February 1, 1920: The Royal Canadian Mounted Police Are Formed

February 1, 1920: The Royal Canadian Mounted Police are formed. It is the result of a merger between the Dominion Police, which was responsible for federal law enforcement, intelligence, and parliamentary security; and the Royal North-West Mounted Police, which had been responsible for colonial policing in the Canadian West.

The new police service inherited the paramilitary, frontline policing-oriented culture that had governed the RNWMP, which had been modelled after the Royal Irish Constabulary, but much of the RCMP's local policing role had been superseded by provincial and municipal police services.

The RNWMP, founded in 1873, just 6 years after Confederation, were the original "Mounties," and had the red jackets and the familiar campaign hats, the Stetson "Boss of the Plains." But they never used the motto "The Mountie always gets his man," made famous in the movies.

They were honored in popular culture through characters that were usually upper-class gentlemen, doing their moral duty in serving the British Empire on the fringes of civilisation, as the British and the Canadians have always "spelt" it. This was embodied in such characters as Corporal Connor, Sergeant Preston of the Yukon, Nelson Eddy's 1936 Rose Marie character Sergeant Bruce, and the cartoon character Dudley Do-Right.

As police services are the constitutional responsibility of the Provinces and Territories of Canada, the RCMP's primary responsibility is the enforcement of federal criminal law, and sworn members of the RCMP have jurisdiction as a peace officer in all Provinces and Territories of Canada. However, the service also provides police services under contract to 8 of Canada's 10 Provinces, all except the 2 largest, Ontario and Quebec; all 3 of Canada's Territories, more than 150 municipalities, and 600 Indigenous communities.

In addition to enforcing federal legislation and delivering local police services under contract, the RCMP is responsible for border integrity; overseeing Canadian peacekeeping missions involving police; managing the Canadian Firearms Program, which licenses and registers firearms and their owners; and the Canadian Police College, which provides police training to Canadian and international police services.

The Mounties are a fully modern police force. Although they still wear Stetson hats, much like most American States' State Troopers, the Red Serge -- red jackets, black pants, high leather Strathcona boots and black gloves -- is now a dress uniform only, and they wear what Americans would recognize as standard police uniforms, or even plainclothes. The use of horses were discontinued from regular field use in the late 1930's. Women were not appointed as RCMP officers until 1974.

A modern RCMP officer and his car

Despite its modernity, the RCMP retains its "Royal" name, as Canada retains its place in the British Commonwealth. With Canada's dual-language system, the Mounties are known in French as le Gendarmerie royale du Canada, or GRC for short, or la police montée.

It would be easy to think of the Mounties as Canada's version of America's Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). But it isn't. The Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) is the country's primary national intelligence agency, both domestic (which makes it equivalent to the FBI) and abroad (which makes it equivalent to the Central Intelligence Agency, the CIA). The RCMP and the CSIS certainly work together, but they do not have the same function.

Since citizens' band (CB) radio of the 1970s labeled American State Troopers "Smokeys" or "Bears" because their hats reminded them of park rangers and Smokey Bear, I wondered if Canadian CB users called Mounties "Horses." They didn't. They were simply "Mounties." But American CB users did often call County Sheriff officers "County Mounties."

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February 1, 1920 was a Sunday. Baseball and football were out of season. Professional basketball barely existed. And the NHL had no games scheduled. So there were no scores on this historic day. 

February 1, 1905: The U.S. Forest Service Is Founded

February 1, 1905: President Theodore Roosevelt creates the United States Forest Service, under the banner of the U.S. Department of the Interior. As its 1st Chief, he appoints Gifford Pinchot, previously the Chief of the Division of Forestry under the Department of Agriculture. Pinchot would later serve as Governor of Pennsylvania.

TR was the 1st President to be an active environmentalist. Before he took office in 1901, there were only 4 National Parks: Yellowstone, mostly in Wyoming, founded in 1872; Sequoia and Yosemite, both founded in California in 1890; and Mount Rainier, in Washington State, founded in 1899. He founded 3: Crater Lake, in Oregon, in 1902; Wind Cave, in South Dakota, in 1903; and Mesa Verde, in Colorado, in 1906. It would, however, take until 1916 for the National Park Service to be founded, also under the Department of the Interior.

TR worked closely with Pinchot, and his Secretary of the Interior, James R. Garfield, son of President James A. Garfield, to enact a series of conservation programs. In addition to the Forest Service, he signed the Antiquities Act of 1906, under which he proclaimed 18 new U.S. National Monuments. He also established the first 51 bird reserves, 4 game preserves, and 150 National Forests. The area of the United States he placed under public protection totals approximately 230 million acres.

The Forest Service is headquartered at the Sidney R. Yates Building, named for a longtime Democratic Congressman from Illinois, at 1400 Independence Avenue SW in Washington.

*

February 1, 1905 was a Wednesday. Baseball and football were out of season. Professional basketball barely existed. And the Ottawa Silver Seven were between Stanley Cup challenges from the Dawson City Nuggets and the Rat Portage (later Kenora) Thistles. So there were no scores on this historic day.

January 31, 2011: Transfer Windows Gone Wild

Fernando Torres

January 31, 2011: European soccer has two "transfer windows," in which players can be purchased from other teams. The Summer window, at the start of the season, usually closes on the afternoon of September 1. The January window, in mid-season, usually closes on the afternoon of February 1.

On this "Deadline Day," Liverpool Football Club sell their best player, forward Fernando Torres, to West London team Chelsea Football Club for £50 million. Then they buy Newcastle United forward Andy Carroll for £35 million. Both sums are, at the time, considered huge.

