16 Ways People Kept Track of Their Favorite Sports Teams in the ’70s

Chasing your favorite sports teams in the 1970s would mean you needed to exercise some patience and a lot of creativity. You had to read newspapers and magazines, listen to radio broadcasts, watch television broadcasts at predetermined times, and carry around schedules in your pocket. Some people used scorecards, programs, and cards, attended games, or even maintained scrapbooks from clipping material throughout the entire season. There were also those who depended on sports bulletins on TV during the evening, phone calls, tavern gossip, almanacs, fan clubs, and newsletters sent via mail. Information took longer to get than it does today, but this gave chasing a sports team a bit of a different meaning altogether.

1. Reading the Morning Sports Section

With smartphones and sports apps not existing yet, the morning paper was the daily scorecard for all the passionate fans. They would open their sports page over breakfast and read box scores, standings, schedules, and summary reports. A fan of the New York Yankees could track their batting averages and league standings, whereas a fan of the Boston Celtics would analyze the results of yesterday’s NBA games. Publications like The New York Times and Boston Globe paid considerable attention to professional and college sports. Fans used to clip important news, argue about numbers, and bring fresh scores to the workplace or school.

2. Listening to Games on the Radio

In the absence of televised games, people were able to listen to live games via radio broadcasts, which made them feel as if they were right there at the stadium from their kitchens, garages, living rooms, and even cars. People switched on transistor radios or home radios and listened to every pitch, ball, goal, and touchdown that was broadcast by the commentator. Baseball was especially well-suited to the medium. In Los Angeles, people would listen to Vin Scully describe games with such rich detail while other cities had commentators of equal caliber. People would turn their radios, dialing through static, sit by the radio in tense games, and visualize the play themselves.

3. Watching Scheduled Television Broadcasts

What made television special for the fans of sports was that they had a moving image of what was going on in the game. In the 1970s, people scheduled their days to watch the sports on TV, which aired both the national broadcasts and the local broadcasts. Monday Night Football on ABC became one of the major weekly occurrences after it started in 1970, featuring NFL games in people’s homes across the nation. Also, the World Series of baseball, the NBA games, college football, and other sports events attracted whole families to sit in front of the television. They needed to check the TV schedule in advance since there was no possibility of streaming the games later.

4. Buying Weekly Sports Magazines

For the true fan who wanted more than just the previous day’s score, there were weekly sports magazines that would give him everything he needed. The sports magazines, like Sports Illustrated, provided features, pictures, interviews, statistics, and analysis that would help the readers to keep track of the teams on a weekly basis instead of game by game. A loyal fan of the Pittsburgh Steelers in their days of glory could learn about their players, coaches, rivalries, and anything else important happening in the NFL through the sports magazines. They lasted longer than newspapers and could be found stacked up next to a favorite reading chair or in collections.

5. Carrying Printed Team Schedules

The fans usually carried with them the printed schedule of the team during the whole season. Schedules were made by baseball teams themselves, newspapers, banks, filling stations, and local companies. If you were a fan of the Cincinnati Reds, you could highlight important games for yourself in the team’s schedule. It was possible to carry such a small schedule in the wallet or hang bigger schedules on the fridge, on the bulletin board, or on the bedroom wall. Such schedules were useful for organizing evenings around the games. There were no electronic calendars reminding us of upcoming events; that is why a simple printed schedule worked perfectly.

6. Keeping Score by Hand

For die-hard baseball fans, the act of scoring turned a sport into a written account. Score sheets were taken to stadiums or made at home by fans who listened on the radio. With standard notations, everything was recorded, including hits, walks, strikeouts, errors, substitutions, and runs, inning by inning. A fan who watched the Oakland Athletics during their years of three consecutive World Series titles could capture in writing how a memorable game took place. Once scored, the sheet served as a source for statistics and a keepsake. Scoring required focus, so each at-bat counted. Long before play-by-play coverage went digital, pencil notations let die-hard fans relive their team’s game pitch by pitch.

7. Talking Sports With Friends and Coworkers

The knowledge of game scores was mostly gained through discussions. Every Monday morning in factories, offices, schools, barbershops, and local stores started with discussions of the recent games. Those who listened to the late radio broadcasts could inform their friends who had already fallen asleep. A Dallas Cowboys fan might come excited to talk about the outcome of the match of the previous day, while another person could provide more information about an important touchdown or a controversial decision. Information about sports was exchanged socially, along with some jokes and heated debates. Such discussions were not just about reporting game scores; they served to support community following of teams.

