 1st team from the Netherlands to win the European Cup.
Major novels of 1970 included Deliverance by James Dickey, The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, The Paper Chase by John Jay Osborn Jr., QB VII by Leon Uris, Papillon by Henri Charriere, The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight by New York Daily News writer Jimmy Breslin, and Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach -- which my all-time sports hero, Reggie Jackson, then a 23-year-old slugger with the Oakland Athletics, would later claim as his favorite book, outside of The Bible.
In children's literature, Roald Dahl wrote The Fantastic Mr. Fox, Maurice Sendak wrote In the Night Kitchen, and Judy Blume wrote Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret. In non-fiction, Alvin Toffler wrote Future Shock, Arthur Janov wrote The Primal Scream (and would soon have former Beatle John Lennon as one of his followers), Dee Brown wrote Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, Helene Hanff wrote 84 Charing Cross Road, and baseball pitcher Jim Bouton published his diary of the 1969 season, which made many people laugh and other people steam: Ball Four.
J.R.R. Tolkien was still alive. Stephen King was a senior at the University of Maine. George R.R. Martin was a senior at Northwestern University. J.K. Rowling was 4 years old.
No one had yet heard of Spenser, Lestat de Lioncourt, T.S. Garp, Arthur Dent, Jason Bourne, Hannibal Lecter, Kinsey Millhone, Celie Harris, Forrest Gump, Jack Ryan, Alex Cross, Bridget Jones, Robert Langdon, Lisbeth Salander, Bella Swan or Katniss Everdeen.
Major films released in January 1970 included the movie version of M*A*S*H, ...tick...tick...tick... , Last of the Mobile Hot Shots, The Dunwich Horror, The Only Game in Town, and The Molly Maguires.
This was during the brief George Lazenby period for James Bond. Jon Pertwee had just taken over as The Doctor. Adam West was the most recent live-action Batman, Bob Holliday the most recent live-action Superman. Gene Roddenberry was figuring out what to do after Star Trek. Neither George Lucas nor Steven Spielberg had yet directed a feature film.
No one had yet heard of Dirty Harry Callahan, Cheech & Chong, John Shaft, Paul Kersey, Leatherface, Rocky Balboa, Howard Beale, Michael Myers, Jake & Elwood Blues, Max Rockatansky, Jason Voorhees, Ash Williams, John Rambo, the Terminator, the Ghostbusters, Freddy Krueger, Marty McFly, Robocop, John McClane, Jay & Silent Bob or Austin Powers.
All My Children had just debuted on ABC, although it would be a few more days before 23-year-old Susan Lucci made her debut as 15-year-old Erica Kane. The Hollywood Palace, ABC's Saturday night, pre-taped, Los Angeles attempt to rip off CBS' Sunday night, live, New York-based The Ed Sullivan Show, wrapped up after 6 years, with Bing Crosby hosting the last installment, as he had the first. But Sullivan only lasted another year anyway.
No one had yet heard of Mary Richards, Keith Partridge, Archie Bunker, Kwai Chang Caine, Fred Sanford, Bob Hartley, Theo Kojak, Arthur Fonzarelli, Barney Miller, J.R. Ewing, Mork from Ork, William Adama, Arnold Jackson, Ken Reeve, Bo & Luke Duke, or any of the legendary TV characters of the 1980s, 1990s, 2000s and 2010s.
Robert Kardashian was in law school, Bruce Jenner in college, and Kris Houghton in high school. As far as I know, none of them had ever met the others.
The Number 1 song in America was "Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head," by B.J. Thomas, which Burt Bacharach and Hal David had written for the Western film Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid. The Supremes had just broken up. The Beatles soon would. The Jackson 5 had just debuted. Elvis Presley had been a smash in his Las Vegas debut. Bob Dylan had recently released Nashville Skyline, and Frank Sinatra had released A Man Alone, an album of songs by Rod McKuen.
Inflation was such that what $1.00 bought then, $6.80 would buy now. A U.S. postage stamp cost 6 cents, and a New York Subway ride 30 cents. The average price of a gallon of gas was 33 cents, a cup of coffee 44 cents, a McDonald's meal (Big Mac, fries, shake) 94 cents, a movie ticket $1.55, a new car $3,543, and a new house $27,000. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed the preceding Friday at 798.11.
