October 31, 1903: The Purdue Wreck

October 31, 1903: A train carrying the Purdue University football team to its annual game with in-State rival Indiana University hits a coal train on the north side of Indianapolis, killing 17 people, including 14 players. The game is canceled.

The uninjured tried to help the others. Some got out and got the stationmaster to send a warning to the next train coming down the track, saving many more lives. Among these heroes were the President of Purdue University, Winthrop E. Stone.

Purdue's football and baseball captain, Harry Leslie, was pronounced dead at the scene. At the funeral home, the mortician was ready to begin the embalming process, when he found a pulse: Leslie was alive. He teetered on the brink of death for weeks, but recovered, becoming a folk hero.

With some irony, he went to Indiana University's law school, became a bank president, Speaker of the Indiana House of Representatives, and in 1928 was elected Governor. But he was a Herbert Hoover Republican, and did very little to help during the Depression, and was voted out in 1930. He died for sure in 1937.

Aside from the World War I years of 1918 and '19, 1903, the year of the Purdue Wreck, was the only time Purdue and Indiana have not met in football since the rivalry began in 1891. Since 1925, they have played each other for a trophy known as the Old Oaken Bucket. Through the 2021 game, Purdue leads the rivalry, 75-42-6. In just the "Bucket Games," Purdue leads 61-32-3.

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October 31, 1903 was a Saturday. This was also the day that Hampden Park, Scotland's national stadium, opened in Glasgow. I have a separate entry for that event.

Baseball season was over. Basketball barely existed, and hockey hadn't yet turned professional. These other noteworthy games were played in college football:

* Michigan and Minnesota played to a 6-6 tie, at Northrop Field in Minneapolis. This began the rivalry known as the Little Brown Jug. I have an entry for that event as well.

* Army beat Vermont, 32-0 on The Plain in West Point, New York.

* Penn State beat Navy, 17-0 at Worden Field in Annapolis, Maryland.

* Yale beat Columbia, 25-0 at the Polo Grounds.

* Harvard beat the Carlisle Indian School, 12-11 at Soldier's Field in Boston. Jim Thorpe was too young to play on the Carlisle varsity, but they almost didn't need him. Two weeks later, on November 14, Harvard Stadium opened, and Harvard lost to Dartmouth. They still play there today.

* The University of Pennsylvania beat Bucknell, 47-6 at Franklin Field in Philadelphia. A new stadium by that name would be built on the same site in 1922.

* Lafayette beat New York University, 8-6 at Ohio Field in The Bronx.

* Princeton beat Cornell, 44-0 at University Field in Princeton, New Jersey.

* And Rutgers beat Stevens Institute, 36-6 at Neilson Field in New Brunswick, New Jersey.

May 6, 1965: The Van Arsdale Twins Are Drafted

Dick (left) and Tom

May 6, 1965: The Van Arsdale Twins are selected in the NBA Draft, by different teams. This will put them on separate teams for the first time.

Richard Albert Van Arsdale and Thomas Arthur Van Arsdale were born on February 22, 1943 in Indianapolis. Until the hockey-playing Sedins came along, they were the greatest pair of twins in the history of sports. (And I don’t want to hear about no DeBoers in soccer.) Tom and Dick played basketball together at Emmerich Manual High School in Indianapolis and at Indiana University. But they couldn't play together forever, and they would be split up in the 1965 NBA Draft, which was held at the Plaza Hotel in New York.

There were 3 "territorial picks," for the last time: The 1966 Draft would be the 1st without them. The New York Knicks chose Bill Bradley of Princeton, and the Los Angeles Lakers chose Gail Goodrich of UCLA, and both would make the Basketball Hall of Fame. The Detroit Pistons chose Bill Buntin, of the Michigan team that beat Princeton in the Semifinal of the NCAA Tournament, and then lost to UCLA in the Final.

The top 2 picks were Fred Hetzel of Davidson and Rick Barry of the University of Miami, both chosen by the San Francisco Warriors, picks gained through trades. Hetzel's pro career was undistinguished, although, like Barry, he helped the Warriors win the 1967 Western Conference title. Barry became a Hall-of-Famer.

The Knicks chose Dave Stallworth, a role player on their 1970 NBA Champions. The Baltimore Bullets chose Jerry Sloan, who became a star with the Chicago Bulls, and was elected to the Hall of Fame for his coaching of the Utah Jazz. The Philadelphia 76ers chose Billy Cunningham, and they've never won an NBA Championship without him: As a player in 1967, and as their head coach in 1983.

