July 23, 1997
No. 247
| ITEM ONE: | POSTAL SERVICE GIVES STAMP OF APPROVAL TO FOOTBALL LEGENDS |
| It will be a legendary time in Canton, Ohio this weekend. Four football legends -- MIKE HAYNES, WELLINGTON MARA, DON SHULA and MIKE WEBSTER -- will be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame on Saturday. Their induction will follow a salute at the Hall to four other football legends -- BEAR BRYANT, GEORGE HALAS, VINCE LOMBARDI and POP WARNER. Commemorative U.S. postage stamps of these four coaches will be officially dedicated on Friday in ceremonies kicking off the Hall of Fame weekend, the traditional start of every NFL season. Yet another set of legends will join NFL Commissioner PAUL TAGLIABUE in the stamp dedication ceremonies -- JOE NAMATH, who was coached by Bryant at Alabama; GALE SAYERS, who played for Halas in Chicago; and BART STARR, who was Lombardi’s quarterback in Green Bay. | |
| ITEM TWO: | LOS ANGELES NFL YOUTH EDUCATION TOWN GRADUATES FIRST CLASS |
| Thanks to their own perseverance, and with a little help from the NFL, 56 Los Angeles-area students recently earned diplomas and a place in NFL history as the first graduates of an NFL Youth Education Town. The NFL established the first NFL YET alternative education school in Los Angeles in 1993 as a permanent legacy of Super Bowl XXVII. There are five other NFL YET centers in the Super Bowl cities of Atlanta, Miami, Phoenix and New Orleans. The original YET is a high-tech educational and recreational center designed to improve the academic, physical fitness and job-related skills of at-risk youth. When the students enrolled in the NFL YET program three years ago, they were in the bottom percentiles of their class. Upon graduation this summer, the YET students ranked in the top five percent of area students and above every other middle school in the Compton Unified School District. "These teens have achieved successes both in the classroom and in the community, surpassing our greatest expectations," said NFL President NEIL AUSTRIAN. "We in the NFL have watched with pride as these students have developed into outstanding young men and women -- young adults who have set a high standard for the YET classes to come." | |
| ITEM THREE: | MADISON AVENUE MAD ABOUT FOOTBALL |
| The top sports programming priority of national television advertisers? Football, by a wide margin. That’s what the latest figures in a Business Week study indicate -- TV advertisers want to be associated with football. More than $1.2 billion was spent on national TV advertising on the sport in 1996, more than double the amount spent on basketball and baseball, which finished second and third in national ad dollars, both under $6 million. | |
| ITEM FOUR: | "THE JUMP" JUMPS TO TENNESSEE |
| The Super Bowl XXXI champion Green Bay Packers made "The Jump" popular. Now the Tennessee Oilers are following with their own training camp version of the popular fan salute. Green Bay players jump into the waiting arms of their fans when they score. The Oilers scored points with fans after their first day of practice last Saturday at their Tennessee State University training base in Nashville when they went into the stands to greet approximately 4,000 fans. "We thought it was important," said Oilers head coach JEFF FISHER. "A lot of people have been waiting for this day, and we wanted to thank them. It won’t be the last time." "It was cool," said Oilers running back EDDIE GEORGE. "It allowed the fans to see us, get to know us, get to meet us, see our personalities, our characters." |