Life as a Ram Fan (Stories from past, present, and future)

[nighttrain]

Meador an all time great, i remember him well. He certainly deserves to be in the Hall
train

 

[Karate61]

http://articles.latimes.com/2009/jun/15/sports/sp-crowe-nest15

Here's the link to the LA Times article on Eddie Meador's kids' efforts to get him into Canton.

He was listed at 5'11", 190lbs. Crazy the size difference of players compared to these days.

 

[nighttrain]

Meador an all time great, i remember him well. He certainly deserves to be in the Hall
train

Eddie Meador was a ball-hawking free safety who intercepted 46 passes for the Los Angeles Rams from 1959 to 1970, a franchise record that still stands.

 

[nighttrain]

He was listed at 5'11", 190lbs. Crazy the size difference of players compared to these days.

Rams FS Lamarcus Joyner

Height:
5-8
Weight:
190
ahh, not so different
train

 

[kmramsfan]

My Rams life began in '65 with George Allen taking the team from the bottom to the upper echelon and a consistent Coastal Division winner. I went to my first game in '67at the Coliseum with my dad and uncle. We hooked up at a restaurant in Encino called the Rams Horn for a bus ride to LA. Many guys were plastered before we even got there. You could smell the aroma of cigars and booze all game long in the stadium. Can't enjoy that great atmosphere anymore, lol.

As we sat in the bus getting ready to depart back to the Rams Horn, a bunch of little kids standing over by the RR tracks began throwing ballast rock at our bus. I had never been to downtown LA before so I was quite shocked by their brazenness.
Another trip to a Falcons game at the Coliseum when I was able to drive myself, I recall looking for parking, of which there wasn't much. A young kid was frantically directing cars onto front yards to park Not his front yard, but ANY front yard. He'd take your $5 and keep it moving along until a black and white came around the corner. He took off running with a fistful of $5's and disappeared forever. What an entrepreneur.

 

[Karate61]

Rams FS Lamarcus Joyner

Height:
5-8
Weight:
190
ahh, not so different
train

You know...I was thinking Meador was a LB, and smaller. But, you'e right, as a DB he wasn't small. Go look up the Rams height and weights of their OLine in the '80s...definite difference.

 

[Mackeyser]

That is such a wild fact! I never knew that .

I've told a few stories. Moved around a lot when I was kid. Born in San Diego. Dad was a Rams fan from the late '40's before the Chargers showed up. Ironically mom was born in Cleveland when the Rams were there, but no connection.

Loved McCutcheon growing up. Of course Jack Youngblood. Harold Jackson. I always pretended to be Jackson in the street games outside. We used to go to all the Ram/Niner games after we moved to the Bay Area in "74.



...and lived across the bridge in Benicia in those horrible '90-94 years. Although one time I heard that local boy DeMarco Farr was going to be appearing at an event in nearby Concord and I ran by there with my little son to meet him. He was so nice and talked to me for a while. Pretty much why I honored him by incorporating him in my screen name.

Now that’s funny. My first school was Hillcrest Elementary in Concord. Used to have to walk through the park to get to the Lutheran day care after school.

We moved to SoCal in ‘75 and that’s when the Ram fandom commenced.

 

[JackKirbyFan]

Rams FS Lamarcus Joyner

Height:
5-8
Weight:
190
ahh, not so different
train

Yes, indeed. It's innate ability, quickness, superb eyesight and the will to play at the highest level that is so much more important than mere height. Take baseball's Jose Altuvie--one of the best players in the game. What is he: 5' 6" in height and he is one of the greats and current MVP and World Series champion.

 

[Varg6]

When I was a pre-teen, I didn't know a thing about football. My best friend and his entire family were a huge football family who specifically love the Cowboys. He decided that he'd teach me about football through Madden. My buddy was showing me the game on Playstation, and as I scrolled through the teams to pick, I chose the team that I thought had the coolest uniform: My Rams. I threw hail mary bombs to Isaac Bruce and kept scoring TDs against him, which drove him absolutely crazy.