At first, it looks like a bad deal for both teams: Carroll was given the Number 9 shirt worn by Liverpool legends Torres, Robbie Fowler, Ian Rush, Steve Heighway and Ian St. John. But he turned out to be a bust, with first a ponytail (along with his pony face), then a "man-bun." In only 3 seasons, he was hurt more than he played, and scored just 11 goals. Liverpool did reach the Finals of both domestic cups in 2012, winning the League Cup but losing the FA Cup, but Carroll had little to do with that. He was sold to West Ham United in 2013, and and remained a bust.

Andy Carroll

Torres, a member of the Spain team that had won the 2010 World Cup and Euro 2008 (and would win Euro 2012 with him,) had been beloved at Liverpool, though they never won a trophy with him. (They finished a close 2nd in the Premier League in 2009.) Selling him seemed symbolic of a decline that took a few years to overcome. At Chelsea, his great talent seems to vanish. But by May 2013, Torres had recovered to help Chelsea win a UEFA Champions League, an FA Cup (that 2012 Final over Liverpool), and a UEFA Europa League.

Soon, even greater sums were being demanded for great players. In 2009, Real Madrid had already bought Cristiano Ronaldo from Manchester United for £80 million. In 2013, they bought Gareth Bale from Tottenham Hotspur for £86 million. In 2016, Manchester United paid £89 million to get Paul Pogba from Juventus, thus breaking the €100 million barrier. Then, in 2017, Paris Saint-Germain blew right past the £100 million barrier, doubling it, paying £200 million to FC Barcelona for Neymar. Through January 31, 2022, no team has come within £37 million of that.

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January 31, 2011 was a Monday. Baseball was out of season. The NFL was between the Conference Championship Games and the Super Bowl, which the Green Bay Packers would win over the Pittsburgh Steelers. And the NHL was in its All-Star Break: The day before, in the All-Star Game, a team captained by Nicklas Lidstrom of the Detroit Red Wings beat one captained by Eric Staal of the host Carolina Hurricanes, 11-10 at the RBC Center (now the Lenovo Center) in Raleigh, North Carolina.

There were 7 games played in the NBA:

* The New Jersey Nets beat the Denver Nuggets, 115-99 at the Prudential Center in Newark.

* The Miami Heat beat the Cleveland Cavaliers, 117-90 at the American Airlines Arena (now the Kaseya Center) in Miami. Dwyane Wade scored 34 points. LeBron James scored 24 against his once-and-future team.

* The Memphis Grizzlies beat the Orlando Magic, 100-97 at the FedEx Forum in Memphis.

* The Indiana Pacers beat the Toronto Raptors, 104-93 at the Conseco Fieldhouse (now the Gainbridge Fieldhouse) in Indianapolis.

* The Dallas Mavericks beat the Washington Wizards, 102-92 at the American Airlines Arena in Dallas.

* The Utah Jazz beat the Charlotte Bobcats, 83-78 at the EnergySolutions Arena (as the Delta Center was then known) in Salt Lake City, Utah.

* And the Los Angeles Clippers beat the Milwaukee Bucks, 105-98 at the Staples Center (now the Crypto.com Arena) in Los Angeles.

January 31, 1993: Jimmy Johnson's "Double" Restores the Dallas Cowboys

January 31, 1993: The Dallas Cowboys beat the Buffalo Bills, 52-17 at the Rose Bowl in the Los Angeles suburb of Pasadena, California. It is the 3rd straight Super Bowl loss for the Bills, and the 1st Super Bowl win for the Cowboys in 15 years, the 1st since their rebuild following their 1989 purchase by Jerry Jones.

But it is more than that: By being the winning coach, Jimmy Johnson becomes the 1st head coach ever to win both a college football National Championship and a Super Bowl. Paul Brown had previously been the only head coach ever to win both a college football National Championship and an NFL Championship: 1942 Ohio State; 1950, 1954 and 1955 Cleveland Browns.

Johnson, then 49 years old and from Port Arthur, Texas, had played as a defensive lineman on the University of Arkansas' 1964 team that won a share of the National Championship. He later served as an assistant coach at Louisiana Tech, Wichita State, Iowa State, Oklahoma, Arkansas and the University of Pittsburgh.

He was named head coach at Oklahoma State in 1979, and got them into the Independence Bowl in 1981, and won the Astro-Bluebonnet Bowl in 1983. In 1984, he was named head coach at the University of Miami, getting them into the 1985 Fiesta Bowl, the 1986 Sugar Bowl, and the 1987 Fiesta Bowl, before winning the National Championship in 1987, completing an undefeated season with the 1988 Orange Bowl. He followed that with an 11-1 season and another Orange Bowl win. Overall, his record as a college coach was 81-34-3.

Jerry Jones had been an Arkansas classmate of Johnson's, and hired him as Cowboys boss after firing the legendary Tom Landry. It took time to build, but, with quarterback Troy Aikman, running back Emmitt Smith, receiver Michael Irvin, and a strong defense, it took them just 3 seasons to get into the Playoffs, and a 4th to get into the Super Bowl.

(UPDATE: Michael Wilbon,  as a columnist for The Washington Post, covered the press conference in which Jones announced he bought the team and fired Landry. In a 2025 appearance on ESPN's Pardon the Interruption, he said, "It was crude, it was thuggish, and it worked.")

The Cowboys led 14-7 after the 1st quarter, and 28-10 at the half. In the 3rd quarter, the Bills closed to within 31-17. But it got ugly thereafter. With 5 minutes left in regulation, the Cowboys were up 52-17, had already returned 2 fumbles for touchdowns, and were just 1 touchdown away from setting new Super Bowl records for most points and largest margin of victory.

The Bills were on the Cowboys' 31-yard line, and looked close to a consolation score. But, with the Cowboys having already knocked starting quarterback Jim Kelly out of the game, Jim Jeffcoat stripped the ball from backup Frank Reich. Leon Lett picked the ball up, and looked like he would return it for the touchdown that would make it 58, potentially 59, to 17.

