November 27, 1965: Pauley Pavilion, and Kareem's Career, Open

November 27, 1965: Pauley Pavilion opens, on the campus of the University of California at Los Angeles.

Following their 1964 National Championship -- they would win it again in 1965 -- UCLA coach John Wooden wanted a suitable arena for his ever-growing program. He got it in time for the 1965-66 season, and it has hosted 9 more National Championships, making for 11 banners, 10 coached by Wooden.

But they would not win the 12,829-seat Pavilion's opening game. In fact, the 1st game was between the UCLA varsity and the UCLA freshman team. Until 1972, the NCAA did not allow freshmen to play on varsity teams, with rare exceptions. (For example, due to the manpower drain of World War II, it was allowed for the duration.) The freshman team won, 75–60.

How could this happen? Had UCLA been hit that hard by graduation? No, they were hit that hard by Wooden's prize recruit: Ferdinand Lewis Alcindor Jr. Better known as Lew Alcindor, the Harlem native had been the top high school player in the country. Every college coach in the country wanted him, thinking he would be the next Bill Russell or Wilt Chamberlain. Wooden told him that he could be the first star of a big new building in one of America's biggest cities.

Alcindor justified that faith, starting in the 1st game: Against the 2-time defending National Champions, he scored 31 points and grabbed 21 rebounds. Against junior colleges and 4-year schools' freshmen teams, the UCLA frosh went 21-0.

As a sophomore in 1966-67, Alcindor led the Bruins to a 30-0 season. As a junior in 1967-68, they went 29-1, losing only a nationally-televised regular-season "Game of the Century" to Elvin Hayes and the University of Houston at the Astrodome. That loss was solidly avenged in the NCAA Tournament Semifinal. In 1968-69, they went 29-1, losing only a meaningless conference finale to their arch-rivals, the University of Southern California (USC).

In his 3 seasons on the varsity, Alcindor led UCLA to a record of 88-2, and 3 National Championships, winning the NCAA Tournament's Most Outstanding Player all 3 times. Counting his freshman record, he went 109-2.

In 1971, just after leading the Milwaukee Bucks to the NBA Championship, Alcindor, having converted to Islam 3 years earlier, publicly announced that he had changed his name to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. There were 2 people he allowed to continue to call him "Lew": His father -- after all, it was his name, too -- and Coach Wooden. He went on to win 5 more NBA Championships, back in Los Angeles with the Lakers. The greatest player in the history of college basketball became one of the Top 10 players in the history of professional basketball.

Pauley Pavilion was named for an oil magnate who was also a Regent of the University of California system, whose donation to its building went a long way toward making it possible. Edwin Pauley was a friend of, and appointee to several offices by, Presidents Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman, but the student protests of the 1960s led him to switch parties and support Ronald Reagan for Governor.

Speaking of politics, the Pavilion was the site of the 2nd debate of the 1988 Presidential campaign, where CNN anchor Bernard Shaw asked the question that shattered the campaign of Governor Michael Dukakis – not that the Duke helped himself with his answer. Oddly, Dukakis chose to hold held his Election Eve rally there, despite being a Bostonian. (In contrast, Boston's JFK held his Convention in the Los Angeles Coliseum complex, but his Election Eve rally at the Boston Garden.)

Pauley Pavilion was renovated during the 2011-12 season, which the Bruins spent playing home games at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena. They had won the National Championship game there in 1968 and 1972. Ironically, until 2006, it was USC's home court, until USC opened the nearby Galen Center.

With the Pavilion renovated and modernized, the Bruins now play in a 13,800-seat venue, on the Nell and John Wooden Court, named for the old coach and his wife. The 11 National Championship banners hang overhead: 1964, 1965, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975 and 1995.

*

November 27, 1965 was a Saturday. It was a big day in college sports, as it was the end of Thanksgiving week, and thus rivalry week in football. These games were played, not all of them rivalries:

* Rivalry: Number 5 Alabama beat Auburn, 30-3 at Legion Field in Birmingham. 'Bama won the Southeastern Conference title.

* Number 6 Notre Dame and Miami played to a 0-0 tie at the Orange Bowl in Miami. This late-season game, in a stadium named after the New Year's Day game played there, was as close to a bowl game at Notre Dame would come: From the 1925 season until 1969, they refused all bowl bids.

