December 8, 1915: "In Flanders Fields" Is Published

December 8, 1915: The British magazine Punch publishes "In Flanders Fields," a poem by Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae, a doctor in the Canadian Army.

McCrae was born on November 30, 1872 in Guelph, Ontario, outside Hamilton. Having previously fought for the British Empire, of which Canada was still a part, in the Second Boer War in South Africa at the turn of the 20th Century, he volunteered again for what was then known as the Great War, but came to be called World War I.

His duties tending to the wounded at the Second Battle of Ypres, in Belgium in the Spring of 1915, led him to write the poem, on May 3, a day after presiding over the funeral of a friend, Lieutenant Alexis Helmer. Wild poppies were beginning to bloom between the crosses marking the graves, inspiring him to write:

 In Flanders Fields, the poppies blow

         Between the crosses, row on row,
       That mark our place; and in the sky
       The larks, still bravely singing, fly
    Scarce heard amid the guns below.

    We are the dead. Short days ago
    We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
       Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
                              In Flanders fields.

    Take up our quarrel with the foe:
    To you from failing hands we throw
       The torch; be yours to hold it high.
       If ye break faith with us who die
    We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
                                In Flanders fields.

Lieutenant Colonel McCrae would be a casualty himself, thought not of battle: On January 28, 1918, only 45 years old, he died of pneumonia with "extensive pneumococcus meningitis," at the British General Hospital in Wimereux, France. There were no antibiotics in those days: So many soldiers died of things that were, by World War II, treatable.

Ever since, a red poppy has been a symbol of war remembrance in the British Empire and Commonwealth. Sports teams in the Commonwealth tend to wear images of poppies on their jerseys on their home games closest to November 11, known as Remembrance Day there and Veterans Day in America.

In their locker room, the Montreal Canadiens placed images of the faces of their members of the Hockey Hall of Fame. On one side, the faces are topped by the words of the poem: "TO YOU FROM FAILING HANDS WE THROW THE TORCH, BE YOURS TO HOLD IT HIGH." On the other side, a French translation: "NOS BRAS LASSÉS VOUS TENDENT LE FLAMBEAU, A VOUS, TOUJOURS, DE LE PORTER BIEN HAUT." (More accurately: "Our weary arms hand the torch to you, it's always for you to carry it high."

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December 8, 1915 was a Wednesday. Baseball was out of season. Football was in midweek. Professional basketball barely existed. And while professional hockey did, its leagues were a few days away from starting their seasons. So there were no scores on this historic day.