October 12, 1972: The USS Kitty Hawk Race Riot

Black sailors aboard the USS Kitty Hawk

October 12, 1972: A brawl on board the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk injures 46 people. About 200 black and white sailors fought for hours with knives, forks and chains, before the fight was broken up by a squad of U.S. Marines. It remains the biggest shipboard fight in the history of the U.S. Navy.

Details were released 6 weeks afterward by the U.S. Navy -- after the Presidential election, not that revealing those details between October 12 and November 6 would have saved Senator George McGovern of South Dakota, the Democratic nominee, against incumbent Republican President Richard Nixon on November 7.

The Kitty Hawk was en route to the Gulf of Tonkin, as support for the U.S. effort in the Vietnam War. The fight began when a sailor asked for two sandwiches at the ship's mess hall, and was given only one. A total of 25 men, only one of whom was white, were charged. Of those, 23 African-Americans would be convicted on charges of assault, or allowed to plead to lesser offenses, with charges dismissed against one black sailor, and the lone white sailor being acquitted after a court-martial.

The incident spread racial violence to other U.S. Navy ships, such as the aircraft carrier USS Constellation. Tensions among the crews resulted in a Congressional inquiry into discipline in the Navy.

Launched in 1960 as CV-63, and named for the North Carolina location of the Wright Brothers' pioneering flight in 1903, the Kitty Hawk served in the Vietnam War, the Persian Gulf War, the War On Terror and the Iraq War. In 1963, scenes for the film Seven Days In May were filmed aboard her. She was decommissioned in 2009, and sold for scrap in 2022.

USS Kitty Hawk, CV-63

It was the 2nd ship to be named the USS Kitty Hawk, following a cargo ship that served in World War II. At that time of the 2nd ship's scrapping, there was no plan to give a future the name.

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October 12, 1972 was a Friday. This was also the day of the race riot about the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk. I have a separate entry for that event.

The American League Pennant was won that day, as the Oakland Athletics beat the Detroit Tigers, 2-1 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit, in Game 5 of the AL Championship Series. The game was notable for a double steal that resulted in Reggie Jackson scoring, but tearing his hamstring, leaving him unable to play in the World Series.

The National League Pennant had been decided the day before, when the Cincinnati Reds won Game 5 of the NL Championship Series over the Pittsburgh Pirates. The A's went on to beat the Reds in the World Series, in 7 games.

In the World Hockey Association, the New England Whalers made their debut. They defeated the Philadelphia Blazers 2-0 at the Boston Garden. They would win the 1st WHA title in 1973. Tired of being mistreated by their landlords, the NHL's Bruins, they would move to Hartford in 1975.

In 1979, following the WHA's collapse, they were allowed into the NHL, and changed their name to the Hartford Whalers. In 1997, they moved to become the Carolina Hurricanes, winning the Stanley Cup in 2006. (UPDATE: And again in 2026.)

Also on this day, the Winnipeg Jets, the team that came to define the WHA in so many ways, debuted. So did the obligatory New York Tri-State Area franchise in the league, the New York Raiders. Christian Bordeleau scored 4 goals, including the club's 1st, and the Jets won, 6-4. Only 6,273 fans come out, mainly because the legal maneuvering that would allow Bobby Hull to play for the Jets had not yet been settled, and he wasn't available.

The Raiders wanted the new Nassau Coliseum, but got pushed around by the expansion Islanders. The Garden was willing to take them in, but they were low priority. Marvin Milkes, the Seattle Pilots general manager made infamous by Jim Bouton's book Ball Four, was their GM -- that should tell you what kind of organization they were. Their main radio announcer was a young John Sterling.

By midseason, their ownership had bailed, the league took them over, they spent the 1973-74 season in the Philadelphia suburb of Cherry Hill as the Jersey Knights -- the only South Jersey team ever to be remotely considered "major league," and folded.

The Jets would be considerably luckier, settling the situation with Hull (the Golden Jet, for whom the team was named), reaching the 1st WHA Finals (where they lost to the Whalers), and winning the title in 1976, '78 and '79.

Taken into the NHL, and stripped of their big stars (Hull played out the string in Hartford, while Anders Hedberg and Ulf Nilsson were sold to the Rangers), they collapsed immediately, set an NHL record for longest winless streak, and became known as Lose-ipeg. They would recover somewhat, but never got close to a Stanley Cup, and became the Phoenix Coyotes in 1996 and the Arizona Coyotes in 2014. The Atlanta Thrashers became the new Winnipeg Jets in 2011.

One more WHA game was played that day: The Houston Aeros beat the Chicago Cougars, 3-2 at the Sam Houston Coliseum.

There were 3 games in the NHL:

* The New York Islanders beat the Los Angeles Kings, 3-2 at the Nassau Coliseum. This was only the 2nd game, and 1st win, in regular-season play for the expansion Isles.

* The Montreal Canadiens beat the Atlanta Flames, 3-0 at the Montreal Forum. This was the 4th regular-season game for the expansion Flames, who had only won 1 to this point, their debut, against the Islanders.

 And the Philadelphia Flyers beat the Vancouver Canucks, 7-3 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia.

The NBA season had just started, but had no games on this day. There were 3 in the American Basketball Association:

* The Carolina Cougars beat the Virginia Squires, 123-115 at the Richmond Coliseum in Richmond, Virginia.

* The Indiana Pacers beat the Memphis Tams, 109-105 at the Mid-South Coliseum in Memphis. George Thompson scored 34 points in defeat.

* And the Utah Stars beat the Denver Rockets, 115-104 at the Salt Palace in Salt Lake City, Utah.