On the APBA “Between the Lines” (BTL) forum a discussion regarding the Heidi game arose on my Oguard62’s 1967 AFL/NFL Replay thread. The “Heidi” game took place on November 17, 1968 in a game between the New York Jets and the Oakland Raiders. The Jets were winning 32-29 late in the game, when TV executives from NBC decided to air the movie “Heidi” instead of showing the last 2-minutes of the ball game. As you can imagine, this created quite the uproar, NBC studio in New York City received so many calls that their circuit board blew out. Only the 53,318 attendees at the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum got to witness Daryle Lamonica connect with Charlie Smith for a 43-yard TD followed up by Earl Christy fumbling the ensuing kickoff and Oakland’s Preston Ridlehuber recovering it for a 2-yard TD making the final score Oakland 43, New York 32.
Mr. Jim Fraasch posted the following on my 1967 thread on BTL: “I’m looking forward to how much realism Greg is able to recreate for the Heidi game when he replays 1968.” Well I have already replayed this season twice and wanted to share the results of my “Heidi” game that I played on December 27, 2010.
When I used APBA’s actual cards a couple of years ago to replay the game, the Jets dominated thoroughly, winning 17-0. I’ll have to find the stats, but the Raiders had the coldest dice imaginable despite all their weapons.
I played my version of the Heidi game and posted the results on ABTL back on December 28, 2004. Post number 17860.18….Wasn’t much of a game with the Jets losing 30-13.