The Heidi Game

Just a post here to draw members attention to a bit of NFL historical trivia seeing as today is the 45th anniversary of the event

On 17 November 1968, New York Jets were playing their bitter rivals Oakland Raiders.  In a close fought contest, Oakland came from behind to win 43 -32 by scoring two touchdowns in the final minute.

The match acquired notoriety because NBC, who were screening the match live broke away inside the last few minutes to show a movie, Heidi, at 7PM in the Eastern Time Zone.  The problem was caused because there had been a number of injuries and penalties during the match that caused it to run longer than allowed for in the tv station's schedule, and although NBC executives tried to order the station to delay the start of the movie and continue coverage of the match until the end, they were unable to get a message through because the station switchboard had become jammed by irate viewers calling in to complain that the coverage of the match had been stopped.

The movie pre-empted the final moments of the game in the Eastern half of the country which has caused this match to become known as "The Heidi Game".  


Does anybody else out there in 606 land have other instances of NFL Trivia, or of similar things happening, that they would care to share..?

I saw a game a couple of seasons ago where the ball was kicked off all the way into the end zone for a touch back. However, the ball struck the crossbar of the posts, rebounded on to the field, landed, rolled and stopped exactly on the 20 yard line.

Lovely article.

I recall a Heidi moment in English football about four or five years ago. ITV were showing live a mid-week FA Cup tie between Everton and Liverpool. If memory serves me right, it had been a pretty mundane affair as the game went into injury time with the scores level (probably 0-0). Anyway, due to some technical c*ck up, coverage of the game for most regions suddenly cut out as ITV bizarrely showed a couple of minutes of adverts. Coverage of the Cup match then resumed with the final whistle being blown and the Everton players leaping over themselves in celebration of the winning goal that most viewers had missed!

If there is such a thing as a 'non Heidi moment', one definitely occurred on Saturday 31st August 1968 at St Helen's in Swansea. As most sports fans of my generation will know, that's when and where Garry Sobers hit six sixes off an over for the first ever time, playing for Notts against Glamorgan. The event has been shown many times on tv and viewed thousands more in recent years on YouTube. However, the fact it was fimed at all is a fluke or, as Grahame Lloyd describes it in his wonderful book 'Six of the Best - Cricket's Most famous Over', 'a miracle'.

Live televised play had been shown earlier in the day on BBC Sport Wales. The whole crew remained at their stations as there was a possibility that the BBC's sport programme Grandstand might need to show some play or highlights as a fill in feature late that afternoon. However, it turned out that wasn't necessary and word was given that 'they could pack up and go home'. Fortunately for cricket lovers, they didn't. This was mainly due to main camera man and dedicated cricket follower John Lewis who wanted to see how Sobers did and get some film of him. Not only did he stay at his post but he persuaded the other members of the tv team to stay at theirs. Sobers' achievement was thus captured on film with commentary as it happened and soon after (but never live) shared with millions.

The dedication in Lloyd's book reads: 'For the late John Lewis, without whom the cameras would not have kept rolling'.

 Hey, Malcolm Nash here - thanks for the memory, guildford!

Fourth Lion: Given the US Networks' propensity for showing most sports (including Olympics) on "tape delay", the US TV geniuses probably miss more extraordinary sports moments "LIVE' than they actually capture.

The Heidi snafu was a classic though.

guildfordbat wrote:Lovely article.

I recall a Heidi moment in English football about four or five years ago. ITV were showing live a mid-week FA Cup tie between Everton and Liverpool. If memory serves me right, it had been a pretty mundane affair as the game went into injury time with the scores level (probably 0-0). Anyway, due to some technical c*ck up, coverage of the game for most regions suddenly cut out as ITV bizarrely showed a couple of minutes of adverts. Coverage of the Cup match then resumed with the final whistle being blown and the Everton players leaping over themselves in celebration of the winning goal that most viewers had missed!

If there is such a thing as a 'non Heidi moment', one definitely occurred on Saturday 31st August 1968 at St Helen's in Swansea. As most sports fans of my generation will know, that's when and where Garry Sobers hit six sixes off an over for the first ever time, playing for Notts against Glamorgan. The event has been shown many times on tv and viewed thousands more in recent years on YouTube. However, the fact it was fimed at all is a fluke or, as Grahame Lloyd describes it in his wonderful book 'Six of the Best - Cricket's Most famous Over', 'a miracle'.

Live televised play had been shown earlier in the day on BBC Sport Wales. The whole crew remained at their stations as there was a possibility that the BBC's sport programme Grandstand might need to show some play or highlights as a fill in feature late that afternoon. However, it turned out that wasn't necessary and word was given that 'they could pack up and go home'. Fortunately for cricket lovers, they didn't. This was mainly due to main camera man and dedicated cricket follower John Lewis who wanted to see how Sobers did and get some film of him. Not only did he stay at his post but he persuaded the other members of the tv team to stay at theirs. Sobers' achievement was thus captured on film with commentary as it happened and soon after (but never live) shared with millions.

The dedication in Lloyd's book reads: 'For the late John Lewis, without whom the cameras would not have kept rolling'.

Quite right, Guildford, a true 'Heidi' moment, although not to do with NFL. Apologies to other NFL readers for keeping the cricket sidetrack going for one more post, but I'm sure Guildford will also remember how in 1990, the BBC left their coverage of England vs India  at Lords' to go to horse racing and thus missed Graham Gooch scoring his 300th run in the first innings.  Again, irate fans jammed the switchboards and the BBC was left with rather a lot of egg on their faces.  They tried to explain it away by saying that they were contractually obliged to show the race, which I'm sure is true, but that didn't cut much ice at the time.

And yes, I remember the Gary Sobers incident.  It occurred whilst Grandstand was on air and dear old Frank Bough was presenting that afternoon.  After Sober's great achievement was aired, minutes later, my mate knocked, carrying his bat and a ball and asked me if I wanted to come over the park and see if we could recreate it.  I agreed, on condition that I would be Gary Sobers.