October 17, 1973: The England national soccer team plays Poland, in a qualifying match for the next year's World Cup, at England's national stadium, Wembley Stadium in West London.
England had won the World Cup in 1966, led by manager Alf Ramsey. For 1970, he made some changes due to the aging of some players, and England reached the Quarterfinals. By 1973, even the best of the Class of '66 was getting older, and it was showing.
England were put in a qualifying group with neighboring Wales, and Poland, each team playing the other home and away. Against Wales, England managed a 1-0 win in Cardiff, but had to come from behind just to gain a 1-1 draw at Wembley.
Wales then beat Poland, 2-0 in Cardiff; and, on June 6, 1973, Poland beat England 2-0 in Chorzów. On September 26, Poland beat Wales, 3-0. This meant that England had to beat Poland at Wembley on October 17: A draw would do them no good, as only the team that won the group would qualify.
A full house of 100,000 was on hand. Although they wore red for the '66 World Cup Final, England usually wear white at home, and did so on this occasion, allowing Poland to wear red. Early on, Martin Chivers of Tottenham Hostpur had a shot saved by Polish goalkeeper Jan Tomaszewski of ŁKS Łódź. Just as he let to ball go to start an attack, he realized he had to fall on the ball to prevent Allan Clarke of Leeds United from jumping on it, and probably scoring.
Tomaszewski injured his hand on the play, but stayed in, saving back-to-back shots by Roy McFarland of Derby County and Colin Bell of Manchester City. Shortly thereafter, he had to save off Clarke again, and off Mick Channon of Southampton.
In the 57th minute, Jan Domarski of FKS Stal Mielec put Poland on the board. BBC announcer Brian Moore said, "The tragedy that England might have expected! The Poles going mad around the scorer, Domarski!"
Shortly thereafter, Channon appeared to have tied the game, but the referee, Vital Loraux of Belgium, waved it off: The play began when Chivers' throw-in was taken by Clarke, who was offside before he passed to Channon. Shortly after that, Adam Musiał of Wisła Kraków tripped Martin Peters, then of Tottenham, in the box. Loraux correctly awarded a penalty, and Clarke converted it. (Despite going on to play in America toward the end of his career, Adam Musiał, pronounced "Moo-SHAL," was not related to baseball legend Stan Musial, pronounced "MYOO-zee-al."
England fought hard for half an hour to find a winner. Tomaszewski was beaten by Kevin Hector of Derby, and later by Bell, but Polish defenders stopped the balls from crossing the goal line. It ended 1-1, and England were eliminated from eligibility for the 1974 World Cup. Moore called it, "For England, one of the blackest days they've ever had. Sir Alf Ramsey must be a very disheartened man."
This was followed by 2 further disheartening friendlies: On November 14, a 1-0 loss at home to Italy; and on April 3, 1974, a 0-0 draw away to Portugal. The World Cup soon began, with Scotland in the tournament, but not England, which was terribly embarrassing: While England had refused to participate in the tournament until 1950, this was the 1st time they had attempted to qualify for it, and failed.
On May 11, Ramsey was fired. He remains the one and only manager ever to lead England to victory in a major tournament -- either the World Cup or the Euros -- but there were some in the FA who held grudges against him, for whatever reason. It may have been time to go, anyway: It was time for England to bring in a new generation of players, and, at the age of 54, he might not have been the man to do it.
Leeds United manager Don Revie was hired, and his tenure was a disaster. England flopped at Euro '76, and didn't qualify for the 1978 World Cup, either. They did qualify for 1982, 1986 and 1990, missed for 1994, and have made it every time since, but have never, despite their national media hype. looked like winning it.
Poland went on sweep their group in the 1st Group Stage at the World Cup, beating Italy, Argentina and Haiti. In the 2nd Group Stage, they beat Sweden and Yugoslavia, but lost to West Germany, the hosts, and were 2nd in the group. They beat Brazil in the 3rd-place Playoff, their best performance ever. They would match that in 1982, but have yet to surpass it.
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October 17, 1973 was a Wednesday. On the same day, Motorola engineer Marty Cooper was granted the patent for the handheld mobile telephone. And the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, OPEC, announced an embargo. I have a separate entry for that event.
It was midweek for the NFL and college football. But Game 4 of the World Series was played at Shea Stadium. The New York Mets evened the Series at 2 games apiece with a 6-1 win over the Oakland Athletics at Shea Stadium. In support of Met starting pitcher Jon Matlack, Rusty Staub went 4-for-4 with a homer and 5 RBI. The New Orleans chef was really cooking that night.
A's manager Dick Williams was tired of team owner Charlie Finley's meddling, and told his players that, win or lose, he would resign when the Series was over. In the 8th inning, as a pinch-hitter, he sent Mike Andrews, the 2nd baseman whose 2 errors in the 12th inning of Game 2 at the Oakland Coliseum gave the Mets a win, and whom Finley had unsuccessfully tried to have removed from the World Series roster. The Met fans, showing an intelligence for which I tend credit them, gave him a standing ovation. He grounded out. It turned out to be his last major league at-bat.
There were 2 NBA games played that day:
* The Milwaukee Bucks beat the Golden State Warriors, 109-95 at the Milwaukee Arena. In 1974, it was renamed the Milwaukee Exposition, Convention Center and Arena, or "The MECCA." Since 2014, it has been named the UW-Panther Arena.
* And the Kansas City-Omaha Kings beat the Seattle SuperSonics, 108-106 at the Seattle Center Coliseum.
There were 3 ABA games played:
* The Kentucky Colonels beat the Virginia Squires, 116-106 at Freedom Hall in Louisville.
* The Carolina Cougars beat the Memphis Tams, 108-95 at the Mid-South Coliseum in Memphis.
* And the Denver Rockets beat the Utah Stars, 112-97 at the Auditorium Arena in Denver. The Rockets would become the Denver Nuggets at the start of the 1974-75 season.
There were 6 NHL games played:
* The New York Rangers beat the St. Louis Blues, 4-0 at Madison Square Garden. Eddie Giacomin had the shutout, and was backed by goals from Bruce MacGregor, Steve Vickers, Rod Gilbert and Jim Neilson.
* The Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Montreal Canadiens, 5-3 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.
* The Atlanta Flames beat the Boston Bruins, 4-3 at The Omni in Atlanta.
* The Chicago Black Hawks beat the Vancouver Canucks, 5-0 at the Chicago Stadium. The team's name was always written as 2 words, "Black Hawks," until 1986, when their original NHL charter document was found, and it was seen that the name had been written as 1 word, "Blackhawks," and that's how they've officially written it since.
* The Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Minnesota North Stars, 4-2 at the Metropolitan Sports Center in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota.
* And the Philadelphia Flyers beat the California Golden Seals, 5-1 at the Oakland Coliseum Arena. Finley owned them, too, and they went out of business, but not before playing the 1976-77 and 1977-78 seasons as the Cleveland Barons.
There were 2 games in the World Hockey Association:
* The Winnipeg Jets beat the New England Whalers, 3-1 at the Boston Garden.
* And the Houston Aeros, with 44-year-old Gordie Howe leading a line with his sons Mark and Marty, beat the Vancouver Blazers, 7-2 at the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver.
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