Professional Football Researchers Association Forum

Adding to a couple of posts here...

1. re "lights" and night games - Ironically, one of the later partners with the Patriots organization was the Marr family.
One of the sons, Danny Marr, operated Marr Scaffolding. In addition to renting scaffolding to the building trade, another
item they rented was temporary portable lighting for many events - among them semi-professional, collegiate and high school athletic events, namely football.

2. re the killing explanation - It in no way justifies the abuse shown to a paramedic or any law enforcement individual
but it might be interesting to note that Sullivan Stadium was beset with problems. During the first few games, most of
the bathrooms were not working. There was something wrong with the water pressure. The stadium manager was a
great guy named Dan Marcotte who had been coaxed out of retirement after sucessfully managing Fenway Park
for years. Dan was just not given the operating capital to run things the way they should be run mainly because
Billy Sullivan just did not have it. The DiMaggios and other prominent people helped as much as they could but,
for the most part, it was behind the scenes and not enough. Suspicion has always been that Lamar Hunt helped
Sullivan many times with loans that would never be repayed and could never be repayed and Hunt knew it.
Another on-field problem was that the artifical surface was a magnet for bees and both bench areas were plagued
with this issue for two seasons.
If that were to happen today, the ever-expanding stupidity of those who think the Patriots cheated would have
additional rubbish for their lunch pails.

As a researcher interested in history, must say it's more interesting hearing it from someone who lived it.

Great stuff, OCC.

Maybe it wasn't on Monday night football, but there a Patriots game in the 80s where some drunk fans got electrocuted after they somehow came into contact with a power line outside the stadium during a mob celebration. Maybe nobody got fatally zapped, but I thought so. As an aside, technically, electrocution is never an accident -- the word was coined to describe an "electric execution" when the electric chair was introduced as being more humane than other types of death penalty.

Mark L. Ford wrote:Maybe it wasn't on Monday night football, but there a Patriots game in the 80s where some drunk fans got electrocuted after they somehow came into contact with a power line outside the stadium during a mob celebration. Maybe nobody got fatally zapped, but I thought so. As an aside, technically, electrocution is never an accident -- the word was coined to describe an "electric execution" when the electric chair was introduced as being more humane than other types of death penalty.

It was the last regular season game (12/22) of the 1985 season, when the Pats beat the Bengals to clinch a spot in the playoffs. The fans stormed the field, and five Einsteins carried out part of the goal post. Along the way, they touched a power line of 13,200 volts and got burned. None of them were killed, and the Patriots were first prepared the OPPORTUNITY to buy playoff tickets, but decided to hold off while police checked to see if the gents were doing anything illegal. What's odd is that the game was set for Giants Stadium, not Sullivan Stadium, and as a wild card, they had no chance to host any further games, so I'm not sure what tickets they were offering in the first place.

oldecapecod11 wrote:It should be noted that "Cheers" patron Cliff, has an excellent explanation as to why we should drink beer.
The "Cheers" venue is the Bull and Finch Pub on Beacon Street just off the Common and the basement bar
has three more on the levels above - street-level open to the public and the others private.
The Young Republican Club often held affairs there which, of course, were crashed.

I visited the Boston area about 25 years ago and my father, who was living in Boston at the time, took me to the Bull and Finch for a beer. I was struck by the fact that the entire place seated maybe 20 people, but the Cheers gift shop on the ground level floor above it was at least four or five times the size of the Bull and Finch.

mwald wrote:As a researcher interested in history, must say it's more interesting hearing it from someone who lived it.

Great stuff, OCC.

Seconded.

74_75_78_79_ wrote:I believe near the end of the '86 season, there was a special Friday Night game. Don't remember who the teams were, but I'm pretty sure at halftime someone - I think it was a comedian - going over all the possible playoff scenarios; and there were a ridiculous amount as that season was concluding. Does anyone remember who both teams were and what other Friday games has there been historically?

I didn't remember the fact that it was a Friday night game, but I do remember a bit that was done by one of the networks on playoff scenarios featuring John Moschitta. He's did those fast-talking FedEx commercial in the early '80s. I remember him rattling off the list, and then ending with "if there are any ties ..." and shrugging his shoulders.