December 16, 1945: The Cleveland Rams' Championship Farewell

Number 24 is Jim Gillette, who scored the winning touchdown.

December 16, 1945: The NFL Championship Game is played. The winning team... moves to another city.

You know how, when the Cleveland Browns announced during the 1995 season that they were moving, their fans had such a fit, and talked about how loyal they were? Well, at the time, they were averaging 66,772 fans per home game, which, given the capacity of Cleveland Municipal Stadium, was an average of about 14,000 empty seats.

The Cleveland Rams would have gladly taken that. Founded in 1936, they had hoped to use Municipal Stadium for their home games, but ticket demand was usually so low, instead, they played at 22,000-seat League Park, or the even smaller Shaw Stadium, a high school facility.

In 1945, Adam Walsh was named head coach. He was the center on Notre Dame's 1924 National Championship team, leading the line known as the Seven Mules, so named because they blocked for the backfield known as the Four Horsemen. He saw to it that they drafted UCLA quarterback Bob Waterfield.

Bob Waterfield. Teammate Fred Gehrke,

a graphic artist, invented the modern helmet logo

by painting rams' horns on the helmets in 1948.

And they went 9-1, their best season yet. They played all their home games at League Park, and averaged just 19,402 fans. Granted, a lot of would-be fans were still overseas, as the end of World War II did not mean that every serviceman went home at once. Still, their away games did better: A crowd of 46,219 saw them beat the New York Giants at the Polo Grounds, 40,017 saw them beat the Detroit Lions at Briggs Stadium (later renamed Tiger Stadium), and 38,149 saw their only loss, to the Philadelphia Eagles at Shibe Park.

Since it was the Western Division Champion's turn to host the NFL Championship Game, Rams owner Dan Reeves -- no relation to the later coach of the same name -- booked Municipal Stadium for it, hoping for a big crowd. Certainly, he got the right opponent: The Eastern Division Champions were the Washington Redskins, with superstar quarterback Sammy Baugh, in their 5th Championship Game in the last 9 seasons. (They'd won in 1937 and 1942, and lost in 1940 and 1943.)

But the weather did not cooperate: At kickoff time, it was 8 degrees below zero, the coldest NFL Championship Game ever to that point. (That temperature has only been exceeded once, and that once with an asterisk: The 1967 NFL Championship Game, "The Ice Bowl," was not the World Championship Game.)

As a result, in the football-mad State of Ohio, where Ohio State had played to 4 crowds of 69,000 or more that season, only 32,178 fans paid their way into the big stadium on the shore of Lake Erie. In contrast, playing in Griffith Stadium, which barely seated 35,000 with added seating for football, the Redskins drew more than 32,178 fans in 9 of their 10 regular-season games, home and away.

From 1933 to 1973, the goalposts were on the goal line, not the end line. In the 1st quarter of this game, Baugh faded back from his own 5-yard line, into the end zone, and made a bad throw, which hit the goal post. Under the rule of the time, this was a safety for the Rams, who now led, 2-0. It would matter. 

Sammy Baugh

Each team scored a touchdown in the 2nd quarter. Baugh left the game due to bruised ribs, and Frank Filchock came into replace him. The backup to Slingin' Sammy was called Flingin' Frank, and he threw a 38-yard touchdown pass to Steve "Jack Rabbit" Bagarus. Waterfield threw a 37-yard touchdown pass to Jim Benton, and it was 9-7 Cleveland at the half.

In the 3rd quarter, Waterfield threw a 44-yard touchdown pass to Jim Gillette. However, Waterfield, also the Rams' placekicker, missed the extra point, and it was 15-7. Early in the 4th quarter, Filchock threw an 8-yard touchdown pass to Bob Seymour. Joe Aguirre kicked the extra point, and it was 15-14 in the Rams' favor.

Joe Aguirre

But Aguirre, nicknamed "Hot-Toe," blew 2 chances to win the title, missing 2 field goals in the 4th quarter. The 15-14 score held, and the difference wasn't just Aguirre's toe going cold, it was Baugh's end-zone goof.

Redskins owner George Preston Marshall, who had been the driving force behind several notable rule changes, led the NFL to change the rule for the 1946 season: A forward pass that strikes the goal post would now be ruled an incomplete pass. That rule held until the posts were moved back to the end line for the 1974 season, making such a play impossible: It would have required crossing the end line, which has always been a safety.

Reeves lost $64,000 owning the Rams in the 1945 season. And, with the war over, a new league was being formed, the All-America Football Conference. And they would have a Cleveland team, soon to be named the Browns. Reeves knew that it would be folly to stay in Cleveland.

So he went to the previously untapped market of Los Angeles, and moved the Rams there. Since football is only played once a week, teams taking trains to the West Coast and back was the same kind of problem it would have been for baseball teams before jet travel made it easier. Over a decade before baseball's Brooklyn Dodgers moved there, the Los Angeles Rams became the toast of the town, reaching 4 NFL Championship Games between 1949 and 1955, winning in 1951.

Ironically, Joe Aguirre also went west in 1946, kicking for the AAFC's Los Angeles Dons. They did well at the box office, but couldn't outdraw the Rams, and folded with the league. Aguirre went to the Canadian Football League, and was its leading scorer in 1950 and 1954. But he never won a title in any league.

The Redskins got old in a hurry. And Marshall's policy of refusing to sign black players held the team back in the 1950s. Marshall's eventually fatal illness and incapacity held the team back in the 1960s. It would be 27 years before the team reached another championship game, under any name.

*

December 16, 1945 was a Sunday. Baseball was out of season. The NBA hadn't been founded yet. There were 2 games played in the NHL. The Boston Bruins beat the New York Rangers, 8-7 at the Boston Garden. And the Montreal Canadiens and the Chicago Black Hawks played to a tie, 4-4 at Chicago Stadium.

November 29, 1945: "The Lost Weekend" Premieres

November 29, 1945: The Lost Weekend premieres, based on the novel by Charles R. Jackson, and directed by Billy Wilder. It is Hollywood's classic portrayal of alcoholism. And the title is a little misleading: Although it wraps around a weekend, it runs from Thursday afternoon to Tuesday morning, so The Lost Week might have been a better title.

Ray Milland plays Don Birnam, an alcoholic writer from New York, preparing for a weekend vacation with his brother Wick. Jane Wyman plays his girlfriend, Helen. He goes out for a drink, but, as so often happens, one drink becomes many, and he misses the train for his vacation.

Don tells Helen that he's 2 different people: "Don the Writer" and "Don the Drunk." He's lying, both to her and to himself, proving it by pawning his typewriter on Saturday so he can buy more booze. He wakes up in the alcoholics' ward of a hospital on Sunday. On Monday, he falls victim to delirium tremens, a.k.a. "The D.T.'s." His screams alert a neighbor, who calls Helen, who nurses him through the night. He commits to being Don the Writer, and begins to write his novel based on the events of the "weekend."

Milland won the Academy Award for Best Actor, preceding Richard Burton as the 1st actor from Wales to win one. He later appeared in Dial M for Murder and Love Story, directed for television, and became one of TV's finest character actors. He died in 1986, as a result of substance abuse -- not alcohol, but tobacco.

Wyman later won the Academy Award for Best Actress for Johnny Belinda. She was married to Ronald Reagan from 1940 to 1949, and was the mother of his daughter Maureen. Together, they adopted a son, Michael. She was already a Republican, so his political switch, from liberal to conservative, was not one of the reasons they split. She later remarried, and starred on the TV series Falcon Crest. She lived until 2007.

