I've seen a lot of Super Bowl games - in fact, all of them!  One stands out, not because of the game itself, but because of the stunt we pulled on one of our best customers. 

It was Super Bowl XVIII - Raiders vs Redskins. The Redskins were heavy favorites.  Our customer, Kurt Anderson, who owned an auto parts store in Coos Bay, OR was a huge Redskins fan.  I was a huge Raiders fan. I was in Chicago the week before the game, but we traded barbs by phone throughout the week.

The Redskins offensive line was humongous for the times (not by today's standards), and were known as the "hogs".  They were supposed to dominate the line of scrimmage.

On the Thursday before the game, Carol called me in Chicago to tell me there was a huge hogs head in the meat department at McKay's Market in Eugene and suggested I find a way to use it as a "gotcha" for Kurt.  I told her to go buy it and we'd figure something out.

I had our director of sales, Don Norberg, pack ice around the hogs head and drive it to Coos Bay.  He was meeting one of our salesman, Denny Erb.

Early Friday morning Don and Denny placed the hog's head on the ground at Kurt's front door with a sign that said, "Raiders Slaughter Hogs."  They waited across the street to watch Kurt open his store.  They said his reaction was priceless.  When  he looked in the box he jumped back and then looked up and down the street several times.

When they made their sales call he kept saying over and over, "That damned Trautman.  I'm gonna get even."  How could I be accused?  I was in Chicago.

For the record the final score was Raiders 38 - Redskins 9.

I didn't call Kurt and rub it in.  Fun is fun, but...

Enjoy Super Bowl XLII

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Chuck