Following Giants BEFORE internet

is the site in the early days...

box full of my old Giants Insiders and Giants Newsweekly's from the 1980s and 1990s. I would love reading their draft previous and wrap ups. Getting pictures of the draft picks was amazing since we didn't have any quick way of looking up players. The camp reports were invaluable.

In comment 14341308 Matt in SGS said:

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box full of my old Giants Insiders and Giants Newsweekly's from the 1980s and 1990s. I would love reading their draft previous and wrap ups. Getting pictures of the draft picks was amazing since we didn't have any quick way of looking up players. The camp reports were invaluable.

I kept mine for a decade at my folk's house. I eventually said, "I'm never going to look at these again" and tossed them. I kind of wish I kept them but they would just be collecting dust.

So growing up in the 80s and early 90s it was The Star Ledger and Asbury Park Press. The Ledger was far superior. And The Sporting News as well. Additionally watching the local NY news sports segments, such as Warner Wolf, Len Bergman, some dude on WOR channel 9.

We also received some publication a few times per year, maybe Giants Touchdown or something? It was trifold on glossy paper, that’s pretty much all I remember. Other than being really psyched when it arrived as it was dedicated to the Giants.

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watermark stamp. Very 90s.

Married with Children?

In comment 14341318 O Butter Giants 2019 said:

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watermark stamp. Very 90s. Married with Children?

Never realized the Married with Children influence there. Ha

back then.

were out of town and wanted to watch sports highlights, you had to wait until George Michael's Sports Machine came on late Sunday night.

that Dave Klien put out? Was that the Giants Newsweekly? My Father subscribed to that (maybe one of the 15 people that did) and I remember reading that in the early 80's

In comment 14341322 Eric from BBI said:

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were out of town and wanted to watch sports highlights, you had to wait until George Michael's Sports Machine came on late Sunday night.

I loved the Sports Machine. Check this baby out on YouTube from 1986.
https://youtu.be/VjHAEGGszkw - ( New Window )

In comment 14341324 kennyd said:

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that Dave Klien put out? Was that the Giants Newsweekly? My Father subscribed to that (maybe one of the 15 people that did) and I remember reading that in the early 80's

It was either Extra or Newsweekly. It went out of business right after everyone sent in their annual dues and they didn't refund the money. Klein is a bit of sore subject with old timers.

LOL... I forgot his obsession with pro wrestling.

In comment 14341328 Eric from BBI said:

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In comment 14341324 kennyd said: Quote: that Dave Klien put out? Was that the Giants Newsweekly? My Father subscribed to that (maybe one of the 15 people that did) and I remember reading that in the early 80's It was either Extra or Newsweekly. It went out of business right after everyone sent in their annual dues and they didn't refund the money. Klein is a bit of sore subject with old timers.

Oh, I know! My father HATED him after he ripped him off. I remember numerous letter being written to him. His was not a name allowed to be mentioned in my house. I'm 99% sure it was Giants newsweekly. God, it feels like we're talking about the guttenburg printing press compared to today's connectivity where we get alerts of any news on our phones in seconds.

I remember getting the Giants publications and following the ticker on ESPN was a big deal for me. I remember starting to use the internet around 95 and I started searching the Giants and stumbed upon the big blue homepage and big blue wrecking crew. Changed my life. BBWC is gone but I’ve been checking BBI virtually every day of
My life since 95-96. Crazy

that would make you one of the originals.

was Big Blue Wrecking Crew and found BBI from a link on that site.

Giants and Yankee fan right in the middle of Red Sox territory.....

I would go to the local store, "Chet's Smoke Shop", to look at the weekend NY newspapers....if there were some good articles on the Giants/Yankees, I would buy it....

Quick story:

One day, years later, I go into the store and this guy bumps me on the way out, and I say, "Hey, watch where you are going!"

The guy said, "Sorry."

After he leaves, there were about 6 guys just hanging around in there, and they bust out laughing.....I asked what was so funny?

They said, "You just ran into Joe Namath!"

He ran a football camp up at nearby Nichol's College for a few years....

Indeed. Big part of my life.

all of those Giants publications, my Dad subscribed to a few. In terms of BBI, I didn’t register for years, but would check this site constantly for the latest updates during free agency. I specifically remember the 2005 free agency period looking to see if we signed Pierce and McKenzie after their dinners with the Giants (back when teams really courted free agents). And then hoping we would sign Plaxico, which thank god we did.

My mom would tape the games and mail them to me and cut out articles.. we also had the dave Klein newsletter

In comment 14341341 Doomster said:

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Giants and Yankee fan right in the middle of Red Sox territory..... I would go to the local store, "Chet's Smoke Shop", to look at the weekend NY newspapers....if there were some good articles on the Giants/Yankees, I would buy it.... Quick story: One day, years later, I go into the store and this guy bumps me on the way out, and I say, "Hey, watch where you are going!" The guy said, "Sorry." After he leaves, there were about 6 guys just hanging around in there, and they bust out laughing.....I asked what was so funny? They said, "You just ran into Joe Namath!" He ran a football camp up at nearby Nichol's College for a few years....

