Iranian hostages and Eagles featured in new documentary

Radio reporter Alex Paen delivers a sack of Christmas cards sent to the U.S. hostages from well-wishers in the U.S. to Tehran, Iran, Dec. 17, 1979. Guards accepted the mail and said it would be distributed after inspection.On Jan. 25, 1981, days after their long captivity in Iran ended, 52 former hostages and their families watched Super Bowl XV in the Thayer Hotel's wood-paneled Patton Tavern, where American flags were nearly as plentiful as the yellow ribbons at New Orleans' Superdome.

If they diverted their eyes from the colorful Eagles-Raiders telecast, these newly minted heroes could look out the tavern's windows and see both the ice-crusted Hudson River and the U.S. Military Academy,…