Super Bowl II – On Life and Love after 50

Looking back: Super Bowl II

On Life and Love After 50 eNewsletter February 5, 2022

2022 eNewsletter #5

by Tom Blake – author and columnist

SUPER BOWL 2022 CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?

Tom Blake’s TICKET STUB SUPER BOWL II JAN 10,1968

1968 TWO FLOATS ON THE FIELD DURING PRE-GAME – a Packer and a Raider (photo by Tom Blake)

American Airlines world stewardess queens–Patty Poulsen and Jill Spavin before the kickoff at Super Bowl II (photo by Tom Blake)

Patty, Jill, and George Mira (in beige turtle neck)photo by Tom Blake

On Life and Love After 50 eNewsletter February 5, 2022

2022 eNewsletter #5

by Tom Blake – author and columnist

SUPER BOWL 2022 CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?

As next week’s Super Bowl LVI (56) approaches, I can’t help but think back to 1968, 54 years ago. I was a regional manager of public relations for American Airlines, working at the company’s headquarters at 633 Third Avenue in New York City.

On January 10, 1968, four days before Super Bowl II, my boss, Holmes Brown, the Vice President of Public Relations, summoned me to his office. He said, “Tom, I just got off the phone with the president of American Express. He invited our two world stewardess queens, Patty Poulsen and Jill Spavin, to be the guests of American Express this weekend at the Super Bowl festivities in Miami.

“I can’t allow Patty and Jill to go alone. I need an American Airlines escort to go with them to be sure they are safe and treated with respect and dignity. As the only single man in our department, I would like you to go. Will you do it?”

“Love to,” I said, trying to act cool and calm, although I couldn’t believe my ears at the opportunity. He patted me on the back and handed me five one-hundred-dollar bills, saying: “All expenses are pre-paid, however, I want you to have money in case you need to pick up a tab. I want American Airlines to always look good.”

On Friday night, Patty, Jill, and I flew from Newark Airport on Eastern Airlines to Miami. A representative from Amex picked us up at the airport and took us to the hotel. For the next three days, my focus was to keep them safe (and trust me, only that!). As you can see on the ticket stub shown above, the official name of the game was the “World Championship Game, AFL VS NFL” and it was held on Sunday, January 14, at the Orange Bowl in Miami.

(Shortly thereafter, Lamar Hunt, owner of the Kansas City Chiefs, recommended the name retroactively be changed to “The Super Bowl,” which was quickly adopted by the two leagues. Of course, it was an incredible weekend.

I remember the three of us riding to the game on a bus chartered by American Express. I was in the back of the bus sitting next to a young kid named Mike Garrett, the 1965 Heisman Trophy winner. He was at that time a running back for the Kansas City Chiefs who years later became the athletic director of USC for 17 years. He asked me what was in the cooler on the back seat of the bus.

I said, “Chilled beer.” Garrett said, “Oh, I wanted a Coca-Cola.”Patty, Jill, and I sat on the 50-yard line in the Orange Bowl with George Mira, a former University of Miami All-American and San Francisco 49ers quarterback.

Several of Mira’s admirers stopped by to greet him; they seemed curious about Patty and Jill who looked beautiful. (See above the photo of Patty and Jill and a photo of them seated next to George Mira–I took both photos).

Things have changed since then. The 1968 ticket stub shows a cost of $12. This year, 50-yard-line seats are going for more than $10,000.

There were two portable stages wheeled onto the field before the kickoff. Each team was represented by a 15-foot player in uniform standing on a float. Each figure appeared to be spewing steam from its mouth even though the temperature was in the low 80s. (see picture above)The Green Bay Packers beat the Oakland Raiders, 33-14. Vince Lombardi was the Packers head coach; John Madden was the Raiders linebacker coach.

A year later, Madden became the Raiders head coach for nine years.It’s hard to believe that there have been 54 Super Bowls since that experience. I always chuckle when I watch the Super Bowl and wonder how Patty and Jill are doing.

P.S. Two months later, on March 8, 1968, Patty and Jill were featured in the People section of Time Magazine with a nice writeup and photo of them together. (See article below)

10-day Motor Coach Tour of Ireland August 2019

On Life and Love after 50 eNewsletter – August 16, 2019 Dateline: Dublin, Ireland

10-day Motor Coach tour of Ireland August 2019

By Tom Blake

Greta and I are in Ireland. We have joined 25 other people from the USA and one man from Australia on a 10-day land tour around the island. We have traveled on a Globus tour, by motor coach, staying in hotels in Dublin, Ballina, Galway, Limerick, Tralee, and Waterford.

Our Globus Tours Motor Coach

We arrived in Dublin a day early to try to adjust from an 11-hour flight that crossed eight time zones. Although exhausted on the first night, we wanted to stay awake for four hours to sync with Ireland time.

