A Quick QBC Rundown & A Mets Jersey Parade

I have a story about the 1974 Shreveport Steamer game, this was the game that had a crowd of only 750 people and the game where Steamer WR Rick Eber got caught with thumb tacks on his fingers. This was a forgettable game, the Bell lost 30-25 my father played ok but did nothing memorable but this was the most drama filled game I ever attended.

We left for the game in my father’s Lincoln, we drove there with Tim Rossovich. On the way to JFK stadium people were honking to my father and screaming it’s the King! I was in the back seat. He turned back to me and said “Are you digging this Jimbo? everybody loves the King” I didn’t want to mention they knew it was him because he had Maryland license plates with KING9 on them, kind of hard for people to miss. I remember Tim Rossovich asking my father if Ron Waller liked him? Then Tim said, “I don’t think he likes me very much”. My father said, “of course he likes you Rosso, everybody loves Rosso!”

When we got to the locker room it was a about half full with players, my father entered the doorway and said his trade mark line “Never fear the King is here!” while we walked to the back where his locker was in the back right corner there were a couple of offensive lineman sitting down against the wall in their football pants. As we walked by one of them said “King, my girlfriend gave me these socks, should I wear them tonight?” He held out the socks, they were a pair of long white tube socks with a big graphic of Mickey Mouse playing tennis with Goofy on them, they went all the way up from the ankle to the top of the sock, they looked like something a little kid would wear. The lineman said he didn’t think he was going to wear them, my father said give them to me, I’ll wear them tonight. I thought my father was joking, I said “Dad, you’re not really going to wear those are you?” he said, why not? it will be a smile Jimbo. I was only 10 years old at the time and I thought they looked ridiculous.

When we got to his locker my father was sitting down putting his uniform on. Tim Rossovich was throwing the ball with me and I was standing right in front of my father’s locker, after a few throws Tim said get ready, this is gonna be a hard one. He lets out this wild scream and throws the ball as hard as he could, I hit the floor and the ball went by me and smashed into a locker and missed my father’s head by a few inches. My father said “What’s wrong with you Rosso? you could have killed him with that pass!” Tim just said, “I told him it was going to be a hard one” then he just walked away.

I went to the bathroom and a few of the players were in there throwing up, they had on their pants and jerseys (no shoulder pads yet). I thought they were sick? I asked my father what was wrong with them? “he said they are nervous Jimbo” I asked him why he never throws up?” He said the King doesn’t get nervous Jimbo, you know that!”

He was now putting on the Mickey Mouse socks, I couldn’t believe it. He walked over to the big mirror to check out how he looked in his uniform, the DB’s had their lockers right by the mirror, my father asked the Soul Patrol how he looked with the socks, they were laughing and told him he was crazy. I know the King was very insecure about his height and weight, so I said “Dad, those socks make you look short, the long white ones make you look much taller, look how short your legs look with those cartoons on the socks” I knew this would bother him. He said” you know you are right Jimbo! I think I better go with my white socks, thanks big guy!”

Since there was no one at this game, they didn’t bother to give me a sideline pass to wear through my belt loop like I usually do, this was going to cause me problems later in the night. As usual I was told to stay behind the bench so I don’t get hurt but I never listened, I would even go on the other teams sideline if I wanted to get a better look at the uniforms, like when the Sun and Fire were in town and would sometimes get a ride in the Bell helmet buggy.

The game started while it was still light outside with a little rain but the weather got much worse. My father started the game off missing some passes to his receivers and as usual someone from the Steamer defensive line thought it would be a good idea to call my father The Queen in the first series. I have been hearing this since the Pottstown days, but my father always would go back at them, even though he was 32 years old now the Jersey City street kid never left him. Most football players talk smack between plays, the King was different, he would talk smack at the line of scrimmage before he would call signals so everyone could hear what he says. When the Steamer player again called him the Queen my father said “I’m a superstar and you’re an absolute fucking nobody in this league! shit the guys who play next to you don’t even know your fucking last name, take the name off your jersey you don’t fucking need one! Everyone could hear this and the Bell players on the sideline were laughing, even I thought it was funny how bad my father dismissed this player, but the guy asked for it by calling him Queen.