The tallest building in the world was still the Empire State Building in New York, but construction was already underway on the original World Trade Center in New York and the Sears Tower in Chicago. There were telephones in cars, but not yet mobile telephones that you could walk around with.
This would be the 1st year that more American homes had color televisions than didn't. Automatic teller machines were still a relatively new thing, and many people had never seen one. There were no home video games, and the existence of ARPANET, the original Internet, was still new and known to very few people. Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and Tim Berners-Lee were all only 14 years old.
There were 16 teams in the NFL, and 10 in the AFL. To balance things out, 3 teams were switched from the prospective National Football Conference to join the AFL teams in the American Football Conference: The Baltimore Colts, the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Cleveland Browns. As a result, of the 1st 14 AFC Championships, 5 were won by former NFL teams.
Only 3 stadiums in use in the 2019 NFL season were in use in the 1969 NFL and AFL season: Lambeau Field in Green Bay, the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, and the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum. Come the kickoff of the 2020 season, Lambeau will be the only one still used, as the Los Angeles Rams move into SoFi Stadium and the Raiders move to Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas.
The Chiefs moved from Kansas City Municipal Stadium to Arrowhead Stadium in 1972. The Vikings moved from Metropolitan Stadium to the Metrodome in 1982, then to TCF Bank Stadium on the campus of the University of Minnesota in 2014, as the Metrodome was torn down, and U.S. Bank Stadium was built in its place, with the Vikings moving in for the 2016 season.
There was a team in Baltimore, but it was the Colts, not the Ravens. There was a team in Houston, but it was the Oilers, not the Texans. There was a team in St. Louis, but both it and its replacement have since moved away. And the Raiders have now moved 3 times. The Rams have changed metro areas twice and stadiums 5 times.
The Dallas Cowboys, the Miami Dolphins, the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Denver Broncos, the San Francisco 49ers, the New England Patriots (then still named the Boston Patriots), the Baltimore Ravens, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the Seattle Seahawks and the New Orleans Saints had yet to win their 1st NFL Championship.
The Dolphins, the Steelers, the Broncos, the 49ers, the Ravens, the Buccaneers, the Seahawks, the Saints, the Cincinnati Bengals and the Atlanta Falcons, had yet to reach their 1st league championship game, under the Super Bowl name or otherwise.
And the Ravens, the Buccaneers, the Seahawks, the Carolina Panthers, the Jacksonville Jaguars and the Houston Texans did not yet exist.
All of those facts were then true. They are not true anymore.
The NFL was celebrating its 50th season. Some of its founding fathers were not only still alive, but still involved: George Halas with the Chicago Bears, Art Rooney with the Steelers, and Dan Reeves with the Los Angeles Rams – no relation to the Cowboys running back of the same name, later to be head coach of the Broncos, Giants and Atlanta Falcons.
The defining football players of my childhood? Roger Staubach had recently joined the Cowboys after finishing up his U.S. Navy commitment. O.J. Simpson and Mean Joe Greene were in their rookie seasons. Terry Bradshaw was in his senior year year of college, and would be the top pick in the 1970 NFL Draft. Walter Payton was in high school. Joe Montana and Earl Campbell were in junior high. Lawrence Taylor was in grade school.
NFL games were played on Sunday afternoon, unless Christmas Day fell on a Sunday, in which case they were moved back to Christmas Eve. There was no Monday Night Football (that would come in the next season), Thursday Night Football or Sunday Night Football. Howard Cosell had not yet announced a regular-season NFL game, and Joe Buck was 8 months old. He probably made more sense then than he does on the air now.
The NFL still had kickoffs from the 40-yard-line, and the goalposts on the goal line instead of the end line. Head-slaps, "horse-collar tackles" and "bump and run coverage" more than 5 yards from the line of scrimmage were still legal, all of which sounds insane with what we now know about what football does to the human body, especially to the human brain.
