December 26, 1947: The Northeast Blizzard of '47

December 26, 1947: The North American Blizzard of 1947 -- or the Northeast Blizzard of '47 -- falls on the Northeastern United States. When it's over, the snowfall at New York City's official measuring point, in Central Park, reads 26.4 inches. (While it was a record, that Daily News headline was a tad premature as to the total amount.)

The previous iconic blizzard in New York, from March 11 to 14, 1888, paralyzed the City for days, and led to the construction of the Subway system, and to the City's electric company, Consolidated Edison, moving most electrical lines underground as well. The snowfall was officially measured at 21 inches, so the Blizzard of '47 broke this record. Fortunately, by 1947, snow removal equipment was mechanized, so the City's paralysis didn't last nearly as long.

The '47 record would hold until January 6 to 8, 1996, 30 inches. That remains the record. But the Blizzard of '47 gained a life of its own. My mother was a baby at the time, and she told me that, for the rest of her life, her mother griped about having to take care of a baby in that Blizzard.

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December 26, 1947 was a Friday. The day after Christmas is celebrated as Boxing Day in Britain, and England's Football League plays games on the day. But not every team did this time. Liverpool F.C., defending Champions, and North London team Arsenal, who would go on to win the title, played each other the day before, on Christmas, at Liverpool's home of Anfield, and Arsenal won, 3-1. But on the 27th, at Arsenal's home of Highbury, Liverpool avenged that defeat, winning 2-1.

It was the off-season for Major League Baseball. The NFL Championship Game was played 2 days later, at Comiskey Park in Chicago, and the Chicago Cardinals beat the Philadelphia Eagles, 28-21. The Eagles beat the Cardinals in the Championship Game the next year. The Cardinals moved to St. Louis in 1960 and Arizona in 1988, but have never won another NFL Championship, either before or after the title game began to be called the Super Bowl.

There were no games scheduled for the National Hockey League that day. There was 1 game played that night in the Basketball Association of America, the league that became the National Basketball Association in 1949, upon its merger with the National Basketball League. It was in the Northeast, but in Philadelphia, where the snowfall wasn't nearly as severe: 6 1/2 inches.

So the game was played. The Philadelphia Warriors beat the Providence Steamrollers, 89-61 at the Philadelphia Arena, at 46th & Market Streets in West Philadelphia. No attendance is listed in the box score.

Joe Fulks scored 24 points for the Warriors, who moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in 1962, and are now known as the Golden State Warriors. The Rollers, named for the football team that won the NFL Championship in 1928 before being doomed by the Great Depression, folded in 1949, and never entered the merged NBA. They remain the last major league sports team based in Rhode Island.

Also on this day, Carlton Fisk, later to be the Hall of Fame catcher for the Boston Red Sox and the Chicago White Sox, was born, in Bellows Falls, Vermont -- because that town had the closest hospital to his parents' home in Charlestown, New Hampshire.