Greta and I found a pub called the Ruin Bar a mile from our hotel, the Gibson Hotel. A red line tram runs from the hotel to Abby Street, where we got off. I had a pint of Guinness and we shared fish and chips. We were amazed at the number of pubs in that area of Dublin near the Liffey River.

At our Dublin Hotel, we noticed movie cameras around the hotel. They were filming a popular Ireland TV show First Dates. About 30 couples of all ages, mostly much younger than us, were being taped.

Popular Ireland TV show First Dates Crew Member showed us her I.D. badge
I jokingly told one of the show’s producers that Greta and I were there for our taping. She was perplexed–couldn’t find us on her list of participants–and we looked too damn old to be on the show, and we didn’t have an accent–and then I told her that I had written about senior dating for 26 years. I thought they might interview us, but they didn’t.

Of course, the main reasons for coming to Ireland were the castles, history, cities, green landscape and sheer beauty. In addition, its people are warm, welcoming and friendly. Most have a dry sense of humor.

Also, I had hoped to find genealogy information on my mom’s side of the family, name Pardee, some of whom I knew had come from Ireland.

Each day on the Globus Tours was very busy. Luggage outside the hotel room at 7 a.m. A quick Irish buffet breakfast. On the bus by 8 or 8:30. All kinds of activities each day. Hotel check in after 5 p.m. A group dinner most nights. Seven different hotels in six cities in nine nights.

We’ve seen so much it’s impossible in a column to describe everything. So, a few highlights.

On travel day one, the first stop was at the National Irish Stud Horse Farm.

Magnificent horses at Irish Stud Farm

Stud fees cost as much as $135,000 per encounter if Invincible Spirit Irish Stud is the stud. Beautiful grounds and horses.

Stud fees by horses name

Later that day, the next stop: The Famine Museum in Strokestown. Here the terrible Irish Famine of the 1840s was explained. At that time, the potato was the main food for the population of eight million.

Many were very poor and were sustained by only eating potatoes, as many as 14 pounds per day per person. A blight destroyed the Ireland potato crop. Nearly a million people starved to death.

At the museum, we read about the tragedy, saw old pictures and depictions. As I left the museum, I thought to myself, I will never complain about anything again in my life. The messages there were that powerful.

On travel day three, we visited Kylemore Abbey, a massive castle acquired by Benedictine nuns from wealthy people who squandered their fortunes on an ambitious social life. And then a stop at a marble workshop, where Irish marble mined from nearby quarried is turned into jewelry. My partner Greta purchase a pair of beautiful earrings made from Irish marble from a quarry nearby.

On the next day, the group rode a ferry boat to the Aran Islands, the westernmost islands of Europe. Gaelic is the first language spoken there. While there we climbed up a thousand feet or so to Dun Aengus, one of the most spectacular forts from prehistoric times.

Lunch that day was at Ti Joe Watty’s pub, where the group was entertained by an Irish guitar player and singer who I expect will be highly recognized around the world someday—not as big as the Irish band U2, but very talented and likeable.

In our tour group, every person had an interesting story. A couple of quick ones come to mind. A couple from Indiana told Greta and me that the husband encouraged his wife to do a DNA test with Ancestry.com.

His wife had been adopted at birth and knew nothing about her actual parents or family. Soon after the test, she got a phone call from a sister she didn’t know existed. She talked to other relatives as well.

They asked how her life had been. She said she was very lucky; her adoptive parents were great. Her siblings had a different story. They had had miserable lives. So, the contact was bitter-sweet. But, she was happy to learn who her true family members were.

Remember, I said I checking my genealogy on my mom’s side? Funniest thing. Found virtually nothing, but on my dad’s side, the Blake family, I found lots and lots of names. Even had dinner one night in Galway at Blake’s Bar. I had been searching on the wrong name. In Ireland, the name BLAKE has quite a history.

Blake’s Bar – Galway, Ireland

On another day, the group stopped at one of the oldest burial sites in the world, called Poulnabrode, which dates to 4,000 B.C.

Burial site from 4,000 years B.C.

I was walking to the site from the bus with a guy named Bob, who was wearing a University of Miami baseball cap.

“Hurricanes fan?” I asked.

“Yup, especially Miami Hurricanes football.”

I said, “I was at the Orange Bowl once, where your team plays, at Super Bowl II, 51 years ago. Sat at the game with two American Airlines World Stewardess (called Stewardesses back then) queens and former Miami Quarterback George Mira.” The two women were Patty Paulsen and Jill Spaven.

He looked at me in amazement, saying, “I was at that game as well. Raiders vs. Packers, working with ABC Sports. And I have met George Mira. He could throw a bullet pass, like a rocket.”

Neither of us could believe we both had been at that game and now were standing side by side in Ireland, 51 years later.

Next week: I’ll share with you a few more places we visited and a few more personal stories about our trip. For now, I’ll simply say. Ireland is fascinating.

With 83 inches of rain a year, it’s green. We saw hundreds of cattle and sheep. Incredible old castles, and black stone walls everywhere in the countryside.