*

November 29, 1945 was a Thursday. Baseball was out of season. The NBA hadn't been founded yet. No games were scheduled for the NHL.

There were 2 games in college football. Number 10 Texas beat their arch-rivals, Texas A&M, 20-10 at Kyle Field in College Station. And the University of Chattanooga (now the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga) beat the University of Mississippi (a.k.a. Ole Miss), 31-6 at Chamberlain Field in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

November 21, 1945: Dynamo Moscow Kicks Off Sports' Cold War

Yes, the fog was that thick.

November 21, 1945: The most-hyped game of the 1st visit of a Soviet soccer team to England, the sport's traditional birthplace, takes place. In hindsight, it can be called the event that kicked of the sports division of the Cold War.

In Communist countries, sports clubs, and the teams they fielded, were sponsored by state-owned industries. The countries' armies sponsored teams named "Central Club of the Army," or "CSKA" in Slavic languages. The national railroads sponsored teams named "Lokomotiv." The auto industry sponsored teams named "Torpedo." The teams most hated by the citizens, but with the most funding from the government and the most favorable decisions from government-appointed officials, were named "Dynamo."

Football Club Dynamo Moscow won the Soviet Top League in 1936, 1937, 1940 and 1945; and were regarded, along with Spartak Moscow, as the best team in the Soviet Union. So when World War II came to an end, Dynamo wanted to test themselves against what was seen as the best competition in the world: The British.

This was the age of radio. Television existed, but it hadn't yet done much to cover sports. Most of what people knew about sports was what they read in newspapers. So there was very little information on Dynamo for the British teams they would be facing, and their fans -- and vice versa: Dynamo knew very little about their opponents.

Interviewed for a 2001 documentary, Dynamo forward Konstantin Beskov said, "Until those games, we only knew that England was the motherland of football, that English football was the best in the world." One of Britain's national newspapers, The Evening Standard, wrote, "Don't expect much from Dynamo. They are only beginners, blue-collars, amateurs." They would regret that dismissive derision.

On Tuesday, November 13, Dynamo visited Chelsea Football Club, at Chelsea's West London stadium, Stamford Bridge. Officially, the crowd was 75,000 people. It was probably much more than that, given English "footie" fans' propensity to jam themselves into those vast "standing terraces." It's a wonder there weren't more disasters like Ibrox in 1971 and Hillsborough in 1989.

Chelsea, prior to the 1960s rarely even a good team, much less a challenge for Dynamo, took a 2-0 lead. Just before the half, Dynamo were awarded a penalty. Leonid Solovyov hit the post with his shot, and the Soviet side went into the locker room embarrassed. Whatever was said to them in the locker room, it worked: They came back to tie the game, 2-2, fell behind 3-2, and then tied it again near the end of the game, to end it 3-3.

Tommy Lawton, the former star of Liverpool team Everton FC who had recently been signed by Chelsea, said, "Dynamo were one of the fastest teams I have ever seen in my life. They flash the ball from man to man in bewildering fashion, often while standing still." Chelsea Captain John Harris said, "At least two of Lawton's kicks were of such a type that no goalkeeper would catch, but Khomich jumped like a tiger and caught them." The Soviet goalie was known as Tiger Khomich from then on.

On Saturday, November 17, Dynamo visited Cardiff City Football Club. England's Football Association, of which City were then 1 of 3 Welsh members, refused to rearrange their schedule to accommodate Dynamo, so City were the only team available, and they were in Division Three, equivalent to Class AA in modern baseball.

Wales, full of coal mines, steel mills and dockworkers, was openly sympathetic to socialism, and welcomed the Soviet team with open arms. But City were completely overwhelmed, as Dynamo beat them, 10-1.

The team with which Dynamo were most familiar, and the team they truly wanted to test themselves against, was Arsenal Football Club, winners of the Football League in 1931, '33, '34, '35 and '38. Dynamo badly wanted to play Arsenal at their North London home, the Arsenal Stadium, nicknamed Highbury for its neighborhood.

Having made trips to the Continent, including an annual home-and-home series on Armistice Day, November 11, with Racing Club de France in London and Paris, Arsenal were happy to make themselves available for this soccer "summit." But they could not do the same for Highbury: It had been commandeered by the British government at the outset of World War II, as an Air Raid Precaution Centre, and had not yet been returned to the club's control. Since 1939, Arsenal had been playing home games at White Hart Lane, the home of their arch-rivals, Tottenham Hotspur, a.k.a. Spurs, 4.7 miles to the north.

A dirty little secret had gotten out: Dynamo had "drafted" 4 star players from other Soviet teams, including Spartak Moscow and CSKA Moscow. So the FA made arrangements for teams to "loan" some players to Arsenal, including Stanley Matthews of Staffordshire team Stoke City, a winger known as "The Wizard of Dribble," and possibly England's best player at the time. Another loanee was Stan Mortensen of Lancashire team Blackpool. With massive hypocrisy, the Soviets complained.

(In 1953, Blackpool, having acquired Matthews, won the FA Cup Final, with Mortensen scoring the only hat trick in the history of the Final, but Matthews had put on such a show that it's still remembered as "The Matthews Final.")

The game was set for Wednesday, November 21, but, as so often happened in those days before environmental regulations were passed, leading to outsiders nicknaming London "The Smoke," a thick fog settled over White Hart Lane. Still, the place was sold out, 54,000 strong, and the FA didn't want to issue refunds, so the game went on. The Soviet officials insisted on a Soviet referee, Nikolay Latyshev, who had accompanied the team. The FA agreed.

Writer George Orwell, who had recently published Animal Farm (Nineteen Eighty-Four was yet to come), was in attendance, and called the match "War minus the shooting." The Soviet players, knowing Matthews was the best player on either side of the pitch, targeted him for rough treatment.

Both goalies, Khomich and Arsenal's Wyn Griffiths, took more physical assaults than shots with the ball. Griffiths sustained a concussion, and had to be replaced for the 2nd half. Harry Brown, goalkeeper for West London team Queens Park Rangers, was in attendance, and, since the Soviets had negotiated for the right to a substitution, something the FA wouldn't allow in League and cup ties until 1966, they allowed Brown to step in for Griffiths.

Dynamo scored first, but Ronnie Rooke equalized shortly thereafter. Shortly before the half, there were 3 goals within a span of 4 minutes: Mortensen put Arsenal up 2-1, then he took another Matthews feed to make it 3-1, and then Beskov put the ball past Griffiths to make it 3-2.

The 2nd half was a travesty. Solovyov scored to tie it up, but multiple witnesses claimed he was blatantly offside. Latyshev let the goal stand. A little later, Arsenal thought they should have been awarded a penalty, but Latyshev denied it. Shortly after that, he sent Arsenal midfielder George Drury off for throwing a punch. No one else claimed to see the punch.

Vsevolod Bobrov, who became one of the Soviet Union's first great hockey players as well, received a Solovyov pass while offside, and scored. The goal was allowed to stand. Rooke was nearly brought down by a rugby-style tackle by Dynamo Captain Mikhail Semichastniy, opening a cut on his forehead, but elbowed him out of the way, giving him a black eye, and driving a 25-yard shot that beat Khomich. But instead of rightly allowing the goal and sending Semichastniy off, Latyshev waved off the goal and called Rooke for a foul.

So instead of what it should have been, 4-2 to The Arsenal, with Arsenal having 11 players on the pitch and Dynamo having 10 at most, it was 4-3 to Dynamo, with Arsenal down to 10 and Dynamo fielding... no one was sure how many. Dynamo took advantage of the fog to put more players on, with some accounts saying it was now 15 against 10.

