Even though baseball is my favorite sport, I also love football. Being from Kansas City, my parents became Chiefs fans when the Dallas Texans moved to KC in 1963 and joined the AFL as the Chiefs. Naturally, I became a Chiefs fan too. In those days, there was no ESPN or social media. There were one or two games a week to watch on TV each Sunday, and in 1970, Monday Night Football was born which added a third opportunity to see NFL football. The only way to see highlights of each game was to watch This Week in Pro Football, a production of NFL Films. Watching TWIPF was a must for me. NFL Films used dramatic music, slow motion action and vivid narration that brought each game to life in a theatrical way. The players and coaches seemed larger than life...almost mythical. But it was the music that caught my attention and did the most to create the story for each segment.
Sam Spence (1927-2016) was the composer who brought these films to life. He used a wide array of styles and instrumentation to fit the mood of the game. Here is a tune he wrote called The Ramblin' Man from Gramblin' being used for a Chiefs-Dolphins game from 1974:
Here is the music without the narration:
And here is my arrangement of Ramblin' Man From Gramblin' on the guitar:
Here's another great tune called The Over the Hill Gang by Sam Spence:
These two works and many others filled my childhood with great memories. Thank you Sam Spence.
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