September 24, 1977: Bert Lance resigns as the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, under a cloud of scandal. For the new Administration of President Jimmy Carter, elected in response to the scandals of former President Richard Nixon, and promising "a government as good as its people," it is a blow from which it never truly recovered.
Lance, 46 years old at the time, had married a woman whose family owned the Calhoun First National Bank. He rose through the ranks of banks in his home State of Georgia, becoming president of the National Bank of Georgia.
During his rise, he met Jimmy Carter, then the Governor of Georgia. Carter appointed him State Highway Director. He became a close friend, and an adviser to Carter's 1976 Presidential campaign. Carter appointed him Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).
At first, Lance proved to be a popular member of the Administration. In the May 1977 issue of the magazine Nation's Business, he was quoting as saying, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." He popularized the phrase, and he seemed like a font of homespun wisdom.
But halfway through Carter's 1st year in office, questions were raised by the press and Congress about mismanagement and corruption when Lance was chairman of Calhoun First National. William Safire, conservative columnist for The New York Times, had been a speechwriter for Nixon, and a strong defender of his. Desperate to turn the focus of scandal on the Democrats, his efforts to turn the Korean lobbying scandal of earlier in the year into "Koreagate," had succeeded only in making the adding of the "-gate" suffix to every political scandal thereafter a near-must. Now, his column, "Carter's Broken Lance," gained traction with Lance's scandal, and won him a Pulitzer Prize.
Lance resigned, to make sure that if there was heat to be taken, he would take it, rather than Carter. It didn't work: Lance became a national joke, in the monologue of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, and as answers on Match Game.
Eventually, Lance would be indicted on charges of misusing the funds of the banks he headed, and on charges related to attempting to cover up that crime. On April 30, 1980, the jury found Lance not guilty on 9 charges, while they could not reach a verdict on 3 others.
It didn't seem to matter: People remembered the accusations, not the acquittal. Even as late as 1993, an episode of the sitcom Murphy Brown had a scene set on August 16, 1977, the day Elvis Presley died, with the title character, played by Candice Bergen, telling Frank Fontana, played by Joe Regalbuto, that she'll pay his half of their bar tab. He responded, "Half? Who taught you math, Bert Lance?"
From 1981 to 1986, Lance was again chairman of Calhoun First National Bank. In 1982, he was elected Chairman of the Georgia Democratic Party. In 1984, Walter Mondale, Carter's Vice President and the Democratic nominee for President, wanted him to become Chairman of the Democratic National Committee. But some memories ran hard, and he was forced to drop out of the running for the job. He later advised Jesse Jackson's 1988 campaign for President. He died in 2013, at the age of 88.
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September 24, 1977 was a Saturday. This was also the day The Love Boat premiered. I have a separate entry for that event.
These Major League Baseball games were played:
* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Montreal Expos, 1-0 at the Olympic Stadium in Montreal. Steve Carlton pitched a 4-hit shutout. Garry Maddox singled home Richie Hebner in the top of the 2nd inning.
* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Atlanta Braves, 8-7 at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium. Pete Rose went 2-for-4 with a walk and 2 RBIs. Johnny Bench went 1-for-3 with a walk and an RBI.
* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Cleveland Indians, 4-1 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Jim Palmer outpitched Dennis Eckersley. Ken Singleton and Eddie Murray hit home runs.
* The Boston Red Sox beat the Detroit Tigers, 6-2 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. Carl Yastrzemski, Fred Lynn and Ted Cox hit home runs.
* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Chicago Cubs, 7-3 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Willie Stargell did not play.
* The Minnesota Twins beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 4-3 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota. Rod Carew, who had been over .400 as late as July 10, went 0-for-5 to drop to .381. He got back up to .388 at the end. Robin Yount went 0-for-3, with an RBI on a sacrifice fly.
* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Houston Astros, 1-0 at the Astrodome in Houston. Burt Hooton pitched a 2-hit shutout. Lee Lacy drew a bases-loaded walk in the top of the 6th inning.
* The Kansas City Royals beat the California Angels, 4-3 at Anaheim Stadium (now Angel Stadium of Anaheim). George Brett did not play.
* The San Francisco Giants beat the San Diego Padres, 3-2 at San Diego Stadium (later renamed Jack Murphy Stadium and Qualcomm Stadium).
* The Texas Rangers beat the Oakland Athletics, 3-1 at the Oakland Coliseum.
* The Chicago White Sox beat the Seattle Mariners, 8-3 at the Kingdome in Seattle.
* And neither New York team played. The New York Yankees and the Toronto Blue Jays were rained out at Exhibition Stadium in Toronto. The game was made up as part of a doubleheader the next day. The Yankees won the opener, 15-0. Ron Guidry pitched a 7-hit shutout. Cliff Johnson hit 2 home runs. Reggie Jackson, Lou Piniella, and Dave Kingman also homered. It was 1 of 4 home runs that Kingman hit in 8 games as a Yankee.
Then the Bronx Bombers won the nightcap, 2-0. Ed Figueroa went 7 2/3rds innings of 5-hit shutout ball, before Sparky Lyle got the last 4 outs without allowing a baserunner.
* The New York Mets were supposed to play the St. Louis Cardinals at Shea Stadium, but were rained out. The way the schedule worked out, the game was moved to the following Friday, and to Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis, as part of a doubleheader. The Cardinals won the 1st game, 7-2. The Mets won the 2nd game, 6-3. The next day, they had a doubleheader at Busch to make up for another rainout at Shea, and this was also split.
It was also a college football gameday. These notable games were played:
* Number 1 Michigan beat Navy, 14-7 at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor. As for the other service academies: Army lost to Boston College, 49-28 at Alumni Stadium outside Boston in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts; and Air Force beat the University of the Pacific, 15-13 at Falcon Stadium in Colorado Springs, Colorado. While Navy were not a Big Ten Conference opponent, Michigan would win the Big 10 title.
* Number 2 University of Southern California beat Texas Christian University, 51-0 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. USC would not win the Pacific-Eight Conference title, though, losing that to the University of Washington, who went on to beat Michigan in the Rose Bowl. (The next season, Arizona and Arizona State moved in from the Western Athletic Conference, making the Pac-8 the Pac-10.)
* Number 3 Oklahoma beat Number 4 Ohio State, 29-28 at Ohio Stadium in Columbus. Oklahoma would win the Big Eight Conference title, but a loss to arch-rival Texas cost them a shot at the National Championship.
* Number 5 Penn State beat Maryland, 27-9 at Beaver Stadium in State College, Pennsylvania.
* Number 6 Texas A&M beat Number 7 Texas Tech, 33-17 at Jones Stadium in Lubbock, Texas.
* Number 8 Colorado beat New Mexico, 42-7 at Folsom Field in Boulder, Colorado.
* Number 9 Texas had the week off. Led by Heisman Trophy-winning running back Earl Campbell, They would win the Southwest Conference title.
* Number 10 Alabama beat Vanderbilt, 24-12 at Dudley Field (now FirstBank Stadium) in Nashville. 'Bama had lost to Nebraska the week before, and that ended up being their only loss of the season, costing them the National Championship. They still won the Southeastern Conference title, and beat Ohio State in the Sugar Bowl. It was the 1st time any Big 10 team had gone to a bowl game other than the Rose Bowl, following the league's 1975 rule change.
* Number 11 Notre Dame beat Purdue, 31-24 at Ross-Ade Stadium in West Lafayette, Indiana. Led by sophomore quarterback Joe Montana, Notre Dame beat Texas in the Cotton Bowl, and won the National Championship.
* Number 13 Florida had a mild upset of Number 12 Mississippi State, 24-22 at Scott Field (now Davis Wade Stadium) in Starkville, Mississippi.
* Number 15 Washington State were upset by Kansas, 14-12 at Memorial Stadium in Lawrence, Kansas.
* Number 16 Arkansas beat the University of Tulsa, 37-3 at Razorback Stadium in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Like Oklahoma, Arkansas had Texas as their arch-rival, and lost to them, costing them not just a shot at the National Championship, but the SWC title. They went on to beat Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl.
* Number 17 West Virginia were upset by Kentucky, 28-13 at Commonwealth Stadium (now Kroger Field) in Lexington, Kentucky.
* Number 18 UCLA were upset by Minnesota, 27-13 at Memorial Stadium in Minneapolis.
* Rivalry: Miami beat Florida State, 23-17 at Doak Campbell Stadium in Tallahassee, Florida.
* And, rivalry: Rutgers beat Princeton, 10-6 at Palmer Stadium in Princeton, New Jersey.
In New Jersey high school football, the school I would one day attend, East Brunswick, beat Colonia of Woodbridge, 14-8 at Jay Doyle Field in East Brunswick.
And Arsenal and Liverpool, 2 of the biggest names in English soccer, played to a 0-0 draw at the Arsenal Stadium, nicknamed Highbury for hits neighborhood, in North London.
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