First Bet on a football game?
I was quite surprised after looking through the Football threads I didn't find a single post about "YOUR FIRST BET" on NFL (or CFL) game. Who did you bet on, what year was it, & how old were you?
Mine was on the 1976 Grey Cup (CFL championship game for those of you that haven't heard of it) between Ottawa Rough Riders & Saskatchewan Roughriders. I made it with one of my dad's drinking buddy's & it was for my weekly allowance ($5). I got to pick first, so I took Sask. I was 12 yrs old @the time.
We sat there & watched the game, my dad & "Uncle Archie" (both WW2 vets) drank their fav's beers (which I would run to the fridge to get for them, Dad drank Labbat's I.P.A., Archie drank Red Cap, both in the old "stubbie" bottles), then I would listen to stories about "Grey Cups Past" & how they would sneak booze into the games, the "Fog bowl" game...they'd even go back to WW2, telling stories of meeting different players serving over seas...but back to the bet.
Sask. were the favourites & were down early (10-0 @the end of the 1st), but rallied to take the lead in the second quarter 17-10.
The teams traded field goals in the third quarter (20 -13) & Ottawa scored a 4th quarter field goal to get within 4pts.
With less than a 2 minutes left it was looking good for me, Sask had made a Goal-line stand & held when Ottawa turned the ball over on downs, but they couldn't run out the clock. So Ottawa got the ball back & with 20 seconds left the ball on Sask's 24 yrd line. Ottawa QB, Tom Clements waved off a play from the coach & called a play of his own, WR Tony Gabriel fake a post & run to the corner...leading to what was know as "The Catch" (6 yrs before Dwight Clark cost me that NFC Championship game)...
Dad & Archie seemed to be pretty proud of themselves for taking a kids allowance, I did get it back off of them when the Raiders beat the Vikings a few months later in the Super Bowl!
Posted Sep 5th 2011 11:16AM
