SUPER BOWL BALL!

LUCY & THE GRIDIRON

Even the Queen of Comedy was a gridiron groupie!  Here’s a pigskin parade of touchdown moments of Lucy and the sport of FOOTBALL! 

1934 ~ As a young model and actress, Lucille Ball didn’t just take film jobs. Here she poses in football gear with Billie Seward at Bovard Field in Los Angeles.

“Three Little Pigskins” (1934) ~ A football-themed film starring the Three Stooges and Lucille Ball. 

The second half of the film was shot at Gilmore Stadium. The Los Angeles stadium was newly built in 1934 and had a seating capacity of 18,000. Coincidentally, the stadium was later sold to CBS and became the site of Television City. 

Too Many Girls (1939) ~ The Broadway production of the musical featured Eddie Bracken and Desi Arnaz as football players. Both would be featured in the film version a year later. Interestingly, it was a football injury that kept Desi Arnaz stateside during World War II. 

Too Many Girls (1940) ~ Van Johnson (center) was added for the film version. It was this film that introduced Lucille Ball to Desi Arnaz. 

On June 26, 1948, Dorothy Manners’ column reported that Lucille Ball was cast in Interference, a film about pro football starring Victor Mature, to be produced by RKO. 

The film was not released until October 1949, by which time its title had been changed to Easy Living. The film features the real-life Los Angeles Rams football team

“The Football Game” (1950) ~ Liz (Lucille Ball) and Iris (Bea Benadaret) are determined to go to the annual State University homecoming football game with their favorite husbands, until the boys tell them they aren’t planning to take them along.

• IRIS: I can hardly wait to get to the game and watch that old quarterback make a home run.
• LIZ: Iris, it’s not a home run, it’s a touchdown. And isn’t a quarterback, it’s a second baseman.
• RUDOLPH: It’s a shame not to take them along, George. Wouldn’t they love to see the jockey run 65 yards to a knockout?

“The Saxophone” (1952) ~ When Lucy finds her saxophone, she mentions to Ethel that she was in the high school marching band in Celoron in order to date a football player.  

“The Benefit” (1952) ~ Tap! Tap! Tap!

“Ricky Minds the Baby” (1954) ~ Little Ricky wanders off while Ricky and Fred watch a football game on TV.

“Little Ricky Learns to Play the Drums” (1956) ~ Sports fan Fred is trying to catch up on his reading with a November 1954 copy of Sports Illustrated with San Francisco 49′ers Quarterback Y.A. Tittle, the first professional football player, on the cover.  

Tittle will be mentioned again in “Lucy the Fixer” (1969). 

February 1956 ~ Lucy returns to Jamestown by helicopter and sees that fans have spelled out a greeting on the snow-covered Jamestown High School football field. 

“Lucy and Superman” (1957) ~ Lucy’s make-shift Superman costume features a football helmet! 

• ETHEL: I still think the helmet is wrong. Superman doesn’t wear a helmet. 
• LUCY: He would if he was trying to cover up his red hair! 

“The Bob Hope Buick Sports Award Show” (1961) ~ Lucille Ball is one of the celebrity presenters. Coincidentally, her name in the opening credits is over a football game, although she later presents an award to boxer Floyd Patterson. 

“Lucy is a Referee” (1962) ~ Jerry and Sherman’s football game is going to be canceled due to the lack of a referee, so Lucy volunteers. 

With the help of her boyfriend Harry (Dick Martin), she learns all the signals, but cannot help interfering on her son’s behalf and clumsily affecting the outcome of the game.  

At the start of this episode, Lucy is searching for her son’s lost Johnny Unitas football card.  At first, Viv thinks that Frankie Avalon and Ricky Nelson are football players, too.  Lucy reads out the sports cards of ‘Red’ Phillips, then a player for the Los Angeles Rams, and Jimmy Brown, of the Cleveland Browns. Divorcee Viv laments that the players’ age and marital status are not given.

Lucy offers to take both teams to a pro football game, but a blizzard strands them all at Lucy’s house, watching the big game on TV.

The Mighty Mites of the Venice Athletic Club was a pee-wee football team from Venice Beach, California, that took the parts of both the home and away teams in this episode.

“Lucy Puts Up a TV Antenna” (1962) ~ Sherman and Jerry are excited that the All-American Football Team is going to be on TV. This continues the boys’  enthusiasm for football, established in “Lucy is a Referee”. Later, when trapped on the roof, Lucy mentions that Chris is having her music lesson and the boys are playing football.  

“Lucy the Co-Ed” (1970) ~ Harry’s old flame Gloria is in town to help produce a musical for their college alumni. They resurrect a show Harry wrote in college. 

Harry (Gale Gordon) plays ‘Crazy Hips,’ Bullwinkle University’s football star.

As the curtain goes up, the orchestra plays “You Gotta be a Football Hero (To Get Along with the Beautiful Girls)” written by Al Sherman, Buddy Fields and Al Lewis in 1933. It is one of the most widely recorded and performed football anthems of all time.

The song was first sung by Craig (Desi Arnaz Jr.) in “Lucy and Carol Burnett” (1969) to raise money for the school gym.

FUMBLE!  The white football Craig tossed away during his solo number is stranded on stage. Desi Jr. must stoop down to scoop it up during his entrance for the finale.

“Lucy the Skydiver” (1970) ~ When Lucy sees her daughter in a motorcycle helmet she asks if she’s playing for the Rams, Los Angeles’ hometown football team. Later, when she has the parachute pack strapped to her back, Lucy says she feels like she’s carrying the Green Bay Packers, yet another football reference in this sports-themed episode that aired (coincidentally) the same day as the premiere of Monday Night Football.  

“Lucy and Aladdin’s Lamp” (1971) ~ Craig (Desi Arnaz Jr.) wishes for two tickets to the sold-our Rams Football game. After a dramatic thunder clap, Craig gets a call from his friend Alan who offers him a ticket.

In the same episode, Lucy pulls out a fur-lined jacket she says was worn by Joan Crawford in Mildred Pierce (1945). Craig says that judging by the shoulder pads she could have worn it in The Spirit of Notre Dame, a 1931 football-themed movie starring Lew Ayres.  

“Lucy and Joe Namath” (1972) ~ The series brings back the character of Craig for a special appearance by football player turned actor ‘Broadway’ Joe Namath. 

Actual clips of Namath on the field for the New York Jets (#12) are featured. 

After the show was over, Namath sent Lucille Ball an autographed football.

“Super Comedy Bowl” (1971) ~ In a sketch, Lucille Ball played an ER nurse who ‘manhandles’ football player Joe Namath after an accident. The sketch was written by Arnold Kane, who wrote about it in his book, My Meteoric Rise to Obscurity.

“Super Comedy Bowl” (1972) ~ The next year Lucie Arnaz followed in her mother’s footsteps, appearing on the special with football great Bubba Smith. 

“The Big Game” (1973) ~ O.J. Simpson speaks at Harry’s Chamber of Commerce luncheon and passes on a couple of free passes to a sold out football game.  

To get into the spirit of the occasion, Mary Jane brags she is wearing her Tommy Trojan pendant. Mary Jane says she learned a lot about football because of her crush on Howard Cosell,one of television’s most famous and enigmatic sportscasters.

The football hanging above the head table falls into the punch bowl – splashing Simpson in the face. Touchdown! 

“Lucy Carter Meets Lucille Ball” (1974) ~ The on-screen announcer is played by Tom Kelly, who first called play-by-play for college football. He described the action of five USC national championship football teams, five Heisman Trophy winners, and 92 first team All-American footballers. Kelly previously played himself in “The Big Game” sharing the screen with O.J. Simpson.