The St. Louis Hawks chose Jim Washington, a journeyman. The Cincinnati Royals chose Nate Bowman, another 1970 Knick. The Boston Celtics chose Ollie Johnson, but he never played in the NBA. The 2nd Round then started, and the Warriors chose Wilbert Frazier, no relation to Walt of the Knicks, and he barely played in the NBA, playing in the ABA and in minor leagues.

Then, with the 10th pick, the Knicks chose Dick Van Arsdale. With the 11th pick, the Pistons chose Tom Van Arsdale. The Royals went on to choose Flynn Robinson, and he won a title, for the Lakers in 1972.

Dick played 3 seasons for the Knicks, before being lost to the Phoenix Suns in the 1968 expansion draft, preventing him from playing with the Knicks in the 1970, '72 and '73 NBA Finals. He was selected for the NBA All-Star Game in 1969, '70 and '71, and helped the Suns reach their 1st NBA Finals, in 1976, where they lost to the Celtics.

In 1968, Tom was traded to the Cincinnati Royals, moving with them in 1972, as they became the Kansas City Kings. He was also selected for 3 All-Star Games, in 1970, '71 and '72. This made the '70 and '71 Games the 1st and 2nd to have twin brothers in it, but they were still split up: Tom's Royals were in the Eastern Division, and Dick's Suns were in the Western Division.

Tom went to the Philadelphia 76ers in 1973 and the Atlanta Hawks in 1974, before being reunited with Dick on the Suns, as they played their last season, 1976-77, together.

Statistically, they were close, as Dick averaged 16.4 points per game, Tom 15.3; and Tom had 4.2 rebounds per game, Dick 4.1. But Dick played in a Finals, whereas Tom holds the record for most games played in the NBA without having reached the Finals: 929.

In 1978, they appeared together in a commercial for Miller Lite beer, with Dick taking the "Less Filling" side, Tom the "Tastes Great" side. Dick briefly coached the Suns in 1987. They retired his Number 5. (Tom also wore 5 through most of his career, and switched to 4 with the Suns.) Since their retirements from basketball, they have remained in the Phoenix area, and have become artists. They also run the annual "Docs vs. Jocks vs. Drugs" game back in Indianapolis, where their original lockers have been preserved in the display case in the lobby of the Emmerich Manual High School gymnasium..

UPDATE: Dick died on December 16, 2024, at the age of 81.

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May 6, 1965 was a Thursday. Actress Leslie Hope was born. This was also the day that the Symphony of the New World made its debut performance. I have a separate entry for that event.

The NBA season had ended 11 days earlier, when the Celtics beat the Lakers in the Finals. The NHL season had ended 5 days before this date, with the Montreal Canadiens winning the Stanley Cup over the Chicago Black Hawks. Football was out of season.

There were 4 games played in Major League Baseball:

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Cincinnati Reds, 4-3 at Crosley Field in Cincinnati. Johnny Podres was the winning pitcher. Derrell Griffith and Ron Fairly hit home runs for the Dodgers. Frank Robinson homered for the Reds. Pete Rose went 0-for-4 with a walk.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 5-3 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Larry Jackson was the winning pitcher, and aided his own cause by going 3-for-3 with a home run and 3 RBIs. Ernie Banks went 1-for-3 with a walk and an RBI. Willie Stargell hit 2 home runs for the Pirates, and Jim Pagliaroni added 1. Roberto Clemente appeared as a pinch-hitter, and did not reach base.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Minnesota Twins, 5-1 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota. Brooks Robinson hit a home run off Jim Kaat, and Harmon Killebrew hit a home run off Robin Roberts.

* And the California Angels beat the Kansas City Athletics, 5-4 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, where the Halos were groundsharing with the Dodgers while waiting for their stadium to be finished in Anaheim. Bobby Knoop went 2-for-3 with a home run and 4 RBIs.

March 30, 1981: President Ronald Reagan Is Shot

March 30, 1981: President Ronald Reagan is shot in an assassination attempt. It happens as he's walking to his car outside the Washington Hilton.

It was 2:27 PM. A few minutes later, the news reached my mother and me, at the library in East Brunswick, New Jersey. I don't remember why I was there, instead of in school: It was a Monday, not during Spring Break (Easter wasn't until April 19 that year), and I was in the 6th grade, at a school that let out at 2:35. Maybe it was a half-day, due to parent-teacher conferences, or something like that.