The match ended 4-3 to Dynamo. The Daily Mail wrote, "It was one of the most exciting games 54,000 people never saw." Unusually for the paper known in modern times as the Daily Fail, it was the truth.

The controversy threatened to cancel the 4th and final game on the tour. But the FA were making too much money to bow to the wishes of the fans, and the finale went on. On Wednesday, November 28, Dynamo were hosted by Rangers Football Club, Scotland's most successful team, at Ibrox Stadium in Glasgow. Despite Bobrov scoring what The Daily Telegraph called "as perfect a goal as has ever been scored at Ibrox," Rangers held on for a 2-2 draw.

Dynamo had finished the tour with 2 wins, 2 draws, and no losses. But all the goodwill they had generated in their games against Chelsea and Cardiff City was thrown away by their actions against Arsenal. The game with Rangers did them no good in the eyes of the British, or European, sporting public.

Dynamo would win the Soviet Top League again in 1949, 1954, 1955, 1957, 1959, 1963 and 1976. But they never won it again. Nor have they won its replacement, the Russian Premier League. They have long since been surpassed as Moscow's top team by Spartak and CSKA, and St. Petersburg team Zenit have also surpassed them among Russia's teams.

Nikolay Latyshev, the referee for the Arsenal-Dynamo match, went on to officiate at the 1962 World Cup Final, which featured a team from what was then a Communist nation, Czechoslovakia. But none of his calls in the game were considered controversial, and Brazil defeated the Czechs.

*

November 21, 1945 was a Wednesday. Actress Goldie Hawn was born on this day.

Baseball was out of season. Football was in midweek. The NBA hadn't been founded yet. Only 1 game was played in the NHL: The Boston Bruins beat the Montreal Canadiens, 3-0 at the Boston Garden.

November 9, 1945: "The House I Live In" Premieres

Still photo from the film

November 9, 1945: The House I Live In premieres, a 10-minute film about tolerance, directed by Mervyn LeRoy, and starring one of the biggest young singers in the country as himself.

The film is written by Albert Maltz. Frank Sinatra, approaching his 30th birthday, having been a star for 5 years, and a year past his launch to superstardom via the fan demonstration known as "The Columbus Day Riot," plays himself. The film begins with a recording session that isn't going well. He takes a break, and steps outside to smoke a cigarette.

In the alley, he sees several boys chasing a smaller boy, and intervenes. It turns out that the bullies are going after the other boy because he's Jewish. It has been just 6 months since V-E Day, when America united to defeat the greatest force of anti-Semitism the world has ever known.

Being Italian and Catholic -- his mother was from Genoa, in the north, and his father was from Sicily, in the south -- Frank certainly knew what it was like to face discrimination. His cinematic portrayal of himself isn't having it, and he lectures the boys, telling them that discrimination based on race and religion is un-American.

He sings the title song, with music by Earl Robinson, who had previously written the labor song "Joe Hill"; and lyrics by Abel Meeropol, the author of Billie Holiday's anti-lynching song "Strange Fruit." They wrote "The House I Live In" for a 1942 music revue, Let Freedom Sing. With the Nazis having been defeated, but with bigotry, both racial and religious, alive and well in America, the message was still needed. Given his popularity with young people at that time, Sinatra was the ideal messenger.

Maltz became one of "The Hollywood Ten," screenwriters who were blacklisted and jailed for refusal to expose fellow Communists before the House Un-American Activities Committee. He wrote the screenplay for The Robe, but it was many years before his name was restored to the official print of the movie. He later wrote the screenplays for Two Mules for Sister Sara and The Execution of Private Slovik, and died in 1985.

Robinson was also blacklisted, but in 1954, he and David Arkin -- father of actor Alan Arkin and grandfather of actor Adam Arkin -- wrote a song in tribute to the Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education: "Black and White." Despite being recorded by both Sammy Davis Jr. and Pete Seeger, it took until the 1972 recording by Three Dog Night to become a hit, but it hit Number 1. Robinson lived long enough to see it, and died in 1991.

Meeropol and his wife Anne adopted the sons of the executed Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, Michael and Robert. He died in 1986.

LeRoy had previously directed Little Caesar, I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang, Gold Diggers of 1933, Fools for Scandal, Blossoms in the Dust, and Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo. He went on to direct the 1949 version of Little Women, Quo Vadis? Million Dollar Mermaid, Mister Roberts, The Bad Seed, No Time for Sergeants, The FBI Story, and Gypsy. He died in 1987.

Sinatra continued to sing the song. Even after his 1972 heel turn from Democrat to Republican, he sang it at a state dinner at the White House in front of Richard Nixon, and at the 1985 Inaugural Ball of Ronald Reagan.

*

November 9, 1945 was a Friday. Actor Charlie Robinson, who played court clerk Mac Robinson on the 1980s sitcom Night Court, was born on this day.

Baseball was out of season. The NBA hadn't been founded yet. No games were scheduled for the NHL.

There was 1 game in college football. The University of South Carolina and the University of Miami played to a 13-13 tie at Burdine Stadium in Miami, the stadium that would later be renamed the Orange Bowl.

October 24, 1945: The Execution of Vidkun Quisling

October 24, 1945: Vidkun Quisling is executed by firing squad in the Norwegian capital of Oslo. He was 58 years old. The only man ever to be leader of the National Union Party, in 1931 he was named Norway's Minister of Defense, serving until 1933. On February 1, 1942, after the Nazis conquered Norway, he was appointed Minister President.

He held the office until May 9, 1945, a day after V-E Day, when, knowing the game was up, he turned himself in. On V-E Day, he had written:

I know that the Norwegian people have sentenced me to death, and that the easiest course for me would be to take my own life. But I want to let history reach its own verdict. Believe me, in ten years' time I will have become another Saint Olav. 

Olaf II was King of Norway from 1015 to 1028, and was known as Olaf the Holy. He is his country's patron saint, and deserves to be remembered as more than just the namesake of the fictional hometown of the Golden Girls character Rose Nylund.

Quisling was wrong. Even while still in power, "quisling" became a word synonymous with "traitor." He is remembered as a traitor, and a willing sender of Norwegian Jews to die in the Holocaust.

*

October 24, 1945 was a Wednesday. Also on this day, the Charter of the United Nations was ratified by the original 5 permanent members of the United Nations Security Council: America, Britain, France, China and the Soviet Union, and by a majority of the other signatories. I have a separate entry for this event. And Gene Monahan, trainer for the New York Yankees from 1973 to 2011, was born.

The baseball season had ended 14 days before, when the Detroit Tigers beat the Chicago Cubs in Game 7 of the World Series. Football was in midweek. The NBA wasn't founded until the next year.  

The National Hockey League played its 1st peacetime game since April 16, 1939, with World War II beginning for Canada, as part of the British Empire, the following September 3. Although it had continued to operate for the duration, Canada's membership in the Empire had led to a serious manpower drain in the League.

Some teams were affected more than others. The New York Americans had to suspend operations after the 1941-42 season, and never started up again. The New York Rangers had won the Stanley Cup in 1940 and finished 1st overall in 1942, but went into a tailspin, and only reached the Stanley Cup Finals once in the next 30 years.

The Boston Bruins' entire "Kraut Line" -- Milt Schmidt centering Bobby Bauer and Woody Dumart -- all Canadians of German descent, helped them win the Cup in 1939 and 1941, and losing the Finals in 1943, dropped off after that, not winning another Cup until 1970, going 0-5 in Finals from 1941 to 1970.

