Cool Seahawks Shit Update: Super Bowl Champs!

Box.
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Cool Seahawks Shit

In honor of the Seahawks playing in today's Super Bowl, here's an assortment of memorabilia, memories, and other stuff dating back to their inaugural season, 1976, when I was seven. In many of my childhood photos I'm wearing Seahawks-branded jackets, sweatshirts, a beanie and a polo shirt. I also had a brass Seahawks belt buckle and a Steve Largent jersey, and probably some other things that I don't recall. I do recall having some other non-clothing items, like Seahawks drinking glasses from McDonald's (they all eventually broke) and a Seahawks gumball helmet (whereabouts unknown), and I still have my original 1976 pennant, though it's yellowed with age. That's it in above photo, along with most of my other Seahawks collection. I took that picture in 2006, the only other time Seattle made the Super Bowl.

The origin of the Seahawks logo was recently explored in this cool Burke Museum blog post; it includes the above graphic, which I distinctly remember seeing in the newspaper way back when.
Below is what the maiden '76 Topps Seahawks football cards looked like...

In March 1977, I saw Ron Howard (not Richie Cunningham, but the guy above) and some other Seahawks play a charity basketball game against the varsity squad at Kent-Meridian, where ten years later I'd graduate high school. That's me in my Seahawks windbreaker, having just gotten Steve Largent's autograph and zeroing in on the next guy...

As if one Largent autograph wasn't enough, I also sent the future Hall-of-Famer some fan mail, and got this in return...

Largent used to be my favorite Seahawk, before he went into politics to push his doucheball agenda. I never really adopted a new favorite Seahawk.
Here's a Polaroid of me with an unnamed Seagal cheerleader at the Seatac Mall Jafco, circa 1978. It was some promotional thing...

Also leading cheers was the first (and best) Seahawks mascot, who disappeared not long after his 1979 debut...

All along I've collected these Seahawks pocket schedules, my favorite being the '79 sked featuring original quarterback Jim Zorn...

The southpaw once made a personal appearance at my elementary school, driving up in his silver, Seahawk logo-adorned Datsun 280Z. Alas, he visited some classroom other than mine.
I don't own any of these media guides; I just found the images online and posted 'em to Flickr...

Also on Flickr is my set of Seattle athletes on the cover of Sports Illustrated; the first Seahawk wasn't so featured until Shaun Alexander's appearance in 2005...

This is my favorite Seahawks souvenir of the '80s, a perfect-bound book with lots of color photos...

Back when the Hawks made it to the Super Bowl in 2006, I wrote a blog post about the then-current Seahawks novelty songs. (There's far more such tunes this time around, but I didn't feel inspired to compile them.) Around the same time, we named one of our goldfish after the QB who led the Seahawks to Super Bowl XL: Matt Hasselbeck, 2006-2006. RIP, buddy...

Another thing I wrote was the trollish The 12th Man is Stupid. Sorry, but I still think it's lame that the team retired number 12. Here's part of a 1984 Seattle Times article I dug up at the library explaining the origin of this nonsense...

On a similar note, this recent 12th Man article in The Onion cracked me up...

Every time I see these clowns I think of this.
In anticipation of this year's Super Bowl, I picked up a few impulse souvenirs: a cool Seahawks cap (I quickly took a seam ripper to the dumb New Era logo on its side), a Super Bowl XLVIII program (found yesterday at Costco), and from Bartell, a Russell Wilson Lego-type guy...

Over the last couple weeks I've been working on this sweet 1980 latch hook kit I scored on eBay -- here's how it turned out, alongside the original box art...

All this Hawk talk got me to thinking about the actual games I've attended. They've gone 8-1 with me in the stands, either at the Kingdome (the first seven games listed below) or at their current stadium (the last two). Here are the results...

November 7, 1976 – Beat Atlanta, 30-13
October 2, 1977 – Lost to Denver, 24-12
November 18, 1979 – Beat New Orleans, 38-24
November 16, 1981 – Beat San Diego, 44-23
November 27, 1983 – Beat Kansas City, 51-48
September 9, 1984 – Beat San Diego, 31-17
December 2, 1984 – Beat Detroit 38-17
October 31, 2004 – Beat Carolina, 23-17
September 24, 2012 – Beat Green Bay, 14-12

Alright, that's it. Hopefully by the end of today, the Seahawks will have secured Seattle's first major pro sports championship since the Sonics won the NBA title 35 years ago. I have nothing left to say, except "Go Hawks!"
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Seattle's Sports Poster Boys

Over the summer, Manhattan gallery Salon 94 ran the exhibition For the Kids, displaying these once-ubiquitous, athlete-worshipping posters cranked out by West Seattle's Costacos brothers. John and Tock Costacos enjoyed early success selling "Purple Reign" T-shirts to Washington Husky football fans in the mid-'80s, before getting Seahawks star safety Kenny Easley to pose for their first poster as "The Enforcer." The Costacoses then convinced other star athletes to do the same, and by the time they sold their company in the mid-'90s, they had moved some 25 million posters featuring over 700 athletes. Their most popular poster was of Michael Jordan, selling 1.2 million copies. Probably the most popular poster here in the Emerald City celebrated notorious Seahawk flop Brian Bosworth (above).

