Other Stuff 2/5 (posted by Sharon Fiffer)
What launches a Sunday football game into the "super" realm? The best teams? Legendary quarterbacks? Record-breaking runs? Expensive commercials? Blockbuster half-time shows? A party of watchers huddled around a bowl of 7-layer dip?
This Sunday's Super Bowl LV promises a few of these attributes, but not all. This year, few fans will be holding parties. Even fewer want to smear cream cheese on a cracker from a communal basket, hesitating to define a super spreader event in a whole new way.
Here at Storied-Stuff headquarters, we hope our football-adjacent stories help fill in the gaps for those of you longing to engage in a traditional Super Bowl Sunday.
Where do we first meet football greats? College arenas, of course, and Charles Salzberg shares the story of his football education as a college student at Syracuse, seeing and rubbing elbows with (and typing papers for) future NFL greats.
Judy Cummings offers more of a half-time show perspective in her poignant story of loss. As a follow-up, click on the link to watch her jaw-dropping television performance.
In Judy Cumming's own words:
I was on the Ted Mack Show, led the Rose Bowl Parade, performed at the Hollywood Palladium and also worked at Radio City Music Hall for two shows... but -- this story really isn't about any of that. Rather it is about the love that I had for my father. When I stop to think about it - that is all life really is about.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVgKFrovWH4
What happened with the Ted Mack Show? Mr. Mack was the most lovely man. He and his wife never had children of their own. Instead, they decided to magnify the talents of other people's children. I was one of these.
On the Mack show, the winner was determined by the number of postcards received. I believe that the week my performance ran there was also a large tap-dancing troupe -- with about 25-30 little girls squeezed into pink tutus. The parents of these children - plus their teachers, aunts, uncles, grandparents and great-grandparents - managed to send in far more postcards than my relatives did. So, while I didn't officially win -- I DID officially win because a few years later, when I was beginning my sophomore year at OSU, the producers of Radio City Music Hall were scouting for a baton twirler. They asked to review all the kinescopes of the Ted Mack Show and chose me to be their guest performer.
Mr. Mack knew my mother was a widow and a waitress. He observed that although I was a bright student, we struggled to make college tuition. To help, he reached into his own pocket and offered $500 to put toward my college education. It may not seem like much today - but it went a long way back in 1968.
So--we invite you to Super Bowl Weekend, storied-stuff-style! By the way, did you catch which Football legend links these two pieces? Congrats! And look on the bright side of the "no watch party" All 7 layers of dip are for you!
