Hutch's football poster

[mortmere]

The football poster on Hutch's door has always baffled me (read: I've never liked it). Why does he have a poster of George Andrie, #66, a defensive end for the Dallas Cowboys, ruining the otherwise beautiful decor?

Apparently Hutch likes football enough to own a ball (seen on the top shelf of his cupboard in ”The Fix” and in his car in ”JoJo”) and to make that drunken offer in ”Starsky's Lady” to play it professionally, but still... The poster just looks so out of place among his neatly framed art posters and photographs.



The poster is a late development: it only appears there in the latter half of S3 (”Murder One”), but then stays there until the end. Before that, the door was happily undecorated.

What can we learn about the poster itself? Any clues as to why it's there?

Andrie's football career ended in 1972 (due to bad back – does Hutch sympathize?). He was with Dallas Cowboys when they won the 1971 NFL season. The other players in the poster are wearing the American Conference's Pro Bowl uniforms from 1971-1972. (One of them might be a Norwegian from Kansas City Chiefs, Jan Stenerud.) These would've been some guys Andrie played against in the Pro Bowl, if he played in that game. Though if he played, he'd have been wearing a different uniform - let me say, the content of this poster makes less and less sense the more I learn about it!) 

Anyway, the above details date the poster to around 1972. 

Where has Hutch been hiding it for six years?

The most interesting detail, though, and reason I ended up writing this post is SHOES: this poster seems to be as much about Adidas football shoes as it is about a specific football player or team. I noticed only recently that those shoes on the right bottom corner are not on anyone's feet – they are two different left-foot shoes, placed there like in an advertisement. (After some completely unnecessary research, I'd say the one on the right is a "University" football shoe, and the other one is a ”Turf Streak” football shoe.) 

The #66 on the poster is prominent, but nothing on the poster says what it was primarily for, and I guess we'll never know what is the main reason it appeals to Hutch: the game, the players, the team, or the shoe brand? 

I'm warming to the poster's presence now, though. It reminds me of another sports poster that doesn't seem to have particular significance to its owner: Starsky's Speedo poster that is seen at least in ”Gillian” and ”Committee”. Starsky says he hates water, but still he has a swimming poster (two, in fact) prominently on display. The Speedo poster is also among the few things I've noticed he took with him when he moved.

All this got me thinking these posters might be gag gifts, like the ant farm and the tree (though I personally love that tree! the best gift ever!). The idea that the ugly football poster is a jokey but affectionate gift from Starsky (who was a defensive back in his high school football team) makes it a lot nicer.

DISCLAIMER: I don't like American football and know nothing about it except what I learned in writing this, so excuse any terminology flubs. I drafted this post a couple of months ago, and now I'm amazed that I bothered doing all that research to date the poster. It was a bitch to find out what the red and white uniforms of the players in the smaller photo were about, but the "A" on the helmet got me there in the end. Luckily, there are VERY dedicated football sites! Fans, be it sports or media fans, tend to be pretty thorough. :D

Comments

[matsir]

Umm, maybe. But if you're trying to reassert your masculinity, wouldn't you put up a poster of the cheerleaders? Back then they wore less than a Playboy bunny. Of course, if he's in love with Starsky he might not be thinking too straight about playing it straight ;)

[mortmere]

Ah, well, true. Or maybe he keeps the cheerleader pictures on the corner wall by his sleeping alcove (we never see that corner of his apartment again after Iron Mike)? And probably in the bathroom, too. Those are the relevant places for girlie pics, he thinks. The poster on the door is just to say "I'm a big manly man like him and I like manly games". His cunning plan also involves playing Village People's new album "Macho Man" very loud, so his neighbors and the good patrons of Chez Helene hear his message, too. (Lol, that album was released just five days after "Hutchinson for Murder One" with the Andrie poster was first aired. This must be an omen that I'm on the right track with this theory... :D )