October 29, 1960: A C-46 plane crashes during takeoff near Toledo, Ohio, killing 22 people, including 16 players for the football team at California Polytechnic State University of San Luis Obispo. The school popularly known as "Cal Poly" should not be confused with the California Institute of Technology, a.k.a. "Caltech," in Pasadena.
They had just lost 50-6 to a Bowling Green team that featured future actor Bernie Casey. An investigation revealed that the plane was overloaded, weighing over 2,000 pounds more than it should have. Fog was also a factor: It was so bad that the City of Toledo suspended taxi service for the night.
Amazingly, 26 people on board survived, including quarterback Ted Tollner, who went on to coach USC from 1983 to 1986. "I was the cutoff for who lived and died," Tollner said in a 2006 interview. "Everyone in front of me died. Everyone behind me survived." Of the 26 survivors, 13 attended a 50th Anniversary memorial service in 2010.
Cal Poly, then an NCAA Division II school, was 1-5, and it canceled the rest of its season. The Mustangs would bounce back in 1961, going 5-3. As recently as 1957 and '58, they had gone 17-2, with a team that included an offensive tackle who would make his mark in pro football, not as a player, but as a coach, broadcaster and video game impresario: John Madden.
The school won the Division II National Championship in 1980, and is now in the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS), formerly known as Division I-AA, having most recently made the Playoffs in 2016.
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October 29, 1960 was a Saturday. The next-biggest sporting event occurring that day would not be thought of as such for a few more years. Cassius Clay, coming off his Olympic Gold Medal in Rome, has his 1st professional fight, in his hometown of Louisville, Kentucky. He fights Tunney Hunsaker, the fight goes the maximum 6 rounds, and Clay wins a unanimous decision. He later admitted that he wasn't prepared to face a professional fighter, and that Hunsaker gave him one of the hardest body blows he would ever receive.
Not an especially interesting beginning for the man who will become Muhammad Ali, one of the most interesting people who has ever lived. Hunsaker, a U.S. Air Force veteran, returned to his native West Virginia, and was named a police chief at age 27, serving for 38 years. He and Ali stayed in touch and became friends. Hunsaker disagreed with Ali's decision to refuse being drafted, but he respected Ali's dedication to principle. Hunsaker died in 2005.
Among the other college football games played that day:
* Number 1 Iowa beat Number 19 Kansas, 21-7 at Iowa Stadium (renamed Kinnick Stadium in 1972).
* Number 2 Mississippi (Ole Miss) and Louisiana State (LSU) played to a tie, 6-6 at Hemingway Stadium (renamed Vaught-Hemingway Stadium in 1982) in Oxford, Mississippi.
* Number 3 Syracuse were upset by the University of Pittsburgh, 10-0 at Archbold Stadium in Syracuse, New York.
* Number 4 Navy beat Notre Dame, 14-7 at Philadelphia Municipal Stadium (renamed John F. Kennedy Stadium in 1964). Also among the service academies, Army beat Miami University of Ohio, 30-7 at Michie Stadium in West Point, New York; and Air Force lost to George Washington University, 20-6 at Falcon Stadium in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
* Number 5 Missouri beat Nebraska, 28-0 at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln, Nebraska.
* Number 6 Minnesota beat Kansas State, 48-7 at Memorial Stadium in Minneapolis.
* Number 7 Baylor were upset by Texas Christian University (TCU), 14-6 at Amon G. Carter Stadium in Fort Worth, Texas.
* Number 8 Ohio State beat Number 10 Michigan State, 21-10 at Spartan Stadium in East Lansing, Michigan.
* Number 9 Washington beat Oregon, 7-6 at Husky Stadium in Seattle.
* In a crosstown rivalry that no longer plays football, but is still a nasty one in basketball, Xavier beat the University of Cincinnati, 5-0 at Nippert Stadium in Cincinnati.
* And in New Jersey, Princeton beat Brown, 54-21 at Palmer Stadium in Princeton; and Rutgers lost to Villanova, 14-12 at Rutgers Stadium in Piscataway.
There were 4 NBA games played that day:
* The New York Knicks lost to the Detroit Pistons, 115-110 at the Olympia Stadium in Detroit.
* The Philadelphia Warriors beat the Boston Celtics, 1341-103 at the Boston Garden.
* The Syracuse Nationals beat the Los Angeles Lakers, 125-118 at the Onondaga County War Memorial (now the Upstate Medical University Arena) in Syracuse, New York.
* And the St. Louis Hawks beat the Cincinnati Royals, 113-97 at the Kiel Auditorium in St. Louis.
Two games were played in the NHL. The Montreal Canadiens beat the Boston Bruins, 3-2 at the Montreal Forum. And the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Chicago Black Hawks, 8-4 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto. The New York Rangers and the Detroit Red Wings were not scheduled.
And Michael Carter was born that day, becoming a defensive tackle who won 3 Super Bowls with the San Francisco 49ers.
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