The Flying Lawnmower Incident. Absolutely true. http://dir.salon.com/story/tech/col/smith/2004/12/10/askthepilot115/index.html Against New England. My friend was at that game -- we just spoke about it. Their was an airshow at half time. My friend, who was 13-14, said that at the time they were thinking that those flying objects were coming awfully close to the crowd. In fact, they were flying them over the crowd.
Taken from the link below "True story. In 1979 at Shea Stadium, in a football game between the New York Jets and the New England Patriots, the halftime show featured an aerial circus of remote-control airplanes. One of those craft was our flying mower. The mower was the star attraction, zipping the length of the field and buzzing around the flagpole to the applause of thousands of Jets fans. Until, that is, the machine went into a dive from which it never recovered, slamming into the bleachers and striking two people, one of whom later died." http://dir.salon.com/story/tech/col/smith/2004/12/10/askthepilot115/index.html
Shea was a dump and substandard as an NFL facility. That being said it had some unique character. About half the field would be dirt when they rotated those stands during baseball season. You would have the infield dirt plus what was underneath the stands being part of the football playing field. Windy all the time and the dust and debris would sometimes swirl into little mini cyclones near the field. Not to mention the airplane noise. Was there for several games from 79 to 83.
Well the Mets are moving out in 2009, so why can't we rent Shea from the city at least on a temporary basis until the new Giants/Jets stadium is completed? Is it really that impossible? The can spruce it up a bit, add some grandstands in the outfield to "close" the stadium. We can probably get capacity up over 70,000 that way. It would be nice to not share a stadium with anybody.
i can already see the "Jets should play in NY or drop the NY logo!" or "Why do we share a stadium", "Bruno/Silver Sucks!", "We are tennants, wahh!!", "i hate NJ and the Meadowlands" posts takeover. That topic is moot these days. Drink a beer and get over it.
Mini cyclones is a good way to put it. It was a ridiculous place to play -- winter games were just brutal.
Again....the people telling everyone to shut up about moving the team to new jersey, are the people who LIVE in new jersey
My dad's tickets were throughout the 70s'. He was saying how it was always good watchin the Sack Exchange live :lol: I'm going to talk to him about it more later on...
Cold as Antartica in December. I don't care how you dressed, you still froze. Those winds were just downright nasty.
One of the real negatives of their playing at Shea was that, for years, they couldn't play during the baseball season. I had season tickets back then. There were many seasons in the 70's during which, by the time they played a home game, they were 3 or 4 games behind the Dolphins and the season was essentially over. When they were a decent team, they had a huge home field advantage at Shea. The condition of the field was awful and, as the home team, they had a better sense of where to direct plays and the swirling winds were a nightmare for opposing teams. The winds played to the strength of Namath's arm. So many opposing QB's had the wind effect their throws.
I can tell you the tale of Shea...but I'll have to kill you after. Jets moving to Shea from Polo Grounds was clearly an improvement?I was 14 when I saw my first game in the 60?s....how much an improvement is relative....stadiums have changed and now that football teams get their own homes with NFL assistance, all is different. But football was this great cold open spaced event with a stadium filled with ugly stadium coats. And we had these high seats. Felt like we saw everything better than TV. Shea was the steepest stadium I ever did see...always felt I'd fall when standing up rapidly to see a play hppen with those terrible sightlines....and I was still teenager then. That mother was windy as mentioned....it had those famous swirling winds that killed Field Goals...few coaches used it effectively. And it was frigging COLD as a witches tit. And there I first learned that clothes layering was an art. You mentioned Leon Hess....an owner that you have respect for in spite of his deficiencies. He loved his team and players...but he was never in the front of the owners brainwave. He didn?t really get it. I mean this is the guy that brought in Kotite(no tired quote here) and continued our trend of being the worst that you could be, mixed with the most average of teams. Thankgiving greeting indeed!!! I remember dirty uniforms during the first 6 weeks,every year, like Green Hornet?baseball ruled?but things were due to change. During the 70?s we were amazingly bad?.never breaking .500 We played that Buffalo home game in the playoffs. Our only one, I think. We hated the move to Meadowlands and felt betrayed by Invisible Leon and his pee problem(only an old guy would get worried about the piss rate.) But still my greatest memory is the cold and how steep the rake was. Oh and the wins. Those wins I actually remember the September 72? game against Johnny U and Baltimore resulting in HUGE yardage?big passing day?I was 13 and my Dad was really excited. And I remember 78? when we actually went 8-8. It smelt like victory It was hard to be a jetfan even back then. We accepted mediocrity in a desperate attempt to feel fulfilled. All in all I?d say that Meadowlands is a better stadium sight-wise and I have endured our years there. I regret enormously Johnsons failure to play NY politics properly and getting our NYC stadium?I believe his failure to work the Queens angle, a result of his stars-in-the-eyes wish for a Manhattan stadium, has killed my own dreams of an easier postgame commute. At the end, Shea was a bad stadium for a bad team?(Hey?im not forgetting our greatest year?..I just wasn?t attending then)?..whether one was the cause of the other, I?ll leave to the pundits. When do I get my pin?
Super Bowl III was the only Jets' postseason game of the 1960s NOT to be played in Shea. They beat the Raiders 27-23 in '68 and lost to the Chiefs 13-6 in '69. By all accounts, it was cold as hell in both games. Here's a photo of the postgame handshake. Check out the turf.... Here's a link to more pics and articles about the game. http://www.broadwayjoe.org/cgi-bin/gallery.pl?dir=68playoffs
Leon also didn't raise ticket prices every year, and was a fan-friendly owner from what my Uncle and Dad have told me.
Ano one more....last time a Jets coach was carried on the shoulders of his team. Weeb didn't allow them to do ti after the Super Bowl because some kid grabbed his leg (probably immediately before this picture was taken) and decided to do a chin-up, thereby wrenching Weeb's hip. Hence the pain on his face...
Yes, he didn't raise tickets every year, and was pretty fan friendly. Except that Sonny Werblin was the front man for the group of owners at the time. And let's remember that it was Leon Hess who brought in Rich Kotite in 1995, saying that he was desperate for a winner. His judgment in gm's and coaches left much to be desired...
Yes!...That was was Leon...I have to give him his recognition for his depth of feeling for the fans. I make fun of the move to the Bog but truely he cared about giving us product... not "horses asses"!
He did care a lot for the fans...he was probably too much of a fan, needed to exercise a little bit of colder judgment in who he hired.
