Today, I am going old school with this post. Maybe I am going old school buddy with this post.
In 1980, the Seattle Seahawks were still relatively new to the NFL. They finished at 4-12. Three of my favorite Seahawks were Jim Zorn (QB), Steve Largent (WR) and Dan Doornink (FB). Largent was just beginning his Hall of Fame career. Zorn was in the middle of an underrated career. Doornink was pretty early in his solid career.
The Bears finished 1980 at 7-9. Walter Payton was the offense. Dan Hampton and Mike Singletary were at the beginning of the HOF careers.
Meanwhile on the far south side of Chicago, Tom Skalski and I were struggling our way through our first year at Mt. Carmel high school. Tom and I always fooled around with artwork. In grade school, we often drew covers for our book reports. It was more for our amusement than for the grade.
I don't remember what prompted it, but Tom gave me a drawing he made of my favorite Seahawks. Recently while reorganizing my closets (and boxes of stuff), i came across the picture. It has held up well for being 30 years old.
It brought back a lot of good memories. I thought about my friendship with Tom (with whom I recently reconnected). I also thought about my youthful interest in football. The Bears were terrible, but I loved them regardless. I loved seeing my favorites return year after year (there was no free agency back then).
Isn't it cool how one simple drawing could produce many great emotions thirty years later? I probably like it more now than I did then.
As the teams face each other today, I'll be thinking of Zorn, Largent, Doornink, Tom Skalski, my youth, my Bears and who knows what else. It's all good.
Seattle Seahawks artwork by Tom Skalski (c) 1980
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