No President had been assassinated since John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963. My mother was in her senior year of high school; my father, in his senior year of college. Both were sent home early. There were 2 assassination attempts against Gerald Ford in September 1975, but neither came close to succeeding. So this was the first close call that I could remember, and it remains the only one.

Reagan was at the Hilton to give a speech at a luncheon of labor union executives. In his previous career, Reagan was not merely an actor, but served a term as President of an actors' union, the Screen Actors Guild. But he had turned on his fellow actors, and named names of those he suspected of Communist ties, and was never trusted by actors again. By 1965 -- at 54, hardly an age at which actors were, then as now, considered to be done -- his acting career was over.

He went into politics, and was elected Governor of California in 1966 and 1970. Supporters of his made a halfhearted effort to get the Republican Party to nominate him for President in 1968. In 1976, he nearly derailed the nomination of the incumbent President, Gerald Ford, who then lost to Jimmy Carter. In 1980, Reagan gave it one more try, and beat Carter.

Reagan was not friendly toward labor unions once he left SAG. This became obvious later in the year: Having survived the shooting, he exercised his authority as President to fire the striking members of PATCO, the union of air-traffic controllers. American organized labor has never recovered from the Reagan Years.

But that was yet to come. There was no reason to believe that Reagan was shot due to his stance on labor. Secret Service Agents immediately pounced on the shooter: John W. Hinckley Jr., then 25, a mentally ill man who never should have had access to a gun. A court would find him not guilty by reason of insanity, and he remained incarcerated at a hospital for the criminally insane until 2016. With some irony, he shares his birthday, May 29, with John F. Kennedy.

Hinckley, not particularly caring that anyone other than Reagan might be hit, also shot White House Press Secretary James Brady. He was paralyzed, and an early report said that he had died. He was confined to a wheelchair, and became an advocate for gun control. 

Secret Service Agent Timothy McCarthy was wounded. He remains the only Secret Service Agent ever to, as the common saying goes, "take a bullet for the President." In spite of this, he was the least seriously wounded man in the attempt. He later became his Illinois hometown's chief of police.

Thomas Delahanty, a D.C. police officer, was there as part of Reagan's security detail because his usual duty had been interrupted: He was part of a police dog unit, and his dog was sick. The shooting happened so fast that he couldn't do much about it, and he's always regretted that. He was released from the hospital a day before Reagan was. He returned to the Pittsburgh area from whence he came.

Alfred Antenucci and Frank McNamara, both labor officials from Cleveland and among the luncheon's guests, helped to tackle Hinckley.  

Reagan was pushed into the Presidential limousine by Secret Service Agent Jerry Parr, and taken to George Washington University Hospital, a few blocks away. The limo arrived just 4 minutes after the shooting. Reagan was able to walk in, and said to the staff, "Please tell me you're all Republicans." Dr. Joseph Giordano, Chairman of GWUH's Department of Surgery, was a registered Democrat, but told him, "Today, Mr. President, we are all Republicans."

Dr. Benjamin L. Aaron operated on Reagan for 1 hour and 45 minutes, and was able to remove the bullet and stabilize him. The bullet had come within 1 inch of Reagan's heart, and his blood pressure had gotten dangerously low. He had come closer to death than anyone realized.

Meanwhile, there was chaos at the White House. Reagan hadn't signed anything invoking Article 3 of the 25th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, turning power over to Vice President George Bush. Bush was on a plane, and word reached him via the plane's radio, and he ordered the plane turned around. But his Air Force Two plane was not as technologically advanced as the planes that served the President as Air Force One, and there was no secure line of communication, so he couldn't give orders as Acting President without risking national security.

The highest-ranking official in the executive branch was the Secretary of State, in this case Alexander Haig, a former U.S. Army 4-star General, and White House Chief of Staff when Richard Nixon resigned the Presidency and handed it over to Gerald Ford.

Note the date on the cover: March 16, 1981,

2 weeks before the assassination attempt.

But between Bush and Haig in the line of succession were the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Thomas "Tip" O'Neill, a Democrat, and at 68 nearly as old as Reagan; and the President Pro Tempore of the Senate, Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, a Republican like Reagan and Bush, but even older, 78, and with a history of supporting segregation.

What could Haig do? Ask O'Neill to come over to the White House, and be the Acting President until Bush got there? The 25th Amendment was supposed to cover a President's physical or mental inability to do the job. But, in this case, the Vice President, while his ability was unquestioned, didn't have a secure line, and thus, by association, could not be trusted. This was a situation for which there was still no Constitutional provision. Subsequent Air Force Twos would have a secure line and prevent this from ever happening again, but that didn't help on March 30, 1981.

