The problem with my first game is it means I am 66 years old.
Nippert Stadium 1968 with my Dad and Brother early in September. I was 13. We drove down from Miamisburg Ohio. My Dad said Paul Brown was great at Cleveland. Paul Brown was the Man in The Hat and Suit already in The NFL Hall Of Fame on the sidelines. The uniforms looked like The Cleveland Browns who were Ohio's team in The NFL. This was the AFL. Vince Lombardi and the Green Bay Packers had blown away both games with the AFL and said they were not as good as the NFL. I knew little of football. I knew Jimmy Brown had been great. In late 1967 at age 12, I found it amazing The Packers and Cowboys were playing the NFL Championship in below zero weather and THAT was the Super Bowl, not that game where Packers pounded the AFL again. Johnny Carson had Bart Starr and Don Meredith on the next night, THAT was THE GAME. So the AFL was like second rate, but I was glad Cincinnati had a team, and my Dad took me. Joe Namath showed at seasons end that the AFL was not second rate.
I don't remember much from my First Games. Oh, the fans thought they could keep footballs kicked into the stands like baseball, but ushers would come after them. Fans would yell. " Put in The Swamp Rat ". John Stoffa was the quarterback, but some fans wanted Dewey Warren. Early in September the Bengals won, and Fans were yelling, " Super Bowl ". I got to see many games at Nippert. The Raiders just clobbered them the first year. So did The Jets on TV from New York. The AFL West was tough with Raiders, Chiefs who both had lost to Packers, and Chargers. Broncos were not very good, but they had a good running back. So did Bengals in AFL Rookie of The Year Paul Robinson. It was something to see him in the AFL All-Star Game representing Cincinnati.
The first real game that stands out is 1969 at Nippert and I am now 14. Greg Cook got injured against The Chiefs. Somehow they beat The Kansas City Chiefs of 1969. After the game The Chiefs were throwing and kicking their helmets, all of them, all the way to the exit. They could not believe they had just lost to The Cincinnati Bengals. The Bengals then pulled another huge upset by beating the heck out of The Oakland Raiders in Cincinnati. The Bengals were better with Bill Bergey as our Dick Butkus at Middle Linebacker. On Offense FB Jess Phillips, RB Paul Robinson, TE Bob Trumpy and Greg Cook gave Bengals back to back AFL Rookie Of The Year in Robinson and Cook. They added a great kicker in Horst Muhlmann. The Chiefs already had Stenerud. so they traded us Horst, who was a major upgrade from Dale Livingston in 1968. Livingston taught me at age 13 that you can not miss field goals or have 10 yard shank punts. I think Paul Brown learned that the New Game demanded the Kicker can't be the Punter. He soon hired a Kicker and a Punter in the 2nd year.
Now the 2 games that stand out in New Riverfront Stadium in 1970 was beating THE CLEVELAND BROWNS of Leroy Kelly. Everybody expected The Browns and The Colts to Dominate the AFL Teams, and these teams hated being moved out of the NFL teams and put in with the AFL teams, The Steelers being the last place 3rd team from the NFL. The players carried Paul Brown off the field after beating his old team, The Cleveland Browns in Cincinnati. Then the last game of the year The Bengals beat Joe Kapp and the Boston Patriots, Kapp who had been in The Super Bowl for Minnesota the year before. On the scoreboard was THE CINCINNATI BENGALS WIN THE AFC CENTRAL. Outside Riverfront leaving, all the fans were saying, " I can't believe it. I can't believe it. In our first year in The NFL, We are in The Play-Offs. We are in The Play-Offs." Everybody young and old just Amazed in 1970. The 3rd year Bengals won the NFL AFC Central Division over Cleveland, Pittsburgh and Houston. They would lose to Johnny Unitas and The Baltimore Colts who won The Super Bowl over Dallas, but what a day that was in 1970 when Bengals in the first NFL year, Won The AFC Central. They had been 1-6, but won 7 straight games and 8-6 was good enough as they knocked off Browns, Steelers, Oilers in the 7 game streak. Outside Riverfront, fans just looked at each other and yelled over and over, " I can't believe it. We Won The Division ".
The AFC Championship Wins were great over Chargers and Bills in the 1980's and going Super Bowl. Still, those early wins and winning the AFC Central in 1970 stand out because I was 13, 14, 15 and with my Dad and my Brother who would go into the Air Force as opposed to being drafted during Vietnam the next month in 1971, and we would never be Kids and Dad again, so those were Great Memories, those early Bengals upsets led by Coach Paul Brown. I like to go on YouTube and pull up some of those highlights from 1968 to 1970, because they bring back memories of not just Bengals but My Dad and Brother.
My first Bengals game in 1968 is like my first Reds game in 1966 when I was 11. I don't remember much being so young, just that My Dad took me and my Brother to see them. I guess My Dad was the Hero on those first games to me. My Dad had seen Paul Brown coach Ohio State and Cleveland Browns to Championships. When he heard on the radio that Paul Brown was bringing a team to Cincinnati, he said, " If Paul Brown is coming here, We are going ". Now my Dad saying that on back porch as he heard the news listening to Reds on Radio, I remember like it just happened.
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