October 17, 1971: Aryamehr Stadium opens in Tehran, the capital of Iran. It became the home of Iran's national soccer team, and of the 2 biggest teams in the city, and in the country: Persepolis, a.k.a. the Red Army; and Taj, meaning "Crown," a.k.a. the Loving Blues and the Giants of Asia.
Among the other changes brought about by Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution, the name of the stadium was changed to Azadi Stadium (ironically, "Azadi" means "Freedom"); and the name of Taj, to rid them of its connection to the deposed Shah and his royal/imperial family, was changed to Esteghlal (meaning "Independence").
Persepolis, founded in 1967, have won Iran's national league 14 times. (UPDATE: They have won again in 2023 and 2024, so that's 16.) Esteghlal, founded in 1945, have won it 9 times. However, they have won the AFC Champions League, Asia's continental club championship, twice, in 1970 and 1991; Persepolis have never won it.
A Tehran Derby. Persepolis red on one side, Esteghlal blue on the other.
The Azadi hosted the Asian Games in 1974, and a Frank Sinatra concert in 1975. From a record crowd of 128,000 for a 1998 World Cup qualifying match between Iran and Australia, the stadium's conversion to all-seater has dropped capacity to 78,116. Still, when split down the middle between 39,000 "Red Army" fans and 39,000 "Loving Blues" fans, it is as wild a sporting venue as any in the world. It is called "Johonam" -- the Farsi word for "Hell."
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October 17, 1971 was a Sunday. Byron Chamberlain, a Super Bow-winning linebacker with the Denver Broncos and a Pro Bowl selection with the Minnesota Vikings, was born on this day.
The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Baltimore Orioles, 2-1 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore, in Game 7, to win the World Series. I have a separate entry for that event.
These NFL games were played:
* The New York Giants lost to the Baltimore Colts, 31-7 at Yankee Stadium.
* The New York Jets beat the Buffalo Bills, 28-17 at Shea Stadium. Both New York teams being at home on the same day could have been due to the baseball teams having scheduling priority at the stadiums, thus compressing each football team's home schedule to being from mid-October to late December.
* The Washington Redskins beat the football version of the St. Louis Cardinals, 20-0 at Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium in Washington.
* The Los Angeles Rams beat the Atlanta Falcons, 24-16 at Atlanta Stadium (later renamed Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium).
* The Miami Dolphins beat the New England Patriots, 41-3 at the Orange Bowl in Miami.
* The New Orleans Saints beat the Dallas Cowboys, 24-14 at Tulane Stadium in New Orleans. This was an outlier: The Saints, as they usually did in their early days, finished below .500; while the Cowboys went on to win their 1st Super Bowl.
* The Detroit Lions beat the Houston Oilers, 31-7 at the Astrodome in Houston.
* The Cleveland Browns beat the Cincinnati Bengals, 27-24 at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati.
* The Minnesota Vikings beat their arch-rivals, the Green Bay Packers, 24-13 at Lambeau Field in Green Bay. Of course, the Packers consider their arch-rivals to be the Chicago Bears, not the Vikings.
* The Denver Broncos beat the San Diego Chargers, 20-16 at Mile High Stadium in Denver.
* The San Francisco 49ers beat the Chicago Bears, 13-0 in San Francisco. It turns out to be the last game for inured Bears star Gale Sayers. So, like the Beatles, Sayers' last paid performance was at Candlestick Park. Injuries limited Sayers to only enough games that it amounted to 4 full seasons. But he was still great enough to be elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
* The Oakland Raiders beat the Philadelphia Eagles, 34-10 at the Oakland Coliseum.
* And the following day, on ABC Monday Night Football, the Kansas City Chiefs beat the Pittsburgh Steelers, 38-16 at Kansas City Municipal Stadium.
There were no games in the American Basketball Association that day, but there were 3 in the NBA:
* The New York Knicks beat the Cleveland Cavaliers, 121-120 in overtime at the Cleveland Arena.
* The Detroit Pistons beat the Houston Rockets, 112-99 at Cobo Hall (now Huntington Place) in Detroit.
* And the Milwaukee Bucks beat the Portland Trail Blazers, 127-94 at the Portland Memorial Coliseum.
There were 6 games in the NHL:
* The New York Rangers beat the Montreal Canadiens, 8-4 at Madison Square Garden.
* The Toronto Maple Leafs and the Boston Bruins played to a tie, 2-2 at the Boston Garden.
* The Minnesota North Stars beat the Buffalo Sabres, 3-2 at the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium.
* The Detroit Red Wings beat the St. Louis Blues, 5-3 at the Olympia Stadium in Detroit.
* The Chicago Black Hawks beat the Los Angeles Kings, 4-0 at the Chicago Stadium.
* The Pittsburgh Penguins beat the California Golden Seals, 4-2 at the Oakland Coliseum Arena.
* And the Philadelphia Flyers and the Vancouver Canucks were not scheduled.
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