Professional Football Researchers Association Forum

Hi
A couple of the forum members have been chatting about ensuring that Rupert Patrick’s work on the Game Books / Play-by-Plays doesn’t go to waste and that we try and keep tracking down all those that are either missing or unreadable. I know Rupert was in contact with a number of teams including the Tennessee Titans (for the Houston Oilers) and in fact I was helping Rupert review the copies he had of these games but I only got them to 1980.

He was also contacting Cincinnati, San Diego / Los Angeles Chargers, Indianapolis (they were in the process of digitizing them) and the 49ers. He also tried to contact the Jets, Giants and Falcons but don't know if he had and success.

What I want to know if any of you on here are willing to help contact teams to get hold of the missing or poor Game Books.

I am concentrating on the Dolphins Game Books and have already started trying to contact them.

If I get a good response I will try and co-ordinate and start to put together a list of the missing games for each team. And hopefully we may get Rupert’s Game Book database which would help greatly.
Cheers
Craig

Since you brought up Rupert's herculean efforts, I propose that we name the site where the gamebooks are stored "The Rupert Patrick Gamebook Library"

Thanks for starting this thread - it was something I've been meaning to do. It seems like a few of us on here including myself had been in contact with Rupert concerning the gamebooks and had attempted to assist him to one degree or another. I was in touch with him concerning the Packers gamebooks and he shared with me what he had. From 1960-Present he was missing exactly 100 gamebooks for Green Bay, and I was able to get in touch with the person within the Packers organization who had been supplying Rupert with his missing gamebooks. Every week Rupert would e-mail this guy (an intern working for the Packers) with a request for 5 gamebooks. Once I figured out who Rupert had been talking to and made contact with him, about a month ago, I sent him the list of all 100 gamebooks that were still missing. He said he was glad to help, so given time hopefully he's able to find everything. Rupert was also receiving gamebooks from a Packers author & historian who was kind enough to help me out with this as well. Both of their help is greatly appreciated. Over time I'm hoping to have a complete collection of Green Bay gamebooks from 1960-Present, at which point I told Ken I'd send him everything for the PFRA archives.

I'll save you some help Craig concerning the Dolphins! Check out media.miamidolphins.com. Hover over History & Records on the right, then click on Season Archive. EVERY gamebook for EVERY game in Dolphins history, including preseason games. They also have posted every yearly media guide. I love the Dolphins organization for doing this, I wish other franchises would follow suite. The Seahawks have a similar site as well, seahawksmedia.com.

Beyond that I want to share what Rupert once e-mailed to me. Below is his rundown of his experience with contacting every franchise for help concerning the gamebooks. If anyone on here feels compelled to pick up where he left off I think that'd be great!

***
The Lions were very receptive when I explained out game book database, and that we were working with many teams. He gave us everything in the Lions archives from 1948-88, although it took me a couple weeks to process it all.

First of all, most teams aren't very responsive during the regular season. The fact the Packers, Vikings, Titans and Redskins are working with us during the season is surprising.

I'll quickly run down all of the teams:

Cardinals - The Cardinals game books are bound in books, which are difficult to scan. They want to convert their archives to digital but it would take too long to convert them all. I think I've got a deal worked out with them to trade all the Cardinals game books we have in the PFRA archives (approximately 800 game books) in exchange for them scanning the game books and other play by play documents we don't already have and giving us pdfs of them. Their game books go back into the 50's and they may have scores heets or play-by-play that goes back to the 30's, we don't really know at this time. This way, we both get a set of complete pdfs of the Cardinals archives. PFRA management signed off on this deal, and the Cardinals are considering the deal and in the off-season we'll get together to discuss it in more detail. My guess is that they'll agree to it as these game books have to be backed up in case of a catastrophe; they cannot be replaced. If they do agree to scan their archives, we've already got a PFRA member who lives in the area who has told me he would volunteer to assist them if needed.

Falcons - Documents are in storage as of May

Ravens - We have all their game books; no need to contact them.

Bills - At the 2018 PFRA meeting in Buffalo I got a couple CD's from one of the Bills PR guys with all of their game books thru 2010 or so, including pre-season games.