My father was missing easy passes early in the game and Ron Waller was getting tired of it. I’m submitting exhibit A, an aerial photo of the game so you can see exactly how this whole thing unfolded, kind of a Philadelphia Bell version of the Zapruder film.

That’s me in the circle, this picture was taken late in the game, when this incident actually happened it was still light out and all the Bell players were all still on the sideline, but I marked where everyone was. I was standing right where I was in the picture, while my father was on the field playing I saw Ron Waller walk to the end of the bench to backup QB Mike Yancheff, I heard Waller say, “I’m giving him one more series, warm up” I didn’t want to see my father get benched and had to warn him. I was always told by him never talk to him during a game but I felt that this was an emergency. When the Bell offense came back to the sidelines I saw my chance, I jumped over the bench and ran towards him fast so in case someone grabbed me to go back I could warn him first.

He had his back to me, I went to grab the left side of his jersey and yank on it, but his jersey was so tight when I grabbed it all I did was yank on some flab that was hanging over his football pants. He turned around quick and was talking so fast I couldn’t understand him. He said “Jimbo, what the fuck are you doing here, what’s the matter, what happened? I said “nothing, I have to tell you something” he said “Are you nuts? I’m playing a ball game here, I’m a little fucking busy!” I said Ronny is going to bench you, I just heard him tell Yancheff to warm up.

He said “What, are you shitting me?” He grabs the collar of my jacket and starts going crazy, Waller is a few yards away and can hear this, my father said “You tell that prick I’m not coming out! No one benches the King!” now some of the players are coming around to see what is going on, while my father is screaming I look to my right and see a bunch of the receivers trying to listen, it wasn’t Vince Papale or Ron Holliday, I was friends with these guys and would have recognized them even with their helmets on, I could see 8’s on the sleeves, I thought it was Willie Franklin or maybe Izzy? My father is still screaming that he is the leading passer in this league and even told me how many touchdowns her threw. He finished the tirade by telling me Waller could go fuck himself! I made eye contact with one of the receivers, he kind of mouthed the words “what’s going on?” I just shrugged my shoulders. After my father had calmed down I was walking back to the bench as the Bell offense was going back on the field. I could hear my father screaming Jimbo, Jimbo! when I turned around he was halfway on the field and said “Thanks Jimbo, I owe you a rare burger big guy!” That’s his way of saying thanks for the warning, in the King’s world if you do him a favor he pays you back by buying you a rare hamburger, he loved hamburgers. He ended up playing better and didn’t get benched.

The weather had gotten real bad and by halftime the stadium was almost empty, it was like a scrimmage. Some of the players were covered in mud and the jerseys were brown. At halftime I helped equipment manager Bob Cologna get the spare white game jerseys out of storage and hang them on a rack. These weren’t duplicate jerseys, they were numbers that weren’t issued. He was asking guys if they wanted a clean jersey for the second half? some guys took him up on it while other players couldn’t be bothered taking the muddy jersey off. Bob told me to go ask my father if he wanted a clean jersey? When I told him Bob had a clean jersey for him he said “Ask him if he has a number 9?” I said I know he doesn’t because I hung the jerseys up and the only low numbers were in the teens. He said “you know I only can wear 9 Jimbo”. For some reason he felt like he couldn’t live without the number 9, he even had it on the sleeve of his bath robe.

The Bell ended up losing this game 30 to 25, after the game I walked with my father to the middle of the field, the mud was so thick my pants and shoes were ruined. My father was in a bad mood because he just lost, a couple of his former Boston Patriot teammates were on the Steamer and came over to talk to him. A lot of the Steamer players walked by and said “good game King” he kept saying good luck to you, I asked him why he didn’t say good game back? He said “I just lost Jimbo, I don’t care if they had a good game” he then said “Fuck this” and ran almost full speed into the locker room leaving me at the 50 yard line with mostly Steamer players on the field. By now most of the Bell had gone inside. The mud was so thick I could barely walk back to the locker room. When I got to the tunnel a guard would not let me in, I said I was King Corcoran’s son, he said “sure you are” I told him I was a ball boy, he asked where my sideline pass was? They never bothered to give me one for this game since no one showed up. I was starting to get worried because almost all the Bell players were now inside and I was stuck out there, I looked behind me and saw a few Bell linemen who I didn’t know talking to Steamer players and wasn’t sure if they even knew who I was?