The following story, by correspondent Jim Scott, first appeared in The Sporting News dated Nov. 30, 1968, under the headline, “Raider Miracle Finish Lost in TV Switcheroo”.
OAKLAND, Calif. — Red Grange once did a movie called "One Minute to Play," in which, of course, he raced to the winning touchdown in the last 60 seconds.
The movie was ridiculed in some quarters as "totally unrealistic." Years later, the pro gridders, as they perfected the forward pass, showed that it could be done. And they did it rather often.
However, the lesson was totally lost on NBC-TV, the world's largest network.
MORE: What is the 'Heidi Game?' How Jets-Raiders NBC matchup changed way we watch football
Apparently thinking the New York-Oakland game was over — the Jets were leading, 32-29 —NBC left the game with 1:01 remaining to get the children's special, “Heidi,” going at the scheduled time of 4 p.m. (PST), November 17.
Suddenly, the great aerial duel between Daryle Lamonica and Joe Namath dissolved, and in its stead appeared a delightful girl and her gruff grandfather on a Swiss peak.
In New York, where the Jets could pack Shea Stadium for a Joe Namath-style show, the fans went berserk. At once overloaded, the switchboard at NBC headquarters blew a fuse.
Burned now because they could not register their protests, the football filberts called the New York Police Department. Soon the emergency police call system was tied up. And their beefs spilled out across the land to newspapers and TV stations.
Raiders Get Calls
Although the game was blacked out for 100 miles around Oakland, the Raiders still received numerous long-distance calls, some from the eastern seaboard.
No one will ever know how many enraged fans took it out on their wives, how many TV screens were shattered by beer mugs or how low sank Heidi's stature in American households east of Denver, though a few Midwest cities, such as St. Louis, carried the Kansas City-Boston game.
But the boo-boo was of such proportions that NBC twice apologized on its nationwide "Today" show early the next morning, and it also twice showed the frenetic deleted one minute. Moreover, it arranged to include the magical minute in the AFL highlights for the following Sunday.
The capacity crowd of 53,381 seemed almost as disbelieving as NBC.
Three-Way Battle
The explosive finish kept the defending champions locked in their three-way fight with Kansas City and San Diego for the Western Division AFL title. It also postponed the champagne party the Jets had planned at their headquarters.
The game, the most exciting this writer has ever seen, had more turns than the Indianapolis 500-miler.
With 1:08 left, Jim Turner kicked a 26-yard field goal to give the Jets a 32-29 lead.
At 1:05, Curley Johnson kicked off to Charlie Smith, four yards deep in the end zone, and the rookie ran it out to the Oakland 22. And that was the last the nation saw. Here's what followed:
On an audible, Lamonica broke loose Smith on a screen play. Charlie picked up 20 yards, and the Raiders were given 15 more when Smith was face-masked.
Now Lamonica decided to try to get Smith behind the linebacker for a pass. "This would get us to around the 25-yard line," he said later. "And George Blanda never misses from there. The play puts Fred Biletnikoff inside of Warren Wells. Warren goes deep, Fred
runs an out-pattern, and the halfback (Smith) fans out between them. We had worked it before and I saw something. I almost threw to Wells, but saw that Smith had his linebacker beaten."
Smith accepted the ball on the 20 and then ran as if Jim Hines were on his tail. (He once beat the Olympic champion in an Oakland race.) No one came close to nailing the flying Charlie.
This made it 36-32 for the Raiders with 42 seconds remaining.
Naturally the Raiders tried a squib kick to preclude a long runback. The ball skittered down to the 12-yard line, where it was picked up by Earl Christy.
He fumbled the ball, retrieved it, then attempted to run laterally to evade the onrushing Raiders.
Howie Williams exploded suddenly into Christy, jarring the ball from his grasp. It bounded toward the goal, chased by a covey of Raiders.
Preston Ridlehuber pounced out of the crowd and onto the ball in the end zone. Then he flung it happily into the stands.
Fortunately, NBC had filmed the rest of the game.
Julian Goodman, president of NBC, said:
"It was a forgivable error committed by human beings who were concerned about the children expecting to see Heidi."