September 5, 1972: The Munich Massacre

September 5, 1972: The Munich Massacre takes place, bringing terrorism into the modern era.

The Olympic Games were being held in Munich, in the Federal Republic of Germany -- a.k.a. West Germany. It was the 1st time the Games were held on German soil since 1936, when Germany was controlled by the Nazi Party and Chancellor Adolf Hitler.

But all signs pointed toward the host nation, a democratic and capitalist nation, handling things properly. There were no incidents between German officials, or Olympic officials, and the athletes, coaches and support staff from Israel, which had founded itself as a nation in 1948, after the defeat of the Nazis in World War II.

But that founding resulted in great bitterness with the people calling themselves "Palestinians." With the support of Egypt, Jordan and Syria, they launched a war against Israel, but when it became clear that the war was a stalemate, a settlement was reached. Another war was launched in 1967, and, this time, there was a clear result: Israel won it in 6 days.

King Hussein I of Jordan decided that further wars against Israel were not worth it. On September 16, 1970, he responded to an Islamic fundamentalist group called the Fedayeen and its attempt at a coup by declaring martial law. Thousands of Palestinians were expelled from the country, and some were killed.

In response, a new terrorist group was formed, named Black September for this event. They waited for their chance to make a big statement. They decided that the 1972 Olympics were it, as the whole world would be watching.

At 4:30 AM, Central European Time -- 10:30 PM, September 4, U.S. Eastern Time -- eight Black September operatives snuck into the Olympic Village, wearing tracksuits so as to blend in. They found the Israeli team's quarters at Connollystraße 31. They broke in. Yossef Gutfreund, an Israeli but an official, a referee for the wrestling matches rather than an athlete or a coach, tried to distract the operatives so that others could escape. Only one did, weightlifting coach Tuvia Sokolovsky. Gutfreund was knocked out and taken prisoner. Weightlifter Yossef Romano and wrestling coach Moshe Weinberg tried to fight them off, but were killed.

The gunmen took and bound 9 hostages: Gutfreund, wrestlers Eliezer Halfin and Mark Slavin, weightlifters David Berger and Ze'ev Friedman, track and field coach Amituzur Shapira, fencing coach Andre Spitzer, sharpshooting coach Kehat Shorr, and weightlifting judge Yakov Springer.

One Israeli athlete who managed to get away before being seen by the gunmen was racewalker Shaul Ladany, a survivor of the Nazis' concentration camp at Bergen-Belsen. He got word to American officials.

Prime Minister Golda Meir of Israel asked for help from other countries: "If we should give in, then no Israeli anywhere in the world shall feel that his life is safe... It's blackmail of the worst kind." King Hussein called it a "savage crime against civilization, perpetrated by sick minds." But he was the only Arab, and the only Muslim, public figure to denounce the action which had already left 2 men dead. President Richard Nixon did not take any direct action, but asked the United Nations to do so.

Black September demanded the release of 234 Palestinians jailed in Israel, and also those of the founders of the infamous West German terrorist group Red Army Faction, Andreas Baader and Ulrike Meinhof. Meir refused to negotiate.

The hours dragged on. ABC, covering the Olympics for the United States, kept going back and forth between Jim McKay, their Olympic anchor, and Peter Jennings, who headed their international news desk in London, and who was in Munich because, even before the terrorists struck, that was where the news was for the moment. McKay would receive a special Emmy Award for his coverage, and his coverage Munich is often given as a reason why Jennings ended up as the anchor of ABC World News Tonight after the death of Frank Reynolds.

By 4:30 PM (10:30 AM, U.S. Eastern), Munich police had the complex surrounded. At 6:00 PM (12:00 noon, U.S. Eastern), the terrorists demanded transportation to Cairo, the capital of Egypt, a country they believed would be friendly to them.

The West German authorities reached Prime Minister Aziz Sedki of Egypt (not President Anwar Sadat), and he told them that his country did not want to get involved. So the West German authorities lied to the terrorists, saying that the demand had been accepted.

A bus transported the terrorists and their hostages to Fürstenfeldbruck Airport. A Boeing 727 jet was waiting, but the flight crew were actually Munich police. The terrorists tried to board the plane, but realized they had been lured into a trap, and ran back. At 12:04 AM on September 6 (6:04 PM on September 5, U.S. Eastern), the terrorists' leader shot the hostages with an AK-47. The police started firing, and most of the terrorists were killed within minutes. The ones who got away were all captured by sunrise.

At 3:24 AM on the 6th -- 9:24 PM on the 5th, U.S. Eastern -- Jim McKay gave America the tragic news:

You know, when I was a kid, my father used to say, "Our greatest hopes and our worst fears are seldom realized." Our worst fears have been realized tonight. They've now said that there were eleven hostages. Two were killed in their rooms yesterday morning. Nine were killed at the airport tonight. They're all gone.