* Number 8 University of Southern California (USC) beat Wyoming, 56-6 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

* Rivalry: Number 9 Tennessee beat Vanderbilt, 21-3 at Neyland Stadium in Knoxville, Tennessee.

* Rivalry: Army and Navy played to a tie, 7-7 at John F. Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia.

* The Quantico Marines beat Memphis State, 20-14 at Butler Stadium in Quantico, Virginia. The Marines were a 2-touchdown underdog. Memphis State University became the University of Memphis in 1994. The Quantico Marines had a team from 1919 to 1972, and the NCAA counted them as a "college football team." The program was canceled due to rising costs. 

While graduates of the U.S. Naval Academy can become officers in the U.S. Marine Corps, the closest thing the Marines have to their own academy is the Quantico Marine Base in Quantico, Virginia -- the town that is also home to the FBI Academy, and to the headquarters of the CID, which investigates crimes involving the Army and the Air Force, and the NCIS, which investigates crimes involving the Navy and the Marines (though the TV show NCIS still shows the agency headquartered at the Washington Navy Yard).

* Rivalry: Boston College beat Holy Cross, 35-0 at Fitton Field in Worcester, Massachusetts.

* Rivalry: Georgia beat Georgia Tech, 17-7 at Grant Field in Atlanta.

* Rivalry: Florida beat Florida State, 30-17 at Florida Field (now Ben Hill Griffin Stadium) in Gainesville.

* Rivalry: Mississippi (Ole Miss) beat Mississippi State, 21-0 at Scott Field (now Davis Wade Stadium) in Starkville, Mississippi.

* Rivalry: Texas Christian University (TCU) beat Southern Methodist University (SMU), 10-7 at Amon G. Carter Stadium in Fort Worth, Texas.

* Baylor beat Rice, 17-13 at Rice Stadium in Houston.

* Brigham Young University (BYU) beat New Mexico, 42-8 at University Stadium in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

* Rivalry: Arizona State beat Arizona, 14-6 at Sun Devil Stadium (now Mountain America Stadium) in the Phoenix suburb of Tempe, Arizona.

* Two days earlier, on Thanksgiving, there were 6 games, including Texas beating Texas A&M, 21-17 at Kyle Field in College Station. But only 1 involved a ranked team: Number 3 Nebraska beat Oklahoma, 21-9 at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln, to clinch the Big 8 Conference title.

* Idle that week, but not yet finished with their regular season: Number 4 UCLA, Champions of the Athletic Association of Western Universities (which became the Pacific-Eight in 1968, the Pacific-Ten in 1978, and the Pacific-Twelve in 2011); 

* Having finished their schedules the week before were the entire the Big Ten Conference, including Number 1 Michigan State; the entire Southwest Conference, including its Champion, Number 2 Arkansas, and Number 10 Texas Tech; Number 7 Missouri; and New Jersey's teams, Rutgers and Princeton.

At the time, the final Associated Press (AP) sportswriters' poll was taken after the regular season, but before the bowl games. So Michigan State were named National Champions in that poll. Entering New Year's Day, the top 3 teams were all 10–0, but all lost: Number 1 Michigan State lost the Rose Bowl to Number 5 UCLA, Number 2 Arkansas lost the Cotton Bowl to Number 14 Louisiana State (LSU), and Number 3 Nebraska lost the Orange Bowl to Number 4. Alabama. So the post-bowl United Press International (UPI) coaches poll named Alabama the National Champions. (Number 6 Missouri beat Number 12 Florida in the Sugar Bowl.)

There were 4 games played in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks lost to the Cincinnati Royals, 132-129 at the old Madison Square Garden. Oscar Robertson scored 44 points.

* The Boston Celtics beat the Los Angeles Lakers, 101-95 at the Boston Garden. Bill Russell scored 28 points, and had 35 rebounds.

* The St. Louis Hawks beat the Baltimore Bullets, 136-110 at the Kiel Auditorium in St. Louis.

* And the Philadelphia 76ers beat the San Francisco Warriors, 124-117 at the Civic Auditorium (now the Bill Graham Auditorium) in San Francisco. Wilt Chamberlain, who had played for the Warriors in Philadelphia, scored 38 points and had 31 rebounds.

The NHL's entire "Original Six" were in action:

* The New York Rangers lost to the Chicago Black Hawks, 1-0 at the old Madison Square Garden. Yes, the Garden hosted an NBA game and an NHL game on the same day.

