The Apollo 8 journey into the moon’s orbit gave a fractured America something to cheer as a tumultuous year came to an end — The eight-foot-tall white spruce was an exquisitely well-shaped Christmas tree, no low hanging branches, full throughout the middle, and then tapered up to a perfectly symmetrical triangle. Naturally, it was trimmed just the way Olivia McDonald liked it with white lights wrapped all the way around, decades-old homemade ornaments dangling…

After 10 years of proving itself equal, the AFL merged with the NFL at the start of 1970 and the sport soared from there — In publishing its final American Football League guide in 1970, a reference book that capsulized the 10-year history of the league, the editors of The Sporting News decided to pen a dedication in honor of everyone who played a part in the phenomenal success the AFL enjoyed. It read as…

Kansas City closed the book on the history of the AFL with a defensive gem against high-flying Oakland — John Madden never put a muzzle on his players during his 10-year tenure as head coach in Oakland. His crazy band of renegades said whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted, and because the Raiders were usually so good, Madden didn’t care because he knew his guys would back up their…

That was the famous headline in the Harvard Crimson after favored Yale blew The Big Game which felt every bit as bad as a loss — When Jack told SportsWorld editor Mark Brantley of what he thought his next assignment should be, he received the exact response he expected from his immediate superior. “Are you serious?” Brantley said over the phone when Jack informed him that he wanted to cover the 85th renewal of the Harvard-Yale…

Some pro teams didn’t think he was big enough or fast enough, but he proved them all wrong and wound up in the Hall of Fame — Sometimes, the numbers just don’t tell the story. In the spring of 1967, prior to the first combined draft between AFL and NFL teams, the Houston Oilers’ scouting department took one look at Willie Lanier’s measurables and concluded that the Morgan State linebacker had no future in pro football.

The Chiefs’ all-time great ultimately became a Hall of Fame linebacker who helped Kansas City win two AFL titles and a Super Bowl — Hank Stram, who coached Bobby Bell for his entire 12-year career with the Kansas City Chiefs, always maintained that Bell could have played any position on a football field and done a very credible job. “There isn’t a job Bell can’t do, and do well,” said Stram. But there was…

You could almost see the futures of these two teams heading in opposite directions, good for Miami, not so much for New York — It was on the rainy New York City afternoon of Nov. 2, 1969, rainy autumn that the Jets and Dolphins passed each other heading in opposite directions into their futures. First there were the four-year-old Dolphins, a team that came into Shea Stadium for this Eastern Division matchup having won…

Super Bowl winner, analyst extraordinaire and video game legend, it has been quite a ride for big John — At first he spent his Sunday afternoons flailing his arms on the sidelines of football stadiums all across the country, television cameras capturing his every gesture as his Oakland Raiders terrorized the NFL with their unique brand of brilliance and bone-breaking. Big John Madden, the fiery leader of the Raiders…

Patrick McDonald returned to the U.S. from Vietnam and was greeted as if he was a serial killer by mobs of protesters — All of it could wait. Pro football. College football. The start of the NBA and NHL seasons. After the month he’d just had, traveling to the Olympic Trials in California, covering a seven-game World Series in the Midwest, then heading straight to Mexico City for the Olympics, nothing was going…