Gitcher Program

Ah, 1974. Somewhat like 2022, most of it was the Year of the Tiger if you're not referring to the Detroit kind. To very prematurely celebrate the 50th anniversary (for which I think I'll have some Sports74 Gold posts), here's my selection of 50 scorecard, program, media guide, and yearbook covers from that year.

I do this because for a few days my attention has been on SportsPaper.info, a site with a bunch of those covers. The wiki could use some work.

BASEBALL

ALCS program for the "Once More in '74" Oakland A's; reuses the yearbook art.

Scorecard for the A.L. East champion Baltimore Orioles; the cover mistakenly calls it a "Golden Glove."

Media guide for the Los Angeles Dodgers, who won the National League pennant with Walter Alston at the helm for the seventh time.

Program for the N.L. East champion Pittsburgh Pirates, Pirates, Pirates, Pirates, Pirates, Pirates, Pirates (it was this or the album cover-looking yearbook).

Yearbook for the Atlanta Braves, with the big moment of '74 anticipated.

Yearbook for the New York Yankees, second place in the A.L. East in their first of two Shea Stadium seasons.

Scorecard for the four-games-out-of-first Cincinnati Reds with the image of Don Gullett; the crossword is filled in on the Joe Morgan version. 

Media guide for the second-place Texas Rangers, who hired Billy Martin late in '73 and watched him go to the Yankees in '75.

The All-Star Game program, with Hank Aaron and Roberto Clemente as "All-Time All-Stars."

The World Series program, with a neat concept someone had to think up sometime.

COLLEGE FOOTBALL (with final '74 AP rankings; chosen for teams and not designs)

Program for Oct. 5 game, No. 6 Notre Dame vs. No. 12 Michigan State (ND won 19-14). 

Program for Oct. 12 game, No. 18 Texas vs. No. 1 Oklahoma (OU won 16-13).

Program for Nov. 23 game, No. 3 Michigan vs. No. 4 Ohio State (OHST won 12-10). Look at that Big Ten logo, so true to the name and compact in geographical area.

Program for Liberty Bowl, No. 20 Tennessee vs. No. 13 Maryland (TENN won 7-3).

Program for Astro-Bluebonnet Bowl, No. 11 N.C. State vs. No. 19 Houston (31-31 tie).

Program for Sugar Bowl, No. 9 Nebraska vs. No. 15 Florida (NEB won 13-10). Note the bicentennial logo at the top-right.

Media guide for No. 5 Alabama, with newcomer Bear Bryant.

THE NFL

Program for Super Bowl VIII, the second with the trophy on the front (VII was the last without it).

Program for the canceled Chicago College All-Star Game. Not the only charity exhibition game of the year, I could see while browsing.

Media guide for the Super Bowl IX champion Pittsburgh Steelers. Simple and symbolic.

Media guide for the NFC champion Minnesota Vikings.

Program for the Nov. 24 game between the San Diego Chargers and Green Bay Packers, Johnny Unitas having finished his career with the former the year before (GB won 34-0) 

Program for the Dec. 21 playoff game between the Miami Dolphins and Oakland Raiders (OAK won 28-26).

WORLD FOOTBALL LEAGUE

Program for the Aug. 28 game between the Portland Storm and Southern California Sun (SC won 45-15), teams with distinctive uniforms (not pictured). 

COLLEGE BASKETBALL

Media guide for the '74 Final Four, with action from the previous year's UCLA-Memphis State game in St. Louis (it says KPLR).

Media guide for the '74-75 UCLA Bruins, with John Wooden prominently featured.

THE NBA

Playoff program for the Finals-bound '73-74 Boston Celtics.

Playoff program for the Capital Bullets in their only season under that name.

Playoff program for the champion '73-74 Milwaukee Bucks.

Media guide for the '74-75 Portland Trail Blazers, with Bill Walton's distinctive face and figure.

Program for a New Orleans Jazz vs. Kansas City-Omaha Kings game Nov. 5 at Omaha (KCO won 115-97).

THE ABA

Media guide for the '73-74 Kentucky Colonels, with a very '70s font.

Program for the '74 All-Star Game at the Norfolk Scope.

Playoff program for the Western champion Utah Stars. Groovy stripes and Rick Mount.

Program for the '74 Western runner-up Indiana Pacers' interleague game against the Milwaukee Bucks. How'd they make that picture?

Media guide for the '74-75 Pacers, whose new arena had just opened.

Yearbook for the reigning champion New York Nets of '74-75.

Media guide for the "new" Denver Nuggets, who with the name change had more of a claim to "new" than the Squires.

