HARRISBURG - Just before midnight on Saturday, Jan. 14, 1967, Joe Hirschmann arrived in Los Angeles on his way to Vietnam, rented a motel room for eight dollars a night and wondered how he would spend his Sunday.
Rising at 7 a.m. after a fitful sleep, he put on his Marines winter service uniform, having packed away the rest of his clothes before boarding a plane in Harrisburg on Saturday morning. He went to Mass in Inglewood, stuffed his gear in a locker at a Greyhound bus terminal and called a cab. Someone had mentioned a football game, reminding him that there was indeed a big event taking place in the city that day: the NFL-AFL Championship Game between the Green Bay Packers and Kansas City Chiefs at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.