So Larry Speakes, Brady's deputy as White House Press Secretary, was stuck answering questions from the White House press corps, questions to which no one seemed to have any answers. Haig came out, explained things as best he could, and said, "As of right now, I am in control here, in the White House, pending return of the Vice President, and in close touch with him. If something came up, I would check with him, of course."

Of course.

Now, for the executive branch, that was true. But Haig made it look like he had orchestrated a coup d'etat. He never recovered from this, and further missteps led him to resign on June 25, 1982. George Shultz, who had been one of Nixon's Secretaries of the Treasury, served as Secretary of State for the rest of Reagan's tenure. Haig never served in public office again, and died in 2010.

In the recovery room, the first people Reagan saw were some of his staff members: White House Chief of Staff James Baker, Baker's deputy Michael Deaver, and White House Press Secretary Lyn Nofziger. (In the terms of the later TV show The West Wing, the posts held by Leo McGarry, Joshua Lyman and Toby Ziegler.) Reagan looked at them, and said, "Who's minding the store?" It may have seemed funny to him then, but he was not, as yet, aware of the Haig drama.

When his wife Nancy was let in, Reagan quoted Jack Dempsey's line after losing the Heavyweight Championship of the World to Gene Tunney in 1926, when Reagan was in high school: "Honey, I forgot to duck."

The fact that Reagan had survived his assassination attempt, and that the last Democratic President to be popular, John F. Kennedy, did not survive his helped to raise Reagan's legend: He got shot and lived, Democrats, so he must be better than your beloved Kennedy.

He was released on April 11. He made a full recovery, although speculation on what the experience did to him, and to Nancy, psychologically has run rampant. He was re-elected in 1984, and served out his 2nd term.

In 1994, he announced that he had Alzheimer's disease. This had been suspected by the public as early as his re-election campaign. Even before that, in spite of his wit and sense of humor, Reagan was often thought of as not particularly intelligent. Certainly, he was intellectually lazy, and believed many things that were untrue, even ridiculous. He died in 2004.

For all but the 1st 69 days of Reagan's Presidency, the aptly-named Larry Speakes had to serve as White House Press Secretary, even though Jim Brady was never officially removed from the post. The White House Press Room was later named for Brady. Despite his ailments, Brady actually outlived Speakes by a few months, as Speakes also developed Alzheimer's. Both men died in 2014.

Nancy Reagan lived until 2016. George H.W. Bush was re-elected with Reagan in 1984, and elected President in his own right in 1988, but was defeated by Bill Clinton in 1992. He lived until 2018.

Agent Jerry Parr lived until 2015. The labor officials who tackled Hinckley weren't so lucky: Both men became ill not long afterward. Frank McNamara died just 6 months after the assassination attempt, only 62 years old; and Alfred Antenucci died in 1984 at 71.

As of March 30, 2022, Agent Tim McCarthy, Officer Thomas Delahanty, Drs. Joseph Giordano and Benjamin Aaron -- and John Hinckley -- are all still alive.

UPDATE: Giordano died in 2025. Despite some halfhearted, and considerably less-than-that-brained, attempts on the lives of both George Bushes, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, there wasn't a serious attempt on the life of another President until Donald Trump in 2024 -- and he wasn't in office at the time, and there is plenty of evidence that that one was staged.

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March 30, 1981, as I said, was a Monday. It was scheduled as the day of the Final of the NCAA men's basketball tournament, to be held at The Spectrum in Philadelphia. Had Reagan died -- or, perhaps, if his life was still considered to be in danger as tipoff approached -- the game might have been postponed. Instead, with the knowledge that he was in recovery, the game went forward, with a moment of silence held after player introductions.

Indiana University beat the University of North Carolina, 63-50. Bobby Knight's Hoosiers included Hall-of-Famer Isiah Thomas. Dean Smith's Tar Heels included Hall-of-Famer James Worthy. (Michael Jordan was in his senior year at Emsley A. Laney High School in Wilmington, North Carolina, but had committed to play at UNC. Laney was a prominent businessman in Wilmington.)

The Major League Baseball season had not yet begun. Opening Day would not be until April 8, so any games played on this day were still exhibitions in Spring Training, and didn't count. And the National Football League was in its off-season.

Nor were there any games played in the National Basketball Association: Its regular season had ended the day before, and its Playoffs had not yet begun. There were 2 National Hockey League games played. The New York Rangers played the Philadelphia Flyers to a 0-0 tie at Madison Square Garden. And the Boston Bruins and the Buffalo Sabres played to a 2-2 tie at the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium.

