Saturday, February 1, 2014

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Super Bowl 2014 Edition

It's Saturday Night - 
time for more Genealogy Fun! 



Your mission, should you decide to accept it (cue the Mission Impossible! music) is to:


1)  The Super Bowl is on Sunday, 2 February 2014 in the USA.  The Denver Broncos are playing the Seattle Seahawks for the National football League championship.  The winners get to go to Disney World.  


2)  Predict the score for this game.  You have to predict the winning team and the closest to the actual score (point differential summed for both teams) to be the winner.  The winner of this contest gets announced next week in a Genea-Musings blog post.  

3)  Tell a story about your experiences playing football or watching professional football games.  Did you go to football games? Who in your family was the real fan of the game?  What were the pre-game routines?  How do you, or your family, react to good plays or bad plays, or wins or losses?

4)  Provide your entry in a comment to this blog post, in a blog post of your own, or in a Facebook or Google+ post.  Be sure to tell me about your post in a comment to this post.

Here's mine:

My score prediction:  Seahawks 24, Broncos 23

I actually worked for the San Diego Chargers in the summer of 1963.  Read My first real job for more details. 

I've been a pro football fan since the late 1950s, growing up in San Diego before the Chargers came to town in 1961.  My father played football in high school, and my uncle Edward Seaver was a lineman for the Columbia University that went to the Rose Bowl in 1934 and beat Stanford, 7-0.  

When the Chargers came to town, watching the NFL game became a regular event on Sunday afternoons.  There was only one game a week.  I went to several Charger home games each season at Balboa Stadium near downtown San Diego.  In 1963, when I worked for the team, I started taking my 8 year old brother Scott to the games.  We went to the championship game also, my Chargers beat the Patriots 51-10 for the AFL championship.  

After I was working in engineering for awhile, I spent quite a bit of time at the local bowling alley, and some of the guys in the bar got tickets to the Chargers games at the new San Diego Stadium in Mission Valley.  So I went, and Linda and I eventually got season tickets for several years before our children were born.  We always sat in the first row of the upper deck at about the 30 yard line on the south side of the field.  

Now I watch the Chargers games every week that they are on (we had two blackouts this year) and sometimes watch the other Sunday afternoon game, and some of the Sunday night and Monday night games.  If the Chargers have the 10 AM game, I skip church. 

I used to get upset during the games by a bad play or bad luck, but I've become more stoical in recent years (stuff happens!).  I still talk to myself about some plays, and I still suggest plays that should work to the TV, but nobody listens.  I don't dress up in a team jersey or shirt because they haven't worked in the past.  I do have a bucket of popcorn at halftime of Charger home games.  

After 53 years of Chargers football, with one league championship (1963) and one Super Bowl year (1995 Super Bowl XXIX, lost 49-26 to the 49ers and it wasn't that close!), I yearn for another championship team.  I hope it comes soon - I don't have that many good years left!

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2014/02/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-super-bowl.html

Copyright (c) 2014, Randall J. Seaver




5 comments:

GeneGinny said...

Seahawks 31, Broncos 24

I have always been a sports nut. Neither of my brothers had any interest in sports, so I went to baseball games with my Dad while growing up. We watched lots of college football games on Saturdays and professional games on Sundays. My husband isn't much for sports, but humors me by watching football. After 38 years, he's finally become quite fond of our Seattle Seahawks and will be watching with me tomorrow.
Go Seahawks!

Ernie said...

Broncos 24, Seahawks 22

Ernie

Lisa S. Gorrell said...

Broncos 24, Seahawks 18
I used to attend Raider games with my dad in the 70's. He hated crowds and would leave a bit before the game (especially if the Raiders were losing), but sure enough, the Raiders would score and win the game while we were walking back to the car or driving out of the area!
Later he became a 49er fan after Al Davis took the Raiders to LA. He was a real fanatic about the 49er's until the day he died.
I'm not much of a football fan (Giants baseball is my game) but I have fond memories of watching the Raiders at the Coliseum with my dad.

Geolover said...

Used to go to my dad's Greek associates' football ("soccer") matches.

I never understood why people become fans of commercial sports teams, especially American football. It's like being a 'fan' of a bank or oil company. These days, the owners make money whether anyone goes to the actual game or not.

Anonymous said...

As much as I'd prefer to see Seattle win (Seattle is my NFC team, Oakland in the NFC -- grew up with them, like Lisa, a long-time friend; Bill King was the best announcer ever!), my prediction is Denver 30, Seattle 29.

The prediction comes from the algorithm I use to make predictions (it's usually good with the winners, not so good at the actual scores), but it's qualitative as well. Seattle has a tendency to be too easy-going in the first half, and if they do that today then I'm afraid they'll have dug themselves into a hole too deep to get out of.

I'm not that fanatical about pro football; I think the college game is superior (and much more fun to attend in person). I'd actually rather watch baseball, hockey, or curling (which most people can't really appreciate unless they've curled, themselves). I did have season tickets for Purdue football when I lived in the Midwest, but now I'm back in the Seattle area. I went to a Pac 8/Pac 10 (now Pac 12) school, but nothing beats the Big Ten for football!

I do agree somewhat with Geolover in that I don't understand why sports, especially pro sports, are such a big deal. I live here, but I have absolutely nothing to do with the team's success and they have no effect on my life outside the time limits of the game. It's just a game, after all. I wish as much attention were paid to the arts!

Dave L