Attending NFL game two days after JFK's death was surreal, cathartic
It was a day of sunshine but immeasurable gloom. There was a stadium
filled with nearly 63,000 fans too subdued to generate much excitement
for a crucial late-season NFL game where the outcome seemed secondary to
the staggering events of the past two days.
Indeed, many Americans questioned whether the game should even be played.
It was the most solemn atmosphere I've ever experienced at a sporting event.
So it was, 50 years ago, on the afternoon of Nov. 24, 1963, when the New York Giants played host to the St. Louis Cardinals at Yankee Stadium, only 48 hours after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas. I was a 13-year-old junior high school student watching with my brother from our family seats overlooking the 35-yard-line in Section 20 of the original Stadium, an arena I always considered much grander than its remodeled and smaller successor that re-opened in 1976.
There was little pregame buzz about whether the conference-leading Giants could handle the second-place Cardinals. Instead, many fans turned on transistor radios to follow the latest shocking news: accused presidential assassin Lee Harvey Oswald had been gunned down in a Dallas police station.
Indeed, many Americans questioned whether the game should even be played.
It was the most solemn atmosphere I've ever experienced at a sporting event.
So it was, 50 years ago, on the afternoon of Nov. 24, 1963, when the New York Giants played host to the St. Louis Cardinals at Yankee Stadium, only 48 hours after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas. I was a 13-year-old junior high school student watching with my brother from our family seats overlooking the 35-yard-line in Section 20 of the original Stadium, an arena I always considered much grander than its remodeled and smaller successor that re-opened in 1976.
There was little pregame buzz about whether the conference-leading Giants could handle the second-place Cardinals. Instead, many fans turned on transistor radios to follow the latest shocking news: accused presidential assassin Lee Harvey Oswald had been gunned down in a Dallas police station.
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