* The Montreal Canadiens beat the Detroit Red Wings, 3-2 at the Montreal Forum.

* And the Boston Bruins beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 2-1 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.

October 18, 1969: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's 1st Professional Game

October 18, 1969: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (then still using his birth name of Lew Alcindor), the greatest player in the history of college basketball, makes his professional debut. The Milwaukee Bucks beat the Detroit Pistons, 119-110 at the Milwaukee Arena.

In 1974, it was renamed the Milwaukee Exposition and Convention Center Arena. Because of its initials, and its status as a gathering place, the arena was nicknamed "The MECCA." I have never heard Kareem, a devout Muslim, give his opinion on that fact. at the Milwaukee Arena. Since 2014, it has been named the UW-Panther Arena.

In this game, Kareem led all players with 29 points and 12 rebounds, and he added 6 assists. Teammates Jon McGlocklin and Flynn Robinson each scored 23. Walt Bellamy led the Pistons with 25.

Six days later, Kareem opposed Wilt Chamberlain, the man he would eventually surpass as the NBA's all-time leading scorer, for the 1st time, at The Forum, outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California. Kareem scored 23 points, but the Milwaukee Bucks were led by Robinson with 33. Wilt scored 25, but the Los Angeles Lakers were led by Elgin Baylor with 26. The Lakers won, 123-112.

The Bucks entered the NBA for the 1968-69 season, along with the Phoenix Suns. The way the NBA Draft worked in those days, the teams with the 2 worst records faced a coin flip, with the winner getting the 1st pick and the loser getting the 2nd pick, so that it paid to "tank," but not that much. The Bucks won the coin flip, and "Big Lew," who had led UCLA to an 88-2 record and 3 National Championships (keeping in mind that freshmen weren't eligible to play on the varsity until 1972), winning the National Player of the Year and the NCAA Tournament's Most Outstanding Player all 3 times, was the easy choice.

With the 2nd pick, the Suns chose Neal Walk, a center from the University of Florida. He played 9 seasons in the NBA, and the fact that he was the next pick after Kareem is by far the most interesting thing about his pro career.

Instead of Walk, the Suns could have chosen Lucius Allen (Kareem's teammate at UCLA, and later in Milwaukee), Bob Dandridge (whom the Bucks also drafted), Bingo Smith, Jo Jo White, Butch Beard, Rick Roberson, Norm Van Lier, Luther Rackley, Steve Mix or Willie Wise, any of whom would have been a noticeably better choice than Walk.

To be fair, the Suns didn't do that badly: Both teams were usually in the Playoffs throughout the 1970s and into the 1980s. But the Bucks, led by Kareem, the veteran star Oscar Robertson, McGlocklin, Robinson, Allen and Dandridge, and coached by Larry Costello, won the 1971 NBA Championship, and also reached the Finals in 1974. Through the 2021-22 season, each team has been to the Finals 3 times, but the Bucks have won 2, while the Suns are still looking for their 1st. The Suns are usually a good team, often a really good one, but they've never been NBA Champions.

Kareem would remain with the Bucks until June 16, 1975. He didn't think Milwaukee was a big enough city for him. He wanted to return to New York, where he was from; or Los Angeles, where he went to UCLA. The Bucks traded him to the Lakers, although with Walt Wesley, for Dave Meyers (another UCLA player), Junior Bridgeman, Brian Winters and Elmore Smith.

This was not a terrible trade for the Bucks: Bridgeman and Winters helped them win 7 straight Division titles, and both of their numbers have been retired, along with those of Kareem, McGlocklin and Dandridge. But the Lakers still got the better part of the deal: Kareem would lead them to 5 titles in the 1980s.

*

October 18, 1969 was a Saturday. This was also the night that The Jackson Five, including Michael Jackson, made their national television debut, on ABC's The Hollywood Palace. They were introduced by fellow Motown Records star Diana Ross, and her boss -- and, secretly, her boyfriend -- Berry Gordy Jr. falsely told the media that Diana had "discovered" them.

These 6 other games were played in the NBA on that night:

* The New York Knicks beat the Los Angeles Lakers, 99-96 at the new Madison Square Garden. Willis Reed scored 25 points, Dick Barnett 21, and Walt Frazier 19. For the Lakers, Jerry West scored 42, Elgin Baylor 18, and Wilt Chamberlain was comparatively quiet with 12 points and 16 rebounds.