The Bruins were the hosts in this peacetime puck-dropper, but lost to the Chicago Black Hawks, 5-4 at the Boston Garden. The Bruins would make the Finals in 1945-46, but lose to the Montreal Canadiens. 

October 24, 1945: The Charter of the United Nations

October 24, 1945: The Charter of the United Nations is ratified by the original 5 permanent members of the United Nations Security Council: America, Britain, France, China and the Soviet Union, and by a majority of the other signatories. 

The Charter established the purposes, governing structure and overall framework of the UN system, including its 6 principal organs: The Secretariat, the General Assembly, the Security Council, the Economic and Social Council, the International Court of Justice, and the Trusteeship Council.

In commemoration of the event, the General Assembly celebrates United Nations Day every October 24, and schedules its annual gathering for the days leading up to the date.

*

October 24, 1945 was a Wednesday.  Also on this day, Vidkun Quisling is executed by firing squad in the Norwegian capital of Oslo. The fascist leader of Norway during World War II, allied with the Nazis, was 58 years old. I have a separate entry for this event. And Gene Monahan, trainer for the New York Yankees from 1973 to 2011, was born.

The baseball season had ended 14 days before, when the Detroit Tigers beat the Chicago Cubs in Game 7 of the World Series. Football was in midweek. The NBA wasn't founded until the next year.  

The National Hockey League played its 1st peacetime game since April 16, 1939, with World War II beginning for Canada, as part of the British Empire, the following September 3. Although it had continued to operate for the duration, Canada's membership in the Empire had led to a serious manpower drain in the League.

Some teams were affected more than others. The New York Americans had to suspend operations after the 1941-42 season, and never started up again. The New York Rangers had won the Stanley Cup in 1940 and finished 1st overall in 1942, but went into a tailspin, and only reached the Stanley Cup Finals once in the next 30 years.

The Boston Bruins' entire "Kraut Line" -- Milt Schmidt centering Bobby Bauer and Woody Dumart -- all Canadians of German descent, helped them win the Cup in 1939 and 1941, and losing the Finals in 1943, dropped off after that, not winning another Cup until 1970, going 0-5 in Finals from 1941 to 1970.

The Bruins were the hosts in this peacetime puck-dropper, but lost to the Chicago Black Hawks, 5-4 at the Boston Garden. The Bruins would make the Finals in 1945-46, but lose to the Montreal Canadiens.

October 20, 1945: Wales Shock England In a "Victory International"

October 20, 1945: It was a good idea for the England national football (soccer) team to play a series of "Victory International" matches against the national teams of Great Britain's other "Home Nations" following World War II. But it might not have been a good idea to play the match they played on this day.

They had begun on September 15, a month after V-J Day, beating Ireland -- a combined Republic and Northern Ireland team -- 1-0 at Windsor Park in Belfast, on a goal by Stan Mortensen. But, on this day, they played Wales at The Hawthorns, in West Bromwich, outside Birmingham, home ground of West Bromwich Albion, and lost 1-0, in front of 54,611.

This is the greatest victory that Wales has ever had over their far more storied neighbors, and would have remained their greatest victory ever so had they not done well in the 1958 World Cup and Euro 2016. The goal was scored by Aubrey Powell, a forward who played most of his career for Yorkshire team Leeds United, and turned out to be the last survivor of this Wales team, living until 2009.

England would go on to play 5 more Victory Internationals in 1946. On January 19, they beat Belgium 2-0 at the old Wembley Stadium in London. On April 13, they were stunned 1-0 by Scotland at Hampden Park in Glasgow. On May 11, they beat Switzerland 4-1 at Wembley. On May 19, they lost to France 2-1 at the Stade Colombes in Paris. (That's the main stadium from the 1924 Olympics, and it still stands.)

And on August 24, they played Scotland to a 2-2 draw at Maine Road in Manchester, then the home of both big clubs in Manchester, as Manchester City had invited Manchester United to "groundshare" while Old Trafford was repaired following the Nazis bombing it. Other stadiums, including Arsenal's Highbury in North London, had sustained Luftwaffe damage, but none nearly as bad as Old Trafford.

The last survivor of the England players from these Victory Internationals was Bert Williams, who went on to star as goalkeeper for the great Wolverhampton Wanderers teams of the 1950s, and lived until 2014.

*

October 20, 1945 was a Saturday. Baseball season was over. The NFL played the next day. The NBA hadn't been founded yet. And the NHL season wouldn't start for another 4 days. But there were a lot of college football games, and here were some of the bigger ones:

* Number 1 Army beat the Melville PT Boat crew, 55-13 at Michie Stadium in West Point, New York. At the end of the season, the polls patriotically named Army the National Champions.

* Number 2 Navy beat Georgia Tech, 20-6 at Municipal Stadium, in Baltimore, which they frequently used for games too large for Thompson Stadium on their campus in nearby Annapolis, Maryland. From 1950 to 1954, Municipal Stadium was reconstructed and turned into Memorial Stadium. Navy took a 7-0-1 record into their season finale with Army, but lost.

* Number 3 Notre Dame beat the University of Pittsburgh, 39-9 at Pitt Stadium in Pittsburgh. The Fighting Irish would lose their perfect record 2 weeks later in a tie with Navy in Cleveland, lose their unbeaten status the next week against Army at Yankee Stadium, and end the season with a loss to the Great Lakes Naval Training Station on their ground in Chicago.

* Number 4 Ohio State lost to Number 9 Purdue, 35-13 at Ohio Stadium in Columbus. Ohio State's only other loss would be in their season finale against Michigan. Purdue would fall from the ranks of the unbeaten a week after this, against Northwestern.

* Number 5 Minnesota beat Northwestern, 30-7 at Memorial Stadium in Minneapolis. The Golden Gophers were 4-0. But they lost their last 5 games, though it should be noted that the next 3 were all against ranked teams.

* Number 6 Alabama beat Tennessee, 25-7 at Legion Field in Birmingham. 'Bama finished undefeated, won the Southeastern Conference title, and beat USC in the Rose Bowl. But they only finished Number 2 in the final polls.

* Number 8 Indiana beat Iowa, 52-20 at Iowa Stadium (later Kinnick Stadium) in Iowa City. The Hoosiers finished 9-0-1, and won what remains their only outright Big Ten Conference title. But they were not invited to a bowl game, and finished the season ranked Number 4.

* Number 10 Texas beat Arkansas, 34-7 at the old Memorial Stadium in Little Rock, Arkansas. Texas' only loss came the next week, 7-6 to Rice. They went on to win the Southwest Conference title, and beat Missouri in the Cotton Bowl.

* Number 12 Georgia were upset by Louisiana State, 32-0 at Sanford Stadium in Athens, Georgia. The Bulldogs would lose the next week, too, 28-14 to Alabama in Birmingham. Those would be their only losses that season.

* Number 14 USC beat the College of the Pacific, 52-0 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Southern Cal would win the Pacific Coast Conference title, but lose to Alabama in the Rose Bowl.

* Number 15 Oklahoma A&M, between back-to-back National Championships by their basketball team, beat Utah, 46-6 at Ute Stadium in Salt Lake City. A&M would beat St. Mary's, of California's East Bay, in the Sugar Bowl, finish ranked Number 5, and change their name to Oklahoma State in 1958.

* Number 19 Holy Cross beat Brown, 25-0 at Brown Stadium in Providence, Rhode Island. Holy Cross went to the Orange Bowl, but lost it to the University of Miami, who were idle on October 20.

* In New York City, Number 17 Columbia beat Colgate, 31-7 at Baker Field in Manhattan. The Lions went 8-1, their only loss to Penn at Franklin Field in Philadelphia.

* New York University beat their arch-rivals, City College of New York. It was NYU 47, CCNY 0 at Ohio Field, NYU's home field, in The Bronx.

* Fordham University suspended its program for the 1943, '44 and '45 seasons, restarting in 1946.

* Among New Jersey teams, Princeton beat Cornell, 14-6 at Schoellkopf Field in Ithaca, New York.

* And Rutgers beat Rhode Island State, 39-7 at Rutgers Stadium in Piscataway.

October 15, 1945: Pierre Laval Is Executed

October 15, 1945: Pierre Laval is executed by firing squad at a prison in Fresnes, in the suburbs of Paris, for his collaborations with the Nazis under the Vichy regime. He was 62.

Born on June 28, 1883 in Châteldon, in the French Alps, he became a labor union leader, was elected to France's Chamber of Deputies and then to its Senate during the Third Republic, and was elected Prime Minister in 1931. Later that year, for his efforts at keeping peace between Germany and the rest of Europe, he was given a ticker-tape parade upon his visit to New York City, and Time magazine named him its Man of the Year.

(It's worth noting that the distinction now known as the Time Person of the Year is not an "award" that is "won." It's for the person who, according to the magazine's editors, most affected the news during the year. Wallis Simpson was the 1st woman to receive it, in 1936; Chiang Kai-shek and his wife were the 1st multiple entry, in 1937; Adolf Hitler received it in 1938; Joseph Stalin in 1939 and 1942; John Foster Dulles in 1954; Nikita Khrushchev in 1957; Richard Nixon in 1971, and sharing it with Henry Kissinger in 1972; King Faisal of Saudi Arabia in 1974; Deng Xiaoping in 1978 and 1985; Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1979; Ronald Reagan in 1980, and sharing it with Yuri Andropov in 1983; Newt Gingrich in 1995; Bill Clinton had to share it with Kenneth Starr in 1998; Jeff Bezos in 1999; George W. Bush in 2000 and 2004; Rudy Giuliani in 2001; Vladimir Putin in 2007; Mark Zuckerberg in 2010; Donald Trump in 2016; and Elon Musk in 2021.) (UPDATE: It went to Trump again in 2024.)

Laval's government fell after only a year, but he became Foreign Minister in 1934, and returned to the premiership for 6 months in 1935 and 1936. When France fell in 1940, the Nazis offered him its governance, knowing that he had been conservative, and had previously been friendly to Germany in general and to Hitler (and Italy's Benito Mussolini) in particular.

Laval thought that, by accepting, he was helping to protect his country. His country didn’t see it that way, and, after The War, he was found guilty of plotting against the security of the state, and of collaboration with the enemy.

Laval was the head of government for Vichy France. The head of state was Philippe Pétain. The Marshal became known as the Lion of Verdun for his heroic stand against the Kaiser's troops in World War I. His 1914 declaration at the Marne, "They shall not pass!", became a willingness in 1940 to let them pass. When outgoing Prime Minister Paul Reynaud resigned after the fall, he recommended Pétain to the Nazis, as a unifying figure. They accepted, and so did he.

He was 88 years old when France was liberated, and he remains the oldest head of state in France's history, older than any of its monarchs. (Even King Louis XIV was "only" 76.) After the war, the new Fourth Republic convicted him of treason, but sentenced him to life in prison, rather than death, due to his age. He died in 1951. Charles de Gaulle said his remarkable life was "successively banal, then glorious, then deplorable, but never mediocre."

Given that he seemed to have considerably less choice in the matter, history has been kinder to Pétain than it has been to Laval.

*

October 15, 1945 was a Monday. The World Series had ended 5 days earlier, when the Detroit Tigers beat the Chicago Cubs in Game 7. Football was in midweek. The NBA hadn't been founded yet. And the NHL season didn't start for another 9 days. So there were no scores on this historic day.

October 10, 1945: Hal Newhouser vs. Hank Borowy

Hal Newhouser

October 10, 1945: Game 7 of the World Series is played at Wrigley Field in Chicago. It would be the last game in what would later be called Major League Baseball to be affected by the manpower drain of World War II, as V-J Day had come 2 months earlier, but many players were still in the service.

How drained was the game at this point? Frank Graham, the sports columnist for the New York Journal-American, called it "the fat men versus the tall men at the office picnic." Warren Brown, writing for the Chicago Herald-American, wrote, "I don't think either one of them can win it." A year later, he published a book titled Win, Lose or Draw, in which he called this contest the "World's Worst Series."

Wartime travel restrictions, which led to the cancellation of the All-Star Game for the 1st time (it wouldn't happen again until the COVID shutdown of 2020), meant that the location of the Series would shift only once, regardless of length, instead of a potential twice: The 1st 3 games would be played at the home of the American League Champions, and any games after that would be played at the home of the National League Champions.

The AL Pennant-winners turned out to be the Detroit Tigers, for the 4th time in a 12-season span. Hank Greenberg, the slugging 1st baseman who had been the 1st major league player to enlist in the armed forces, was one of the earliest to be discharged, and had hit a grand slam on the last day of the season to clinch the Pennant.

In 1944, Tiger ace Hal Newhouser went 29-9 with a 2.22 ERA. In 1945, he went 25-9 with a 1.89 ERA. There was no Cy Young Award at the time, but, both times, he was named the AL's Most Valuable Player. Fans arguing that he was merely taking advantage of war-strapped teams were silenced in 1946, when, against fully-restocked teams, he went 26-9 with a 1.94 ERA, and finished 2nd in the MVP vote behind Ted Williams of the Pennant-winning Boston Red Sox. It capped a 3-year stretch in which he went 80-27.

The NL Champions were the Chicago Cubs. Their 1st baseman, Phil Cavarretta, batted .355 to win the batting title, and was named the NL's MVP. Hank Wyse went 22-10, but a bigger story was Hank Borowy: The native of Bloomfield, Essex County, New Jersey had been a big reason why the New York Yankees won the 1943 World Series. But on July 27, the Cubs paid $97,000 to get him from the Yankees. Having gone 10-5 for the Yankees, he went 11-2 for the Cubs the rest of the way, finishing 21-7.

Hank Borowy

The Series began on October 3, at Briggs Stadium (later renamed Tiger Stadium) in Detroit. Borowy pitched a 6-hit shutout, outpitching Newhouser. Cavarretta hit a home run, and the Cubs won, 9-0. A Greenberg homer gave the Tigers a 4-1 win in Game 2. Claude Passeau pitched a 1-hit shutout in Game 3, the only hit a single by Rudy York in the 2nd inning, and the Cubs won, 3-0, taking a 2-1 into the Detroit phase of the Series.

*

Game 4, at Wrigley Field, was the source of "The Curse of the Billy Goat." William "Billy Goat" Sianis, owner of the Billy Goat Tavern, across from Chicago Stadium, bought 2 tickets to this game: One for himself, and one for his bar's mascot, a goat. At the time, there was no rule against bringing an animal into the ballpark. But fans around him complained to the ushers that the goat smelled bad, and Sianis and his goat were kicked out of the ballpark.

A Greek immigrant and a superstitious man, Sianis put a curse on the Cubs. The Tigers won the game, 4-1, with all their runs coming in the 4th inning, after Sianis and the goat were kicked out.

Newhouser outpitched Borowy in Game 5, and the Tigers won, 8-5, taking a 3-2 lead. In Game 6, the Tigers scored 4 runs in the top of the 8th, and the game went to extra innings. Stan Hack doubled Bill Schuster home in the bottom of the 12th, giving the Cubs an 8-7 win, and forcing a Game 7 on their home field.

Cubs manager Charlie Grimm used Borowy, on no rest, for the last 4 innings of Game 6, making him the winning pitcher. Game 7 was pushed back a day due to rain, and Grimm decided that, despite having pitched 18 innings in the preceding 7 days, Borowy was his best choice to pitch Game 7. Tiger manager Steve O'Neill went with Newhouser, who had pitched 12 innings to that point, but would be on 2 days' rest. Maybe Warren Brown was right: Neither team could win.

The game was decided before Newhouser faced a single batter. Borowy had gotten the Cubs to within 1 win of a title, but he had nothing left to give: He began the game by giving up singles to Skeeter Webb, Eddie Mayo and Doc Cramer.

Already down 1-0, Grimm took the exhausted Borowy out, and brought in Paul Derringer, who'd helped the Cincinnati Reds win the 1940 World Series. He got an out, then Grimm ordered an intentional walk to load the bases and set up a play at any base, and Derringer got a 2nd out. But a bases-loaded walk made it 2-0, and Paul Richards hit a bases-clearing double to make it 5-0.

Cavarretta singled a run home in the bottom of the 1st, but that was as close as the Cubs would get. Newhouser went the distance, striking out 10 batters, and the Tigers won, 9-0. Within minutes of the last out, Billy Sianis sent a telegram to Cubs owner Philip K. Wrigley, asking, "Who stinks now?"

This also remained, for 71 years, the last World Series game the Chicago Cubs had ever played. Left fielder Ed Mierkowicz was the last survivor from the '45 Tigers, while shortstop Lennie Merullo was the last survivor from the '45 Cubs. From Merullo's death on May 30, 2015 until October 25, 2016, there were no living people who had played in a World Series game for the Chicago Cubs.

Newhouser's 170 wins during the 1940s made him the winningest pitcher of the decade. Later, as a scout, he discovered Jim Palmer, whose 186 wins during the 1970s made him the winningest pitcher of that decade.

UPDATE: The Cubs have a team Hall of Fame. Inducted from their 1945 Pennant winners have been 1st baseman Phil Cavarretta, 3rd baseman Stan Hack, left fielder Andy Pafko, manager Charlie Grimm, team owner Philip K. Wrigley, executive Margaret Donahue, clubhouse manager Yosh Kawano and public address announcer Pat Pieper.

It says a lot about the Cubs that the only member of their team Hall of Fame from between their 1945 Pennant and their 1969 near-miss was outfielder Hank Sauer.

The Tigers do not have a team Hall of Fame, but they honor their Hall of Fame players on the outfield wall at Comerica Park. From the 1945 World Champions, they honor 1st baseman Hank Greenberg and pitcher Hal Newhouser. Along with left fielder Rudy York, center fielder Barney McCoskey, pitchers Virgil Trucks and Billy Pierce, team owner Walter Briggs, scout Wish Egan, and broadcaster Edwin "Ty" Tyson, they are also in the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame.

From between their 1945 and 1968 World Series wins, the Tigers honor 3rd baseman George Kell and pitcher Jim Bunning. They are in the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame, along with right fielders Vic Wertz and Don Lund, left fielder Charlie "Paw Paw" Maxwell, and broadcaster Van Patrick.

*

October 10, 1945 was a Wednesday. Football was in midweek. The NBA hadn't been founded yet. And the NHL season didn't start for another 18 days. So there were no other scores on this historic day.

October 8, 1945: Patenting the Microwave Oven

Percy Spencer and the 1st Radarange

October 8, 1945: The Raytheon Company, one of America's largest defense contractors, files an application for 2 U.S. patents: For a microwave cooking process, and an oven that heats food using microwave energy from a magnetron.

The process was one of many "great discoveries" that have been made by accident. Percy Spencer, a 51-year-old engineer, was employed by Raytheon, assigned to the Radiation Laboratory (or "Rad Lab") at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, across the Charles River from Boston. He noticed that microwaves from an active radar set he was working on started to melt a Mr. Goodbar candy bar that he had in his pocket.

The first food deliberately cooked with Spencer's microwave oven was popcorn, and the second was an egg, which exploded in the face of one of the experimenters. However, the expression "egg on your face," meaning an embarrassment, had already been in wide use for about 50 years.

In 1947, Raytheon built the "Radarange," the 1st commercially available microwave oven. It was almost 6 feet tall, weighed 750 pounds, and cost about $5,000 -- about $66,000 in 2022 money. It consumed 3 kilowatts, about 3 times as much as today's microwave ovens, and was water-cooled. The name was the winning entry in an employee contest. As with every other new machine on the market, the device would eventually get smaller and cheaper, and sell better.

Percy Spencer lived until 1970, age 76. In 2020, The Raytheon Company changed its name to Raytheon Technologies Corporation.

UPDATE: In 2023, they changed their name again, to RTX Corporation. They remain headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C.

In 1985, Sid Caesar revived his "Professor" character to do a commercial for Saran Wrap. He said, "Saran Wrap was designed for the microwave!" The offscreen announcer said, "But Saran Wrap came before the microwave. How did they know?" Sid said, "I don't know, but they knew!" Technically, whoever wrote the commercial was right: Although S.C. Johnson & Son Co. discovered polyvinylidene chloride the material that became Saran Wrap -- also by accident -- in 1933, they didn't market it as Saran Wrap until 1949.

Similarly, in 2021, singer Paul Anka competed on the Fox TV series The Masked Singer as "Broccoli," and one of his clues was that he was, unlike most of the show's performers, older than the microwave oven. This was true: He was born in 1941.

*

October 8, 1945 was a Monday. There was only 1 score on this historic day, and it was in Game 6 of the World Series. The Chicago Cubs beat the Detroit Tigers, 8-7 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. The Tigers led 1-0 going into the bottom of the 5th, but the Cubs scored 4 runs in the inning. The Cubs led 7-3 going into the top of the 8th, but they scored 4 runs, including on a home run by Hank Greenberg, their star slugger who was recently discharged from the U.S. Army.

With 1 out in the bottom of the 12th inning, the Cubs' Frank Secory singled off Dizzy Trout, and Bill Schuster was sent in to pinch-run for him. Stan Hack doubled to left field, and Schuster came around to score the winning run.

This tied the Series at 3 games apiece. But the Cubs did not win another World Series game until Game 2 of the 2016 Series -- 71 years later.

October 6, 1945: The Curse of the Billy Goat

Billy Sianis and his 1945 mascot

October 6, 1945: Game 4 of the World Series is held at Wrigley Field. The Chicago Cubs are preparing to host the Detroit Tigers, with the Cubs leading 2 games to 1.

William "Billy Goat" Sianis is the owner of the Billy Goat Tavern, across from Chicago Stadium, home of the NHL's Blackhawks and the Midwest’s premier boxing venue. He has a goat as his bar's mascot, and he buys 2 tickets to this game, one for himself and one for the goat. He had to wait until Game 4, because the travel restrictions for World War II hadn't yet been lifted, and the 1st 3 games of the Series were held at the Tigers' Briggs Stadium. (It was renamed Tiger Stadium in 1961.)

