Today, famous sports athletes are integrated into advertising campaigns with such great frequency that audiences can hardily keep up.  The trend for using athletes in ads greatly spiked in the 1970s and spawned several memorable commercials.

On this day, October 1st, in 1979, one of the most famous sports commercials ever was aired by Coca-Cola featuring “Mean Joe” Greene.  The now iconic commercial took place in an NFL stadium tunnel, where Mean Joe is confronted by a 9 year old fan.  The commercial ended with Greene tossing the kid a coke and uttering the famous line, “Hey, kid, catch!”

The ad won a Cilo Award in 1980 for best ad of the year and continues to be referenced in popular culture today.  Greene later appeared in a parody of the ad for the washing product, Downey.