This 1st game of the season turned out to be a preview of the last, when the Knicks beat the Lakers at The Garden to win their 1st NBA Championship.

* The Atlanta Hawks beat the Phoenix Suns, 121-116 at the Alexander Memorial Coliseum (now the McCamish Pavilion) in Atlanta.

* The Baltimore Bullets beat the Boston Celtics, 124-117 at the Baltimore Civic Center (now the CFG Bank Arena). Earl "the Pearl" Monroe scored 34.

* The Philadelphia 76ers beat the Cincinnati Royals, 134-123 at the Cincinnati Gardens. Billy Cunningham scored 40 points, and Archie Clark added 31. For the Royals, Luther Rackley scored 29, and Oscar Robertson 23.

* The Chicago Bulls beat the Seattle SuperSonics, 131-126 in overtime at the Chicago Stadium. Chet "The Jet" Walker scored 31.

* And the San Diego Rockets beat the San Francisco Warriors, 125-124 in overtime at the Cow Palace in the San Francisco suburb of Daly City, California. For the 1971-72 season, the Rockets moved to Houston, and the Warriors moved across San Francisco Bay to Oakland, taking the name "Golden State Warriors."

There were 4 games played in the American Basketball Association:

* The Washington Capitols beat the New Orleans Buccaneers, 110-104 at the Washington Coliseum.

* The Dallas Chaparrals beat the Carolina Cougars, 108-97 at the Greensboro Coliseum in Greensboro, North Carolina.

* The Miami Floridians beat the Kentucky Colonels, 110-106 at the Louisville Convention Center.

* And the Los Angeles Stars beat the Indiana Pacers, 126-123 at the Indiana State Fairgrounds Coliseum (now the Corteva Coliseum) in Indianapolis.

There were 5 games in the NHL:

* The New York Rangers lost to the Montreal Canadiens, 7-3 at the Montreal Forum. Jean Béliveau and Ivan Cournoyer each scored 2 goals.

* The Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Chicago Black Hawks, 4-1 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.

* The Boston Bruins and the Pittsburgh Penguins played to a tie, 3-3 at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh.

* The St. Louis Blues beat the Minnesota North Stars, 4-2 at the St. Louis Arena.

* And the Los Angeles Kings beat the Oakland Seals, 5-0 at The Forum, outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California. Former Toronto Maple Leafs star Eddie Shack lived up to his nickname, "Eddie the Entertainer," by scoring a hat trick. This built-in geographic rivalry did not last, as the Seals failed in 1976.

The baseball season had ended 2 days earlier, when the New York Mets beat the Baltimore Orioles in Game 5 to win the World Series. There was college football on this day, including the following games:

* Number 1 Ohio State beat Minnesota, 34-7 at Memorial Stadium in Minneapolis.

* Number 2 Texas were idle. They were supposed to play Arkansas on this date, but ABC convinced them to move it to the open date of December 6, making it the only game played that day and, as both a rivalry game and the game that could have decided the Southwest Conference title, it would get a huge national audience and be a great advertisement for both schools. Both went for it.

* Number 3 Southern California and Number 11 Notre Dame, played to a tie, 14-14 at Notre Dame Stadium in South Bend, Indiana. This turned out to be the only blemish on USC's record, as they won the Pacific-Eight Conference title.

* Number 4 Arkansas rescheduled its game with Baylor for this date, and won, 21-7 at Baylor Stadium (later Floyd Casey Stadium) in Waco, Texas. And after USC's tie with Notre Dame, and Ohio State's upset loss to Michigan, Arkansas were ranked Number 2 when they took the field against Texas on December 6, and Texas were ranked Number 1. It became known as "The Game of the Century," and Texas came from 14-0 down to win, 15-14. Texas then beat Notre Dame in the Cotton Bowl, and were awarded the National Championship.

* Number 5 Penn State beat Syracuse, 15-14 at Archbold Stadium in Syracuse, New York. Penn State had been offered a berth in the Cotton Bowl, to face the Texas-Arkansas winner, and set up a de facto National Championship Game. But they turned it down, since Ohio State were still undefeated and Number 1 at the time the bid was offered.

* Number 6 Missouri beat Oklahoma State, 31-21 at Faurot Field in Columbia, Missouri. Missouri won the Big Eight title, but lost the Orange Bowl to Penn State. As a result of this, Penn State finished undefeated, and ranked Number 2. Their fans still say they would have beaten Texas, given the chance. They were given the chance, and head coach Joe Paterno turned it down. For 40 years, that looked like the biggest mistake that "Saint Joseph" ever made in "Happy Valley." It was not.

