It was a bright, sunny, warm and just downright beautiful Saturday morning in late August 1968, about three weeks shy of the beginning of both the school year and the NFL regular season, and I was patiently, and quietly, waiting for instructions, and direction, as I stood behind the garage at our house in suburban Akron.
Instead of being irritated that I was giving up a day that could better be used to play baseball, l was thrilled to be a member of this work crew. There was a good reason for that.
My dad had recruited me and my uncle — much moreso my uncle, who ran big construction projects all over the eastern half of the country, than me, who was there just to add some muscle and do the grunt work — to finish helping installing the tenna rotor, a device that, when operated by the control knob on the TV set, would change the direction to which the antenna was pointed to enhance reception. The intent was to rotate our antenna to point to the southeast, toward Wheeling and Steubenville, so as to pick up the telecasts of Browns home games from stations in those three towns.
You see, these were the days of the NFL blackout of home games for stations located within 75 miles of the stadium, done so to help
promote ticket sales instead of having fans stay home and watch the games for free. Wheeling (NBC) and Steubenville (CBS) were outside that ring. It was like stealing the carton of ice cream from the refrigerator and then taking it to a place beyond which your parents could see you or hear you and empty its contents.
By the end of that Saturday, my dad would be set up to pull a fast one on the NFL so we could still see Leroy Kelly, Paul Warfield, Gary Collins, Walter Johnson, Bill Nelsen, Gene Hickerson, Jim Houston, et al, play in Cleveland.
And we would be viewing these games on a brand-new Magnavox Quasar “works-in-a-drawer” color TV, replacing the 1951 Zenith black-and-white set that, with the cabinet, weighed as much as a small car.
The Browns could be seen at home — in our home — in full living color. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, it didn’t get any better than that back in the day. Indeed, life was good.
Not just for our family, but for our relatives, friends and neighbors. Our house became a destination point on Browns home Sundays.
That went on for a long time. What fun it was! What great memories!
It was the first time we began thinking that we would gradually get to the point that, with doing nothing more than turning on our TV set, we would be able to watch all of the sports we want for free.
That was a resonable assessment knowing what we know then, but now, 57 years later, it has turned out to be incorrect.
Steve King