There were demands that the rest of the Games be canceled. Instead, the International Olympic Committee postponed all events set for September 6, and hosted a memorial service in the Olympiastadion, attended by 80,000 people. The callous reaction of IOC President Avery Brundage, a known anti-Semite from his days as U.S. Olympic Committee President in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, led to his being fired.

The remaining members of the Israeli team withdrew from the Games and went home. Mark Spitz, the Jewish American swimmer who had already completed his remarkable feat of winning 7 Gold Medals, also left. So did the Egyptian team, fearing reprisals, since it was now known that they weren't helping Black September. So did the teams of Algeria and the Philippines.

During the 1972 World Series, pitcher Ken Holtzman and 1st baseman Mike Epstein, Jewish players for the Oakland Athletics, wore black armbands in memory of the 11 Israelis killed at the Olympics. Reggie Jackson, a black man who had grown up in a mostly-Jewish neighborhood, also wore a black armband, although he was injured and unable to play. Major League Baseball officials, so often behind the times when it came to social issues, allowed it.

One more note: The Olympiastadion in Munich is 1 of 3 stadiums to have hosted an Olympic Games, a World Cup Final and a UEFA European Cup/Champions League Final. The others are the Olympiastadion in Berlin and the old Wembley Stadium in London. In 2024, the Stade de France outside Paris will make it 4.

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September 5, 1972 was a Tuesday. It was a little early for the NFL, and a bit earlier for the NBA, the ABA, the NHL and the WHA. But Major League Baseball played 10 games that day:

* The New York Yankees beat the Baltimore Orioles, 7-6 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. In a weird turn of events, neither starting pitcher got out of the 1st inning, which ended 5-2 in the Yankees' favor. It wasn't due to injury: George "Doc" Medich of the Yanks was making his major league debut, and admitted he'd been nervous; while Dave McNally of the O's simply didn't have it. Neither team hit a home run, but Roy White went 3-for-5 with an RBI for the Yankees.

* The New York Mets lost to the Chicago Cubs, 3-0 at Shea Stadium. Rick Reuschel outpitched Tom Seaver. Willie Mays did not play.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Cleveland Indians, 4-2 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. Al Kaline went 1-for-3.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Minnesota Twins, 5-2 at Comiskey Park in Chicago. Harmon Killebrew hit a home run, and Rod Carew went 2-for-4, but it wasn't enough.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 5-3 at Milwaukee County Stadium. Carl Yastrzemski went 1-for-5.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Montreal Expos, 5-3 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis.

* The Kansas City Royals beat the Texas Rangers, 7-2 at Arlington Stadium in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas.

* The Atlanta Braves beat the Houston Astros, 5-3 at the Astrodome in Houston. Hank Aaron went 1-for-4.

* The San Francisco Giants beat the San Diego Padres, 4-3 at San Diego Stadium.

* And the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Cincinnati Reds, 9-4 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. Pete Rose went 2-for-5 with a solo home run, Johnny Bench went 1-for-3, and Joe Morgan went 0-for-4.

* The California Angels, Oakland Athletics, Philadelphia Phillies and Pittsburgh Pirates were not scheduled. 

April 29, 1961: "ABC Wide World of Sports" Premieres

April 29, 1961: ABC Wide World of Sports premieres. The first events it covers are 2 of America's premier track & field meets: The Pennsylvania Relay Carnival, a.k.a. the Penn Relays, at Franklin Field on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia; and the Drake Relays, at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa.

By the nature of its name, the show covers sports from not just all over America, but all over the world. This included sports often seen in the Olympic Games, like track & field, swimming, cycling, and Winter Olympic sports like ski racing, ski jumping, figure skating and speed skating.

There was lots of auto racing: The Indianapolis 500, NASCAR, and Grand Prix and Formula 1 events from Europe. Sometimes, there would be oddball competitions, like the Soap Box Derby, and "The World Lumberjack Championships." (It's the kind of thing that can't really be explained: You have to see it to believe it.)

The traditional North American sports were usually not shown. Baseball? Only the annual Little League World Series and the College World Series. American football? No: ABC did show college games on Autumn Saturdays, often before WWOS, but as part of a separate broadcast package; and were the 1st network to broadcast the American Football League. Basketball? Only the Harlem Globetrotters. Hockey? Maybe the amateur World Championships, which the U.S. almost never got far in. (NBC was usually the network broadcasting the NHL to the U.S. in those days.)

Boxing? Yes, but usually on a delay of a few days. Horse racing? Yes, including the Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing: The Kentucky Derby in Louisville, the Preakness Stakes in Baltimore, and the Belmont Stakes just outside New York City. And other major horse races, such as the Santa Anita Derby outside Los Angeles. Golf? Yes, as ABC, then as now, owned the rights to the U.S. Open and the PGA Championship.

From the beginning, the host was Jim McKay. He liked to say that the two best sports to cover were horse racing and golf, because they were the sports with the best stories. He was wrong that they were the two best sports -- after all, golf is not a sport -- but I loved his reasons.