* Number 7 Tennessee beat Number 20 Alabama, 41-24 at Legion Field in Birmingham. Tennessee would end up winning the Southeastern Conference title, but a loss to Mississippi caused the Sugar Bowl, which normally invited the SEC Champion, to invite "Ole Miss" instead.

* Number 8 UCLA beat the University of California, 32-0 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

* Number 9 Louisiana State beat Kentucky, 37-10 at McLean Stadium in Lexington, Kentucky.

* Number 10 Florida beat North Carolina, 52-2 at Florida Field in Gainesville. Florida went on to beat Tennessee in the Gator Bowl in Jacksonville.

* Number 13 Michigan were upset by Michigan State, 23-12 at Spartan Stadium in East Lansing. Michigan would rebound, winning the Big Ten title by upsetting Ohio State. But they lost the Rose Bowl to USC.

* Number 16 Wyoming beat Brigham Young, 40-7 at War Memorial Stadium in Laramie, Wyoming. They did this despite head coach Lloyd Eaton kicking 14 black players off the team, for wanting to wear black armbands on their sleeves, in protest of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, which runs BYU, discriminating against black people, including refusing to let black men be priests in their Church. (That policy was struck down in 1978.)

Without those black players, Wyoming won their next game, but lost their last 4 of the season, and went 1-10 the next season. Eaton was fired, not for being a bigot, but for being a loser. He got a front office job with the Green Bay Packers, but that would be the only subsequent job he would hold in football, at any level.

* Number 19 Mississippi beat Southern Mississippi, 69-7 at Hemingway Stadium (now Vaught-Hemingway Stadium) in Oxford. Despite finishing only 5th in the SEC, "Ole Miss" were invited to the Sugar Bowl, and beat former Number 2 Arkansas.

* Among the service academies, Air Force beat Oregon, 60-13 at Falcon Stadium in Colorado Springs, Colorado; but Army lost to Utah State, 23-7 at Michie Stadium in West Point, New York; and Navy...

* Among New Jersey teams, Rutgers beat Navy, 20-6 at Rutgers Stadium in Piscataway; and Princeton lost to Colgate, 35-28 at Palmer Stadium in Princeton.

* And in New York City, Columbia lost to Yale, 41-6 at Baker Field in Manhattan.

And in English soccer, North London team Arsenal went to the North-East, and played Sunderland to a 1-1 draw at Roker Park in Sunderland.

July 2, 1980: "Airplane!" Premieres

Left to right: Julie Hagerty, Leslie Nielsen,

Lorna Patterson and Robert Hays

July 2, 1980: Airplane! premieres. It may be the funniest movie ever made.

Jerry Zucker, Jim Abrahams, and David Zucker (collectively known as Zucker, Abrahams and Zucker, or ZAZ) wrote Airplane! while they were performing with the Kentucky Fried Theatre, a theatre group they founded in 1971. To obtain material for comedy routines, they routinely recorded late-night television, and reviewed the tapes later primarily to pull the commercials, a process Abrahams compared to "seining for fish."

During one such taping process, they unintentionally recorded the 1957 film Zero Hour!, and, while scanning the commercials, found it to be a "perfectly classically structured film" according to Jerry Zucker. Abrahams later described Zero Hour! as "the serious version of Airplane!"

It was the first film script they wrote, completed around 1975, and was originally called The Late Show. The script originally stayed close to the dialog and plot of Zero Hour!, as ZAZ thought they did not have a sufficient understanding of film at the time to structure a proper script. ZAZ's script borrowed so much from Zero Hour! that they believed they needed to negotiate the rights to create the remake of the film and ensure they remain within the allowance for parody within copyright law.

They were able to obtain the rights from Warner Bros. and Paramount for about $2,500 at the time. The original script contained spoofs of television commercials, but people who proofread it advised them to shorten the commercials, and they eventually removed them. When their script was finished, they were unable to sell it.

While failing to sell their script, the trio met director John Landis, who encouraged them to write a film based on their theatre sketches. They managed to put The Kentucky Fried Movie into production in the late 1970s, and released it in 1977. David Zucker said, "It was the first time we had ever been on a movie set. We learned a lot. We learned that if you really wanted a movie to come out the way you wanted it to, you had to direct. So, on the next movie, Airplane!, we insisted on directing."