In baseball, there was an American League team in Washington. All but 1 of the 24 teams about to start the MLB season (including 4 new expansion teams) were playing in stadiums with permanent lights, but only one, the Houston Astros, was playing on an artificial turf field, and only the Astros were playing under a dome (retractable or otherwise).
There was no designated hitter, and no regular season interleague play. The 1st season of divisional play and Playoffs had recently concluded: Now, if you won over 100 games and another team in your League won more, so long as you still won your division, you were no longer out of luck.
Current Chiefs had coach Andy Reid was 11 years old, and probably already weighed 250 pounds, 20 of it mustache. Giants head coach Joe Judge and Jets head coach Adam Gase weren't born yet. Nor were Aaron Boone of the Yankees, Carlos Beltran of the Mets, Alain Nasreddine of the Devils, Walt Hopkins of the Liberty, Chris Armas of the Red Bulls or Ronny Deila of NYCFC. Barry Trotz of the Islanders was 7, Mike Miller of the Knicks was 5, David Quinn of the Rangers was 3, and Kenny Atkinson of the Nets was 2.
The Chiefs dethroned the Jets as World Champions of pro football. The other defending World Champions were the Mets, the Boston Celtics and the Montreal Canadiens. The Heavyweight Champion of the World was Joe Frazier.
The Olympic Games have since been held in America 4 times, Canada 3 times, Japan twice, Russia twice, Korea twice, Germany, Austria, Bosnia, France, Spain, Norway, Australia, Greece, Italy, China, Britain and Brazil. The World Cup has since been held in Mexico and Germany twice each, and once each in America, Argentina, Spain, Italy, France, Japan, Korea, South Africa, Brazil and Russia.
There were 25 Amendments to the Constitution of the United States. You had to be at least 21 years old to vote, but 18 to be drafted -- as writer P.F. Sloan and singer Barry McGuire put it, "You're old enough to kill, but not for votin'."
The Environmental Protection Agency would begin operation the following December 2. The 1st gay pride parade would be held in 5 months, on the 1st anniversary of the Stonewall Riot. Title IX and Ms. magazine were 2 years away; legalized abortion, 3 years away. The idea that people of the same gender could marry with all the rights and protections of regular couples was considered ridiculous -- but then, so was the idea that corporations were "people" and entitled to the rights thereof.
The President of the United States was Richard Nixon. Former Presidents Lyndon Johnson and Harry Truman, their wives, and the widows of John F. Kennedy and Dwight D. Eisenhower were still alive. Gerald Ford was the House Minority Leader. Jimmy Carter was about to be elected Governor of Georgia. Ronald Reagan was about to be re-elected Governor of California. George H.W. Bush was a Congressman, but was about to be defeated in a run for the Senate.
Bill Clinton was in his Rhodes Scholarship at Oxford University, and had recently -- legally, if suspiciously -- avoided being drafted into the Vietnam War. George W. Bush was serving in the Texas Air National Guard. Donald Trump got a deferment. Barack Obama was 8 years old. Joe Biden also had a medical deferment, and his was far less suspicious. He had just begun the practice of law, and was launching his 1st run for office, for New Castle County Council in Delaware, which he would win.
The Governor of the State of Missouri was Warren Hearnes, for whom the University of Missouri's basketball arena is named. The current Governor, Mike Parson, was 13 years old. Since Kansas City, Kansas borders Kansas City, Missouri, I'll include their information, too: Their Governor was Robert Docking, and their current Governor, Laura Kelly, was a student at Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois.
The Governor of the State of New York was Nelson Rockefeller. The Mayor of the City of New York was John Lindsay. The Governor of New Jersey was Richard J. Hughes, for 9 more days, at which point he turned the office over to the Governor-elect, William T. Cahill. As for the current occupants of those offices: Andrew Cuomo was 12 years old, Bill de Blasio was 8, and Phil Murphy was 12.
Canada's Prime Minister was Pierre Trudeau. He was young (50), dashing and charismatic. It was as if John F. Kennedy was singing lead for the Beatles – in French. Canada was also about to get its first Major League Baseball team, the Montreal Expos. And a group called The Guess Who was about to become Canada's biggest rock band ever (to that point). For the first time ever, Canada was hip -- and I don't mean "tragically hip." Especially if you were an American worrying about being drafted. Trudeau's son Justin was born nearly 2 years later.