March 29, 1976: College Basketball's Last Undefeated Team

Left to right: Bob Knight, Scott May and Quinn Buckner.

Knight was hardly the only basketball coach to favor

plaid sportsjackets -- it was the 1970s, after all --

but he hadn't yet started wearing his more familiar red sweaters.

March 29, 1976: Indiana University beats the University of Michigan, 86-68, at The Spectrum in Philadelphia, to win the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament. The Hoosiers finish the season 32-0. It remains the last undefeated National Championship season in college basketball.

Head coach Bobby Knight -- sometimes listed as "Bob Knight," which he apparently preferred -- always thought his previous season's team was better. They went 31-1, beating teams that were, at the time the Hoosiers played them, ranked Number 7, away to Kansas on December 4; Number 11, away to Notre Dame on December 11; Number 15, home to Kentucky on December 7; Number 17, away to Michigan on January 6; and Number 20, home to Purdue on January 25.

They won the Big Ten Conference title, going a perfect 18-0 in the league, and beat Texas-El Paso and Oregon State in the NCAA Tournament, before Kentucky beat them in the Elite Eight, 92-90 in Dayton, Ohio.

They did this without Larry Bird, who began the schoolyear as a freshman at IU, but found the transition difficult, and transferred to Indiana State University, which he eventually led to an NCAA Final.

With guard Quinn Buckner and forward Scott May returning for their senior years, and center Kent Benson returning as a junior, Knight was more determined than ever to win it all. They opened the season on November 29, 1975, ranked Number 1, playing defending National Champions UCLA, ranked Number 2 but playing with a head coach other than John Wooden for the 1st time since 1949 (Gene Bartow), at the St. Louis Arena, on national television. Indiana won convincingly, 84-64.

It was only the beginning. They beat Number 8 Notre Dame at home on December 11. They beat Number 14 Kentucky in Louisville. In the week between Christmas and New Year's, they won the ECAC Holiday Festival at Madison Square Garden, beating schools from 3 different Boroughs of New York City: Columbia, of Manhattan, 106-63; Manhattan College, which is located not in Manhattan but in The Bronx, 97-61; and Number 17 St. John's, of Queens, 76-69.

They beat Number 19 Michigan away on January 10. They needed overtime to beat Michigan at home at Assembly Hall in Bloomington, but did it, 72-67. They finished the regular season 27-0, again going through the Big 10 18-0.

The NCAA Tournament put them in Notre Dame's Joyce Center in South Bend, Indiana for their 1st round game, but they beat St. John's, then ranked Number 17, again. In Baton Rouge, Louisiana, they beat Number 6 Alabama and Number 2 Marquette, to put them in the Final Four at The Spectrum in Philadelphia. The Final Four was being played in Philadelphia because 1976 was the Bicentennial year.

Again, they played UCLA, then ranked Number 5, and beat them, 65-51. In the Final, they had to play Michigan for a 3rd time, and Michigan were ranked Number 9. This time, it wasn't close: Indiana won, 86-68. They were 32-0, undefeated, and National Champions.

None of Knight's "Big Three" became professional stars. Buckner played in the NBA from 1976 to 1986, was a member of the Boston Celtics' 1984 NBA Champions, and later became a broadcaster. May played from 1976 to 1981, mostly for the Chicago Bulls. Benson played from 1977 to 1988, for 4 different teams. Both May and Benson later played in Italy's league.

Knight led Indiana to a 2nd National Championship in 1981, and a 3rd in 1987. They had previously won in 1940 and 1953, both under Branch McCracken. So Knight got the program to where it had won 5 titles. He also became, for a time, the winningest coach in college basketball history, before he was surpassed by a former assistant of his, Mike Krzyzewski of Duke. Eventually, his excesses could no longer be stood by IU administrators, and he was fired in 2000.

In 2005, Scott May's son, Sean May, won a National Championship at North Carolina. The Mays are 1 of 4 father-son pairs to win National Championships, along with Marques and Kris Johnson, Henry and Mike Bibby, and Derek and Nolan Smith.

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March 29, 1976 was a Monday. Tennis star Jennifer Capriati was born.

Baseball was in Spring Training. Football was out of season. There were no games in the NBA, but there was 1 game in the American Basketball Association: The San Antonio Spurs beat the New York Nets, 116-101 at the HemisFair Arena in San Antonio.