In the early 1990s I was dating a girl from Clifton and we went to a party. I didn't know anyone there and ended up hanging out with this guy, mostly talking football. Of course, I was waxing on like some sort of expert. My girlfriend comes back into the room, she hears us talking football, and she says, "Aren't you the guy who plays for the Steelers?" I was like, "What? Trying to figure out who this guy could be? The kicker? Punter? I said, "Who are you?" He responded, "Neil O'Donnell." (And here I was trying to come off as some sort of expert).

Long story short...he was a really cool guy. He was pissed at Parcells because Parcell told him the Giants would draft him.

all we had was the Stars and Stripes. And sometime it was a week or two outdated.

the 80s were great. I miss those times and thinking I was cool because I was the first on my street to have NES.

In comment 14341298 Eric from BBI said:

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was the guy who saved the site. He ran an internet firm in Albany and offered to host the site. He is the guy who renamed it BBI (he wanted to emphasize the "interactive" nature of the site). He developed the Forum. Before then, there was no bulletin board, just a "Letters to the Editor" section. Looking back, it was comical.

yeah, but it was a lifesaver for me. i was living in England for a couple of years where an abridged version of USA Today came out twice a week - it was literally about a dozen pages, maybe 3 pages of sports. Somestimes I'd go into London and buy a U.S. paper (like NY Times). But that was always published a day later in the UK. So you can imagine how amazing BBI and Pete's Corner was for me.

How about following them before TV? I know there are other guys here my age and older. I was born in '49. Listened to Giants on a transistor radio, read about them in Post, Daily News and Mirror. Probably heard some Giants stuff during the week on Bill Mazer.

updates scores.

Training camp and practices during the week were covered by local sports casts at night (like Warner Wolf), and by the newspapers the next day. For details of all the other games we'd pour over the sports page Monday morning, and watch the highlights on Monday night football.

Living in NY we'd get all the Giants games, and see the score tickers come up for other games, but there was no Direct TV or ESPN to track things on.

In a lot of ways it was better.

I was a seasonal fan. I started following in 1984. I read the NY Daily News and NYPost. My favorite TV recap was the George Michael Sports Machine. The internet very much helped make me a year round fan, BBI in particular, got me interested in free agency and the draft.

In comment 14341370 Bill in UT said:

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How about following them before TV? I know there are other guys here my age and older. I was born in '49. Listened to Giants on a transistor radio, read about them in Post, Daily News and Mirror. Probably heard some Giants stuff during the week on Bill Mazer.

"Stuff that happened before I was born doesn't matter"

Heh. Just kidding!

My first Giants memories were 1956. The championship game was not on local tv; I remember listening to the game on the transistor radio not believing Johny Unitas would drive the team down the field to beat the Giants. In those days, only away games were on tv. It took years until home games were available also.

I lived in Germany, listened to NFL broadcasts on radio on the The Armed Forces Network, Westwood One radio. Around 94, I saw NYG play a live pre season game in Berlin, Germany against the San Diego Chargers.

In my youth we had these New York city papers

New York Times
Herald-Tribune
Journal-American
World-Telegram & Sun
Daily News
Daily Mirror
New York Post
Plus your local papers in my case
Greenwich Times
Stamford Advocate

And then I moved to Wisconsin in 1971 and sometimes we had access to the New York Times at Milwaukee newstands. And then some MBA type at the New York Times decided we would no longer get a New York version of the New York Times. Instead it was printed in Chicago minus any New York local news or local sports coverage. That must have went on for several years. Fortunately, today I get the New York Times delivered to my driveway each morning in Wisconsin with all the local New York and sports news.

I remember all the different Giant weekly newspapers (Klein was the best) and even one on mimeograph paper in the 1980s.

Inside Football was the best source of information. It was not a newspaper, it came in a regular envelope in the mail, but it was well done. We used to hang out with "The Editor" (his name escapes me) at training camp at Pace. The Giant's Newsweekly was in a newspaper format. The paper did indeed go out of business. Eventually they changed to an online format which is still around today. Back in the day, we used Street & Smith's Pro Football for our draft analysis. This was handy since, according to reports, it is also what the Giants scouting department used for their draft analysis. HA!

In comment 14341381 Samiam said:

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My first Giants memories were 1956. The championship game was not on local tv; I remember listening to the game on the transistor radio not believing Johny Unitas would drive the team down the field to beat the Giants. In those days, only away games were on tv. It took years until home games were available also.

