Yesterday, during our annual hunt through the garage for the Christmas lights, we made an amazing discovery that, due to its uncanny timing, is still giving me goose bumps.
Folded into an old high school athletic program and tucked on top of a cardboard box lay a yellowed Green Bay Press Gazette very specifically dated November 23, 1963 noon — five months before I was born.
The historic special edition covered President Kennedy’s assassination and we found the paper almost exactly 50 years after it happened.
Freaky, right?
Half a century later, the paper stands as both a testament to that brutal day and a tribute to a team of reporters, editors and photographers, reeling themselves from the awful news, who covered every angle.
Sports reporter Art Daley interviewed the five Texans on the Packer roster, who each expressed a particular horror that the assassination had taken place Dallas. More than 800 University of Wisconsin fans heard the news while riding a train from Madison to Minnesota for a football game that ended up being postponed until Thanksgiving Day.
In a move Commissioner Pete Rozelle calls the biggest regret of his career, NFL games went on as scheduled. “It has been traditional in sports for athletes to play in times of great personal tragedy,” he said, according to my yellowed copy of the Press Gazette. “Football was Mr. Kennedy’s game. He thrived on competition.”
High school basketball games went on as scheduled and were covered accordingly, with Green Bay West edging Preble 60-59 and earning the top story and feature photo.
Wisconsin Governor John Reynolds called for 30 days of mourning and all area schools announced they would be closed on Monday, November 25.
In the weeks leading up to the 50th anniversary of President Kennedy’s assassination, Molly and I watched with fascination the steady stream of documentaries we found on television. We’ve read books and discussed articles we found online. Imagine how astounded we were to discover our very own piece of Kennedy history right in our garage.
You have a piece of history for your family for generations to come. How would you preserve this?
I’ve been thinking about that. I may store it in a poster frame. Any ideas?
http://www.mnhs.org/preserve/conservation/reports/nytimes_preserving.pdf
http://www.historybuff.com/newspapers/preserve.html
Hi again., I found these articles online. I hope they are helpful. Charu
Oh wow! Thanks!