Media guide for the "new" Virginia Squires. Only that of the San Antonio Spurs was plainer that season.

THE NHL

Media guide for the Stanley Cup champion Philadelphia Flyers. Bobby Clarke had 37 goals in '72-73, not 36.

Playoff program for the Eastern champion Boston Bruins. Speaking of arithmetic, sometimes you'd get a program that explicitly stated the actual price plus tax. 

Media guide for the '74-75 California Golden Seals, whose Schulz-created mascot would be around for only two years.

Media guide for the expansion Washington Capitals.

THE WHA

Program for the '74-75 Quebec Nordiques (from 5th place in East to first in Canadian), with Rejean Houle in his Summit Series uniform.

Media guide for the reigning Avco Cup champion Houston Aeros.

Program for the '73-74 Eastern champion New England Whalers' Oct. 19 game against the blink-and-you'll-miss-them Michigan Stags (NE won 2-1 in OT).

AUTO RACING

Program for the 450-mile Daytona 500, whose winner is on the cover, Richard Petty also having won in '73.

Program for the World 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, won by David Pearson.

Program for the Indianapolis 500, held on the same day as the World 600 for the first of many times and won by Johnny Rutherford.

SOCCER

Program for the West Germany-Holland World Cup final, featuring a few flags no longer in use.

EDIT 6:55 p.m. EDT: Did some more underlining and corrected category of the Orioles item.

EDIT July 16, 7:55-8:01 a.m. EDT: Added Houston's final AP ranking and deleted an unnecessary "an."

EDIT Jan. 17, 2023, 1:32-1:43 p.m. EST: Added a period after Rutherford's name, re-worded part about Braves yearbook, and kind of fixed broken link to Rangers media guide.

EDIT June 15, 2023, 12:06-12:17 p.m. EDT: Fixed some more broken links, I hope.

EDIT Nov. 30, 2023: 2:25 p.m. EDT: Introduced the "football" label.

Junior Johnson, 1931-2019

Junior Johnson, NASCAR giant, died Friday.

By the middle of the 1974 season, the accomplished former driver had two racing teams to his name. One was the No. 52 that had belonged to Allan Brooke, with Earl Ross driving. In late September, Ross won the Old Dominion 500 in Martinsville. More famously, there was the No. 11 team. Cale Yarborough already had six victories that year, and after the halfway point, the South Carolinian won four more, repeating as the second-highest finisher in the season standings.

What brought these two teams together was Carling beer. The Toronto company, according to Johnson, "had been sponsoring Ross on a smaller team," but wanted to boost the Canadian driver's chances of winning Rookie of the Year. The beer makers came to Johnson, who was Richard Howard's partner in the Yarborough venture, and proposed buying the team with the points leader. "As far as I knew," Johnson recounted years later, "to have a business like Carling actually own a team was a first in NASCAR."

This arrangement began with the Firecracker 400 in July, but ended that fall, when the brewery owners suddenly abandoned their NASCAR aspirations. Johnson bought back his enterprise. The Rookie of the Year from north of the border would return for a few more races thereafter, but not under the banner of Junior Johnson & Associates.

Yarborough stuck around, and later in the '70s, the man driving the white and orange No. 11 car would be the Winston Cup champion three times in a row. Darrell Waltrip would bring another three titles to that team in the '80s.

"Carling's sponsorship efforts had served the team very well," Johnson wrote, but from there, the owner and his driver would have to overcome a rough 1975 to build on the legend of No. 11 and the legacy of a man who came from moonshine-running roots.

Mr. Johnson's own account of 1974, written in 2011 for Motorsports Unplugged
Yarborough's 1974 season and Ross's, from Racing-Reference.info
Some more about Earl Ross, from NASCAR Yesteryear

Golf, Horse Racing, and Auto Racing in 1974

[EDIT 11/30/2023, 2:11 p.m.: Adding NASCAR label]

Sorry for the lack of posts in April. I hope I can get back into this. And you know, as I search for links to use, I'm discovering more things about the year in sports.

GOLF

For one year, Johnny Miller, who wins the Bing Crosby National Pro-Am, is the #1 golfer in America instead of Jack Nicklaus. He is the money leader with over $350,000, interrupting what would have been a six-year streak for Nicklaus. Miller also interrupts what would have been a five-year streak of PGA Tour Player of the Year awards for Nicklaus.

Gary Player wins the Masters and the Open Championship, the latter at Royal Lytham. This Masters championship is his second; the first was in 1961.

Hale Irwin wins the US Open at Winged Foot. This is his first major victory.

Lee Trevino wins the PGA Championship at Tanglewood. He also finishes the season with his fourth and last Vardon Trophy for best scoring average.