The Pope was Paul VI. The current Pope, Francis, then Jorge Mario Bergoglio, would not be ordained until later in the year. René Samuel Cassin, The United Nations' International Labor Organization had recently been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
Elizabeth II was Queen of England -- that still hasn't changed -- but she was just 43 years old. Britain's Prime Minister was Harold Wilson. There have since been 10 Presidents of the United States, 9 Prime Ministers of Britain and 5 Popes. There were still surviving veterans of the Spanish-American War and the Boer War.
The English Football League was won by Everton, the "blue club of Liverpool." The FA Cup was won by West London team Chelsea, their 1st time winning it. Feyenoord of Rotterdam became the 1st team from the Netherlands to win the European Cup.
Major novels of 1970 included Deliverance by James Dickey, The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, The Paper Chase by John Jay Osborn Jr., QB VII by Leon Uris, Papillon by Henri Charriere, The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight by New York Daily News writer Jimmy Breslin, and Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach -- which my all-time sports hero, Reggie Jackson, then a 23-year-old slugger with the Oakland Athletics, would later claim as his favorite book, outside of The Bible.
In children's literature, Roald Dahl wrote The Fantastic Mr. Fox, Maurice Sendak wrote In the Night Kitchen, and Judy Blume wrote Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret. In non-fiction, Alvin Toffler wrote Future Shock, Arthur Janov wrote The Primal Scream (and would soon have former Beatle John Lennon as one of his followers), Dee Brown wrote Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, Helene Hanff wrote 84 Charing Cross Road, and baseball pitcher Jim Bouton published his diary of the 1969 season, which made many people laugh and other people steam: Ball Four.
J.R.R. Tolkien was still alive. Stephen King was a senior at the University of Maine. George R.R. Martin was a senior at Northwestern University. J.K. Rowling was 4 years old.
No one had yet heard of Spenser, Lestat de Lioncourt, T.S. Garp, Arthur Dent, Jason Bourne, Hannibal Lecter, Kinsey Millhone, Celie Harris, Forrest Gump, Jack Ryan, Alex Cross, Bridget Jones, Robert Langdon, Lisbeth Salander, Bella Swan or Katniss Everdeen.
Major films released in January 1970 included the movie version of M*A*S*H, ...tick...tick...tick... , Last of the Mobile Hot Shots, The Dunwich Horror, The Only Game in Town, and The Molly Maguires.
This was during the brief George Lazenby period for James Bond. Jon Pertwee had just taken over as The Doctor. Adam West was the most recent live-action Batman, Bob Holliday the most recent live-action Superman. Gene Roddenberry was figuring out what to do after Star Trek. Neither George Lucas nor Steven Spielberg had yet directed a feature film.
No one had yet heard of Dirty Harry Callahan, Cheech & Chong, John Shaft, Paul Kersey, Leatherface, Rocky Balboa, Howard Beale, Michael Myers, Jake & Elwood Blues, Max Rockatansky, Jason Voorhees, Ash Williams, John Rambo, the Terminator, the Ghostbusters, Freddy Krueger, Marty McFly, Robocop, John McClane, Jay & Silent Bob or Austin Powers.
All My Children had just debuted on ABC, although it would be a few more days before 23-year-old Susan Lucci made her debut as 15-year-old Erica Kane. The Hollywood Palace, ABC's Saturday night, pre-taped, Los Angeles attempt to rip off CBS' Sunday night, live, New York-based The Ed Sullivan Show, wrapped up after 6 years, with Bing Crosby hosting the last installment, as he had the first. But Sullivan only lasted another year anyway.
No one had yet heard of Mary Richards, Keith Partridge, Archie Bunker, Kwai Chang Caine, Fred Sanford, Bob Hartley, Theo Kojak, Arthur Fonzarelli, Barney Miller, J.R. Ewing, Mork from Ork, William Adama, Arnold Jackson, Ken Reeve, Bo & Luke Duke, or any of the legendary TV characters of the 1980s, 1990s, 2000s and 2010s.