At the time, there was no rule against bringing an animal into the ballpark. But fans around him complain to the ushers that the goat smells bad, and Sianis and his goat are kicked out of the ballpark.

Wrigley Field during the 1945 World Series.

Note that the now-famous marquee includes the words

"NATIONAL LEAGUE CHAMPIONS."

It would be a long time before it could say that again.

A Greek immigrant and a superstitious man, Sianis puts a curse on the Cubs. The Tigers win the game, 4-1, all their runs coming in the 4th inning, after Sianis and the goat are kicked out. The Tigers win the Series in 7, and afterward, Sianis sends a telegram to Cubs owner Philip K. Wrigley, asking, "Who stinks now?"

He opened his Tavern in 1934, just after the end of Prohibition, at 1855 West Madison Street, across from the Chicago Stadium. In 1944, with the Republican Convention across the street at the Stadium, Sianis, an immigrant and a Catholic, which, at the time, almost always meant becoming a Democrat, he posted a notice saying, "No Republicans Allowed." This caused the place to be packed with Republican conventioneers demanding to be served, and led to increased publicity for the Tavern.

In 1963, Sianis would move his bar, a precursor to today's sports bars, to its current location, at 430 North Michigan Avenue, just north of the Loop, near the Tribune Tower and the Sun-Times Building, making it a popular watering hole for journalists. He died in 1970, about a year after the Cubs’ 1969 September Swoon. He died in the middle of the night. The great Chicago newspaper columnist Mike Royko wrote, "He couldn't die during working hours."

The 1963-current Billy Goat Tavern

His nephew Sam Sianis has run the place ever since, and when William Wrigley Jr. sold the Cubs to the Tribune Company in 1981, Sam offered to lift the Curse of the Billy Goat. A number of times, Cub management has allowed Sam to take his bar's current mascot onto the field in an attempt to lift the Curse. It didn't worked: Apparently, Billy's curse was stronger even than his own flesh and blood.\

On October 22, 2016, the Cubs finally won another Pennant; on November 2, another World Series. Those droughts were 71 and 108 years, respectively; in each case, by far, MLB's record. The next-longest Pennant drought: The crosstown Chicago White Sox going 46 years without one, 1959 to 2005. The next-longest Series drought: The Cleveland Indians, the team the Cubs beat in the 2016 Series: As they go into the 2022 postseason, they are attempting to end a drought of 74 years, which includes 4 Pennants with the World Series lost each time.

Was the goat the reason for the Cubs' drought? Well, let's put it this way: In 1945, the Cubs had already not been World Champions for 37 years, and had already had a number of weird things happen to them in Series play, including a 10-run inning by the A's in 1929, Babe Ruth's alleged "called shot" in 1932, and Stan Hack leading off the 9th with a triple with what would be the tying run and then getting stranded there to lose Game 6 and the Series to the Tigers in 1935. The goat curse doesn't explain any of that.

So what's the real reason the Cubs didn't win the World Series in 108 years? If you're not willing to say, "Bad management," then your guess is as good as mine.

Shortstop Lennie Merullo on May 30, 2015, at 98 years old. He was the last living man to have played for the Chicago Cubs in a World Series, until October 25, 2016.

The Billy Goat Tavern is now franchised, including installments at Chicago's O'Hare and Midway International Airports, the Navy Pier, and the Merchandise Mart. For a few years, there was one in Washington, D.C., near Union Station and Capitol Hill, for Chicagoans working in the capital, but it closed due to COVID. I visited the original in 1999, and Sam Sianis himself served me one of the best burgers I'd ever had.

Supposedly, the original was the inspiration for an early Saturday Night Live sketch: "No hamburger: Cheeseburger, cheeseburger, cheeseburger! No fries, chips! No Coke, Pepsi!" (The real thing has it the other way around: No, Pepsi, Coke.) John Belushi starred in the sketch, but he claimed he'd never set foot in the place, and that the sketch was based on the restaurant his Albanian immigrant father ran in his hometown of Wheaton, Illinois, whose name became the name of the sketch: "The Olympia Tavern."

UPDATE: Sam Sianis died in 2026, at 91. His sons and their children had already been running the place for a few years.

*

October 6, 1945 was a Saturday. Game 4 of the World Series was, obviously, the only baseball game that day. It was too soon for the basketball and hockey seasons to start. All the NFL games that week were played the next day. But there were college football games, including the following:

* Army, for obvious reasons the defending National Champions, beat Wake Forest, 54-0 at Michie Stadium in West Point, New York.

* Notre Dame beat Georgia Tech, 40-7 at Grant Field in Atlanta. When Army played Notre Dame, the last team to beat them, at Yankee Stadium, they were ranked Numbers 1 and 2, respectively, and Army won, 48-0.

* Navy beat Duke, 21-0 at Duke Stadium (later Wallace Wade Stadium) in Durham, North Carolina. When Army played Navy in Philadelphia, they were ranked Numbers 1 and 2, respectively, and Army won, 32-13, clinching another National Championship.

* Alabama beat Louisiana State (LSU), 26-7 at Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. 'Bama went on to win the Southeastern Conference title.

* Indiana beat Illinois, 6-0 at Memorial Stadium in Champaign, Illinois. The Hoosiers went 9-0-1, and won the Big Ten Conference football title outright. This remains the only time they've ever done that. Their only other title has been a share in 1967.

* Missouri beat Southern Methodist (SMU), 10-7 at Ownby Stadium in Dallas. Mizzou lost its 1st 2 games, but went undefeated in the Big Six Conference (a forerunner of the Big 12).

* Texas beat Texas Tech, 33-0 at Memorial Stadium in Austin. The Longhorns won the Southwest Conference title, and beat Missouri in the Cotton Bowl.

* Southern California beat St. Mary's, 26-14 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. USC went on to win the Pacific Coast Conference title, but lost the Rose Bowl to Alabama.

* Oklahoma A&M beat the University of Denver, 31-7 at UD Stadium in Denver. A&M, renamed Oklahoma State in 1958, went on to beat St. Mary's in the Sugar Bowl.

* Holy Cross beat Yale, 21-0 at the Yale Bowl in New Haven, Connecticut.

* The day before, October 5, Georgia beat the University of Miami, 27-21 at Burdine Stadium in Miami, the stadium that would later be renamed the Orange Bowl. Despite this, Miami would reach the Orange Bowl game, where they beat Holy Cross.

* In New York City, Columbia beat Syracuse, 32-0 at Baker Field. The day before, New York University (NYU) lost to Temple, 59-0 at Temple Stadium in Philadelphia. Fordham University had suspended its football program for the duration of the war.

* In New Jersey, Princeton played Lafayette to a tie, 7-7 at Palmer Stadium in Princeton. And Rutgers lost to Swarthmore College, 13-6 at Rutgers Stadium in Piscataway. This loss was not as embarrassing then as it would be now: Then, Swarthmore was in roughly the same category as Rutgers, "small schools" in the Northeast; now, Swarthmore is in NCAA Division III.

September 30, 1945: Lieutenant Hank Greenberg Clinches the Pennant

Swinging two bats in the on-deck circle

was a common sight before the Yankees' Elston Howard

invented the "bat donut" in the 1960s.

Hank Greenberg was one of the few players

who was strong enough to swing three bats.

September 30, 1945: Hank Greenberg, recently discharged from the U.S. Army, hits a grand slam off Nelson Potter in the top of the 9th inning, and gives the Detroit Tigers a 6-3 win over the St. Louis Browns at Sportsman's Park, clinching the American League Pennant, which the Browns had won the previous season, for the only time in their history. The Tigers go on to win the World Series over the Chicago Cubs in 7 games.

