NFL Saturday football, some meaningful games, football stamps, Christmas cartoons, and Christmas cookies were some of the usual staples of mid-December.

This latest installment of my look back at YESTERDAY - a trip back in time to the late 1960s’, 70s’ and dipping into the early 80s’ - is a recollection of some of the more memorable events and pop-culture items of mid-Decembers.

Football Games and Stamps

... It always has been a real treat to watch the NFL on a December Saturday, when you knew Christmas was closing in fast. I remember watching games in the late 1970s and early 80s on TVs at malls and worrying about getting home in time to see the end of it.

Saturday football has its roots dating back to the early 1950s when television was a rising new product. The now-defunct DuMont Television Network signed a deal with the league to televise Saturday night games for three years in 1953.

There have been many Saturday games since then, especially since the NFL expanded to doubleheaders and tripleheaders, but of all those games one stands out to me as the most memorable and famous Saturday game. It occurred on Dec. 23, 1972 in a playoff between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Oakland Raiders.

The Steelers were trailing Oakland 7-6 with 22 seconds left and faced a fourth-and-10 on their own 40-yard line. Terry Bradshaw’s pass deflected off running back Frenchy Fuqua and Oakland safety Jack Tatum into the arms of rookie running back Franco Harris, who rambled down the sideline for the winning score with five seconds left.

To this day, the NFL has called it one of the league’s greatest and controversial plays in its history. Curt Gowdy and Al DeRogatis had the call on as I watched on my grandfather’s classic Zenith console with a remote that looked like a Star Trek laser.

Another Saturday game that stands out was when the Miami Dolphins finished an undefeated 14-game regular season on Dec. 16, 1972. They went on to finish 17-0 when they capped their season with a 14-7 win over Washington in Super Bowl VII. Allentown native Larry Seiple was the punter on that team - which to this day remains the only team to complete an entire season undefeated.

Speaking of 1972, Sunoco unveiled its NFL trading stamps that year. If you filled up your tank at Sunoco, you were given a book of NFL trading stamps with 12 offensive and defensive players from each team through the Super Bowl. If you were growing up at this time, you remember the huge popularity of those stamps.

You had to purchase the trading stamp book, and I still have my original book. I began recollecting the stamps online last year to complete my book.

Do the stamps juggle a memory for anyone?

My final Saturday football memory was of O.J. Simpson breaking Jim Brown’s season record of 1,863 yards and in the process becoming the first player to rush for 2,000 yards in a season. Simpson did that when he ran for exactly 200 yards against the New York Jets on a snow-covered Shea Stadium field on Dec. 16, 1973. Eric Dickerson later broke the mark, but Simpson set it in 14 games, while Dickerson had a 16-game regular season to set his mark.

Keepin’ It Real

... Roughly two weeks before Christmas was the traditional time to make Christmas cookies, and my aunt and grandmother were right in the thick of things. I have plenty of memories of seeing the floor, and dough spread across the kitchen table, and then sensing the aroma from the oven. When they were done, it was time to dig into a few while paging through the traditional Sears catalog for some thoughts about last-minute gift ideas to pass along to Santa.

Another prominent memory from early to mid-Decembers were the cartoon Christmas shows, many of which are still televised today. Rudolph and Frosty the Snowman made their rounds again last Saturday night.

We were mesmerized by the classics that still appear annually. Rudolph was the first as it made its debut in 1964, a Charlie Brown Christmas followed in 1965, and Frosty was first televised in 1969.

Santa Claus Is Coming to Town premiered on this date in 1970, and one of my favorites - The Year Without A Santa Claus - debuted in 1974. The Heat Miser lives on.

Johnny Lightning

... With the recent passing of Al Unser, Johnny Lightning was back in the spotlight.

Johnny Lightning miniature, diecast cars were a sleak, sporty alternate version to the traditional Matchbox cars. A classic set was the “500 Track Set,” in which there was a small hill the cars could descend or climb onto a track.

Unser won the 1970 and 1971 Indy 500 with his “Johnny Lightning Special.”

On This Date

... In 1977, Saturday Night Fever, with new star John Travolta, opened in theaters. Eleven years earlier in 1966, “Batman,” which always featured an array of guest stars, welcomed Chad and Jeremy and Do Ho to the set.

Finally in 1968, Tommy James and the Shondells released “Crimson & Clover.” I never understood what the song was about until I was older.

Simon Says

... Making its debut at the Studio 54 nightclub in New York in 1978, “Simon” - the electronic memory skill game in which you hit the colored sections when they beep - quickly made an impression with adults and found itself hastily added to many holiday wish lists. That winter, several stores reported a “Simon” shortage, and long lines of people hoping for a new shipment. One store reportedly sold more than 1,000 in just five days.

Closing Thought ... Enjoy your football, cookies, and shopping as the holidays rapidly approach.