Eventually the Airplane! script found its way to Paramount through Michael Eisner. Eisner learned of the script via Susan Baerwald, another scriptwriter with United Artists, and had Jeffrey Katzenberg track down and meet with ZAZ to discuss details. Avco Embassy Pictures also expressed interest in producing the film, but ZAZ decided to go with Paramount. Paramount insisted the film be shot in color rather than black-and-white as ZAZ wanted, and to be set aboard a jet airliner rather than a propeller plane, to better identify with modern filmgoers.

In exchange, Paramount acquiesced to ZAZ's desire to cast serious actors for the film rather than comedy performers. Jerry Zucker stood beside the camera during shooting, while David Zucker and Abrahams watched the video feed to see how the film would look; they conferred after each take.

David Zucker explained that "the trick was to cast actors like Robert Stack, Leslie Nielsen, Peter Graves, and Lloyd Bridges. These were people who, up to that time, had never done comedy. We thought they were much funnier than the comedians of that time were." He felt Stack was the most important actor to be cast, since he was the "linchpin" of the film's plot.

Stack initially played his role in a way that was different from what the directors had in mind. They showed him a tape of impressionist John Byner impersonating Robert Stack. According to the producers, Stack was "doing an impression of John Byner doing an impression of Stack." Stack was not initially interested in the part, but ZAZ persuaded him. Bridges' children, including his sons Jeff and Beau, by then actors themselves, advised him to take the part.

For the role of Dr. Rumack, ZAZ initially suggested Dom DeLuise, Christopher Lee, and Jack Webb, all of whom turned it down, before they considered Nielsen, who was "just a fish in water" in his role, according to Jerry Zucker. Nielsen's career to this point had consisted mostly of serious leading roles, but he wanted to work in comedy, and was looking for a film to help in the transition. He was considered a "closet comedian" on set, pranking his fellow actors between shots, but immediately adopted his somber, serious persona when performing as Rumack. Lee would later acknowledge that turning down the role, to star in the 1979 film 1941 with John Belushi, was a huge mistake.

It's one of the most quotable movies of all time:

* Roger Murdock (co-pilot, played by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar): We have clearance, Clarence.

Captain Clarence Oveur (Graves): Roger, Roger. What's our vector, Victor?

Tower voice: Tower's radio clearance, over!

Oveur: That's Clarence Oveur. Over.

* Rumack (Nielsen): You'd better tell the Captain we've got to land as soon as we can. This woman has to be gotten to a hospital.

Elaine Dickinson (a stewardess, played by Lorna Patterson): A hospital? What is it?

Rumack: It's a big building with patients, but that's not important right now.

* Rumack: Captain, how soon can you land?

Captain Oveur (Graves): I can't tell.

Rumack: You can tell me. I'm a doctor.

* Rumack: Can you fly this plane, and land it?

Ted Striker (Robert Hays): Surely, you can't be serious.

Rumack: I am serious, and don't call me Shirley.

Ted: I flew single-engine fighters in the Air Force, but this plane has four engines. It's an entirely different kind of flying, altogether.

Rumack and Randy, at the same time: It's an entirely different kind of flying.

* Steve McCroskey (Bridges, handing Johnny a sheet of paper with information on it): Johnny, what can you make out of this?

Johnny (Steven Stucker): This? Why, I can make a hat, or a brooch, or a pterodactyl.

* In the original movie, the flight director said, "Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit smoking." As McCroskey, Bridges repeated this. Later in the movie, it was "Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit drinking," and he drank out of a flask. Later still, he popped a pill, and said, "Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit amphetamines." Finally, as the plane was coming in, he said, "Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit sniffing glue!" And it's this that finally gets to him, and sends him crashing through the window, literally over the edge.

Not all of the movie holds up. Some of the jokes are period-specific. The war flashbacks are to World War II, when they should be to Vietnam. And there's racial references and a scene of a woman getting slapped that would not be allowed today.

A sequel was released in 1982, titles Airplane II: The Sequel. This involved a bomb on a flight to the Moon, and had William Shatner replacing Robert Stack as the flight controller.

UPDATE: Jim Abrahams died in 2024. Both Zucker brothers were still alive at the time.

