One moment, two photographs, different tales
One image of quarterback Tittle became famous, other didn't
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (Updated: 4:09 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 22, 2009 | Posted: 8:47 p.m. Friday, Nov. 20, 2009)
One moment, two photographs, different tales
One image of quarterback Tittle became famous, other didn't
By Bo Emerson
Sometimes the difference between fame and obscurity is 100th of a second.
Consider two photographs, almost identical, of an agonizing moment in sports history.
Y.A. Tittle, 38 years old, playing his last season with the N.Y. Giants, had just been sacked by Steelers defensive end John Baker.
On his knees in the turf, blood trickling down his forehead, Tittle stares with stunned dismay at the end of a career. The moment produced one of the most enduring images in sports photography, which earned a place in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
That image emerged again just this fall when Tittle published his autobiography.
But who was the photographer? Two shooters stood shoulder to shoulder that afternoon and snapped similar frames.
The top photo was shot by Dozier Mobley, a Georgia native and young sports photographer, working the Steelers-Giants game in 1964 for The Associated Press. Another photographer, Morris Berman, took a similar image while covering the game for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Bermans editor decided against running the image because of its lack of action. Mobley sent his film to his editors, who put the picture out on the wire to hundreds of newspapers. And Mobley went on to the next job.
Photo honored
According to The New York Times, which took note of Bermans passing when he died in 2002, Bermans image came to light when he entered it in a contest later that year, and it won a National Headliner award for best sports photograph in 1964. It went on to be singled out by Sports Illustrated and other publications, and is generally the image reprinted most often.
But occasionally Mobleys image surfaces. Its on the back cover of Tittles book, Nothing Comes Easy: My Life in Football, published in September. In his chapter, The End of an Era, Tittle writes that Berman took the photo. But the publisher credits The Associated Press. In other words, its Mobleys photo on the back of the book.
I dont think most people are aware that there are two versions of it, said Chuck Zoeller, longtime head of the APs photo library, now in corporate communications for the wire service. Frequently, one photo is mistaken for the other, and vice versa.
Julian Cox, curator of photography at the High Museum in Atlanta, said that photo credits in that era were often jumbled, and that AP photographers had less control over their own images than other journalists. Once that negative is put into a manila envelope and mailed, theyd probably never see that negative again.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette photo editor Andy Starnes said he doesnt remember the Mobley photograph, but added that a third photographer, Don Stetzer, shooting for the Pittsburgh Press, also shot a similar photo that is equally unheralded.
Stetzer, now retired and living near Pittsburgh, said its no big deal. It was just another day at the office.
Dozier Mobley, 75, died Nov. 10, 2009in Jefferson, Ga., with little national notice. He grew up in East Atlanta and became a photographer at a Thomasville newspaper right out of the Army. After a decade as a wire service photographer, with time in Pittsburgh, he began shooting for NASCAR and worked the racing circuit for 30 years.
The Georgia-born photographer never had a copy of his most famous picture until his son, Mark Mobley, acquired one for him.
I was just floored, said Mark Mobley, a former Athens resident, now living in Baltimore. Here it is one of the most famous sports images of the 20th century, and the guy who took it doesnt have one.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Updated: 4:09 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 22, 2009 | Posted: 8:47 p.m. Friday, Nov. 20, 2009
http://www.ajc.com/news/sports/one-moment-two-photographs-different-tales/nQZPM/
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Dozier Mobley
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Dozier Mobley Death
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Dozier M. Mobley
Born: December 6, 1933
Died: November 10, 2009
Jefferson, Georgia
Dozier was born on December 6, 1933 and passed away on Tuesday, November 10, 2009.
Dozier was a resident of Jefferson, Georgia.
http://www.tributes.com/show/Dozier-M.-Mobley-87219544
condolences/view_memories/87219544#4104920
We traveled together for 20 yrs and I cant remember everything we did or saw. Thanks to Dozier those memories will last forever, because he recorded them.While your in Victory Lane, @ a dinner, or just the everyday grind of being at the race track, those memories were fresh in your mind. He always had last weekends photo's on my dest by Tuesday morning, and we would look at them, and most of the time laugh.We never really thought how much Dozier was documenting history. Dozier was not only a great photographer, I'm proud to say he was my friend.
Thanks for the memories.
Rest in peace my friend.
Dennis Dawson
Posted by: Double D - Winston-Salem, NC - friend Jul 13, 2012
http://www.tributes.com/condolences/view_memories/87219544#4104920
updated by @dennis-garrett: 12/05/16 04:00:58PM
