December 10, 1967: A twin-engine Beechcraft H18 plane, having taken off from Cleveland, crashes into Lake Monona in Madison, Wisconsin, lost in fog. Six people were killed, including the pilot, Richard Fraser. The rest were singer Otis Redding and the members of his backing band, The Bar-Kays.
Redding was just 26 years old, and while black audiences had known of him since 1963, white audiences hadn't noticed him until 6 months earlier, when he sang at the Monterey Pop Festival. Three days before the crash, he had recorded his vocals for a song he'd written, "(Sittin' on) The Dock of the Bay." He had recorded with the racially-integrated band Booker T. & The M.G.'s, and their lead guitarist, Steve Cropper, finished the recording. As a result, in April 1968, it became the 1st posthumous Number 1 hit of the Rock and Roll Era.
The members of The Bar-Kays who were killed: Saxophonist Phalon Jones, keyboard player Ronnie Caldwell (the only white member of the group), and drummer Carl Cunningham. They were all young: Most were 19, Cunningham wasn't quite 19, and another victim, Matthew Kelly, their valet (a white group would have called him a "roadie"), was only 17.
One member of The Bar-Kays was able to get out and swim to shore, trumpeter Ben Cauley. He formed a new Bar-Kays, and continued to perform under that name until his death in 2015, at age 67.
Otis received a revival of sorts in 1987, when his songs "Love Man" and "These Arms of Mine" were featured in the film "Dirty Dancing." In 1989, he was elected to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In 1991, The Black Crowes had a hit with his song "Hard to Handle."
In 1994, Ken Burns' miniseries Baseball used his original version of "Respect" as the backing track to their segment on Frank Robinson and the 1966 Baltimore Orioles.
Buddy Holly. Jim Reeves. Otis Redding. Jim Croce. All died in the crashes of Beechcraft planes.
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December 10, 1967 was a Sunday. It was the off-season for baseball. But a full slate of NFL games was played:
* The New York Giants lost to the Detroit Lions, 30-7 at Yankee Stadium.
* The Baltimore Colts beat the New Orleans Saints, 30-10 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore.
* The San Francisco 49ers beat the Atlanta Falcons, 34-28 at Atlanta Stadium (later Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium).
* The Washington Redskins beat the Pittsburgh Steelers, 15-10 at Pitt Stadium in Pittsburgh.
* The Cleveland Browns beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 20-16 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium.
* The Chicago Bears and the Minnesota Vikings played to a tie, 10-10 at Wrigley Field in Chicago.
* The Dallas Cowboys beat the Philadelphia Eagles, 38-17 at the Cotton Bowl. This was the game where the Cowboys' Lee Roy Jordan knocked the Eagles' Timmy Brown out of bounds, and then punched him, knocking out several teeth. Eagle fans consider this the beginning of the nasty rivalry between the teams.
* The day before, the Los Angeles Rams beat the Green Bay Packers, 27-24 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
In the American Football League:
* The New York Jets lost to the Kansas City Chiefs, 21-7 at Shea Stadium.
* The Miami Dolphins beat the San Diego Chargers, 41-24 at the Orange Bowl in Miami.
* The Oakland Raiders beat the Houston Oilers, 19-7 at Rice Stadium in Houston.
* The day before, the Buffalo Bills beat the Boston Patriots, 44-16 at Fenway Park in Boston.
* At the time, there were 9 teams in the AFL, so not every team played. The Denver Broncos had the bye.
There were 2 NBA games played that day:
* The St. Louis Hawks beat the Baltimore Bullets, 114-112 in overtime at the Kiel Auditorium in St. Louis.
* And the Seattle SuperSonics beat the Los Angeles Lakers, 133-123 at the Seattle Center Coliseum.
This was the 1st season of the American Basketball Association, and 3 games were played that day:
* The Pittsburgh Pipers beat the Minnesota Muskies, 114-99 at the Metropolitan Sports Center in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota.
* The New Orleans Buccaneers beat the Dallas Chaparrals, 125-110 at the Loyola Field House in New Orleans.
* And the Houston Mavericks beat the Indiana Pacers, 107-87 at the Sam Houston Coliseum in Houston.
And in its 1st season of expansion, the NHL had 5 games:
* The New York Rangers beat the Montreal Canadiens, 3-2 at the old Madison Square Garden.
* The Los Angeles Kings beat the Boston Bruins, 3-1 at the Boston Garden.
* The Chicago Black Hawks beat the Philadelphia Flyers, 3-0 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia.
* The Minnesota North Stars beat the Pittsburgh Penguins 7-4 at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh.
* And the St. Louis Blues beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 2-1 at the St. Louis Arena.
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