Except he celebrated too early, and was waving the ball around in the air. Bills receiver Don Beebe ran like a bat out of hell, and managed to strip the ball away from Lett at the Bills' 1-yard line. The play was ruled a touchback, and the Bills got the ball back. It ended 52-17.

In the locker room, Jimmy Johnson yelled his catchphrase: "How 'bout them Cowboys!" He would yell it a few more times the next season, making it back-to-back Super Bowl wins. He would then have a falling-out with Jerry Jones, and we may never know who decided that Johnson should go.

Jones hired former University of Oklahoma coach Barry Switzer. After 2 years, he won Super Bowl XXX, making him the 2nd coach to be both an NCAA and an NFL Champion. Pete Carroll, of the University of Southern California and the Seattle Seahawks, has become the 3rd coach to do the NCAA & NFL "Double."

Johnson served as head coach of the Miami Dolphins from 1996 to 1999, making the Playoffs 3 times, but never winning a Playoff game. Overall, his NFL record was 80-64. He and Jones have made peace, and Jones inducted him into the Cowboys' Ring of Honor. Johnson has spent his time since coaching as a panelist on Fox NFL Sunday. The Cowboys have not been to a Super Bowl since the 1996 season.

*

January 31, 1993 was a Sunday. Baseball was out of season. The NBA, not wanting to compete with the Super Bowl for TV ratings, scheduled only 1 game, but it was their biggest rivalry, between their 2 most historic teams: The Los Angeles Lakers beat the Boston Celtics, 96-87 at the Boston Garden.

There were 3 games played in the NHL:

* The Montreal Canadiens beat the Philadelphia Flyers, 6-4 at the Montreal Forum.

* The Pittsburgh Penguins and the Washington Capitals, played to a tie, 2-2 at the Capital Centre in the Washington suburb of Landover, Maryland.

* The Edmonton Oilers beat the Buffalo Sabres, 5-4 at the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium. Kelly Buchberger scored the winning goal, 46 seconds into overtime.

January 31, 1988: "The Wonder Years" Premieres

January 31, 1988: After broadcasting Super Bowl XXII, ABC premieres its heavily-hyped The Wonder Years, which remains set 20 years in the past for its entire run: 1968 to 1973. The opening theme is Joe Cocker's version of The Beatles' song "With a Little Help From My Friends."

Kevin Arnold (played as a boy by Fred Savage, with Daniel Stern as adult Kevin narrating) is 12 years old when the show begins. He is the youngest of 3 children: The oldest, his sister, Karen, was a Hippie (Olivia d'Abo); and the middle child, his brother, Wayne (Jason Hervey), is the opposite, a bully. Their parents are Jack, a furniture salesman (Dan Lauria), and Norma, a housewife (Alley Mills).

It's not clear where the story is set: Kevin has a New York Jets jacket, and a Jets pennant on the wall of his room; but the only hint as to a location is a 1992/1972 mention of "Tri-County Citizens for McGovern." Since Long Island, where I initially suspected the show was set, has only 2 Counties (Nassau and Suffolk), that's out.

Kevin's best friend is nerdy Paul Pfeiffer (Josh Saviano). His other best friend is a girl, Winifred "Winnie" Cooper (Danica McKellar). She was a tomboy, and in the Summer of 1968, she went away. When she came back in time for the new schoolyear, she had begun to develop into a woman, and Kevin noticed. This led to some narration that probably shouldn't have been written.

Unlike ABC's previous nostalgia show, Happy Days, this was no sitcom, settling things in a mere half-hour. While there was lots of humor, there were a considerable amount of serious moments, including the Vietnam combat death of Winnie's brother in the pilot, which hung over her life, and her relationship with Kevin, the rest of the way.

The world seemed to be falling apart around them, yet their suburban existence remained mundane, until the series finale, set on the 4th of July 1973, when it becomes clear that Kevin and Winnie, having just finished their junior year of high school, will not end up together. Winnie became an art historian. Kevin has a wife and a son, but doesn't reveal what he does for a living.

The show was rebooted in 2021, based on a black family in Birmingham, Alabama, also starting in 1968. The pilot is based around the first racially-integrated Little League game in the city, but it is called off when word is received of the assassination of Martin Luther King. (UPDATE: This version of the show lasted 2 years.)

*

January 31, 1988 was a Sunday -- Super Sunday. In Super Bowl XXII, the Washington Redskins came from a 10-0 deficit to beat the Denver Broncos, 42-10. Doug Williams became the 1st black quarterback to start, and the 1st to win, a Super Bowl. I have a separate entry for this event.

There were no other football games played that day. Baseball was out of season. Not wanting to lose TV viewers to even the lengthy pregame programming, the NBA scheduled only 1 game for the day, a major rivalry: The Boston Celtics beat the Philadelphia 76ers, 100-85 at the Boston Garden. Larry Bird scored 29 points.

There were only 2 games played in the NHL. Washington emerged victorious in one of these, as well, and it was even more dramatic, because the result was in doubt beyond the intended end: The Washington Capitals beat the Philadelphia Flyers, 1-0 at the Capital Centre in the Washington suburb of Landover, Maryland. For 63 minutes, the Flyers' Ron Hextall and the Caps' Pete Peeters (a former Flyer) shut each other's teams out. With 1:33 left in overtime, before the game would have ended in a tie, Kelly Miller scored the winning goal for the Caps.

A winner could not be found in the other game: The Buffalo Sabres and the Winnipeg Jets played to a 4-4 tie at the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium.

January 31, 1988: The Doug Williams Game (Or, 13 Minutes of Hell)

January 31, 1988: Super Bowl XXII is played at Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego. The Denver Broncos, AFC Champions, are in their 3rd Super Bowl, their 2nd straight, still looking for their 1st win. The Washington Redskins, NFC Champions, are in their 3rd Super Bowl of the decade, having split the 1st 2. The Broncos are favored by 3 points.

