As a Jets fan, she had been enjoying her team's game against the Raiders, which the Jets led 32-29 with about a minute left when NBC left Oakland for the Alps. There seemed little reason for concern.

"I thought the game was in the bag," she told a Newsday reporter from her home in Beaver Falls, Pa., hours after learning the bag had sprung a historic leak.

The Raiders scored two late touchdowns to win, 43-32. "Oh, man, was I sick," she said. "Maybe it's a good thing for me they cut it off. I don't know if I could have taken it."

John Van Doorn, the Newsday story's writer, recalled Friday that Szolnoki was a "colorful person" who expressed herself colorfully that night, 40 years ago tomorrow.

After all, it was personal for her. Her son, Joe Namath, was the Jets' quarterback.

But her sick feeling was shared by millions of fans, and especially by dozens of people at NBC, who for the ensuing four decades have lived with the infamy of the "Heidi Game."

Once the details emerged, it turned out NBC was more careless than stupid, its president realizing before the game was cut off that that would be a very bad idea and trying, too late, to reverse course.

So the real legacy of the game was another milestone in pro Football's evolution as the nation's favored TV sport. Two AFL powers were going toe-to-toe, and Americans would not stand for a young Swiss girl getting between them.

To make a very long story short:

Faced with a contractual obligation to sponsor Timex to run "Heidi" at 7 p.m., NBC initially instructed Dick Cline, its broadcast operations supervisor, to switch from the game regardless. When it became evident it would run long - 19 penalties didn't help - executives reconsidered.

But the network's switchboard was clogged with callers concerned that NBC would leave the game for the movie - and others worried that it would not - making communications difficult. By the time Cline heard directly from network president Julian Goodman, it was too late to get back to the action.

Viewers in the Eastern and Central Times Zones saw Oakland return a kickoff, then a commercial break, then "Heidi."

The Raiders made it 36-32 on a 43-yard pass from Daryle Lamonica to Charlie Smith with 42 seconds left. Nine seconds later, Preston Ridlehuber recovered Earl Christy's fumbled kickoff return and ran it in for another score.

(In 2003, Christy told the Tampa Tribune it took him 20 years to be able to talk about the fumble.)

Much confusion ensued, from Szolnoki's home to Lucy Ewbank's. The wife of Jets coach Weeb Ewbank called Oakland to congratulate him, only to hear grumbling on the other end of the phone.

John Madden was a Raiders assistant coach in 1968 and will be the analyst in the NBC booth tonight as the "Heidi" network televises a Cowboys-Redskins game, presumably in its entirety.

"None of the people involved or in attendance had any idea what was going on," he said before leaving for Washington.

"We didn't have things like SportsCenter. There were no highlights shows. We usually wouldn't find out until we read the papers the next day what went on in the entire NFL."

Madden's fellow coaches and players mostly were amused. "When you win, everything is funny," he said.

NBC was bombarded with angry calls, as were its affiliates, radio stations and the NYPD. At about 8:20, the network ran a crawl alerting viewers to the score - during a scene in which Heidi's cousin Klara is seen struggling to try to walk after falling out of her wheelchair.

Wrote The New York Times, "When it comes to doing the wrong things at the wrong moment, NBC should receive a headless Emmy for last night's fiasco."

Goodman apologized that night, and by the next morning the game was the talk of the nation.

Four decades later, Heidi's name still is invoked every time a TV misadventure is caused by the vagaries of sports scheduling.

In 2007, NBC exiled Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Finals to Versus so it could get to Preakness coverage. Last Sunday, ABC sent NASCAR to ESPN2 to show "America's Funniest Home Videos."

Two weeks ago, Fox dumped a Packers-Titans game as Tennessee lined up for the winning field goal in overtime because it had to show Cowboys-Giants in its entirety in Dallas and New York.

Even on Heidi day itself, NBC blew off the end of the earlier Chargers-Bills game to show the start of Raiders-Jets.

Jennifer Edwards, the star of "Heidi" (and a daughter of director Blake Edwards) told the Los Angeles Times in 1998 that producers of the old "Love Boat" series once discussed having her on an episode with Namath spoofing the "Heidi Game."

That never came off, but other tributes have. On the 35th anniversary, the NFL itself displayed a sense of humor by showing "Heidi" on the NFL Network.

Even within a few days of the incident, NBC was poking fun at itself, taking out a newspaper ad touting the positive reviews for "Heidi," including this, attributed to Namath:

"I didn't get a chance to see it, but I heard it was great."

What the N.Y. audience missed

With 1:05 to play in the game, Jim Turner kicked a 26-yard field goal that gave the Jets their 32-29 lead. After the ensuing kickoff, NBC switched to "Heidi." The plays that turned a Jets victory into defeat:

Turner kicks to Charlie Smith, 5 yards into end zone. Smith returns to OAK 22.

1-10-OAK 22: (:50) Daryle Lamonica pass to Smith for 20 yards. PENALTY on Jets' Paul Crane, personal foul, facemask, 15 yards, enforced at OAK 42.

1-10-NYJ 43: (:42) Lamonica pass right side to Smith for 43 yards, TOUCHDOWN. (George Blanda extra point good.) Score: OAK 36, NYJ 32

(:33) Mike Eischeid kicks off to Earl Christy at NYJ 12. Hit by Bill Budness, fumbles. Recovered by Preston Ridlehuber at NYJ 2, returned 2 yards for TOUCHDOWN. (Blanda extra point good.)

SCORE: OAK 43, NYJ 32