*

July 2, 1980 was a Wednesday. These Major League Baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Yankees beat the Boston Red Sox, 8-0 at Fenway Park. Rudy May pitched a 6-hit shutout. Graig Nettles hit a home run. Reggie Jackson went 1-for-3 with a walk and an RBI. Apparently, the Red Sox were for loading and unloading only. Carl Yastrzemski did not play.

* The New York Mets beat the Chicago Cubs, 3-1 at Shea Stadium, close enough to La Guardia Airport for the sound of planes taking off and landing to be an issue.

* The Montreal Expos beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 6-1 at the Olympic Stadium in Montreal. Steve Rogers outpitched Steve Carlton. Mike Schmidt went 0-for-3 with a walk. Pete Rose went 2-for-4.

* The Atlanta Braves beat the Houston Astros, 14-0 at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium. Phil Niekro knuckleballed his way to a 5-hit shutout. The Braves scored 7 runs in the 3rd inning. The Astros must have had fish for dinner.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 6-2 at Exhibition Stadium in Toronto. Eddie Murray went 0-for-4, but drew a walk.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 7-5 at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh. A single by Ken Oberkfell and a double by Tony Scott gave the Cards the winning runs in the top of the 11th. Willie Stargell only appeared as a pinch-hitter, and drew a walk.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Cleveland Indians, 7-6 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the California Angels, 1-0 at Comiskey Park in Chicago. Ross Baumgarten pitched a 1-hit shutout, allowing only a walk to Tom Donohue in the 6th inning and a single to Rod Carew in the 7th. Looks like the Angels picked the wrong week to quit hitting.

* The Oakland Athletics beat Milwaukee Brewers, 5-3 at Milwaukee County Stadium. The A's got RBI singles from Jeff Newman and Wayne Gross in the top of the 10th inning. Rickey Henderson did not play. Nor did Paul Molitor. Robin Yount went 1-for-5. 

* The Kansas City Royals beat the Minnesota Twins, 4-3 at Royals Stadium (now Kauffman Stadium) in Kansas City. John Wathan singled Rusty Torres home with the winning run in the bottom of the 10th inning. George Brett did not play.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the San Diego Padres, 10-7 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the San Francisco Giants, 6-2 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. Johnny Bench did not play.

* And the Texas Rangers beat the Seattle Mariners, 6-3 at the Kingdome in Seattle.

June 16, 1975: Kareem Invents Player Power In the NBA

June 16, 1975: Giving in to his demand to be traded to either New York, where he is from, or Los Angeles, where he went to college, the Milwaukee Bucks trade their best player, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Walt Wesley to the Los Angeles Lakers for Junior Bridgeman, Brian Winters, Dave Meyers and Elmore Smith.

It's not a total wipeout for the Bucks: Bridgeman and Winters kept them a perennial Playoff team for a few years, and they eventually got their uniform numbers retired.

But by forcing the trade, Kareem not only becomes the 1st NBA player to truly exercise "player power," but helps the Lakers begin to build the team that will dominate the league in the 1980s.

It doesn't happen overnight. The Lakers were in rebuilding mode, and didn't make the Playoffs in 1976. They got to the Western Conference Finals in 1977, but were swept by the Portland Trail Blazers. They were eliminated by the Seattle SuperSonics in 1978 and 1979. But in 1980, having drafted Earvin "Magic" Johnson, Michael Cooper and Norm Nixon, and also traded for Spencer Haywood and Jamaal Wilkes, they beat the Sonics in the Conference Finals, and then the Philadelphia 76ers in the Finals.

Having gotten what he wanted, Kareem rarely used his player power again. When the Lakers changed head coaches, assistant coaches or general managers, it wasn't because he asked. When a coach changed strategies, or a GM brought in a new player, Kareem may have had some input, but he didn't make demands. He was a quiet leader, "the strong, silent type."

Player power would lead to more players becoming coaches and general managers, and some players being able to go over the coach's head to the owner, and getting him to fire the coach and bring in one the player preferred. Eventually, it would lead to LeBron James being the Lakers' team captain, head coach and general manager, in operational fact if not officially, having more power than any player in any sport in history.

*

June 16, 1975 was a Monday. These Major League Baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 10-7 at Shea Stadium, where they were groundsharing with the Mets while the original Yankee Stadium was renovated. Graig Nettles hit a home run. Nettles and Ron Blomberg each had 3 RBIs. Blomberg and Kerry Dineen each had 3 hits. Hank Aaron, playing out the string for the Brewers, went 1-for-4 with a walk. