February 13, 1983: Marvin Gaye Sings the National Anthem

February 13, 1983: The NBA All-Star Game is held at The Forum, outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California. The Eastern Conference beat the Western Conference, 132-123. Julius "Dr. J" Erving of the Philadelphia 76ers (and thus the East) led all scorers with 25 points, and was named the game’s Most Valuable Player.

Nobody remembers. What they do remember was the National Anthem sung by Marvin Gaye. Gaye had sung the Anthem before Game 4 of the 1968 World Series in Detroit, done it straight, and gotten a nice hand. The next day, before Game 5, Jose Feliciano sang it differently, and got hate mail.

Times changed: This time, Marvin sang the Anthem as if it was a gospel song, and, along with Whitney Houston before Super Bowl XXV 8 years later, is regarded as one of the most beloved renditions ever. How beloved? Today, if you type "Marvin Gaye" into the Search feature of YouTube, this rendition is the 1st thing that comes up. The 2nd is his song "Let's Get It On," his 1973 Number 1 hit about sex.

Sadly, 14 months later, he was dead.

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February 13, 1983 was a Sunday. Baseball and football were out of season. And, this being the NBA's All-Star Break, there were no regular-season games. But there were 5 games in the NHL that day:

* The Boston Bruins beat the Vancouver Canucks, 3-1 at the Boston Garden.

* The Hartford Whalers beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 5-3 at the Hartford Civic Center (now the PeoplesBank Arena).

* The Los Angeles Kings beat the Philadelphia Flyers, 5-4 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia.

* The Washington Capitals beat the Winnipeg Jets, 6-1 at the Capital Centre in the Washington suburb of Landover, Maryland.

* And the Quebec Nordiques beat the Chicago Black Hawks, 5-4 at the Chicago Stadium.