Clubs Plan Football Game as Boost to Fans’ Morale

So you thought the Rams and Raiders would be only a memory Sunday? Think again.

Football players in Los Angeles Rams and Los Angeles Raiders jerseys will be bumping and running at about 2 p.m. Sunday in Burbank.

Actually it will be the Rams and the Raiders booster clubs at John Burroughs High School Memorial Field, playing flag football.

Dubbed the Booster Bowl, this clash of the overaged and overweight is a rushed substitute for canceled NFL games. The rival booster clubs jumped at the suggestion made Monday morning by KMPC radio disk jockey Robert W. Morgan.

“It was kind of a spur-of-the-moment thing,” said Bill Malstrom, executive senior vice president of the Raiders Booster Club. “Morgan was going through football withdrawal, and he called the president of the Rams Booster Club. Somehow a challenge went out and we accepted it.”

“They put it out on radio . . . about 9:15, and by 10:15 we had enough to field a team from our booster members,” Malstrom said.

A jubilant Mary Jane Stratman, Rams Booster Club executive director, could hardly contain herself Tuesday.

“I think it’s great for the fans and great for the booster clubs,” she said. “And it’s something to do this Sunday.”

But in Burbank?

“Burbank is the world’s foremost neutral site,” disk jockey Morgan insisted. “It’s a little bit of Orange County tucked in L.A.”

According to the game’s organizers, someone volunteered to print 5,000 four-page programs, former Rams coach Ray Malavasi and former Raiders’ player John Matuszak volunteered to coach, and paramedics and physical therapists volunteered to be on hand. Just in case.

“We’re still looking for a half-time show, marching bands, juggling acts, whatever,” Stratman said.