Remembering the old Met

[74_75_78_79_]

The temperature for this Sunday's Hawks at Vikes playoff is an expected minus-20 windchill. Ought to make everyone long for the days when Minnesota (and Detroit; all four 'black and blue' teams) played outdoors, especially in January which was a regular thing under Bud Grant in the '70s.

[BD Sullivan]

I can still recall the 1969 NFL Championship game between the Vikes and Cleveland, with Browns DT Walter Johnson foolishly playing without gloves in eight degree weather. On the flight home, he was in agony from the frostbite he suffered.

[mwald]

Don't know from where Walter Johnson originates (I'm sure somebody here has that information), but people who didn't grow up in cold weather often mistake it for being simply very unpleasant but don't realize how dangerous it is.

[BD Sullivan]

Don't know from where Walter Johnson originates (I'm sure somebody here has that information), but people who didn't grow up in cold weather often mistake it for being simply very unpleasant but don't realize how dangerous it is.

He grew up in Cincinnati and was in his fifth season with the Browns, so it's not as if he hadn't dealt with cold weather before. He had bruised the joints of his middle fingers in some late-season games and asked to get an injection so that the fingers wouldn't get taped together. The belief by the team doctor was that the painkiller didn't alert Johnson to the fact that his fingers were becoming frostbitten.

The original fear was that he'd lose the tips of his fingers on his right hand sine they were severely bruised and swollen. He made the comment a few days later, "The next time I play in those temperatures, I'm going to wear a golf glove on my right hand."

Supposedly, Buffalo players used to use custom-made scuba diver gloves to stay warm.

[mwald]

Don't know from where Walter Johnson originates (I'm sure somebody here has that information), but people who didn't grow up in cold weather often mistake it for being simply very unpleasant but don't realize how dangerous it is.

He grew up in Cincinnati and was in his fifth season with the Browns, so it's not as if he hadn't dealt with cold weather before. He had bruised the joints of his middle fingers in some late-season games and asked to get an injection so that the fingers wouldn't get taped together. The belief by the team doctor was that the painkiller didn't alert Johnson to the fact that his fingers were becoming frostbitten.

The original fear was that he'd lose the tips of his fingers on his right hand sine they were severely bruised and swollen. He made the comment a few days later, "The next time I play in those temperatures, I'm going to wear a golf glove on my right hand."

Supposedly, Buffalo players used to use custom-made scuba diver gloves to stay warm.

Well, Cincinnati doesn't get all that cold. The Freezer Bowl (which was -6, not -9 as usually reported) temperature was unusually cold for that area.

"Cold" is relative, I guess. Minnesota is colder in the winter than Ohio. I'm originally from North Dakota. When we moved to Minnesota we were surprised how mild the winters were. Granted, this was the Twin Cities vs. far northern Minnesota, which would equal North Dakota for cruelly cold temperatures.

[BD Sullivan]

Don't know from where Walter Johnson originates (I'm sure somebody here has that information), but people who didn't grow up in cold weather often mistake it for being simply very unpleasant but don't realize how dangerous it is.

He grew up in Cincinnati and was in his fifth season with the Browns, so it's not as if he hadn't dealt with cold weather before. He had bruised the joints of his middle fingers in some late-season games and asked to get an injection so that the fingers wouldn't get taped together. The belief by the team doctor was that the painkiller didn't alert Johnson to the fact that his fingers were becoming frostbitten.

The original fear was that he'd lose the tips of his fingers on his right hand sine they were severely bruised and swollen. He made the comment a few days later, "The next time I play in those temperatures, I'm going to wear a golf glove on my right hand."

Supposedly, Buffalo players used to use custom-made scuba diver gloves to stay warm.

Well, Cincinnati doesn't get all that cold. The Freezer Bowl (which was -6, not -9 as usually reported) temperature was unusually cold for that area.

True, but the wind chill was brutal, -59, I believe. Another Cincy game where cold weather was in evidence was on 12/10/77, when they hosted the Steelers.

[mwald]

True, but the wind chill was brutal, -59, I believe. Another Cincy game where cold weather was in evidence was on 12/10/77, when they hosted the Steelers.

Oh, no question the Freezer Bowl was cold. My comments were directed at Ohio in general and someone growing up there possibly not recognizing how dangerous extremely cold weather is.

Regarding the Freezer bowl, based on the new wind chill index the game was between -28 and -33 degrees wind chill; and the air temp -6. This game will go down in history as being inaccurately reported. I have an article on the Freezer Bowl I should dust off. If I recall, they based the weather on the temp an hour before the game from a weather station further away when there was an alternate station nearer. Also almost certain they didn't base the temp on temperatures taken in the stadium that day (which, if they did, should be immediately ruled out for a variety of reasons) because the game telecast mentions they got the temp "from the meteorologists." One newspaper writer reported the accurate temp of -6 in his game summary. Can't remember his name. When I get home I'll find it.

[Andrew McKillop]

I agree with Mark that the -9°F & -59°F WC readings were inaccurate for all the reasons he listed. However, the sliding panels at Riverfront Stadium were left open during the Chargers' drives into the wind. That might have created a vortex thus a colder than reported WC factor. It was an incredibly cold game. Without a doubt the second-coldest game ever played in NFL history.

Still, it was nothing like the Ice Bowl (-13°F, -36°F WC). The CFL has never even witnessed a game that cold. The CIS's 1985 Western Bowl is the only organized game I've ever found to be played in such cold conditions. At home in McMahon Stadium the Calgary Dinos beat the Carleton Ravens 56-14 in a game time temp. of -13°F. It actually warmed up to -5°F by the end of the night.
https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid= ... page&hl=en
http://www.wunderground.com/history/air ... story.html

[mwald]

I honestly don't know how any human being could have played in the Ice Bowl for that length of time. In my mind every player on both teams should have been honored with some type of endurance award for courage and bravery. It's impossible to describe to someone who hasn't been in it how cold that is.

[Andrew McKillop]

Dr. Marvin Knight, the Dallas Cowboys' attending physician at the Ice Bowl, mentioned a few years later that the players would've likely experienced serious lung damaged had the game gone into overtime.

We've all seen that famous NFL Films Ice Bowl clip of Ray Nitschke just kind of gasping for air. That's no joke. The cold air fills your lungs immediately and it has a suffocating effect.