Bengal Bill And The Freezer Bowl
Memories From A Fan When The Bengals And Chargers Played In Frigid AFC Championship 40 Years Ago
On January 10, 1982, 46, 302 souls risked life and limb in sub-zero temperatures at Riverfront Stadium, to witness the AFC Championship game between the Cincinnati Bengals and the San Diego Chargers.
“Bengal Bill” was one of those souls.
I never caught Bengal Bill’s last name, and I have no idea whatever happened to him. In fact, I only met with him a dozen or so times in the late 1990s when I was running a local youth community center. He was a man I crossed paths with decades ago, sharing a lifelong fandom for the Cincinnati Bengals.
I have never forgotten him.
He occasionally stopped into the center on his way home from a trip to a local corner market. On each visit, he’d have a still wrapped pack of smokes in his mechanics shirt pocket, and a case of Pabst Blue Ribbon in his arms. He’d set the beer on my desk in my office, which was next to the gym floor, and crack one open before I could tell him it wasn’t really a good idea to drink a beer in the youth center.
Bill, probably in his 50s, worked at a garage. He always smelled of Old Spice and Valvoline and looked exactly how you think someone who smelled of Old Spice and Valvoline in his 50s would look. At our first encounter, he told me his name was Bengal Bill by flashing his gold chain with a cursive “Bengal Bill” pendant which he informed me was a gift from his ex-wife. Occasionally, a rogue basketball would bounce to where we were talking and he’d chuck it at the basket, telling me of his glory days as a high school basketball star. Sometimes he’d tell one of the kids on the court that if they didn’t behave, he’d “tell his Mama they needed a butt-kickin.”
Bengal Bill, as the moniker suggests, was a walking Cincinnati Bengals encyclopedia. He could recite scores and players like it was on a teleprompter in front of him. It was incredible.
He informed me at one time he had season tickets, but lost them in a card game in the the back room of a strip club on Monmouth St. in Newport, KY (which again, is absolutely something that a guy in his 50s that smells of Old Spice and Valvoline, wearing a Bengals Bill pendant would do).
One particularly frigid winter day, Bengal Bill stopped in with his beer and smokes and a story.
He asked me if I was old enough to remember the Freezer Bowl. I told him I was. I was 7 years old and on the floor of our living room, inches from the TV set, begging my Mom to let me and the brothers go outside at halftime to throw the old pigskin around. She wasn’t having it. Rightfully so.
Bengal Bill said that the temperature was “like negative 70 or something” ( it was actually negative 54, but after negative 50, does it really matter?)
He told me how he kept warm by wrapping paper towels around his feet and arms and that it worked for a bit, but by the 2nd quarter, he couldn’t feel anything except the whiskey that he smuggled into the stadium.
When he ran out of whiskey, he convinced another fan to sell him his flask for $20.
“It was still full too”, Bengal Bill exclaimed.
He went on to recite the stats of the game, which I took his word for since I didn’t have access on the spot to fact check in those days. He described how some fans left early when the shadows started creeping into the stadium. He called them a name I won’t type, but you can probably guess. I shot him a look, and he apologized for his “Navy language” which he says he is trying to stop using so much.
Bengal Bill says that in the days leading up to the big game, there was talk by then NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle and other league officials to postpone the contest. They consulted Dr. Ralph Goldman of the U.S. Army. He made several recommendations to both clubs, one of which was for players to change socks and uniforms at halftime. The Chargers did so. The Bengals did not. In fact, all of the lineman, as well as fullback Pete Johnson, decided to forgo long sleeves. A decision based not upon science, but intimidation according to Bengal Bill.
But you didn’t need science to tell you that it was ridiculously cold that day. The images that TV stations displayed showed you all you needed to know. The air could be seen, and shots of the river looked like stock footage from the Artic Circle.
The Bengals head coach Forrest Gregg addressed the team before the game, telling them that “it is like going to the dentist…you will have some pain, but you have to go out there and do it.”
Only one “weather related” injury was reported, and that was Bengals defensive end Eddie Edwards, who suffered a frostbitten right ear.
Bengal Bill also told me that it was the greatest game he ever went to.
I asked him how that could be, considering the elements.
He smiled and cracked open a Pabst Blue Ribbon.
“Winning made it bearable. It was for the Super Bowl! The place went crazy! And If we would have lost, I wouldn’t have even told you I was there.”
I hope wherever Bengal Bill is, that he still watches the games.
And that he still has his Bengal Bill pendant.
Quite a character. Your vivid description of the day made me shiver!