Number One

Number One popped into my brain for the first time in nearly five decades.

But it didn’t pop into my brain yesterday. In fact, it popped into my brain on the Saturday before the Super Bowl when I was listening to Rob Charry and Rickie Ricardo cohost the afternoon show on WIP.

A caller mentioned that both Cam Newton’s father and brother played in the NFL.

I’d never heard that before – and neither had Rob nor Rickie. So while Rob conversed with the caller, Rickie got online, researched it, and verified it. Cam Newton’s brother and father both had brief careers in the NFL.

The conversation then switched to Newton’s rival in the Super Bowl . . . Peyton Manning . . . and then to Archie Manning and his career with the woeful New Orleans Saints – which was the stimulus that propelled my brain back in time . . . all the way back to 1969.

Back then, I was a territory manager living and working in Manhattan. My address was 35 East 35^th Street – that’s 35^th & Park Avenue for those unfamiliar with Manhattan:

Two blocks from the Empire State Building.
Eight blocks from Madison Square Garden.

My roommate was a buyer for a men’s outerwear company and manufacturer’s reps were always trying to induce him to buy their materials. To do so, they plied him with tickets to the Mets, Jets, Giants, Yankees, and Knicks. So we went to a lot of games – and that was a perfect time to live in New York:

Joe Namath guaranteed a Jets victory in the Super Bowl – and delivered.
Tom Seaver and Jerry Koosman pitched the Amazin’ Mets to a World Series title.
Willis Reed limped the Knicks to a dramatic NBA championship.

Anyway, I worked for Lees Carpets at the time and had an assignment to visit all of the Allen Carpet shops in New York and North Jersey to remove our dropped items. Allen was such a huge retailer of our products that we private labeled carpet lines for them and didn’t want them to be embarrassed by selling items that no longer existed.

So I was spending the night at a Holiday Inn near Paramus.

Looking through the newspaper, I saw that Number One was playing at a nearby drive-in and had been hyped a lot. So – since it was a sports movie – I decided to see it.

Number One starred Charlton Heston as an aging New Orleans Saints quarterback trying to make one last successful go-around before hanging up his cleats. Heston’s character was a 15-year vet compensating for his diminishing skills by consuming large quantities of alcohol and engaging in extramarital affairs.

Billy Kilmer – as the technical adviser trying to get Heston to look like a quarterback – failed at his mission because Heston lacked both athletic skills and coordination.

Number One failed at the box office, but the reviews were mixed. In fact, Heston’s performance earned a rave review from Howard Thompson of the New York Times:

“consistently engrossing . . . a succinct, stinging and often strong gridiron drama . . . Heston’s performance was a brooding, scorching, and beautifully disciplined tour de force for the actor . . . If Heston could have been better, we don’t know how.”

In the final scene, Heston was crushed by three blitzing Dallas Cowboys defenders – played by Saints players Mike Tilleman, Dave Rowe, and Fred Whittingham. But neither Heston nor the producer felt the hit looked realistic. So Heston told them to do it again and to really cut loose this time – to make it look as authentic as possible.

On the second take, they slammed Heston to the turf and broke three of his ribs.

Having written The Ultimate Book of Sports Movies, Glen Macnow and Ray Didinger are the resident experts on sports movies. But I’ve never heard them mention Number One. So I’m wondering if they know of its existence. To my reckoning, Didinger should have because he’s about the same age as me.

I’ve been led to believe that the DVD is available and I’m going to look for it. Been so long since I saw it, I don’t remember much about the movie or whether or not I liked it. But since it was a sports movie, I probably liked it.

In addition to being the official Eagles Outsider for BlameMyFather.com, Barry Bowe is also the author of:

Born to Be Wild
1964 – The Year the Phillies Blew the Pennant
12 Best Eagles QBs
Birth of the Birds
Soon-to-be-published sexy, police procedural Caribbean Queen
Soon-to-be-published novel Stosh Wadzinski
Soon-to-be-published novel Polish Widow

By the way – I’m feverishly re-editing 1964 in hopes to get it ready for the beginning of baseball season. So please don’t buy the old version. Wait until the revised version is ready. I’ll let you know when. Thanks.