| Yet another obscurity on
the man's
resume, Bill hosted this weekly interview program featuring NFL players
and coaches during the 1964 season. In 1964, professional football on television was already a weekend staple, but not nearly the behemoth it would eventually become. Keep in mind that this was still three years before the first Super Bowl, and even a season before NFL Films started recording and preserving everything in sight. Bill's interview series appears in only three local listings that we've learned about (so far). Since they appear on different networks and at different times, the logical conclusion is that this was a syndicated show provided to local stations to plug holes in their weekend lineups. It also appears that stations weren't even bound to air the show each week, using it on an as-needed basis. The earliest listing is
in the Doylestown
(PA) Daily Intelligencer for September 26. It shows channel 10,
the
CBS affiliate in Philadelphia, airing NFL Pro Football Special (in
lieu
of the blacked-out Eagles game) with the following description:
Each week host Bill Cullen meets a circle of football
professionals.
The pro star panel is led by the Giants head coach Allie Sherman.
This week's panel: Tommy Mason, Vikings; Jack Pardee, Rams; Paul
Hornung,
Packers; Dick Modzelewski, Browns; Joe Schmidt, Lions. The next listing is for
is for November
11. The regional TV Guide says WHEN-TV 5 (CBS) in
Syracuse,
New York aired what it identified as Pro Football Discussion.
Among
the guests that day were Jim Brown of the Browns and Jerry Kramer
of the Packers. The final listing is from
December
19, which incidentally was a Saturday. According to another TV
Guide,
WEWS-TV 5 (ABC) in Cleveland aired NFL Special. According
to the listing, Bill Cullen interviews Willie Wood (Green Bay
Packers),
Johnny Unitas (Baltimore Colts) and Sonny Randle (Minnesota Vikings). That's all we have.
If it truly
was weekly, there may have been as many as 14 episodes produced. We are
grateful to Tim Lones (who first uncovered this forgotten gem),
Jimmy Owen and Mike Burger for locating the three
episode
listings that give us everything we know about this show. VIDEO
|