Will Turning Point USA be turning back the clock on Super Bowl Sunday February 8?
In announcing plans to host an alternative to the Apple Music show featuring the artist “Bad Bunny,” the Charlie Kirk founded-organization has pledged to produce a program that focuses on faith, family and freedom.
For those old enough to remember, that mixture sounds a whole lot like the big game’s early halftime extravaganzas.
The first Super Bowl on January 15, 1967 featured a matchup between the NFL’s Green Bay Packers and the AFLs Kansas City Chiefs. The spectacle was the brainchild of NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle and Chiefs’ owner Lamar Hunt. Plans to merge the leagues in 1970 was to be preceded by an annual championship game between the rival league’s two best teams.
Over 63,000 fans packed the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in Los Angeles to watch the game and millions more tuned in on television. A headline in Monday’s New York Times following the game declared, “Husbands Stare and Wives Glare; City’s Males Spend Day at TV Sets at Home, in Bars.”
It seems the more times change, the more some things remain the same.
The Times didn’t report on anything related to the halftime show, but the festivities between the second and third quarters was impressive and wholesome. Shows of this nature originated during college games in the late 1800s. They were designed to entertain the crowds while the players were getting a breather – and undoubtedly encourage fans to buy food and drink from the concession stands.
The 1967 show featured an event titled “Super Sights and Sounds” – a music concert, of sorts, featuring the marching bands of the University of Arizona and Grambling State University. The trumpeter Al Hirt played, and a large 200-member choir sang. In addition, fueled by a hydrogen peroxide propellant, the “Bell Rocket Air Men” flew into the stadium. In a final flourish, 10,000 balloons and 300 pigeons were released into the Southern California skies.
Not surprisingly, both the crowds in the Coliseum and those watching at home were mesmerized by the performances. It was the equivalent of receiving a buy-one-get-one free offer, a double feature. Viewers came for the game but also received the blessing and bonus of the entertaining extra show.
Environmentalists would likely squawk at the prospect of releasing so many balloons into the atmosphere and PETA might object to letting so many pigeons fly the coup. The same critics of the balloon release might not like the expulsion of jet fuel, but marching bands would still pass muster with everyone.
Turning Point USA has been mum on specifics of their upcoming show, but Christian artist Forrest Frank and worship leader Cory Asbury who proposed the idea are expected to participate. Other notables who have stepped forward and offered to appear and perform include Candace Cameron Bure, Colton Dixon, Breanna Nix, Tauren Wells and Phil Wickham.
Maybe TPUSA will invite the University of Arizona and Grambling State University marching bands back for an encore performance – or dip into the talent of numerous other bands at Christian colleges.
The group is inviting interested viewers to vote on the musical genre of their choice here.
The rise of poor taste Super Bowl halftime shows has correlated with the deterioration and decline of culture overall. Families, especially those with young children, have grown weary of having to watch the big game within quick reach of the remote in the event of an offensive advertisement. They’ve grown accustomed to turning off the game at the half and turning to something else for the next thirty or so minutes. Thanks to Turning Point USA that “something else” promises to be family friendly. Perhaps interest and response will serve as a “turning point” for future Super Bowl halftime show production.
Image from Getty.
