Game books update

[Rupert Patrick]

On the game book front, I have been contacting all of the teams for whom we need game books, getting a couple game books from each team, and if they respond, asking about their game books - how far back do they go, have they scanned them, and if so, have they considered making them available on their team website. I can give some good news:

The Colts (not sure how far theirs go back) and Vikings (their game books go all the way back to 1961) are in the process of scanning their game books and will make them available on their websites in the near future.

The Bengals have theirs just about scanned but have no plans to make them available on their website - not sure why.

The Redskins have all their archives scanned (they have stuff that goes back to 1932, not sure what that means) and I mentioned to their PR guy the idea of making it all available for download on their website, that a lot of teams are doing it now, and he thought it was a great idea, and he would pass it on to their digital team.

I still need to get with the Titans and Chargers to find out about the status of their game books.

The Cardinals have not digitized their game books but their archives are quite extensive and it would be a huge task to do so, but the guy said he thought it was an interesting idea to make them available for download.

The Rams game books are in storage until they move into their new stadium.

The Chiefs have been responsive to my requests, and we're only missing about a half dozen of their game books for their entire history.

We're only missing about a dozen Browns game books since 1961, and I contacted them about the two I didn't already have from the 1970's and they didn't have either of them. I'll work on them over time about the other game books I don't already have, in case they have them in their archives.

There were three game books that the 49ers did not have available for download on their site; I emailed them asking for those game books and they actually had one of those game books and I pointed out to them it was not up on their site; I guess they'll put it up.

The Saints emailed me yesterday about a game book request, said they would get back with me shortly. With the NFL Draft going on this week, I know their PR and media people are pretty busy and I am in no hurry.

The other teams we've either got them all, we're waiting to hear from them, or they didn't respond.

I've already began stage two, where I am reviewing each of the game books and flagging the ones where the play-by-play is either incomplete or unreadable, and if possible, try to get a better copy. I've already gone thru the entire 1960's AFL, we need 32 game books and 43 upgrades. That is going to take some time to go thru all of the 1960-1990 NFL game books to review them.

According to my records, of the 13,596 NFL and AFL games from 1960-2018, we've got game books for 12,635 of them, meaning we need 961 game books (not including upgrades needed).

[Mark L. Ford]

Rupert, I think I speak for most of us in the PFRA when I say we appreciate your work in contacting the teams to make more information available for researchers. The gamebooks are an incomparable resource in reconstructing the events of a game from the actual play-by-play that was recorded by the statistician. I want to be the first to say thank you.

[Gary Najman]

Thank you Rupert, for that monumental work!

[Jay Z]

Fantastic work, Rupert!

[nicefellow31]

Let me add to the chorus in saying "Great job!"

[Dirk]

Thank you for your efforts!!

[TodMaher]

Fantastic! Thank you Rupert!

[JohnTurney]

I still need to get with the Titans and Chargers to find out about the status of their game books.

Chargers are in storage, Titans have their bound in books, hard to digitize.

[Rupert Patrick]

I still need to get with the Titans and Chargers to find out about the status of their game books.

Chargers are in storage, Titans have their bound in books, hard to digitize.

I've gotten a game book (actually a stat sheet was all they had) for the 9/9/1963 Bills-Chargers game about from the Chargers PR guy a month ago. The stat sheet was the same thing the Bills had; the game book wasn't in those CD's with all the Bills game books that I got at the meeting in Buffalo last summer. This Bills-Chargers game is the game that has the only missed field goal in AFL history that I haven't been able to track down the distance of.

Does anybody know if the Hall of Fame has digitized their game books?

[NWebster]

I still need to get with the Titans and Chargers to find out about the status of their game books.

Chargers are in storage, Titans have their bound in books, hard to digitize.

I've gotten a game book (actually a stat sheet was all they had) for the 9/9/1963 Bills-Chargers game about from the Chargers PR guy a month ago. The stat sheet was the same thing the Bills had; the game book wasn't in those CD's with all the Bills game books that I got at the meeting in Buffalo last summer. This Bills-Chargers game is the game that has the only missed field goal in AFL history that I haven't been able to track down the distance of.

Does anybody know if the Hall of Fame has digitized their game books?

The HOF version doesn't have the pbp detail either, I've seen it.