The brothers initially didn't own licensing rights to display logos and game uniforms, so they instead relied on the color schemes of the subjects' respective teams, like the green and gold in this poster of Seattle SuperSonic Xavier McDaniel...

Nowadays these pre-Photoshop posters look pretty campy, with their garish colors and weird, non-ironic themes. However, for better or worse, they did help turn pro athletes into larger-than-life celebrities. Here's Giants-licensed hothead Kevin Mitchell (N.L. MVP in '89, the same year Tim Burton's Batman was released) before he joined the Mariners...

I never actually owned any of 'em -- I was more partial to Sports Illustrated's straightforward posters, like the one I had of Steve Garvey.
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More New Flickr Sets!

Media guides for the Seahawks and the Sonics.
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Seahawk Rock

I'm a sucker for those ephemeral, sports-themed novelty songs that pop up on the radio whenever a local team makes a playoff run (a rare thing in these parts). Like, when the Seahawks made the Super Bowl in 2006, I linked to eight such tunes here (though none of those links work now).

But don't fret! Here are a few new ones for this season, like "Blue and Green" by T.N.T. The Natural Truth with Smiley G, now playing on KUBE:



Over at KMPS you can listen to both "This Is Seahawks Football" (set to the tune of Brad Paisley's cloying "This Is Country Music") and "The Pete Carroll Carol" (set to the tune of "The Twelve Days of Christmas").

And that video at the top? That's the seminal "Locker Room Rock," performed by the 1985 Seahawks, released three months prior to the '85 Bears' far more popular Super Bowl Shuffle.

If the Seahawks beat them Bears this Sunday, there will certainly be more such songs -- stay tuned.
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Seahawks! Yeah!

Congrats to the Seattle Seahawks, who after making history last week as the first NFL team to make the playoffs with a losing record, yesterday knocked off the defending Super Bowl champs. Fantastic!

Also, I take back what I said about Matt Hasselbeck. Not only did he have a great game on Saturday, but he recently appeared on South Park (above), and we even named our fish after him.

Still, The 12th Man is Stupid.

Bring on the Bears or Falcons!
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The Art of Jack Davis!

Nice find yesterday at Value Village: a $1.99 copy of The Art of Jack Davis! Though his long-running career stretches back to the '30s, his illustrations were ubiquitous during his '70s prime, especially in Mad magazine...

Here's one of his many Mad Evel caricatures, some of which I put on my Knievel Comedy page...

He also did illustrations for other comics...

And magazines...

As well as advertising art...

Movie posters...

Album covers...

And other random stuff, like this Seahawk...

And some Bigfoot illustrations for the 1959 article "The Trail of the Sasquatch," which appeared in Canada's Weekend Magazine...

See lots more in this Jack Davis flickr set.
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Seahawks. Meh.

Congrats, I guess, to the Seattle Seahawks, who made history yesterday as the first NFL team to make the playoffs with a losing record. Fantastic.

I suppose it's kinda cool that Tim Lincecum (above) was at a Seahawks game earlier this year, though only to raise the 12th Man flag. Of course, The 12th Man is Stupid.

Also, Matt Hasselbeck sucks, as do these doucheballs.

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Now I've Seen Everything #11: Seattle Seahawks Forest Face

Worried that you're not showing enough team spirit?

Worried that your tree isn't showing enough team spirit?

Well, your worries are over, thanks to the creepy/stupid line of Forest Face, uh, tree accessories...

"Decorate your favorite tree with team spirit by showcasing this officially licensed team forest face. The weather resistant resin face features a cap that is adorned with the official team logo."

No wonder the the terrorists hate us.
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The Worst-Ever Year in Seattle Sports?

Perhaps. It's gotten to the point where Calvin feels the need to urinate on a Seahawk. Check it out:

Hawks: Off to a 1-5 start, last place in the NFC West.

Huskies: Off to an 0-6 start, tied with Washington State for last place in the Pac-10.

Mariners: Finished with a 61-101 record, last place in the AL West. Worst season in 25 years.

Thunderbirds: Moved to Kent.

Sonics: Moved to Oklahoma.
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