The Short Ride Home

Long before the end-zone seats for the Baltimore Colts-San Francisco Forty Niners football game went on sale last week, one fan camped out in front of the box office. He had a Thermos of coffee, a blanket, and an electric razor. "After I buy my ticket," he explained, "I'll go to a service station and shave. I've got to look presentable for the Forty Niners."

All San Francisco shared his sentiment. Professional football's eastern title had already been won by the Cleveland Browns, but the Forty Niners were still in the race in the west. The city was full of loyal fans, desperate to see the game. The trouble was that Kezar Stadium can only accommodate 60,000 of them, and those who got shut out could not go home to watch the festivities on TV. Unlike big-league baseball, pro football does not give away what it has to sell, blacks out the local area when a home game is being played.

But stubborn San Franciscans would not be done out of watching their team. More than 10,000 of them deserted the Bay area and followed coaxial cables to television-blessed towns. Pro fans flocked to the saloons and hotel rooms of Chico and Fresno, where they settled for football and a drink. Those with a yen for more extra-athletic excitement went to Reno and the Nevada shore of Lake Tahoe where they could watch the game and get in a little gaming of their own.

In Reno, rabid Forty Niners fans had every opportunity to shoot their football winnings at slot machine, crap table and roulette wheel. But they had nothing to gamble with until Quarterback John Brodie passed to Halfback Hugh McElhenny and won the game in the last 54 seconds, 17-13. After that, whether they won or lost at the gaming tables, the long ride home seemed short and sweet.

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