Motels on LI, in NJ and Conn made out very well renting rooms for a few hours to rowdy Giant fans. Living in Brooklyn, we made the LI trip

everyday. When i grew up in Brooklyn, Pro football was struggling. There were teams in NYC named after the baseball teams the Giants( my teams in football and baseball) the Dodgers and the Yankees. The Giants of course were in the NFL and the others were in the American something or other. The Giants survived and got some players from each of the others.

I basically left the East coast when I was drafted during Vietnam and trying to get Giant football news was a major difficulty but a major part of my life until Eric began this and the BBWC was on the net.

Inside Football was begun and was written for years by the “Professor”, a professor of literature at by then I think Pace University had been hired as a stringer for training camp by NYTimes and went on to develop the newsletter that continues to this day edited by Pat T. Inside football published monthly in the off-season, and weekly during the season was my lifeline for years. It was really the only source of Giant news and it was also terrific..
I was the kind of Giant fan who during preseason would get into the car at night if the Giants were playing anywhere I might get reception and tried to get to a high spot and roam the AM dial looking for a broadcast almost always to no avail.

The NYTimes was a poor source of information, my father said they were Jets oriented after Giants moved to NJ. I used to have my mother try and cut out info from the Post or News and send it to me. Not a very good idea as she, never a sports fan, had trouble telling football from baseball.

Eric changed it all. I had all the information at my fingertips several times a day. Pete's was OK and there was almost no animosity, but the “corner” is the “grail”. I am a happy camper. I never thought I would live to see my Giants in a Super bowl, I have seen Five with Four wins. Life is good and I am on the site more than I should be.

Thank you Eric, thank you Mara family for giving me great emotion, ups and downs, basically great diversion from the drudge and grime of what everyday life is frequently about.

my daily reading was the Daily News, Star Ledger, and The Post. I also got the Sporting News and was excited for The National when I started college. I had high hopes for Deford’s vision.

I can’t recall the players name, I think he was a defensive lineman for the Vikings, but I called WFAN to ask if the Vikings matched our offer sheet. When they said no, I was really excited that we seemingly won the battle to acquire a player. Stupidly, I thought GY had finally figured the free agency market out...

was the print version of BBI and my Giants bible in the day.

In comment 14341311 Eric from BBI said:

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In comment 14341308 Matt in SGS said: Quote: box full of my old Giants Insiders and Giants Newsweekly's from the 1980s and 1990s. I would love reading their draft previous and wrap ups. Getting pictures of the draft picks was amazing since we didn't have any quick way of looking up players. The camp reports were invaluable. I kept mine for a decade at my folk's house. I eventually said, "I'm never going to look at these again" and tossed them. I kind of wish I kept them but they would just be collecting dust.

I did the same. I tossed them when I moved to Florida.

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so not too removed from the OP. Grew up in awe of LT myself. To answer your question, I watched other sports back then (i.e. baseball and basketball) and didn't follow anything in the off-season. Now I don't watch anything but Pro Football so I'm glad for the internet and what it's become. It's still a much slower time of year though.

I remember the early years of WFAN. They had an obnoxious host in the afternoon slot named Pete Franklin. Mike and the Mad Dog was a big improvement.

I was a lurker for years.
I only joined during the 2004 legendary offseason.
I had to participate in that predraft frenzy.

I barely ever listened to sports radio, and that was mostly for baseball. But I hung on every Giants article in the Times. Some summers I was at sleep-away camp, and my dad would clip articles and send them to me - those were always the best mail I got from home.

We used to get it when we moved to Florida. Had everything game reviews. Draft breakdowns. Luckily,with the giant satellite discs(they were really complicated then) a local bar had one and guy was giants fan and we watched games. But even then he would play other games so we did not get to see all of them.

In comment 14341395 sphinx said:

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In comment 14341381 Samiam said: Quote: My first Giants memories were 1956. The championship game was not on local tv; I remember listening to the game on the transistor radio not believing Johny Unitas would drive the team down the field to beat the Giants. In those days, only away games were on tv. It took years until home games were available also. Motels on LI, in NJ and Conn made out very well renting rooms for a few hours to rowdy Giant fans. Living in Brooklyn, we made the LI trip

That's great. My father would tell me about when he, my uncle and a cousin would go to a motel in Connecticut on Sunday afternoons. I can only imagine the reaction of the person working the front desk when they checked in.

and the post. I subscribed to a newsletter at some point too, but I don't remember the name of it.

the Star Ledger for me. I'd also listen to WIP to learn aboutvm the enemy. Star Ledger also reported on Philly sports.

In comment 14342567 St. Jimmy said:

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the Star Ledger for me. I'd also listen to WIP to learn aboutvm the enemy. Star Ledger also reported on Philly sports.

Actually it was the Trenton Times, not the Star Ledger.

Coffee in a greek theme cup.

Cigs. Slightly hung over. Reading who got drafted.