The Broncos' John Elway was then considered one of the top quarterbacks in the game, despite having failed in the previous year's Super Bowl. The Redskins' Doug Williams was not considered to be as good. He had gotten the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to the 1979 NFC Championship Game, but had been exiled to the USFL, where he played for the Oklahoma Outlaws. The Redskins signed him, and he wasn't expected to be the starter this season. But when starter Jay Schroeder was injured, Williams stepped in, and was as good as ever.

He was about to become the 1st black man to start at quarterback in the Super Bowl. Very few black quarterbacks had played in the NFL at all at this point.

On the Broncos' 1st play from scrimmage, Elway threw a 56-yard touchdown pass to Ricky Nattiel. At this point, only 8 of the 1st 21 Super Bowls had a final margin of less than 14 points. The last 4 had an average final margin of 26 points. It looked like another blowout was beginning.

Before the 1st quarter was out, Rich Karlis had kicked a field goal to make it 10-0 Denver. At this point, no Super Bowl team had ever erased a deficit of 10 points or more. And Williams got hurt, and had to have Schroeder, who hadn't played in weeks, take over. He was no better.

With 14:17 left in the 2nd quarter, Williams returned. What followed was the most amazing quarter of football anyone had ever seen. As Sports Illustrated said in the headline of their coverage of this Super Bowl, "And the Rout Was On."

On his 1st play back, Williams threw an 80-yard touchdown pass to Ricky Sanders, a fellow USFL refugee, who had hauled in passes from Jim Kelly for the Houston Gamblers. Broncos 14, Redskins 7.

The Redskins kicked off, and the Broncos took it, but couldn't do anything with it, and had to punt. Williams took the Redskins downfield, and, with 10:15 left in the half, threw a 27-yard touchdown pass to Gary Clark, another former USFL player, for the Jacksonville Bulls. Redskins 14, Broncos 10. Given up for dead, Washington now had the lead.

People had laughed at the Redskins a few minutes earlier, and had laughed at the USFL when it went out of business a year and a half earlier. The Redskins were laughing now.

The Redskins kicked off, and the Broncos took it, but could only get to the Redskins' 26-yard line. Karlis attempted a field goal, and missed. The next play was a pass from Williams to Clark, for 16 yards. The next play was a handoff to Timmy Smith, a rookie making his 1st professional start -- in the Super Bowl. With the Redskins' famous offensive line, "The Hogs," opening a hole for him, he ran 58 yards for a touchdown, on his way to setting a Super Bowl record that still stands with 204 rushing yards. With 6:27 left in the half, it was Redskins 21, Broncos 10.

If that had been the end of the Washington onslaught, it would have been enough. It wasn't. The Redskins kicked off, and the Broncos took it, but again, they could not move the ball much. Williams threw a 50-yard touchdown pass to Sanders, making Sanders the 1st player ever to catch 2 touchdowns in a single quarter in a Super Bowl. With 3:42 left in the half, it was Redskins 28, Broncos 10.

If that had been the end of it... but it wasn't. The Redskins kicked off, and the Broncos took it, but on the 4th play of the drive, Barry Wilburn intercepted Elway. A 43-yard run by Smith, a pair of passes from Williams to Sanders, and finally an 8-yard pass from Williams to tight end Clint Didier. Touchdown. With 1:04 left in the half, it was Redskins 35, Broncos 10.

Doug Williams had led his team to score 5 touchdowns in 13 minutes and 13 seconds. This was insane. This was mind-boggling. This was unprecedented in NFL history.

When the Chicago Bears destroyed the Redskins 73-0 in the 1940 NFL Championship Game -- Super Bowl -XXVI, if you prefer -- they scored 21 points in the 1st quarter, just 7 in the 2nd, 26 in the 3rd, and 19 in the 4th. When the Redskins beat the New York Giants 72-41 in a regular-season game in 1966, they scored 13 in the 1st, 21 in the 2nd, 14 in the 3rd, and 24 in the 4th. When the Los Angeles Rams beat the Detroit Lions 65-24 in a regular-season game in 1950, they set a still-standing NFL record for points in a quarter: 41 in the 3rd.

But this was in the Super Bowl. Against a team that came in favored by 3 points. Think of it this way: In the 1st 55 Super Bowls, 39 winning teams -- 1 of those in overtime -- didn't score as many points in the entire game as Williams had led his team to score in 13 minutes and change. Counting the pre-Super Bowl NFL Championship Games, not counting this one, from December 18, 1932 to February 7, 2021, there have been 89 postseason games to decide the Championship of the National Football League, 65 of the 89 winning teams scored fewer points in the entire game than the Redskins scored in this one quarter.

And it wasn't even that the Broncos' "Orange Crush" defense had played all that badly. They just got beat, by Williams, by Sanders, by Clark, by Smith, by Didier. There was nothing that Denver coach Dan Reeves could do against Joe Gibbs' Washington offense.

Watching this game, I simply could not believe it. Nine months later, broadcasting the 1988 World Series on CBS radio, Jack Buck would see a badly injured Kirk Gibson hit a home run off Dennis Eckersley to win Game 1 for the Los Angeles Dodgers, and yell, "I don't believe what I just saw!" Well, I did not believe what I was watching on WABC-Channel 7 on that Super Sunday.

The 2nd half was a blur. I don't even remember the only scoring play of it. With 13:09 left in the 4th quarter, Smith took the ball in for a touchdown from 4 yards out. It ended Redskins 42, Broncos 10.

Williams was named the game's Most Valuable Player, and no one could ever again doubt that a black quarterback could take a team to win the Super Bowl.

Except... there wouldn't be another black quarterback starting in the Super Bowl until 2000, Steve McNair of the Tennessee Titans, who lost Super Bowl XXXIV to the St. Louis Rams. Five years later, Donovan McNabb got the Philadelphia Eagles into Super Bowl XXXIX, but they lost to the New England Patriots.