The Irish people are friendly. The food, especially the fresh seafood, is to die for. We are having an incredible time.

Reminder: The Meet and Greet at Tutor and Spunky’s in Dana Point, California, is Thursday, August 22, 5 to 7 p.m. Food complimentary. Beer and wine $5 each. Champ Maria will be the hostess. Greta and I will be in Europe. Have fun.

Super Bowl II and “Brooklyn Roads” – a Half Century of Memories

Tom Blake

On Life and Love after 50 eNewsletter – January 26, 2018

As Super Bowl LII (52) approaches next week, I can’t help but think back to 1968, 50 years ago. Two events happened that year that I’ve been reminded of every year since.

After serving three years in the Navy, much of it on a troop carrier in the South China Sea, at the start of the Viet Nam war, I spent a year at The University of Michigan getting my MBA degree. Upon graduation in 1966, I was fortunate to be hired by American Airlines.

In 1968, when Super Bowl II came around, I was a regional manager of public relations, working at the American headquarters at 633 Third Avenue in New York City.

Four days before the Super Bowl, the Vice President of Public Relations, a distinguished man named Holmes Brown, summoned me to his office.

He said, “Tom, I just got off the phone with the president of American Express. They have invited our two world stewardess queens, Patty Poulsen and Jill Spavin, to be their guests this week-end at the Super Bowl festivities in Miami. But, I can’t let Patty and Jill go on their own. I want an American Airlines escort to go with them to be sure they are safe and treated with dignity.

“As the only single man in our department, I would like you to go. Will you do it?”

“Love to,” I said.

He patted me on the back and handed me five one-hundred-dollar bills. “All expenses are paid for, but I want you to have money in case you need to pick up a tab. I want American Airlines to always look good.”

On Friday night, Patty, Jill and I flew to Miami. A representative from Amex picked us up at the airport and took us to the hotel. For the next three days, my focus was to keep them safe.

Jill and Patty AAL

Jill Spavin on left and Patty Poulsen on the right near Paul Revere Statue circa 1968. Photo courtesy of Pinterest

Of course, it was an incredible week-end. The three of us sat on the 50-yard line in the Orange Bowl with George Mira, a former University of Miami All-American and San Francisco 49ers quarterback. Hundreds of Mira’s admirers stopped by to greet him; they were curious about Patty and Jill who looked beautiful.

The Green Bay Packers beat the Oakland Raiders, 33-14. Vince Lombardi was the Packers coach; John Madden was the Raiders linebacker coach.

I remember riding in the bus to the game sitting next to a young kid named Mike Garrett, a Heisman Trophy winner, who years later would become the athletic director of USC for 17 years. He asked me what was in the cooler on the back seat of the bus, I said, “Chilled beer.” He said, “Oh, I wanted a Coca Cola.”

It’s hard to believe there have been 50 Super Bowls since that experience. Each year, I smile when I watch the game.

In 1970, Patty appeared as a flight attendant in the movie Airport.

Event two – later in 1968 – “Brooklyn Roads”

There was a singer/songwriter from Brooklyn named Neil Diamond who was starting to get noticed. I heard him sing a song called “Brooklyn Roads” on a NYC radio station. Having lived in Brooklyn myself for a while, I loved the song, which was about Diamond growing up there, living two floors above a butcher shop. He attended high school briefly with Barbara Streisand.

I didn’t realize, of course, that he would become my all-time favorite singer. In 1969, songs such as “Sweet Caroline” and “Holly Holy” topped the charts. Later, the album “Beautiful Noise” became a part of my permanent collection. As did, “Jonathan Livingston Seagull,” with songs I treasure to this day.

I’ve seen him perform in concert about 15 times.

This week, Neil Diamond announced his retirement from performing. Greta and I were fortunate to attend his 50th anniversary concert last August at the Forum in Los Angeles. It was fabulous.

He performed my favorite Neil Diamond song, “Dry Your Eyes.” This song is not as popular or well-known as many of his others. But for me, it’s the best. He co-wrote it with Robbie Robertson of The Band, as a healing song after the assassinations of Martin Luther King, JFK and RFK. The trumpet solo near the end is staggering; it reminds of “Taps.”

Diamond cancelled the last part of the 50th Anniversary tour that was scheduled for New Zealand and Australia. He has Parkinson’s Disease. He will continue to write music and work.

So, yup, I’m looking back over the last 50 years today. Pardon me for the nostalgia. I’ll be smiling once again when watching the Super Bowl next week. I wonder where Patty Poulsen and Jill Spavin are now?

And, to acknowledge Neil Diamond for his incredible 50 years of music, I’ll play “Dry Your Eyes” one more time. But, it won’t be my last.

Here is the link to Neil singing “Dry Your Eyes” at the concert Greta and I attended last August. Note that he dedicated this performance to the English terrorism victims in London and Manchester. Put it on full screen for maximum enjoyment.

Here is the link to Neil singing “Dry Your Eyes”