August 31, 1969: Rocky Marciano's Plane Crash

August 31, 1969: Rocky Marciano and 2 others are killed when their Cessna 172, flying from Midway Airport in Chicago to Des Moines, crashes near Newton, Iowa, 30 miles from their destination. Marciano was a day short of his 46th birthday.

He was born on September 1, 1923, as Rocco Francis Marchegiano, outside Boston in Brockton, Massachusetts. "The Brockton Blockbuster" first fought for the Heavyweight Championship of the World in 1952, against Jersey Joe Walcott, and got knocked down in the 1st round. He got up, and knocked Walcott out in the 13th round. In the rematch, he knocked Walcott out in the 1st.

Like Jack Dempsey, he was a nice guy out of the ring, and hell in it. Like his idol, Joe Louis, he won a lot of fights where he seemed to be losing. His holding of the title made him the 1st Heavyweight Champion to be embraced by television viewers. The fact that he was white and ethnic, not black like Louis or later Champions like Floyd Patterson, Sonny Liston and Muhammad Ali, shouldn't have helped, but did.

He retired in 1956, at 49-0, with 43 knockouts. Among his victims were former Heavyweight Champions Louis, Walcott and Ezzard Charles, and reigning Light Heavyweight Champion Archie Moore, whom he beat in what turned out to be his last fight. He is the only Heavyweight Champion who retired undefeated, and stayed retired. He became an announcer for fights, and even hosted a talk show where he would interview a celebrity and then show a famous fight, sometimes one of his own.

As with Buddy Holly 10 years earlier, the pilot was inexperienced flying at night and in bad weather, and crashed in rural Iowa.

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August 31, 1969 was a Sunday. These Major League Baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Yankees beat the expansion Kansas City Royals, 5-3 at Yankee Stadium. Fritz Peterson was the winning pitcher. Roy White went 1-for-3 with 2 RBIs. Thurman Munson had made his major league debut that month, but on this day, the catcher was Frank Fernández, who had an unusual day: no official at-bats, 4 walks, and a run scored.

* The New York Mets split a doubleheader with the San Francisco Giants at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. The Mets won the opener, 8-0. Tom Seaver pitched a shutout, allowing 7 hits and 3 walks, striking out 11. The Mets got good production from the bottom of their order: Ron Swoboda, Jerry Grote and Al Weis each had 2 RBIs, while Seaver himself had 1 on a single.

The Giants won the nightcap, 3-2. Ron Taylor walked Jim Davenport with the bases loaded in the bottom of the 11th inning, messing up a good start by Jim McAndrew. Swoboda hit a home run. Willie Mays did not play in either game.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the California Angels, 5-4 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. Frank Robinson went 2-for-3 with a walk and an RBI. Brooks Robinson went 1-for-4 with an RBI.

* The Washington Senators beat the Oakland Athletics, 8-3 at Robert F. Kennedy Stadium in Washington. The Senators got home runs from Frank Howard, Mike Epstein, Ken McMullen and Bernie Allen, as Casey Cox outpitched Jim "Catfish" Hunter. Reggie Jackson went 2-for-3 with a walk and an RBI.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the Atlanta Braves, 8-4 at Atlanta Stadium (later Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium). Ken Holtzman not only outpitched Phil Niekro, but hit a home run for the Cubs. So did Billy Williams. Ernie Banks went 0-for-4. Hank Aaron went 1-for-4.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 7-5 at Crosley Field in Cincinnati. Johnny Bench and Tony Pérez hit home runs, and Pete Rose went 3-for-4 with an RBI.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the expansion Seattle Pilots, 7-2 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. Al Kaline did not play in this game, but Willie Horton hit 2 home runs, and Don Wert hit one. Earl Wilson outpitched Gene Brabender. Maybe the Pilots could have used Jim Bouton. Alas, they had traded him to Houston a few days earlier, as told in Bouton's book Ball Four.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Cleveland Indians, 7-6 at Comiskey Park in Chicago.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Boston Red Sox, 6-2 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota. Harmon Killebrew and Ted Uhlaender hit home runs. Carl Yastrzemski went 1-for-4.

Killebrew won the American League home run race with 49. Howard hit 48. After getting to 31 by the All-Star Break, Reggie Jackson ended up with 47.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Houston Astros, 6-4 at the Astrodome in Houston. Roberto Clemente went 0-for-2 with 3 walks. Willie Stargell went 1-for-5 with 2 RBIs. The Astros used 4 pitchers. Jim Bouton was not one of them. This game did not make a fellow proud to be an Astro.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 4-1 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.

* And the National League's 2 expansion teams played a doubleheader at San Diego Stadium (later renamed Jack Murphy Stadium and Qualcomm Stadium). The San Diego Padres won the 1st game, 5-2. The Montreal Expos won the 2nd game, 6-1. In contrast to the AL, where the Royals only lost 93 games and the Pilots 98, the Expos and Padres both lost 110, bad even by the standards of 1st-year teams.