March 6, 1981: Walter Cronkite Retires

March 6, 1981: Walter Cronkite retires as the anchorman and "managing editor" of The CBS Evening News after 19 years. He had succeeded Douglas Edwards as anchor on April 16, 1962, and, the following year, took the program from 15 to 30 minutes, Monday through Friday nights at 7:00 PM Eastern Time, later moving back to 6:30 as "the three major networks" -- CBS, NBC and ABC -- scaled back their nightly 6:00 news.

Cronkite had taken America through the Cuban Missile Crisis, the assassinations of the Kennedy brothers and Martin Luther King, the Civil Rights Movement, the Vietnam War, the Moon landings, the Kent State Massacre, the Watergate scandal, the energy crisis, the Camp David Accords, and the Iran Hostage Crisis. He'd anchored reporting on the Presidencies of John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, and now Ronald Reagan.

His report from Vietnam in 1968 led Johnson to drop out of the race for a 2nd full term, saying, "If I've lost Cronkite, I've lost Middle America."

Now, at age 64, “The Most Trusted Man In America” hasn’t been fired: He’s just simply had enough, and is ready step back. He hands the desk over to Dan Rather, who takes over the following Monday, March 9, and ends up holding it longer, for 23 years.

But Rather was forced out, due to a mistake he'd made, the kind that, were a host on Fox News to have made it, would have gotten away with. And while half the country was disappointed to lose Rather, the other half was glad to be rid of him. In contrast, Cronkite's retirement was lamented, and his career celebrated.

As Cronkite himself said at the end of every broadcast, "And that’s the way it is." He died in 2009.

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March 6, 1981 was a Friday. Baseball was in Spring Training. Football was out of season. There were 9 games played in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks lost to the Milwaukee Bucks, 122-111 at Madison Square Garden. 

* The New Jersey Nets lost to the Atlanta Hawks, 109-106 at The Omni in Atlanta. 

* The Philadelphia 76ers beat the Denver Nuggets, 131-112 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia. An unusual occurrence: Cliff Robinson of the Nets, Junior Bridgeman of the Bucks, and David Thompson of the Nuggets each scored 34 points, but their teams still lost.

* The Indiana Pacers beat the Boston Celtics, 110-104 at the Market Square Arena in Indianapolis.

* The Washington Bullets beat the Houston Rockets, 105-104 at The Summit in Houston. It's now the Central Campus of televangelist Joel Osteen's Lakewood Church.

* The Phoenix Suns beat the Portland Trail Blazers, 128-107 at the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix.

* The San Diego Clippers beat the Cleveland Cavaliers, 140-125 at the San Diego Sports Arena (now the Pechanga Arena).

* The Golden State Warriors beat the Dallas Mavericks, 115-109 at the Oakland Coliseum Arena.

* And the Seattle SuperSonics beat the San Antonio Spurs, 102-94 at the Seattle Center Coliseum.

And there were 2 games played in the NHL. The Hartford Whalers beat the Buffalo Sabres, 5-3 at the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium. And the Los Angeles Kings beat the Colorado Rockies, 3-1 at the McNichols Sports Arena in Denver.