It was then that I decided that I'd be a Rams fan. I think it was that year or the year after that the Rams won the Super Bowl. I remember saying to myself, I'm sticking with these guys.

When I tell this story I like to joke that the more I got into football, the worse my team got. But I never stopped loving my team, and now it's feeling like all those years we've suffered were worth it.

 

[Ramlock]

My Uncle Herb who also had season tickets and sat right behind us at the Coliseum was a friend of Eddie Meador. Herb was a self-made millionaire back in 1960s when a million bucks meant something. He owned Ramco Investment Co. with offices in Century City. Anyway, after the thrilling victory over the Packers on Dec. 9th 1967, Herb brought me, my dad, my Uncle Mark and cousin Mark into the locker room--the only time I was in the Rams Locker Rooms in my life. Meador had just gotten out of the shower and was drying off when my uncle Herb brought us over to his stall and introduced us. I was in complete awe as Meador was one of my heroes. All I said was "Great game, Mr. Meador, and let's go out next Sunday and beat the Colts and get into the playofffs. (Which of course, we did.)
Two Sidebars:
1) Jerry Crowe, a former LA Times columnist, ("Crowe's Nest") wrote an article on Meador and efforts by family and friends to get him inducted into Canton. The article is available on line Must reading for all Ram fans

2. Sadly, my uncle died young. He was only 41 when he succumbed to leukemia. He was tall, dark and handsome in the classic sense. He even dated movie starlets most notably Zsa Zsa Gabor and Barbara Stanwyck.

Nice

Great story

21 should be in the HOF

Do you recall a beer garden near the Coliseum in ‘60/‘61?

My Dad told me of my folks going out with the Meadors to a beer garden after a game....he saw Lombardi there as well as many players

I was too young to go or remember

 

[Ramlock]

Eddie Meador was a ball-hawking free safety who intercepted 46 passes for the Los Angeles Rams from 1959 to 1970, a franchise record that still stands.

He was a halfback at Tech but probably played both ways.

Eddie Meador was the Captain of the defense during the Fearsome Foursome years.

He was the holder for kicks

 

[IowaRam]

First team I ever rooted for was the Lakers.

I was 5 years old and living in Martinez, CA... east bay in NorCal.

I had just gotten a death bike... this yellow deal with SOLID tires...cuz dad didn't want to bothered filling them up. Ever ridden on hard, solid tires? Yeah, it's only slightly different than riding on the rim...not kidding.

Anyway, I wanted to learn how to ride, but dad (actually step-dad, but he's the man who raised me) wanted to watch the Knicks play basketball. Seeing as he was from Sheepshead Bay in Brooklyn. He was also a Dodger fan.

So he won't teach me. I stomp out and get on that bike...and teach myself. Started by pushing myself from carport post to carport post (and they were the really splintery wood, so I got pretty cut up), but I did it. Taught myself to ride.

Came in and said, "I taught myself, cuz I wanted to ride." Dad didn't even look and said, "that's good". So I look at the screen and said, "who are the Knicks playing?" "The Lakers. I hate the Lakers."

I became their number one fan that day.

We moved to LA two years later and my parents bought me some local sports banners for Xmas and I saw the felt banner of the Rams and just knew...THIS team was for me. Same with the Dodgers.

Nolan Cromwell quickly became my favorite player and I always wondered how someone as fat as John Cappelletti could be a running back (kids aren't politically correct). I thought Jack Youngblood was the biggest, toughest man on earth, even bigger and tougher than Mean Joe Greene!!!

Love these nostalgia threads and finding out how we all got here...

I still have that same Rams pennant

, :cheers:

 

[nighttrain]

He was a halfback at Tech but probably played both ways.

Eddie Meador was the Captain of the defense during the Fearsome Foursome years.

He was the holder for kicks

did play both ways, over 3000 yds rushing
train

 

[JackKirbyFan]

i have no recollection of a beer garden. I started going to the games when I was eleven years old. Did you click on the link I posted about Eddie Meador. You'll enjoy reading the article. He was one of the great safeties in the NFL history and a great injustice to Meador that he still not in the Hall. Hope it happens before he passes on.

