There have been numerous articles posted
on the likes of SI.com. NFL.com and ESPN.com concerning the 50th anniversary of
the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on November 22nd. These articles on the sports-related websites
addressed, in part, the fact that then-Commissioner Alvin “Pete” Rozelle
decided that the NFL games would be played that given Sunday, November 24,
1963, two days after JFK’s death shocked America and the world.
Whether you agree with Rozelle’s
decision or not, the fact remains the games were played. And I was there. And it was an experience I have never
forgotten.
A family friend had tickets had season
tickets to the New York Football Giants.
They were still a New York team, playing their home games at Yankee
Stadium. Our friend had a sufficient
number of tickets that he could invite a few dads and their kids to come to the
game on occasion. I was there that day
with my father and the group.
I was too young to appreciate the issue
of playing or not playing NFL games during this emotional time. All I remember is that the
stadium was packed. (Official
attendance for the game against the St. Louis Cardinals was 62,992, the largest
crowd of the season at that point, according to published reports.) As always, the Star Spangled Banner was
played prior to the game. This time it
was remarkably different. My memory is
that, at that time, it was customary for people in attendance to stand in silence, hats doffed, hand over
heart, while the national anthem was played at sporting events. That day, the crowd sang the national anthem. The singing reverberated through the air at the stadium. It was, in a word, stirring. What is now routine, if not traditional, was then simply
never done. Perhaps it was that the
stadium was filled mostly with adults from the Greatest Generation, honoring
their fallen Commander in Chief, himself a wounded World War II veteran, the
experience of the brutality of war not so distant memories for many in
attendance, spurring them to song. I
simply don’t know. And while the stories
just written about that Sunday fifty years ago recount the general listlessness
of the players that day, the echoes of a somber crowd singing their tribute to their
murdered President during our nation’s most important song resound through the
home of the brave to this day.
Please rise, and remembering with grave
hearts those who have served our country, let us sing our National Anthem:
O say can you see by the dawn's early
light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming,
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there;
O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave,
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
AMDG
© 2012-2021 R.E. Kelly
