What was it like to be a Rams fans in the 70's
I jumped on in the 1975 playoffs just in time to see the Rams lose to Dallas at home 37-7.
I lived in Hawaii. My 2 best neighbor friends liked the Rams too. We would go to the local swap meet and collect 1976 football cards and other cool toys. I remember us 3 opening the cards right there and looking for Rams. The most expensive card to come out of that series was Walter Payton's rookie and we got a few of him at 25 cents a pack.
Sports memorabilia shops wouldn't start popping up until the mid-80's. Back in the late 70's you could order a box of older football cards for around $25 a box. This was before cards skyrocketed. The ads for all the cools stuff would be in sports magazines.
We could also order posters from Sports illustrated and I got Youngblood, McCutcheon, James Harris, and Harold Jackson on my wall. Jerseys too, but back then they didn't have the player's name you could only order with your own or blank. I got Youngblood's for $40, with tackle twill numbers so it looks like the 1973 or 1974 season when they whore those.
When the holidays rolled around we'd look through a Sears catalogue called the Wish Book. I'd go straight to the toys. Parents let us make a list from that catalogue. There were some cool NFL items in there like kid jerseys, team caps, beanies, team pajamas, socks, jackets, bedspreads and many other stuff. I had a Rams lamp, a small trash can, and a standup to move helmet magnets around in the standings..
The Sunday ritual was to wake up early for the pregame. Brent, Irv, Phyllis, and Jimmy the Greek gave us updates and predictions. They also had some cool player interviews and player stories. Monday night was a delayed telecast. We could either listen on the radio or tell everyone not to say the score and watch at 6pm after the game was over.
Back in 1976-on I'd see about 8 Rams games on TV per year including playoffs. Imagine not being able to watch your team and looking at scores at the bottom, then waiting for halftime highlights and Monday night football highlights to even get a glimpse of any action.
As far as league fandom, I knew kids who liked the Vikings, Cowboys, Raiders, Patriots, and Dolphins. Those were the most popular teams back then. The Jets, Saints, Giants and Bucs were the worst. The Bucs and Seahawks were new expansion teams.
There was no social media of course so we'd troll each other's teams in person either at school or among friends. Funny I only knew one kid who was a whiner fan and I teased him mercilessly. I didn't even like them back then!
Since there was no internet, on the day after the game we had to get the newspaper and look through the sports section for pics and stats. Imagine not having anything to see until the next day. How did we survive????