The show's introduction was narrated by McKay, and written by Stanley Ralph Ross, who later wrote for the TV shows Batman and The Monkees, and co-created the 1975-79 Wonder Woman TV show:

Spanning the globe to bring you the constant variety of sport: The thrill of victory, and the agony of defeat, the human drama of athletic competition! This is ABC's Wide World of Sports!

The show hosted a number of U.S. TV firsts:

* 1961: Wimbledon (which has been exclusively on NBC since 1969), the Little League World Series, the Indianapolis 500, the British Open, and the 1st sporting event behind the Iron Curtain televised in the U.S.: A U.S. vs. Soviet Union track meet. It enabled Valeriy Brumel, the last great high jumper to use the "scissors kick" method, to become one of the few Warsaw Pact athletes to gain popularity in America.

* 1962: The NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament Final (on CBS since 1982), the Grey Cup (the Canadian Football League championship game), and the Daytona 500. That year, with no knowledge that the record would happen, the show also broadcast the Los Angeles Invitational track meet at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena, at which Jim Beatty ran the 1st indoor sub-4-minute mile.

* 1967: The 1st color broadcast of the Monaco Grand Prix.

For many Americans, it was their first exposure to soccer beyond their local clubs and school teams. It would broadcast highlights from the World Cup, the European Championships, England's FA Cup Final, and the European Cup Final (the tournament now known as the UEFA Champions League).

The show turned several figures into heroes in our country as well as in theirs. Boxers like Italy's Nino Benvenuti and Nigeria's Dick Tiger; gymnasts like the Soviets' Olga Korbut and Romania's Nadia Comăneci; auto racers like Scotland's Jackie Stewart, who became a commentator for WWOS; and tennis players like Australia's Rod Laver, Margaret Court, John Newcombe and Evonne Goolagong.

And then there was Vinko Bogataj, the Slovenian whose failed ski jump, while competing for Yugoslavia, at a meet in Germany in 1970, became the clip the show used in its opening montage when it wanted to illustrate "the agony of defeat."

When the show was preparing to celebrate its 20th Anniversary in 1981, they found him, and invited him to come to America -- not an easy thing to do, since Slovenia was still part of Yugoslavia, a Communist country. He was long retired from competition, and had become a ski instructor, a forklift operator, and a painter. He was not famous in his own country, and had no idea that he was famous in America. When he was introduced at the anniversary dinner, he got the longest standing ovation of anyone -- longer even than the one granted to Muhammad Ali, who asked him for his autograph.

In 1979, ESPN went on the air, and began to cover the kind of events, every day, that Wide World covered on Saturdays and Sundays. ABC saw the writing on the wall, and bought ESPN in 1984. With this in mind, Wide World of Sports became more and more redundant, and it was canceled, its final edition airing on January 3, 1998. In 2006, ABC folded its ABC Sports Division, and made ESPN, effectively, that. Jim McKay died in 2008.

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April 29, 1961 was a Saturday. Football was out of season. The NBA and NHL seasons had ended a few days earlier. These Major League Baseball games were played that day, and, of course, none of them were broadcast on ABC Wide World of Sports:

* The New York Yankees beat the Cleveland Indians, 4-2 at Yankee Stadium. Yogi Berra hit a home run, while Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris each went 1-for-3, Maris adding an RBI, in support of Ralph Terry.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Washington Senators, 5-0 at Griffith Stadium in Washington. Brooks Robinson went 3-for-5, and Milt Pappas pitched a 6-hit shutout.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Cincinnati Reds, 6-3 at Crosley Field in Cincinnati. Roberto Clemente went 1-for-4 with a 2-RBI double, and Frank Robinson went 1-for-4 with a 2-run home run.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Boston Red Sox, 9-5 at Tiger Stadium. Carl Yastrzemski went 3-for-5 with 3 RBIs, and Al Kaline went 1-for-4.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Chicago Cubs, 9-4 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Ernie Banks went 1-for-4 with a solo home run.

* The San Francisco Giants beat the Milwaukee Braves, 7-3 at Milwaukee County Stadium. Willie Mays went 0-for-4, but Willie McCovey went 3-for-5 with 2 home runs and 4 RBIs, and Orlando Cepeda went 2-for-5 with a solo home run. Hank Aaron went 0-for-4.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 3-2 at Busch Stadium (formerly Sportsman's Park) in St. Louis. Stan Musial did not play for the Cardinals in this game.

* The Kansas City Athletics beat the Chicago White Sox, 13-9 at Kansas City Municipal Stadium.

* And the Los Angeles Angels beat the Minnesota Twins, 4-1 at the West Coast version of Wrigley Field. The American League's version of the Angels replaced the Pacific Coast League's version, which were a Cubs farm team, and 1920s Cubs owner William Wrigley Jr. built their ballpark to look like the one in Chicago, and named the L.A. park Wrigley Field before he gave that name to the Chicago park.

Also, Arsenal lost to Everton, 4-1 at Goodison Park in Liverpool.