Panthers - We have all their game books; no need to contact them.
Bears - They have been helpful with game book requests.

Bengals - They have helped sporadically in the off-season with game book requests.

Browns - They have not been terribly helpful with game book requests, although we have Browns game books from 1961 to present, there are a half dozen or so from the 60's that I don't have. Also, do they have any game books pre-1961? I don't know if anybody at PFRA has been to the Browns archives?

Cowboys - All their game books are or were online, but a few were missing and I tried to contact the Cowboys to see if maybe they were in the archives and they inadvertently forgot to scan them and put them online, but they never got back to me and I tried several different people in the organization.

Broncos - All of their game books have been online since 2004 or so, they were the first team to put their game books online.

Lions - Already covered.

Packers - On course to have all the Packers game books thru 1960 by March, and then start working my way back from there. Once I get to 1960, I will get with their PR guy and find out exactly what is left in their archives and how far it goes back.

Texans - We have all their game books; no need to contact them.

Colts - They were very helpful with game book requests until they started focusing on digitizing their archives. I am pretty sure their game books go all the way back to the Baltimore Colts of the AAFC. I am looking forward to the day their game books go online.

Jaguars - We have all their game books; no need to contact them.

Chiefs - They were very helpful, they generally took very good care of their game books, and I went thru and reviewed all Chiefs game books a second time and any that I thought could possibly be improved, I worked with the Chiefs to get replacements, and they helped us with everything.

Chargers - Their archives are in storage until their stadium opens next year

Rams - Ditto, but I think I've got everything I need from them.

Dolphins - All of their game books are online, no need to contact them.

Vikings - They are very helpful with game books requests; by February I should have all Vikings game books from their archives, but I will review them a second time and if there are any that I think I might be able to get an improved copy from them, I will work with them to get those additional game books. The Vikings are slowly but surely putting all of their game books online at their team website; but I'll have all my game books from them before they get all of their game books online.

Patriots - We've already got all of the Patriots game books at the PFRA site, probably from Pete Palmer as he was the Patriots statistician for about 30 years. I have contacted them a couple times to try to get better copies of game books that were poor quality, but the ones I got from them were identical to the ones we already had.

Saints - We've gotten game books from them sporadically during the off-season.

Giants - I did get game books from them once, but it was like getting teeth pulled, and after that they never responded again.

Jets - They were the one AFL team who was not receptive at all to game book requests. At least I did get game books from the Chargers once.

Raiders - They have been very helpful; their PR guy used to be a PFRA member and appreciated what I was trying to do and said the Raiders would help however they could. I went thru the Raiders game books and got the best upgrades I could. I am waiting for the last batch of game books from the Raiders.

Eagles - We have their game books since 1956 but they are not in the best condition, and they never responded to my email requests after i tried to contact about five different people.

Steelers - Apparently they have no game books before 1969 (somebody went to their archives and all they have was from 1969 and later). I tried to contact them a couple times but never heard back

49ers - They put all their game books online but I found a couple that were missing. I contacted their PR guy and sure enough, he emailed me the game book for that game. I'm going back thru the other few game books for the 49ers that weren't on their site to see if they are in their archives.

Seahawks - All of their game books are online, no need to contact them.

Titans - The Titans have been helpful about game books requests for Oilers games. We should have all the Oilers games by January.

Bucs - We have all of their game books, but I am contacting them about the upgrades to those two Packers game books.

Redskins - They have been helpful with game book requests. I should have all of the 1960-2018 Redskins game books by April or May, and then start working my way backward from there. The Redskins are also probably going to put their game books online in the off-season, and if they do that, I'll stop requesting game books.

As far as teams who are not responsive? Falcons, Browns, Cowboys, Giants, Jets, Eagles, Steelers, are the big ones. If the Falcons would open up their archives I'm three hours northeast of Atlanta and would make a trip there; all I need is the 1966-77 game books and about a dozen game books from 1978-99.

