Mike Quill
January 1, 1966: For the 1st time, the New York City Transit Workers Union goes on strike, shutting down the City's Subway and bus systems.
Their contract with the City had expired, and, after threatening strikes before, the union's head, Michael Joseph Quill, called it at 5:00 AM.
This was just 5 hours into the Administration of the new Mayor, John Vliet Lindsay. At his Inaugural Ball that night, the lead entertainer was New York native Sammy Davis Jr., who told the crowd, "Just one day in office, and he's already eliminated crime in the Subways!"
In their issue dated on this day, Billboard magazine's chart of the biggest songs in America, the Hot 100, was topped by "The Sound of Silence," by Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel. It includes Simon's line, "The words of the prophets are written on the subway walls, and tenement halls." But nobody saw the words on this day.
Lindsay had won the office because he was good-looking, well-spoken, charismatic, smart, and seemed to be paying attention to the City's nonwhite neighborhoods. Though a Republican (he had been a Congressman for 6 years before that), he stood by his Party's stance in favor of civil rights after the national edition of the Party had abandoned it.
You wanted the job, John.
Mike Quill had been a personal friend of the outgoing Mayor, Robert F. Wagner Jr., and worked things out with him rather than go on strike, making what he considered acceptable gains. But Lindsay was not his friend.
Quill was 60, an immigrant from Ireland, a Roman Catholic, a former ditch-digger, who had founded the TWU in 1934, at a time when being in the American labor movement meant that you, quite literally, took your life into your own hands. He had served 12 years on the City Council, with the leftist American Labor Party, earning him the nickname Red Mike.
Lindsay was 44, of English descent, a Protestant, as patrician as you could get, and had pretty much run the year before against the idea of New York's old Democratic political machine, of which Quill's friend Wagner had been a symbol. And each man took it personally.
As Jimmy Breslin wrote in the New York Daily News, "John Lindsay looked at Mike Quill, and he saw the past. And Mike Quill looked at John Lindsay, and he saw the Church of England." Quill was not Boss Tweed, and Lindsay was not Oliver Cromwell. But they had one thing in common: They were stubborn as hell. You couldn't tell either of them anything.
And Quill managed to gain the upper hand in the media. At a time when the Irish were still the best-known ethnic group in New York (if not the biggest), and when not just the TWU, but the police and fire departments were dominated by Irish-Americans, the City that had elected Lindsay with a plurality in a 3-way race, with 45 percent of the vote, decided that it liked Quill better. This pretty much poisoned the political atmosphere and made Lindsay a lame duck, literally from Day One.
Lindsay didn't help himself. He tried to brush it off by saying, "New York is a fun city." "Fun City" soon became a nickname, every bit as sarcastic as calling the New York Mets baseball team "Amazin'" was at the time. What's worse, all of Lindsay's public relations skills, his greatest asset the year before, abandoned him. Evidence of this was his suggestion that "nonessential" workers stay home. When the holiday ended, a lot of people decided they were "nonessential." It was, for all intents and purposes, a sympathy strike.
Lindsay got a judge to issue an injunction against the strike, meaning that Quill was subject to arrest. Shortly after midnight on January 4, Quill said, "The judge can drop dead in his black robes. I don't care if I rot in jail: I will not call off the strike." He was arrested.
If enforcing the law was intended to give Lindsay the upper hand with the public, it backfired massively. Quill was sick, and was taken to Bellevue Hospital. (And not to the hospital's famous psychiatric ward.) The City's sympathy was with Quill.
On January 10, 15,000 workers picketed City Hall. Lindsay knew he had lost, and ordered negotiations to start. On January 13, the strike was settled, on terms the union embraced.
Quill was released from the hospital on January 25. He made a victory speech to the union that day. He died on January 28. As with Bart Giamatti's fatal heart attack a week after his permanent ban of Pete Rose perhaps dooming Rose's chance of ever being reinstated, Quill's death so soon after his win in the transit strike cast a pall over Lindsay's mayoralty that he was never able to shake. He had a rough time running for re-election in 1969, and didn't dare run for a 3rd term in 1973.
New York would have another transit strike in 1980. That time, Mayor Ed Koch seized the media narrative from the beginning, and made the union out to be the villains, and won.
*
January 1, 1966 was a Saturday. It was the off-season for Major League Baseball. The major pro football leagues were wrapping up their seasons.
The American Football League had its Championship Game 6 days earlier, on December 26, 1965, and the Buffalo Bills beat the San Diego Chargers, 23-0 at Balboa Stadium in San Diego. Neither team has won a league championship since.
The National Football League had its Championship Game the next day, January 2, 1966. It was the 1st time its season extended beyond New Year's Day. The Green Bay Packers beat the defending Champion Cleveland Browns, 23-12 at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Jim Brown -- the team was not named for him -- ran for just 50 yards. This was his last game, as he retired the following Summer.
There were 3 National Basketball Association games played that day:
* The New York Knicks beat the Cincinnati Royals, 147-122 at the old Madison Square Garden. For the Knicks, Willis Reed and Dick Barnett each scored 36 points. For the Royals, Happy Hairston scored 26, and Oscar Robertson 23. The Royals moved to Kansas City to become the Kings in 1972, and to Sacramento in 1985.
* The Baltimore Bullets beat the Detroit Pistons, 116-112 at the Baltimore Civic Center. The Bullets moved to Washington in 1973, and changed their name to the Washington Wizards in 1997. The Civic Center still stands, under the name of the CFG Bank Arena.
* And the St. Louis Hawks beat the Boston Celtics, 100-98. The Hawks moved to Atlanta in 1968. Lenny Wilkens scored 25 for the Hawks. The Celtics' Sam Jones scored 37 points to lead all scorers on the day.
There were 2 National Hockey League games played that day:
* The New York Rangers lost to the Montreal Canadiens, 5-1 at the Montreal Forum. Jean Ratelle scored the Rangers' only goal.
* The Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Boston Bruins, 6-3 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.
* The other two members of the NHL's "Original Six," the Detroit Red Wings and the Chicago Black Hawks, were not scheduled.
Being New Year's Day, college football bowl games were played:
* In the Rose Bowl in the Los Angeles suburb of Pasadena, California, UCLA, the University of California at Los Angeles, beat Michigan State University, 14-12. Michigan State had been declared the National Champions before the bowls by the AP, the sportswriters' poll, so this put that into question.
* In the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, Louisiana State University beat the University of Arkansas, 14-7. Arkansas had won a share of the National Championship for the 1964 season, and had they won this game, their Number 2 ranking and Michigan State's loss would have given them a sweep of the polls. But they lost, and were out.
* In the Orange Bowl in Miami, the University of Alabama beat the University of Nebraska, 39-28. Since Alabama went in ranking Number 3, this led to UPI, the coaches' poll, declaring them the National Champions.
* In the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans, the University of Missouri beat the University of Florida, 20-18.
Also, Arsenal lost to Fulham, 1-0 at Craven Cottage in West London.
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