Robert Kardashian was in law school, Bruce Jenner in college, and Kris Houghton in high school. As far as I know, none of them had ever met the others.
The Number 1 song in America was "Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head," by B.J. Thomas, which Burt Bacharach and Hal David had written for the Western film Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid. The Supremes had just broken up. The Beatles soon would. The Jackson 5 had just debuted. Elvis Presley had been a smash in his Las Vegas debut. Bob Dylan had recently released Nashville Skyline, and Frank Sinatra had released A Man Alone, an album of songs by Rod McKuen.
Inflation was such that what $1.00 bought then, $6.80 would buy now. A U.S. postage stamp cost 6 cents, and a New York Subway ride 30 cents. The average price of a gallon of gas was 33 cents, a cup of coffee 44 cents, a McDonald's meal (Big Mac, fries, shake) 94 cents, a movie ticket $1.55, a new car $3,543, and a new house $27,000. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed the preceding Friday at 798.11.
The tallest building in the world was still the Empire State Building in New York, but construction was already underway on the original World Trade Center in New York and the Sears Tower in Chicago. There were telephones in cars, but not yet mobile telephones that you could walk around with.
This would be the 1st year that more American homes had color televisions than didn't. Automatic teller machines were still a relatively new thing, and many people had never seen one. There were no home video games, and the existence of ARPANET, the original Internet, was still new and known to very few people. Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and Tim Berners-Lee were all only 14 years old.
There were heart transplants, liver transplants and lung transplants, and artificial
kidneys, but no artificial hearts. There were birth control pills, but no Viagara.
In early 1970, China was hit by an earthquake that killed 14,000 people. There were anti-government student riots in the Philippines. A rail disaster in Argentina killed 236. An avalanche in the French Alps killed 41.
Biafra capitulated, ending the Nigerian Civil War. Japan launched its 1st satellite, Ohsumi. Pan American Airways began the 1st commercially scheduled Boeing 747 service, from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York to London Heathrow Airport. And the Fatal Vision case began, when Captain Jeffrey MacDonald killed his wife and children at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, claiming that hippies did it.
Bertrand Russell, and Slim Harpo, and 1940s baseball star Rudy York died. Shonda Rimes, and Keenan McCardell, and Jeremy Roenick were born.
January 11, 1970. The Kansas City Chiefs won the Super Bowl. They have never been to another.
Will they? Tomorrow, they will face the Houston Texans in an AFC Divisional Playoff, with the winner to face the Tennessee Titans in the AFC Championship Game. With the Titans having already eliminated the New England Patriots and the Baltimore Ravens, the AFC title is wide-open. And there is no obvious favorite remaining among the NFC teams: The San Francisco 49ers, the Green Bay Packers and the Seattle Seahawks. Stay tuned.
UPDATE: The Chiefs won Super Bowl LIV, ending their 50-year drought.
In early 1970, China was hit by an earthquake that killed 14,000 people. There were anti-government student riots in the Philippines. A rail disaster in Argentina killed 236. An avalanche in the French Alps killed 41.
Biafra capitulated, ending the Nigerian Civil War. Japan launched its 1st satellite, Ohsumi. Pan American Airways began the 1st commercially scheduled Boeing 747 service, from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York to London Heathrow Airport. And the Fatal Vision case began, when Captain Jeffrey MacDonald killed his wife and children at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, claiming that hippies did it.
Bertrand Russell, and Slim Harpo, and 1940s baseball star Rudy York died. Shonda Rimes, and Keenan McCardell, and Jeremy Roenick were born.
January 11, 1970. The Kansas City Chiefs won the Super Bowl. They have never been to another.
Will they? Tomorrow, they will face the Houston Texans in an AFC Divisional Playoff, with the winner to face the Tennessee Titans in the AFC Championship Game. With the Titans having already eliminated the New England Patriots and the Baltimore Ravens, the AFC title is wide-open. And there is no obvious favorite remaining among the NFC teams: The San Francisco 49ers, the Green Bay Packers and the Seattle Seahawks. Stay tuned.
UPDATE: The Chiefs won Super Bowl LIV, ending their 50-year drought.