 

[IowaRam]

grew up in a Vikings household

now , when I was in grade school, there was a community center a couple blocks from the grade school

large restaurant , bowling ally , community room , pool tables , pinball machines , etc , it was actually pretty cool place

well , when I was in grade school , a lot of our mothers , would pick us up at this community center after school , as a lot of them would come in for their afternoon coffee , ( boy , how times have changed )

one of those days , my mother gave me a letter from my uncle , my favorite uncle who lived in Minneapolis at the time

and as I opened the letter with uncontained excitement , in front of all the other mothers and several classmates

it turned out to be a get well card from my uncle after the 76 playoff game

I was devastated ....................lol

 

[RhodyRams]

The year was around 1977 or so. I was 12 and an avid reader. Took home a book from the library called "Something for Joey about the Penn State running back John Cappeletti and how he dedicated his season to his little brother Joey who was battling leukemia. I became an instant fan of both PSU and the Rams and have been since

 

[Karate61]

The year was around 1977 or so. I was 12 and an avid reader. Took home a book from the library called "Something for Joey about the Penn State running back John Cappeletti and how he dedicated his season to his little brother Joey who was battling leukemia. I became an instant fan of both PSU and the Rams and have been since

My first Rams game, around that time, the one player I can recall was Cappeletti. I called him spaghetti then though...!

 

[JackKirbyFan]

I guess it was in the late 1950s. My dad was home watching the Rams on TV. My mom had taken us two kids to the market and to pick up a pizza pie at Barone's in Van Nuys--our favorite pizza. (It's still there, too). On the way back to the house, my mom was involved in a car accident as the other driver ran the stop sign on Hatteras at Bel Air. We lived on Hatteras at the time. Fortunately, a police officer happened to be right there and witnessed the whole accident. My mom knew the neighbor at the end of the street, walked over to the house and asked to use the phone to call my dad. She explained what happened. My dad's response:

Are you Okay?
Yes,
Kids Okay?
Yes,
Good. I'm in the middle of the Ram game. Can't leave. It's a close game. I will be there when the game is over.

Of course I have no recollection of this for I was only four years old at the time--but my mom would tell us and others the story for years..

 

[JackKirbyFan]

My first Rams game, around that time, the one player

The year was around 1977 or so. I was 12 and an avid reader. Took home a book from the library called "Something for Joey about the Penn State running back John Cappeletti and how he dedicated his season to his little brother Joey who was battling leukemia. I became an instant fan of both PSU and the Rams and have been since

That book was adapted into a TV movie of the week. It wasn't too bad, though a bit maudlin. Not as good as "Brian's Song" one of the better movies about sports. Any movie with Shelly Fabraes had to be good.

 

[fearsomefour]

I grew up on the west coast between LA and SF. A little closer to SF. My dad was a Rams fan and I followed suit. My first game was a Monday night game at the Colisuem, we got stuck in traffic (shocking). Got
to our seats just in time to see Dickerson bust out a long run.
In high school a friends grandmother worked for the Rams office. He talked her into having tbe "Rams" send me a little gift. Like the pennant others have posted. I must have gotten on their list because I received Christmas cards from Georgia for a couple of years after that. Haha. Made me feel a little guilty for having disdain for her.
Got to meet and play in a basketball game vs Robert Delpino and Buford McGee.
I moved to San Diego and got a job managing a studio there. There was a guy working there part time while going to college who looked like a Greek god. Chiseled out of granite. Super chill and nice guy. He ended up playing LB for the Rams for several years.
That job was my first time making enough money to live on (I was still a teenager). I saved up money and my first real purchase was Rams season tickets at the terrible Big A.
So, some stories mixed in.
I had season tickets for two years before the left for St Louis. I can't remember if they won one home game those two years. One or two wins.
Anyway, the best part really has been running into or meeting Ram fans who almost always cool and fun folks.
Up the Horns!!!!