8. Gathering at Sports Bars and Taverns

Sports bars and neighborhood bars provided an important venue for adults looking to get their scores, conversation, and TV action in one place. Regular patrons talked with the bartender about their standings, saw any broadcast they could, and shared information about injuries or upcoming games. In a city where there is a great deal of baseball or football interest, team standings could be the subject of discussion during the evening. A person from Chicago could go after work and find out what the Cubs did earlier that day. The information may have been a little late or incomplete, but the social setting made sure the fans stayed in touch.

9. Going to Games in Person

Those fans living close to their preferred team were able to experience the season through attending games in person. While the cost and ease of tickets and transportation differed from club to club, the regular attendee picked up much more than the final score. They saw how lineups shifted, injuries occurred, new players joined the team, and listened to the announcers giving information on various statistics and results. For instance, the Baltimore Orioles fans visiting Memorial Stadium were able to watch the likes of Jim Palmer perform over the years. Some fans kept the ticket stub or program as evidence of the games that they attended.

10. Studying Stadium Programs

Stadium programs provided fans with an all-in-one program for the teams playing that day. They included team rosters, descriptions of players, statistics, games, photos, and information about the organization. People purchased them at baseball parks and arenas and then used them when new players came into the game. The baseball fan could check out batting statistics, whereas the football fan could recognize his favorite players based on their jersey number and position. Most people would take the program home with them and not dispose of it. Over time, the program provided the fans with evidence of changes in the lineups and great matches between players.

11. Catching the Evening Sports Highlights

Televised sports programs enabled viewers to fill in the gaps after having missed the actual match. Local channels would incorporate sports in their nightly news broadcasts, whereas national channels would provide the highlights and beyond. People would have to wait for the video footage, scores, rankings, and analysis instead of immediately reaching out to an application every time their curiosity was piqued. An individual who was unable to watch the afternoon baseball match would wait for the nightly news, expecting to see a key hit or play. In addition, the sportscasters would talk about the transactions, injury news, and upcoming matches.

12. Calling Someone Who Knew the Score

The phone was a direct link to sports news when the friend or relative was more familiar with the outcome of the match. Fans were calling each other after significant matches for discussion of the emotions involved or the score of the match, and also for description of critical moments. Long-distance phone calls cost money, which meant that most calls remained local, but nonetheless, the phone was a very effective source for the spread of sports news in families and neighborhoods. The returning home fan could call his brother and find out what was going on. In the case of a playoff race, such calls become more relevant.

13. Building Season Scrapbooks

There were some dedicated fans who made scrapbooks, which made the whole season personal for them. These people would cut out photos, headlines, rankings, box scores, and stories from the papers and magazines and paste them chronologically on the pages. There was no need for a New York Mets fan to miss Tom Seaver’s story, and the Steelers fan did not have to miss any stories from the team’s Super Bowl years. Making scrapbooks allowed fans to remember winning seasons, disappointments, trades, and victory parties years after the paper became yellow. Making a scrapbook was not a one-time task; rather, it needed patience and diligence.

14. Collecting and Studying Trading Cards

Another avenue for keeping track of the individuals who helped determine the success of a particular team was through trading cards. These were purchased by kids and adults alike, traded among people who had more than one copy, and their back sides analyzed for their statistical content. The most common type of trading card in the 1970s was that of Topps, which contained information about players of the teams playing in Major League Baseball. A fan could organize his cards based on team, compare statistics, and observe changes in a familiar face wearing a new uniform after a player was traded to another team.

15. Checking Sports Almanacs and Record Books

Sports yearbooks and annuals enabled sports fans to fit the present season into a broader historical context. Such reference works included standings, championships, player stats, team stats, and recaps from seasons past. A baseball fan could see how a modern home run hitter stacked up against former greats, and a football fan could find out how a team’s most recent season compared to its previous seasons. In contrast to daily newspapers, the contents of such books were meant to be consulted again and again. Fans stored them on bookshelves and referred to them whenever disputes about statistics and championships came up. The facts weren’t immediate, but the books offered something else that was just as important: historical perspective.

16. Joining Fan Clubs and Receiving Team Mail

Some followers kept up with their favorite teams through club newsletters and fan club mailings. Clubs utilized mail services to get out their schedules, club news, promotional information, membership information, and sometimes even a few things regarding players or games. The youth followers loved to get anything in the mail concerning their favorite clubs since it gave a personal touch to the mail. The fan who lived away from the home city of his team would have something in hand that could be tough to find anywhere else. It was a slow process compared to modern times, but it made for an extended experience.