Pitch-perfect from the very start! Mike Klingaman in the Baltimore Sun on one of Baltimore's most-beloved icons: "Art Donovan played pro football for 12 years. The rest of his life, he spent telling everyone about it."; For the people of Baltimore, he was a true Hall-of-Famer in every way that really counts in life; Excellent ‏@thomloverro piece on Donovan family tradition of service in U.S. military in The Telegraph!

We’re saddened by the loss of one of the true legends of the game and Class of 1968 enshrinee Art Donovan. http://t.co/43XzpVMbjQ
— Pro Football HOF (@ProFootballHOF) August 5, 2013

So very much I could say here.
Stories I could share that made me laugh over the years no matter how many times I'd heard them before. That is when you really know you like someone -you laugh at the jokes and anecdotes they tell just as hard as the first time you heard them, decades ago.

Here's the thing you need to know and appreciate: in a country of over 312 million people with different opinions and views on every subject under the sun, there's only a handful of living former athletes in this country who were or are as important, as closely-identified and as genuinely beloved in their cities or regions as Art Donovan was to the Baltimore area.

Baltimore Colts legend Art Donovan, who died Sunday at 89, played and talked a great game. http://t.co/iZ7FWLAFjV
— The Baltimore Sun (@baltimoresun) August 5, 2013

Baltimore Sun

Art Donovan, vocal ex-Colts defensive tackle, dies at 89

By Mike Klingaman The Baltimore Sun

9:52 p.m. EDT, August 4, 2013

Art Donovan played pro football for 12 years. The rest of his life, he spent telling everyone about it.

Donovan, 89, who died Sunday of a respiratory ailment at Stella Maris Hospice, played and talked a great game. He was a Hall of Fame defensive tackle for the Baltimore Colts and an engaging raconteur at banquets and on TV talk shows. His cherublike face, adenoidal voice and side-splitting tales of yore captivated generations of viewers who never saw Donovan collar a quarterback or take down a runner.

"Artie made a career out of telling people everything that he'd done right — and wrong — in football," said Ordell Braase, his teammate on the field and in the broadcast studio. "The diversity of his appeal was amazing. Everyone wanted to hug 'Fatso,' from young girls to little old ladies."

Read the rest of the article and see the great photo gallery at:

http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/ravens/bs-donovan-advanceobit-20130804,0,2235243.story

-----

RT: The great American story of Art Donovan and family. My Guardian story http://t.co/QlsgzoKj0l
— thom loverro (@thomloverro) August 7, 2013

"The world is not as bright tonight because we lost someone who could make us all smile.” We'll miss you Art. http://t.co/3MDGStd0uv
— Baltimore Ravens (@Ravens) August 5, 2013

Remembering Baltimore Colts legend Art Donovan. VIDEO | http://t.co/pK7g8zDHhq
— Baltimore Ravens (@Ravens) August 5, 2013

Here is a tribute to the late Art Donovan, a truly unique professional athlete is there ever was one. http://t.co/60kLWVFTpe
— Elliot Harrison (@Harrison_NFL) August 5, 2013

Mike Webb YouTube Channel video: Art Donovan on NBC-TV's "Tonight Show" with host Johnny Carson, circa 1987. Uploaded August 15, 2010. http://youtu.be/7HDRLnoAY9E




WMAR-TV 2, Baltimore
Hall of Fame Colt Art Donovan a friend to all
By Jeff Hager
August 5, 2013

BALTIMORE -
He first met Art Donovan as a rookie safety out of the state of Alabama, and the towering tackle took Andy Nelson under his wing in what became a lifetime friendship that only came up short when it came to tasting his former teammate's barbecue.

"He likes Spam and he like hotdogs and pizza, but he wasn't a big pit beef man, pork man," recalled Nelson.

Over the years, Nelson says he did know enough about the gentle giant to keep a Schlitz beer on hand to help that pit beef go down.


Read the rest of the article at: http://www.abc2news.com/dpp/news/region/baltimore_city/hall-of-fame-colt-a-friend-to-all

http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/ravens/bal-artdonovan,0,280730.storygallery

http://ftw.usatoday.com/2013/08/looking-back-at-art-donovans-best-late-night-appearances/

Finally at the weekend when the NFL really means NOT FOR LONG; 1970's NFL intros for ABC, CBC and NBC broadcasts

1973 NBC Sports NFL broadcast theme

http://youtu.be/nv-datkQYUU

Yes, those were the days...

In those dark teen years of the early-to-mid Seventies, many years before consumer VCRs existed and became commonplace -and were soon taken for granted in no time by kids who grew-up thinking that you'd always been able to see something from television a second time, on your own schedule- I can recall that the Monday after the first NFL weekend of the year, my friends and I at J.F.K. Junior High in North Miami Beach spent time trying to properly identify the order of the identifiable NFL players during this quick-cutting video montage of NBC's.


And frankly, wonder whether or not ABC would be updating their intro -yet again- that night for Monday Night Football, which, in retrospect, they actually changed less than they did the 'third man' in the booth after popular Don Meredith left to pursue entertainment options in Hollywood. 



1984 ad for Safeway's Super Store -They've got a sale on VCRs, only $369; I guess the savings gets passed on to you! -LOL!
http://youtu.be/T6mD2bZc9w8

The VCR format fight: VHS vs. Beta TV commercial for NEC, 1984
http://youtu.be/FnaL50cwh-Q


The three American TV network's football themes gripped my friends and I from the start, and quickly became embedded in our young brains, which perhaps best explains why when you see them again on YouTube, you're struck by the fact that not just for my friends and I, but for millions of other sports fans alive then who watched them, they still remain preferable to anything on the air now, esp on ESPN or Fox-TV.
And they say as much in the YouTube comments, too.


When my friends and I at JFK got together at lunch, P.E. or after school, and it turned out that someone hadn't been paying close attention to the fact that the first establishing shot of the NBC intro was one from the the defending NFL champion Dolphins locker room... well, you suddenly weren't such an NFL expert after all.

Yes, we did not grade our friends' NFL prowess on a Bell Curve.
It was always sink-or-swim.


How many players in the three videos I've posted can you name?
(And how many of what would now be considered illegal hits?)


To name but a few: Danny Abramowicz -fades from his gold-colored Saints pants to the gold of the NBC text- Larry Little, Larry Csonka, Joe Namath, Essex Johnson, Ken Stabler, Cliff Branch, Terry Bradshaw, Franco Harris, Tommy Casanova, Walter Payton, Craig Morton, Willie Brown... 


And the player who is seen the longest in the NBC intro at the top is Dolphins All-Pro guard Bob Kuechenberg, who hits his own helmet at the end to show that he's strapped up and ready to play.

CBS Sports "NFL Today" intro from the 1970's
http://youtu.be/tUUMMlGPeMA

1971 ABC Monday Night Football intro for Baltimore Colts at Minnesota Vikings, with a Johnny Unitas pre-game interview  with Howard Cosell. 

http://youtu.be/Kr_fa-hR3zY

For those of you too young to know or remember, the Baltimore Colts were the defending NFL champs in 1971, having won Super Bowl V nine months before in Miami, beating the Dallas Cowboys 16-13 on the last play of the game. The very talented Minnesota Vikings had lost to the Kansas City Chiefs in the previous Super Bowl, which is why Howard Cosell is so clearly animated about the match-up in what was then the second year of ABC's Monday Night Football.

This is one of the best quality videos of 1970's NFL football that I've seen in years, and includes TV commercials.