It might come down to putting out the call to PFRA volunteers in the NYC area who would want to contact the Jets and Giants about visiting their archives in the off-season and getting the game books we need, or getting PFRA volunteers in Cincinnati or New Orleans to do likewise with the Bengals or Saints. Same with Chicago and Green Bay, as it would be much easier than getting the game books piecemeal from the Bears and Packers. Sometimes the historians have to get out there into the vaults of history and get their hands dirty.

JeffreyMiller wrote:Since you brought up Rupert's herculean efforts, I propose that we name the site where the gamebooks are stored "The Rupert Patrick Gamebook Library"

I really like that idea.

Thanks Oszuscik,

I found that site a couple of years ago and have been steadily working through them. I'm trying to convert them in Modern Game Book versions and I'm currently working on 1981.

Unfortunately though there are still a number of their website that are either difficult to read or impossible, there is also one, the Wk 01 1974 game at NE where the front is NE v Dolphins but the actual play by play is NE v NYG. Fortunately I got a better copy from Rupert.

Rupert helped me with a few bad copies of Dolphins Game Books and I was also able to help with a few in return.

Hopefully we will get some more interest from forum members in the next few days.

Cheers
Craig

CraigRye wrote:Thanks Oszuscik,

I found that site a couple of years ago and have been steadily working through them. I'm trying to convert them in Modern Game Book versions and I'm currently working on 1981.

Unfortunately though there are still a number of their website that are either difficult to read or impossible, there is also one, the Wk 01 1974 game at NE where the front is NE v Dolphins but the actual play by play is NE v NYG. Fortunately I got a better copy from Rupert.

Rupert helped me with a few bad copies of Dolphins Game Books and I was also able to help with a few in return.

Hopefully we will get some more interest from forum members in the next few days.

Cheers
Craig

Good to know Craig! My main goal in all of this is to try and compile complete participation charts and complete player statistics for the Packers from the Lombardi era on. Sacks, tackles, passes defensed, receiving targets, all of it. I'd like to do the seasons in order though, so I'm holding off until we've tracked down all of Green Bay's gamebooks. In the mean time though, for the fun of it and because I'm a fan of the team, I've been working on stats and participation charts for Shula's early 70's Dolphins. Granted I'm only halfway through 1970 and haven't had any issues with the gamebooks yet, but that's good to know the Dolphins' media website isn't foolproof.

Oszuscik wrote:.


Steelers - Apparently they have no game books before 1969 (somebody went to their archives and all they have was from 1969 and later). I tried to contact them a couple times but never heard back

Well, they must have them from 1968, because they are - sort of - on their website. Except when you click on the links (including the 1969 games) all you get (well, all I get) is a big blank nothing.

https://www.steelers.com/news/pittsburg ... 0s-1029575

TodMaher wrote:

Oszuscik wrote:.


Steelers - Apparently they have no game books before 1969 (somebody went to their archives and all they have was from 1969 and later). I tried to contact them a couple times but never heard back

Well, they must have them from 1968, because they are - sort of - on their website. Except when you click on the links (including the 1969 games) all you get (well, all I get) is a big blank nothing.

https://www.steelers.com/news/pittsburg ... 0s-1029575

Good find! Though frustrating the links are all dead ends... Maybe it’s worth contacting someone through the site, since clearly they meant to have the game books posted.

You didn’t by chance find old Steelers media guides on their website too did you? There’s a few from the 70’s on eBay that I’ve been eyeballing, but finding them posted on their site for free would be preferable!

I visited the Steelers facility personally years ago and at that time they had nothing prior to 1969 which coincides with the move to Three Rivers. Now sometimes they find things or work with the league to expand their collections as well but sadly most teams just couldn't care less about their history.

NWebster wrote:I visited the Steelers facility personally years ago and at that time they had nothing prior to 1969 which coincides with the move to Three Rivers. Now sometimes they find things or work with the league to expand their collections as well but sadly most teams just couldn't care less about their history.

Actually, they moved the Three Rivers in 1970, but the timing does coincide with the arrival of Noll and a more professional approach to running the team. Much like things changed drastically with the NFL once Rozelle took over.