A Letter from the Publisher: Jan. 27, 1986

After covering the past 16 Super Bowls, Sport Writer Tom Callahan qualifies as an expert on America's football classic. To get a unique perspective on these near mythic contests, as well as round out his cover stories on the mighty Chicago Bears as they head into Super Bowl XX against the New England Patriots, Callahan compiled vignettes on 19 former participants, one from each game. For some, Super Sunday has receded in memory as just another day on the job; for others, it has made the rest of life anticlimactic. Taken together, says Callahan, their tales convey "a feeling for the many roads that lead away from that game."

Rounding up photographs of these old Boys of Autumn proved to be a daunting task for Picture Researcher MaryAnne Golon. "Finding historical shots from the games themselves was practically impossible, since many of the men Tom talked to did not play starring roles on those days," she says. "So we decided to take pictures of them in the jerseys they wore in the Super Bowls." Easier said than done, however. Former Minnesota Viking Alan Page of Super Bowl XI, now a special assistant to the Minnesota attorney general, and former Los Angeles Ram Fred Dryer of Super Bowl XIV, now an actor on the TV series Hunter, were not interested in re-creating their gridiron days. "I appealed to Dryer's sportsmanship and persuaded Page by telling him to pretend he was being photographed for the Pro Football Hall of Fame," says Golon.

Others could not come up with the requisite team jerseys. Former New York Jet Johnny Sample of Super Bowl III was unable to find his, and even the team could not help out: today's Jets jerseys are designed differently from those of 17 years ago. Golon finally had to commission a sporting-goods firm to make up a facsimile of a 1969 jersey.

Golon's biggest challenge, and only partial disappointment, was former Miami Dolphin Mercury Morris of Super Bowl VIII, now serving a 15-to-20-year prison sentence on drug charges in Florida. "To get approval for a picture session in the Dade County correctional institution, I had to phone the head of the Florida state department of corrections, the penitentiary superintendent and Morris' lawyer, many of them several times," she says. "Four hours before the shoot they decided we could take the pictures, but Morris couldn't wear the jersey." Though the prison permitted Photographer Red Morgan to cart in lights, cameras and pounds of paraphernalia, Morris' jersey was deemed to be contraband. To authorities, apparently, Morris is no longer No. 22. He is No. 088586.

Richard B. Jhonas