November 21, 1920: Croke Park's Bloody Sunday

November 21, 1920: Ireland has had a few tragic days in its history that have become known as "Bloody Sunday." This is one of them.

Michael Hogan, 24, was a player in Gaelic football, Ireland's take on the sport. He played right full back, and was Captain of the Tipperary County team. He was also an officer in the Irish Volunteers, a paramilitary organization whose declared primary aim was "to secure and maintain the rights and liberties common to the whole people of Ireland."

On November 21, 1920, with the Irish War of Independence ongoing, for Tipperary in a challenge match against Dublin County, at Croke Park in Dublin. During the game, officers of the Royal Ulster Constabulary, Protestants in the British Army, entered the stadium. In retaliation for General Michael Collins' "Squad" having killed 15 members of the Cairo Gang, a group of British Intelligence officers, earlier in the day, these "Black and Tans," already known and hated for their extrajudicial killings, and opened fire.

Hogan was 1 of 14 people killed. He died in the arms of his teammate, Tommy Ryan, who heard his last words: "Jesus, Mary and Joseph, I'm done for." Another teammate, Jim Egan, was wounded, but survived.

This was the middle portion of an all-day assault by the RUC. In the morning, they opened fire at the Gresham Hotel. At night, they shot people at Dublin Castle. At least 30 people died on the day.

A modernized Croke Park

In 1924, a new stand was built at Croke Park. It was named the Hogan Stand in his memory. In 1999, as part of the stadium's redevelopment, a new Hogan Stand was built. A plaque at the now 82,300-seat stadium commemorates Bloody Sunday, including Hogan's death. A statue of Hogan has been dedicated in Tipperary.

Other "Bloody Sundays" in Ireland include August 31, 1913, when the Dublin Metropolitan Police killed 1 demonstrator and injured 400; July 10, 1921, when the IRA and the police fought in Belfast, with 20 dead, over 100 wounded, and over 200 houses destroyed; and January 30, 1972, "The Battle of the Bogside," when an intended peace demonstration in Derry was fired upon, killing 14 people.

*

November 21, 1920 was a Sunday. Baseball was out of season. The NBA hadn't been founded yet. And the NHL season was a month away from starting. The NFL was in its 1st season, then named the American Professional Football Association. There were 7 games played, and 6 of them ended in shutouts. This was not unusual for that era:

* The Rochester Jeffersons beat a cross-town team that wasn't in the NFL, the Rochester Scalpers, 16-0 at the Rochester Baseball Park in Rochester, New York.

* The Canton Bulldogs beat the Buffalo All-Americans, 3-0 at Canisius Field in Buffalo.

* The Cleveland Tigers beat the Toledo Maroons, 14-0 at League Park in Cleveland.

* The Akron Pros beat the Dayton Triangles, 13-0 at League Park in Akron, Ohio.

* The Columbus Panhandles and a non-NFL team, Zanesville Mark Gray, played to a 0-0 tie at Neil Park in Columbus, Ohio.

* The Chicago Cardinals beat a non-NFL team, Lansing Oldsmobile, 14-0 at Normal Park on the South Side of Chicago.

* And the Decatur Staleys, the team that would become the Chicago Bears, beat the Hammond Pros, 28-7 at Staley Field in Decatur, Illinois.

November 1, 1884: The Gaelic Athletic Association Is Founded

November 1, 1884: The Gaelic Athletic Association is founded at Hayes's Hotel in Thurles, County Tipperary, in what's now the Republic of Ireland. The GAA governs the traditional Irish sports such as hurling and Gaelic football -- but not Irish soccer, which is governed by the Football Association of Ireland (FAI). The Northern Ireland equivalent is the Irish Football Association (IFA).

For decades, Irish athletes resisted the sports that England were first to organize: Association football (soccer), rugby, and cricket. So they developed their own version of football, and rounders (a baseball-like game then less popular in England than cricket), and hurling. For girls, the game of canogie was invented, sort of a cross between field hockey and lacrosse.

By the 1960s, the growth of television allowed Irish people to see English sports more easily, and they decided to try to, literally, beat the English at their own games. An Ireland rugby team, made up of both Republic of Ireland players and Norther Ireland players, has been very successful. In soccer, though the Republic team (run by the Football Association of Ireland, or FAI) and the Northern Ireland team (run by the Irish Football Association, or IFA) remain separate, and tend not to do well.

The GAA also promotes Irish music and dance, as well as the Irish language, and it also promotes environmental stewardship through its Green Clubs initiative. Today, it is headquartered at Croke Park, the 82,300-seat national stadium, in Dublin. A GAA museum is at the stadium.

*

November 1, 1884 was a Saturday. In America, baseball was the most popular sport, especially among its many Irish immigrants, but the season was over. But some Irish turned to American-style football, due to its closer to resemblance to the Gaelic version and rugby than to English soccer. These were still the early days of college football, and only 4 games were played that day:

* Wesleyan University, of Middletown, Connecticut, beat Harvard, 16-0 at the Hartford Ball Club Grounds in Hartford, Connecticut.

* Rutgers beat Lehigh, 61-0 at College Field in New Brunswick, New Jersey.

* The College of New Jersey, renamed Princeton University in 1896, beat Stevens Institute of Technology, of Hoboken, New Jersey, at University Field in Princeton, New Jersey.

* And the University of Pennsylvania beat Lafayette, 21-0 at the University Athletic Grounds in Philadelphia.