In 2013, Colin Kaepernick got the San Francisco 49ers into Super Bowl XLVII, but lost to the Baltimore Ravens. (This was when Kapernick was known for how well he played football, not for why he wasn't playing it.) The very next year, Russell Wilson became the 2nd black quarterback to win a Super Bowl, leading the Seattle Seahawks over the Denver Broncos. but the year after that, Wilson and the Seahawks lost the Super Bowl to the Patriots. The same thing would happen to Patrick Mahomes of the Kansas City Chiefs: Win Super Bowl LIV, then, the next year, lose to a team quarterbacked by Tom Brady, in this case the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Super Bowl LV.

Following this 13 minutes of hell, Elway would fall to 0-3 in Super Bowls, and the Broncos to 0-4, losing Super Bowl XXIV to the 49ers. Finally in Super Bowl XXXII, Elway led the Broncos to beat the Green Bay Packers, and he was vindicated. The following year, he led them to win Super Bowl XXXIII over the Atlanta Falcons, and then retired.

Doug Williams played 2 more seasons for the Redskins, then went into coaching, including as head coach for a season at Morehouse College, and for 9 seasons in 2 separate stints at his alma mater, Grambling State University. He has worked in the front office of the team currently known as the Washington Football Team since 2014.

UPDATE: The Commanders have a Ring of Honor. From their Super Bowl XXII winners, they have elected quarterback Doug Williams, receivers Art Monk and Gary Clark; "Hogs" center Jeff Bostic, guard Russ Grimm and tackle Joe Jacoby; defensive tackle Dave Butz, defensive ends Dexter Manley and Charles Mann, linebacker Monte Coleman and cornerback Darrell Green.

Also owner Jack Kent Cooke, head coach Joe Gibbs, assistant coaches Charley Taylor and Richie Petitbon, general manager Bobby Beathard, former star turned executive Bobby Mitchell, trainer Bubba Tyer, public address announcer Phil Hochberg, and former star turned broadcasters Sonny Jurgensen and Sam Huff.

Williams, Monk, Clark, Grimm, Jacoby, Butz, Manley, Mann, Green, Gibbs, Beathard, Taylor, Petitbon, Cooke, Huff and Jurgensen have also been elected to the Washington DC Sports Hall of Fame. So have executive Charley Casserly, and broadcaster Frank Herzog. So has Johnny Holliday, a legendary radio personality in Cleveland, the San Francisco Bay Area, and the Washington area, who has worked with the Bullets/Wizards, the Senators, the Nationals, the Redskins/Commanders and the Capitals.

Strangely, while assistant coach Petitbon has been inducted into both the Ring and the DC Sports Hall of Fame, without having truly been a star player like fellow assistant Charley Taylor, assistant coach Joe Bugel, who built the "Hogs," has not yet been inducted into either.

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January 31, 1988 was a Sunday. After broadcasting the game, ABC broadcast the premiere of the TV show The Wonder Years. I have a separate entry for this event.

There were no other football games played that day. Baseball was out of season. Not wanting to lose TV viewers to even the lengthy pregame programming, the NBA scheduled only 1 game for the day, a major rivalry: The Boston Celtics beat the Philadelphia 76ers, 100-85 at the Boston Garden. Larry Bird scored 29 points.

There were only 2 games played in the NHL. Washington emerged victorious in one of these, as well, and it was even more dramatic, because the result was in doubt beyond the intended end: The Washington Capitals beat the Philadelphia Flyers, 1-0 at the Capital Centre in the Washington suburb of Landover, Maryland. For 63 minutes, the Flyers' Ron Hextall and the Caps' Pete Peeters (a former Flyer) shut each other's teams out. With 1:33 left in overtime, before the game would have ended in a tie, Kelly Miller scored the winning goal for the Caps.

A winner could not be found in the other game: The Buffalo Sabres and the Winnipeg Jets played to a 4-4 tie at the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium.

January 31, 1968: The Tet Offensive

January 31, 1968: The Viet Cong launch the Tet Offensive, an attack on American and South Vietnamese installations in South Vietnam, on Tết Nguyên Đán, the Vietnamese lunar new year.

More than 80,000 troops hit more than 100 towns, including 36 out of the country's 44 provincial capitals, including the national capital of Saigon. The idea was to trigger a popular uprising that would lead to the collapse of the South Vietnamese government, and its replacement by one more favorable to the North Vietnamese government, thus uniting the country under Communism, and forcing the American troops out.

The Viet Cong didn't get that. At least, not in the short term. But they got the next best thing, which gave them their goal in the long term.

Over 4,000 U.S. personnel were killed, and another 5,000 South Vietnamese. But the Viet Cong lost 45,000 men, about as many as America lost in the war from its beginning until 1971 or so. And they were fought back, capturing very little territory, and not getting the popular uprising. Militarily, the Tet Offensive was one of the biggest blunders in the history of warfare.

But that was offset by the psychological victory they gained. They had gotten troops inside the U.S. Embassy in Saigon. They couldn't hold it, but they did it. And it was caught on U.S. television.

Also caught on U.S. television was an event on February 1: The Chief of South Vietnam's National Police, Major General Nguyễn Ngọc Loan, personally executing Nguyễn Văn Lém. It looked like one of America's best friends in the conflict was shooting a handcuffed teenage boy in the head, a brutal act.

In fact, Lém was 36 years old, held the rank of Captain, and had murdered not just a friend of General Loan, Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Tuan, but also Tuan's wife, six of his seven children, and his 80-year-old mother. Women, children, even the elderly were not safe. The Vietcong even went after the families of their enemies. They were worse than the Mafia.

Eddie Adams of the Associated Press was standing next to the NBC cameraman who filmed the shooting, and clicked his shutter at the moment of impact for bullet against head. He won the Pulitzer Prize for the photo, but regretted he hadn't gotten a photo of what Lém did to deserve it.