The 1st player to go into the service was Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Hugh Mulcahy, drafted on March 8, 1941, and he served for the duration of The War. As my grandmother taught me, she and everyone else who lived through it, even if they never left "the home front," always called it "The War," Capital T, Capital W. 

Greenberg had been the 1st major baseball star to volunteer for the U.S. armed forces in preparation for World War II, inducted into the Army on May 7, 1941. So it was only natural that he was the 1st player to return, discharged on June 14, 1945, with Nazi Germany having surrendered, but not, as yet, Imperial Japan. He had scouted bombing targets for B-29 bombers in the China/India/Burma Theater of Operations, and was discharged with the rank of 1st Lieutenant.

Already known as Hammerin' Hank before Henry Aaron was even born, he had lost his seasons of age 31, 32 and 33, and the 1st half of his age 34 season. He finished his career with a lifetime batting average of .313 and 331 home runs. He should have had at least 150 more home runs. He never regretted it, saying, "My country comes first."

Nor did Chief Petty Officer Bob Feller, U.S. Navy, who lost his seasons of ages 23, 24, 25 and most of 26. He won 266 games and struck out 2,581 batters, all for the Cleveland Indians. Based on his 1941 and 1946 performances, he should have had at least another 90 wins and 1,000 strikeouts, which could have made him the all-time strikeout leader, and, with another 98 wins, the pitcher with the most in the post-1920 Lively Ball Era.

He knew The War was more important. He also knew that people like Ty Cobb and Ohio State football coach Woody Hayes, who compared sports to war, were blowhards, saying, "Anybody who says sports is war has never been in a war."

Warren Spahn had appeared in 4 games before going into the service, and was the winning pitcher in exactly none of them. By the time he rejoined the Boston Braves, 1st Lieutenant Warren Spahn, U.S. Army, had missed his age 22, 23 and 24 seasons, and had gotten frostbite in the Battle of the Bulge and been wounded at the Remagen Bridge.

But his wartime experience may have matured him. From age 25 to 44, he did become the Lively Ball Era's winningest pitcher, and the winningest lefthanded pitcher regardless of era, with 363. So maybe his stats didn't suffer.

The stats of Sergeant Joe DiMaggio, U.S. Army Air Force, did suffer, as he lost his age 28, 29 and 30 seasons. He finished with a .325 batting average, and 2,214 hits including 361 home runs. He should have had at least another 550 hits and another 75 home runs.

And then there was Ted Williams, who served as a flight instructor in World War II and a fighter pilot in the Korean War. By the time he left the service for the last time in 1953, Captain Theodore S. Williams, U.S. Marine Corps, had damaged hearing, and had lost his seasons of age 24, 25 and 26, and most of those of age 33 and 34.

He batted .344 for his career, with 2,654 hits and 521 home runs. It shouldn't surprise people who know a little about baseball history that Ted reached 500 homers, only the 4th to do so after Babe Ruth, Jimmie Foxx and Mel Ott. But it is surprising that the man often called "The Greatest Hitter Who Ever Lived" didn't even get close to 3,000 hits. (He also never got 200 hits in a season.) By missing 4 1/2 prime seasons, he may have missed out on as many as 600 hits and 200 home runs, which would have put him past the 714 of Ruth, the record before Aaron reached 755.

In contrast, Ruth only missed 1 month due to World War I, September 1918, and that was because everybody missed at least that much, since the season was cut short. And Aaron was never drafted. Mickey Mantle was classified 4-F, medically unfit for service.

Willie Mays did serve in the Korean War, missing most of his age 21 season and all of his 22, probably costing him around 350 hits on top of his 3,293, and at least 50 homers on top of his 660, meaning he might have gotten to 715 before Aaron did. Yankee pitcher Whitey Ford (1951 and '52) and Brooklyn Dodger pitcher Don Newcome (1952 and '53) also missed 2 seasons serving in Korea.)

Seaman 1st Class Stan Musial, U.S. Navy, the best hitter in the National League while Ted was the best in the American League, only missed 1945, his age 24 season, due to World War II. He had 3,630 hits and 475 home runs, so he may have missed 200 hits and maybe the 25 homers that would have put him over 500.

One man was a veteran of both D-Day and Major League Baseball. In his case, he was just 19 when he was in a U.S. Navy ship off the coast of Normandy, and his service probably didn't delay his entry into the major leagues by much. He may have been the calmest man in the battle, later saying that the exploding shells looked like fireworks. He was Seaman 2nd Class Lawrence Peter Berra. Yogi.

Yankee shortstop and Seaman 1st Class Phil Rizzuto missed his age 25, 26 and 27 seasons due to those huckleberries Hitler and Tojo. His Dodger counterpart, Chief Petty Officer Harold "Pee Wee" Reese, missed his age 24, 25 and 26 seasons. And Army 1st Lieutenant Jack Roosevelt Robinson missed his age 24, 25 and 26 seasons in the Army. Of course, at that point, he had no idea that he would ever play professional baseball in any capacity, much less the one that would make him the most important player of all time.

UPDATE: Bobby Shantz, who turned 100 on September 26, 2025, became the last remaining veteran of both World War II and Major League Baseball. 

*

September 30, 1945 was a Sunday. These other baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Yankees beat the Boston Red Sox, 12-2 at Yankee Stadium. Tuck Stainback and Charlie Keller hit home runs. Keller had also recently returned, from the U.S. Merchant Marine. Joe Page, who would go on to be much better known as a reliever, started and went the distance for the win.

* The New York Giants beat the Boston Braves, 1-0 at Braves Field in Boston, in the 1st game of a doubleheader. Napoleon "Nap" Reyes, a 3rd baseman, light-skinned enough to be allowed to play even though he was Hispanic, and from Cuba so he wouldn't be drafted to fight in The War, hit a home run in the top of the 13th inning. Don Fisher pitched all 13 innings for the shutout. The nightcap was tied 2-2 after 7 innings, when Massachusetts' 7:00 PM curfew for Sunday sports kicked in and stopped the game.

* The Brooklyn Dodgers beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 4-1 at Shibe Park in Philadelphia.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 5-3 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Cincinnati Reds, 3-2 at Crosley Field. Del Rice won the game with a home run in the top of the 12th inning.

* The Washington Senators completed their 154-game schedule, but played their 154th game on September 23, a week before the regular season was supposed to end. Wartime travel restrictions, and the desire to get Griffith Stadium ready for the NFL's Washington Redskins, led to the Senators' condensed schedule. As a result, when their season ended, the Senators were 1 game behind the Tigers for the AL Pennant; but when the season finally ended, the Tigers were a game and a half ahead.

* The Chicago White Sox played their 149th game on September 25, and never played their last 5 games. The Philadelphia Athletics played their 150th game on September 27, and never played their last 4. The Cleveland Indians played their 145th game on September 28, and never played their last 9. Most likely, these were also due to wartime travel restrictions, even though The War had ended with the Japanese' official surrender on September 2 (following their unofficial surrender on August 14, which is recognized as V-J Day).

There were 2 NFL games played that day. The Green Bay Packers beat their arch-rivals, the Chicago Bears, 31-21 at Green Bay City Stadium. And the Cleveland Rams beat the Chicago Cardinals, 21-0 at League Park in Cleveland.

And Ehud Olmert, who served as Prime Minister of Israel from 2006 to 2009, was born on this day.