'Marching On' after JFK

Roger Staubach is Mike Brown's hero.

Nothing strange about that. Roger Staubach was/is a hero to men and at least one woman of a certain age.

Mike's wife, Paula,  (full disclosure: she's my cousin) recognized Staubach in an airport a few years ago.

"You're too young to know who I am!" he said.

"He's my hero, too!" Paula jokes.

We throw that word hero around like yesterday's garbage, but Staubach and Rollie Stichweh fit the bill.

Staubach, you may know, was a Navy cadet, Heisman winner, quarterback of the Midshipmen's great football teams of the early 1960s. Stichweh was an Army cadet, the Black Knights of the Hudson general, between the gridiron lines anyway, or at least coach Paul Dietzel's aide-de-camp.

They shouldn't be friends. They are best buds.

And, one incredible late fall day in Philly, they and their teams created a national catharsis, one it needed, oh, did it ever, after Lee Harvey Oswald blasted away America's perceived innocence that dark Friday in Dallas.

This friendship, that game, that moment, is the subject of a new CBS Sports documentary, "Marching On." Holy cow.

The abbreviated summary of the game is that Army had the ball within two yards of the goal line with seconds left and a chance to win. Stichweh called for a time out. Loud crowd.

He'd gotten two. He didn't get the one he needed. Navy won. "Anchor's Aweigh!"

With fitting irony, No. 2 Navy went to Dallas to play No. 1 Texas at the Cotton Bowl. Stampeded by the Longhorns that day despite passing for nearly 300 yards, Staubach returned to Dallas a few years later to play for Tom Landry.

How 'bout that?

Read this article by George Vecsey. Look for the documentary on CBS Sports Network.

It was a different era. Coaches wore coats and ties and sometimes fedoras. Cadets (even quarterbacks) wore crew cuts and said, "It's my fault, sir." Too many of the latter didn't come home from Southeast Asia.

On  Dec. 7, 1963, two quarterbacks stood tall -- one victorious on the field, the other victorious in the quality of his character.

They're best of buds. Holy cow.

Tell you what, Mike. I'll take Rollie Stichweh in honor of U.S. Army veteran Larry Gregory Mabe, and we'll watch the Army/Navy game together next year.

Nov. 22, 1963

Today is the 47th anniversary of the day that President John Fitzgerald Kennedy was assassinated by LEE HARVEY OSWALD in Dallas, Texas.

I'll get into a diatribe about all these "conspiracy theories" another time, but in remembrance today, here is a link to the first of a fascinating series of YouTube videos that airs the CBS broadcast day for Nov. 22, 1963, beginning with the episode of "As the World Turns" that was being broadcast live at 1:30 p.m. (Eastern), almost the exact moment that Kennedy was shot.

Just to show you how much technology has improved, the reason you only hear Walter Cronkite in the first few announcements is because he was waiting for the CBS news cameras to warm up!

The first video can be found here.

'Suddenly': Sinatra as assassin

I love a good, old-fashioned, black and white B movie.

Came across a classic such flick on TCM last week. Watched it last night when I couldn't sleep. You're not going to believe this one.

The picture is called "Suddenly." Released in 1954, the thriller focuses on a gang of assassins that plans to kill the president of the United States when his train stops in the sleepy town of Suddenly, Calif. Standing in the way is straight-shootin' local sheriff Tod Shaw, played by Sterling Hayden, and the Benson family --- an aging ex-Secret Service agent, his widowed daughter-in-law and her eight-year-old son.

Guess who the leader of the cut-throats is --- the guy who plans to pop the prez? Why, it's none other than Ol' Blue Eyes himself.

Released fresh on the heels of his Oscar-winning "comeback" role as Maggio in "From Here to Eternity," the two films are the high water mark of Sinatra's movie career. Sinatra's take on would-be presidential assassin John Baron may be his best.

I didn't think I was going to like the film at first. Hayden's acting was incredibly wooden. Most of the other actors are downright terrible. But Hayden grows on you and Sinatra is simply brilliant.

Sinatra had a knack for playing little guys with big chips on their shoulders. His performance here is better than the one that won him the Academy Award.

TCM host Robert Osborne delivered a delicious gem after the final credits. He said that Sinatra was horrified to learn that John F. Kennedy's assassin Lee Harvey Oswald reportedly watched "Suddenly" in 1963, days before killing the president in Dallas. As a result, he had this film and "The Manchurian Candidate," another Sinatra picture revolving around presidential assassinations, yanked from distribution.

No historical evidence exists to prove that Oswald watched the film that November and a spirited debate at the Internet Movie Database questions whether "Suddenly" was even ever pulled from distribution. But "Manchurian Candidate" was taken out of circulation following Kennedy's death and wasn't seen again for nearly 30 years.

All that aside, "Suddenly" is worth a look if for no other reason than Frank Sinatra's chilling portrayal of a presidential assassin.

Look for the film on the late show, or buy it on DVD.