"Two men died in that photograph," Adams said. "The General killed the Viet Cong. I killed the General with my camera." 

After the fall of Saigon, General Loan fled to America, and lived out his life in Virginia, near Washington, D.C. He died in 1998. Adams lived until 2004.

There was one survivor of Lém's killing of Tuan's family: Huan Nguyen, Tuan's son, was 9, and survived 2 bullet wounds. After the fall of Saigon, he was smuggled out of the country. He grew up in Oklahoma, and enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1993. He is the highest-ranking officer of Vietnamese descent in U.S. military history: In 2019, he was promoted to the rank of Rear Admiral.

But people saw the film and the photo of the shooting, and began to ask themselves why we were supporting such an ally. Were they unworthy allies? There had been plenty of corruption in the South Vietnamese government. (Loan has never been accused of any of it.)

The Battle of Khe Sanh was also underway, lasting from January 21 to July 9. The U.S. lost 274 men, while Vietcong losses may have been as high as 15,000. Still, U.S. troops withdrew from the area, and the Vietcong legitimately claimed victory.

A few days after the Tet Offensive, CBS Evening News anchorman Walter Cronkite went to Vietnam to personally see what was going on. He had dinner with General Creighton Abrams, who had become a friend in World War II, and was now the commander of all forces in Vietnam. Abrams told Cronkite a painful truth: "We cannot win this goddamned war, and we ought to find a dignified way out."

On February 27, 1968, back at the CBS News desk in New York, Cronkite said this:

To say that we are mired in stalemate seems the only realistic, if unsatisfactory conclusion. On the off chance that military and political analysts are right, in the next few months we must test the enemy's intentions, in case this is indeed his last big gasp before negotiations.

But it is increasingly clear to this reporter that the only rational way out then will be to negotiate, not as victors, but as an honorable people who lived up to their pledge to defend democracy, and did the best they could.

Upon seeing this report, President Lyndon B. Johnson said, "If I've lost Cronkite, I've lost Middle America." Just 32 days later, with this in mind, having taken National Security Council meetings where nobody seemed to know how to solve the war, with Senator Eugene McCarthy having come close to beating him in the New Hampshire Primary, and with Senator Robert F. Kennedy having gotten into the race for President, Johnson announced that he would not seek another term as President, and would devote the last 9 months of his Presidency to seeking a peace deal.

He didn't get it. Why is a story for another time. His successor could have ended the war any time he wanted. He ended it 3 days into his 2nd term, 1 day after Johnson died. A little more than 2 years after that, Vietnam was united, and it was Communist.

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January 31, 1968 was a Wednesday. Baseball and football were out of season. These 4 games were played in the NBA that night:

* The New York Knicks beat the Cincinnati Royals, 128-126 in overtime at the Cincinnati Gardens. For the Royals, Oscar Robertson scored 42 points, and Jerry Lucas had 22 points and 22 rebounds. For the Knickerbockers, Walt Bellamy had 23 points, Cazzie Russell 21, Willis Reed 20, Walt Frazier 19 and Dick Van Arsdale 18.

* The Boston Celtics beat the Chicago Bulls, 118-109 at the Boston Garden.

* The Baltimore Bullets beat the Detroit Pistons, 113-108 at the Baltimore Civic Center (now the CFG Bank Arena). Dave Bing scored 41 for the Pistons, while Earl "the Pearl" Monroe got 35 for the Bullets.

* And the Los Angeles Lakers beat the St. Louis Hawks, 110-102 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California.

There were 3 games played in the American Basketball Association, which was in its 1st season:

* The New Jersey Americans beat the Dallas Chaparrals, 119-111 at the Teaneck Armory in Teaneck, New Jersey. The next season, the Americans moved to Long Island, and became the New York Nets. The Chaps moved in 1973, to become the San Antonio Spurs. Both teams were admitted to the NBA in 1976, then the Nets became the New Jersey Nets in 1977, and the Brooklyn Nets in 2012.

* The Indiana Pacers beat the Pittsburgh Pipers, 119-113 at the Indiana Fairgrounds Coliseum (now the Corteva Coliseum) in Indianapolis. The Pacers were admitted to the NBA in 1976.

* And the Anaheim Amigos beat the Denver Rockets, 112-105 at the Anaheim Convention Center outside Los Angeles. The Rockets became the Denver Nuggets in 1974, and were admitted to the NBA in 1976.

And there were 3 games played in the NHL:

* The New York Rangers lost to the Chicago Black Hawks, 3-2 at the old Madison Square Garden. The Rangers would play only 3 more games there before moving to the new Garden on February 18.

* The St. Louis Blues beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 9-4 at the St. Louis Arena.

* And the Minnesota North Stars beat the Los Angeles Kings, 6-1 at the Metropolitan Sports Center in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota.

January 31, 1958: Explorer 1 Is Launched

January 31, 1958: The U.S. finally joins the space race, launching the satellite Explorer 1, atop the Juno I booster from what was then called the Cape Canaveral Missile Test Center of the Atlantic Missile Range in Florida.

Following the launch of the Soviet satellite Sputnik 1 on October 4, 1957, Project Orbiter was revived as the Explorer program to catch up with the Soviet Union. The 1st attempted launch came on December 6, at Cape Canaveral, but the Vanguard TV-3 rocket booster failed 2 seconds after liftoff, and the rocket fell and exploded, causing serious damage to the launch pad. The Vanguard 1A satellite aboard survived, but with enough damage that it could not be re-used.

The New York Times called it a "Blow to US Prestige." Senator Lyndon Johnson of Texas, the Majority Leader and Chairman of the Committee handling U.S. spaceflight, called it "most humiliating." The public quickly named the Vanguard the "Flop-nik," and the "Stay-put-nik."