Nicklaus finishes one stroke behind Trevino at the PGA Championship, an event Jack had won the year before. Though he doesn't win a major, he has a busy year. Nicklaus wins the first Tournament Players Championship, is among the first class inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame, gets Golf My Way published, and opens Muirfield Village Golf Club.

Sam Snead, 61, finishes third at the PGA Championship.

Peter Oosterhuis, who finishes second to Player by four strokes at the Open, is the money leader on the European Tour.

Deane Beman is the first PGA Tour commissioner.

Jerry Pate wins the US Amateur. He will win the '76 US Open.

Future pro Curtis Strange of Wake Forest wins the NCAA individual title.

JoAnne Carner is the LPGA Tour money leader and the winner of the Vare Trophy (female counterpart to the Vardon Trophy). Sandra Haynie, however, wins the US Women's Open and the LPGA Championship.

On Sept. 25 at the U.S. National Seniors Open Championship in Las Vegas, 64-year-old Mike Austin sets a record by driving a ball 515 yards. The 35-mph tailwind helps.

HORSE RACING

After finishing fifth at the Kentucky Derby, Little Current, with Jacinto Vasquez as jockey, wins the Preakness Stakes and the Belmont Stakes. Cannonade, with Miguel Rivera as jockey, wins the Derby, which has an all-time high attendance of 163,628 and an all-time high field of 23 horses the year after Secretariat's historic run. Cannonade shows at the other two Triple Crown races.

The money leader among horses is a three-year-old filly named Chris Evert. Unlike her namesake, she doesn't win any major events. She does win five out of her eleven races.

Though Laffit Pincay Jr. rides neither of the Triple Crown winners, he is the money leader for a fifth consecutive year. Though Pancho Martin trains neither of the Triple Crown winners, he is the money leader.

In the Eclipse Awards, the Horse of the Year for the first of three times is a four-year-old named Forego. The Two-Year-Old Male of the Year is Foolish Pleasure, who will win the '75 Kentucky Derby.

At Delaware Park July 28, all ten of the horses Charles Lamb of the Baltimore News-American predicted as winners win.

In foreign races for three-year old thoroughbreds, Harry White wins his first of a record four times at the VRC Melbourne Cup and Yves Saint-Martin wins his second of four times at the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe.

In harness racing, Billy Haughton wins the Hambletonian with Christopher T and the Little Brown Jug with Ambro Omaha. With Ambro Omaha, he also wins his fifth Messenger Stakes.

A horse named Gran Kan is voted steeplechase champion.

MOTORSPORTS

Richard Petty wins the Daytona 500 for the fifth time. The race is 450 miles this year due to the energy crisis, and this year's total of 59 lead changes is a record. Petty goes on to win the Winston Cup for the fifth time as well.

David Pearson wins both the Winston 500 (Talladega) and the World 600 (Charlotte) from the pole. Cale Yarborough wins the Southern 500 in Darlington.

Johnny Rutherford wins the Indianapolis 500, having started in the twenty-fifth position. He has three other victories this year. Thirteen of the 33 cars are still running at the end of it all. A.J. Foyt gets the pole at the big race, while future pole-sitter Pancho Carter is named the 500's Rookie of the Year.

Bobby Unser, with four victories and twelve top-five finishes in total, wins his second USAC championship.

McLaren-Ford's Emerson Fittipaldi, winner of the Brazilian, Belgian, and Canadian Grand Prix races, wins his second Formula 1 championship. This year is his first with McLaren.

At the Spanish Grand Prix, Ferrari driver Niki Lauda gets the first of what will be 25 career Formula 1 victories.

Carlos Reutemann wins the U.S. Grand Prix Oct. 6 at Watkins Glen.

Bob Gladden wins his first of what will be ten NHRA Pro Stock titles.

Henri Pescarolo and Gerard Larrousse, the team that won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in '73, repeat as champions. The 24 Hours of Daytona event is not held, also because of the energy crisis.

Johnny Miller bio on about.com
The '74 PGA Championship, also on about.com
Gary Player's Masters win as told on the Masters Web site
Young golfers in '74 as examined by Sports Illustrated
Jack Nicklaus at the '74 US Open in a story the "Golden Bear" recounts 32 years later in SI
The 515-yard drive on travelandleisure.com
The Kentucky Derby and the precedent it set from The Augusta Chronicle
Indy 500 results, or so the official site has it
The 450-mile Daytona 500 from Racing History Minute
Formula 1 in 1974 from formula1.com

LATER THIS MONTH: A short-lived romance between tennis players, a short-lived football league, and a long-remembered fight between two boxing greats