There were no games in the World Hockey Association, but there were 2 games in the NHL. The New York Islanders beat the Philadelphia Flyers, 5-1 at the Nassau Coliseum. And the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 5-4 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.

February 23, 1985: Bobby Knight Throws a Chair

February 23, 1985: Bobby Knight, the longtime head basketball coach at Indiana University, has what would remain, despite 3 National Championships, the most recent undefeated season in men's college basketball, more games won than any college basketball coach before him, and a stellar record of graduating his players on time, his signature moment.

The game was played on Indiana's home court, Assembly Hall in Bloomington, against their cross-State arch-rivals, Purdue University. Five minutes into the game, a scramble for a loose ball resulted in a foul call on Indiana's Marty Simmons. Immediately after the resumption of play, a foul was called on Indiana's Daryl Thomas. Knight insisted the first of the two calls should have been for a jump ball, and went too far in his argument. The referee, Fred Jaspers, gave Knight a technical foul.

Purdue's Steve Reid stepped to the free throw line to shoot the resulting free throws, but before he could, Knight grabbed a red plastic chair from Indiana's bench, and threw it across the floor toward the basket in front of Reid. Knight was charged with a second and a third technical foul, and was ejected from the game.

Indiana ended up losing this game, 73-62. It was in the middle of a 1-6 run that prevented them from reaching the NCAA Tournament. Knight apologized for his actions the next day, and was given a one-game suspension and two years' probation from the Big Ten Conference.

In later years, Knight would occasionally joke about the chair-throwing incident by saying that he saw an old lady standing on the opposite sideline and threw her the chair so she could sit down.

What happened to the chair? It was retrieved by IU tennis coach Scott Greer, who kept it at his office, and then, after retiring, has kept it at his house in Bloomington.

Ironically, Jaspers himself was a basketball coach, at high schools in Iowa. He began officiating in the Big Ten in 1969, retired after that 1984-85 season, and died in 1997.

UPDATE: Greer died in 2022, and left the chair to his son-in-law, Chip Hoskins, who was a student at IU at the time of the incident, and was also at the game in question. He loaned the chair to Mike Woodson, head basketball coach at IU in 2025, on the 40th Anniversary of the incident, for him to sit in on the anniversary of the game. Knight, who coached at IU from 1971 to 2000, when he finally went too far and got fired by the school, died in 2023.

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February 23, 1985 was a Saturday. Baseball was out of season. This was the opening day of what turned out to be the last season of the USFL, the United States Football League. One game was played: The Tampa Bay Bandits beat the Orlando Renegades, 35-7 at Tampa Stadium.

There were 5 games played in the NBA:

* The New Jersey Nets beat the Detroit Pistons, 111-103 at the Silverdome in the Detroit suburb of Pontiac, Michigan. Bill Laimbeer had 31 points and 21 rebounds.

* The Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 128-106 at The Coliseum in the Cleveland suburb of Richfield, Ohio.

* The Chicago Bulls beat the Golden State Warriors, 140-125 at the Chicago Stadium. Rookie Michael Jordan scored 38 points.

* The Dallas Mavericks beat the Kansas City Kings, 121-98 at the Kemper Arena (now the Hy-Vee Arena) in Kansas City.

* And the Washington Bullets beat the Houston Rockets, 123-115 at The Summit in Houston. It's now the Central Campus of televangelist Joel Osteen's Lakewood Church.

And there were 8 games in the NHL:

* The New York Islanders beat the Boston Bruins, 7-1 at the Nassau Coliseum.

* The New Jersey Devils lost to the Calgary Flames, 5-1 at the Brendan Byrne Arena at the Meadowlands.

* The Montreal Canadiens beat the Winnipeg Jets, 6-4 at the Montreal Forum.

* The Los Angeles Kings beat the Hartford Whalers, 2-1 at the Hartford Civic Center (now the PeoplesBank Arena). Marcel Dionne scored the winning goal with 2:14 left in overtime.

* The Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Detroit Red Wings, 4-2 at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit.

* The Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Minnesota North Stars, 3-1 at the Metropolitan Sports Center in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota.

* The Washington Capitals and the Edmonton Oilers played to a tie, 3-3 at the Northlands Coliseum in Edmonton.

* The Quebec Nordiques beat the Vancouver Canucks, 7-5 at the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver.

* And the New York Rangers, the Chicago Black Hawks, the Philadelphia Flyers, the St. Louis Blues, the Buffalo Sabres and the Winnipeg Jets were not scheduled.

And in English soccer, Manchester United beat North London team Arsenal, 1-0 at Old Trafford in Salford.