So it was vital that the next launch not only, literally, get off the ground, but succeed. It did: Explorer 1 was the first spacecraft to detect the Van Allen radiation belt, and returned data until its batteries were exhausted after nearly four months. It remained in orbit until 1970.

It began a series of unmanned rockets that led to the launching into space of Alan Shepard in 1961 -- 23 days after the Soviets launched Yuri Gagarin. It could be argued that the Soviets reached every major milestone in the space race before the Americans -- with one exception: Landing a man on the Moon, and returning him safely to the Earth.

By the time that happened, the Presidents who ordered that, and Project Orbiter (John F. Kennedy and Dwight D. Eisenhower, respectively) were dead; and the one who really set it motion was out of office, and had his name on the Mission Control center in his home State (Lyndon Johnson, in Houston, while Kennedy's name was on the launch site in Florida).

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January 31, 1958 was a Friday. Baseball and football were out of season. No games were scheduled in the NHL. There were 3 games in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks lost to the Detroit Pistons, 119-105 at the Olympia Stadium in Detroit. George Yardley scored 36 points for the Pistons.

* The Philadelphia Warriors beat the Boston Celtics, 110-101 at the Boston Garden, in spite of 32 points and 33 rebounds from Bill Russell.

* And the Cincinnati Royals beat the St. Louis Hawks, 100-92 at the Cincinnati Gardens.

January 31, 1953: The North Sea Flood

January 31, 1953: A heavy storm surge causes extensive flooding in the North Sea, overwhelming sea defenses in England, Scotland, the Netherlands and Belgium.

A combination of a high Spring tide and a severe European windstorm caused the sea to flood land up to 18 feet above mean sea level. A death toll of 2,551 people was attributed to the flood, along with the destruction of over 10,000 buildings, the deaths of 187,000 animals, and the flooding of 9 percent of all Dutch farmland.

Realizing that such infrequent events could reoccur, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom carried out large studies on strengthening of coastal defenses. The Netherlands developed the Delta Works, an extensive system of dams and storm surge barriers. The U.K. constructed storm surge barriers on the Thames Estuary, and on the Hull where it meets the Humber Estuary.

The countries involved have been spared such a flood since. Still, bitter experience shows that it is better to have these protections and not need them than to need them and not have them.

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January 31, 1953 was a Saturday. Baseball and football were out of season. There were 4 games played in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks beat the Boston Celtics, 76-69 at the old Madison Square Garden.

* The Baltimore Bullets beat the Indianapolis Olympians, 97-90 at the Baltimore Coliseum.

* The Rochester Royals beat the Philadelphia Warriors, 103-83 at the Edgerton Park Arena in Rochester, New York.

* And the Minneapolis Lakers beat the Fort Wayne Pistons, 87-80 at the Minneapolis Auditorium.

The NHL's entire "Original Six" were in action:

* The New York Rangers lost to the Toronto Maple Leafs, 4-0 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.

* The Boston Bruins and the Montreal Canadiens played to a tie, 0-0 at the Montreal Forum. They would face each other in the Stanley Cup Finals, with the Canadiens winning.

* And the Detroit Red Wings beat the Chicago Black Hawks, 4-0 at the Olympia Stadium in Detroit.

And in the 4th Round of English soccer's FA Cup, Arsenal defeated Manchester-area team Bury FC, 6-2 at the Arsenal Stadium, a.k.a. Highbury, in North London. Arsenal won the Football League title that season, and, in the FA Cup, advanced to the Quarterfinal, where they were defeated by eventual winners Blackpool of Lancashire.  

January 31, 1945: Al Blozis Is Killed In Action

January 31, 1945: Al Blozis is killed while fighting with the U.S. Army. He had just turned 26. He was 1 of 14 NFL players to die while serving in World War II.

Albert Charles Blozis was born on January 5, 1919 in Garfield, Bergen County, New Jersey. He was an NCAA Champion in the shot put at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. But it would be as a two-way tackle in football that he would become a professional player. The New York Giants chose him in the 5th round of the 1942 NFL Draft, and he played in all 11 games with them in 1942, and in all 10 games in 1943.

He was 6-foot-6 and 250 pounds, making him too big for most roles in the Army. But by late 1943, the Army was desperate for more men, and so his attempts to enlist finally succeeded. The Army was especially impressed with the former shot-putter's ability to throw a grenade 95 yards, almost the length of a football field. In the 1944 season, he played 3 games on furlough, including the NFL Championship Game, which the Giants lost to the Green Bay Packers on December 17, 1944, 14-7 at the Polo Grounds.

Within days, he was sent overseas with the 28th Infantry Division. On January 31, 1945, his platoon was scouting enemy lines in the Vosges Mountains, near the border with Nazi Germany. Two men failed to return from a patrol, and 2nd Lieutenant Albert C. Blozis went in search of them -- alone. He never returned, either. He was listed as missing in action, until his body was found in April. The men he was searching for were never found.

The Giants retired his Number 32. He and end Jack Lummus, who was killed on Iwo Jima a few days later, were honored with plaques on the wall of the clubhouse at the Polo Grounds. Those plaques were lost after the baseball Giants left the stadium following the 1957 season, but both Blozis and Lummus were inducted into the Giants' Ring of Honor when MetLifeStadium opened in 2010.

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January 31, 1945 was a Wednesday. This was also the day that Private Eddie Slovik was executed for desertion. I have a separate entry for that event.

Baseball and football were out of season. The NBA hadn't been founded yet. And no games were scheduled in the NHL. So there were no scores on this historic day. 

January 31, 1945: The Execution of Eddie Slovik

January 31, 1945: Private Edward Slovik is executed for desertion. He remains the only American serviceman executed by his own country since the Civil War.

Slovik was born on February 18, 1920 in Detroit. He was first arrested at age 12, for breaking and entering. He served a year in prison from 1937 to 1938, and 3 years from 1939 to 1942.

After getting out, he got a job at a plumbing company, and got married. His criminal record originally made him classified as "morally unfit for duty." But as World War II dragged on, and the U.S. Army needed more men, he was reclassified as fit for duty in 1944, and drafted.

He was sent to France, to a rifle platoon unit. He got scared, and deserted on October 9. When he was caught, he made a complete confession, saying he didn't want to fight anymore. He had been in jails before, and fully expected to be sent to prison, which he considered preferable to dying in combat.

Instead, on November 11, in a court-martial lasting less than a day, he was convicted, and was sentenced to death, which is the traditional penalty for desertion. Terrified, on December 9, he wrote a letter to the Supreme Commander of Allied Forces, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, asking for clemency. "Ike" didn't get the letter until after the Battle of the Bulge began, and he needed to discourage further desertions, so he upheld the sentence on December 23.

On January 31, 1945, near the village of Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines, near the German border, Slovik told the soldiers preparing him for execution, "They're not shooting me for deserting the United States Army. Thousands of guys have done that. They just need to make an example out of somebody, and I'm it, because I'm an ex-con. I used to steal things when I was a kid, and that's what they are shooting me for. They're shooting me for the bread and chewing gum I stole when I was 12 years old."

In 1960, Frank Sinatra wanted to make a movie out of the story -- although, at 44 years old, he was already much too old to play the part himself. Needing his support, but not wanting the controversy, John F. Kennedy, then the Democratic nominee for President, talked him out of it.

In 1974, The Executive of Private Slovik aired on NBC, but it was made without Sinatra's involvement. It starred Martin Sheen, who, at 34, also too old for the part. He would go on to play JFK in an NBC miniseries 9 years later. Sheen played Slovik as terrified at his execution, reciting "The Lord's Prayer" through his tears, before the firing squad did their duty.

In fact, according to Father Carl Cummings, the priest attending the execution, Slovik was calm. Cummings told him, "Eddie, when you get up there, say a little prayer for me." And Slovik said, "Okay, Father. I'll pray that you don't follow me too soon."

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January 31, 1945 was a Wednesday. New York Giants football player Al Blozis was killed in action in France on the same day. I have a separate entry for that event.

Baseball and football were out of season. The NBA hadn't been founded yet. And while the NHL season was in progress, it had no games scheduled. So there were no scores on this historic day.

January 31, 1941: "Buck Privates" Introduces "The Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy"

Left to right: Maxene, Patty, LaVerne

January 31, 1941: Buck Privates premieres. It's a comedy, with America's entry into World War II still a matter of "if" instead of "when." The comedy duo Bud Abbott and Lou Costello play small-time big-city hucksters who accidentally enlist in the U.S. Army. The plot is not as important as the humor.

In hindsight, this film could have been titled Abbott & Costello Meet the Andrews Sisters. No, they weren't playing monsters, like Dracula, the Frankenstein monster, or the Wolf Man. But, in this film, playing themselves, they sang a song that became a monster hit: "The Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy."

The Sisters were from Minneapolis. LaVerne, a contralto, was born on July 6, 1911. Maxene, a soprano, was born on January 3, 1916. And Patty, a mezzo-soprano, was born on February 16, 1918. (Another sister, Anglyn, was born in 1914, but died at 8 months old.) They had their 1st hit in 1937, and became superstars in 1938 with their version of "The Beer Barrel Polka."

"Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy" was the song that would make them legends. Written by Don Raye and Hughie Price, it's about a trumpet player who's popular in the jazz clubs of Chicago, but gets drafted. At least, unlike in many an Army joke, they assign him a job for which he's qualified: Playing the wake-up call, a.k.a. "reveille," for his unit on a bugle.

The Sisters' appearance in Buck Privates was art imitating life: They were already touring with the USO, the United Service Organization, which entertained American troops wherever they might be -- which was about to be all over the world. The Sisters were involved in the founding of the Stage Door Canteen in New York and the Hollywood Canteen in Los Angeles, and occasionally sang at both.

In 1942, they had their biggest song of the war years, "Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree (with Anyone Else But Me)." In 1945, their hit "Rum and Coca-Cola" was a precursor to the calypso craze.

In 1947, Patty married Marty Melcher, a talent agent, but she left him when she found out he was cheating on her with Doris Day. (They later married.) In 1952, Patty married their piano player, Walter Weschler, who became their manager, and demanded more money for Patty, since, despite being the youngest, she was the lead singer. This caused some dissension, and they broke up the next year. They reunited in 1956, but rock and roll had arrived, and, forever identified with the World War II era, The Andrews Sisters had become an anachronism.

LaVerne married Lou Rogers, a trumpet player in the Vic Schoen band. They had no children. Maxene married Lou Levy, a music publisher, and he became their manager until Patty insisted that Walter replace him. Maxene and Lou adopted a daughter, Aleda Ann, and a son, Peter. The couple separated, and Maxene later began a lesbian relationship that lasted for the rest of her life.

LaVerne died of liver cancer on May 8, 1967, at the age of 55. She had usually been the peacemaker between the other 2, and, while they continued to perform together with various (unrelated) stand-ins for LaVerne, by 1971, they had had it with each other, and never performed together again. Maxene lived until October 21, 1995, at 79. Patty never had children, and was the last survivor, living until January 30, 2013, at 94. As Maxene's children were adopted, their genetic line ended with Patty.

Bette Midler had her 1st hit with a cover of "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy" in 1973. In 2007, Christina Aguilera had a hit with "Candyman," with almost the same music, and lyrics by herself and Linda Perry, complete with a 1940s-style music video.

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January 31, 1941 was a Friday. Actress Jessica Walter and Democratic Congressional leader Dick Gephardt were born on this day.

Baseball and football were out of season. The NBA hadn't been founded yet. And the NHL had no games scheduled. So there were no scores on this historic day.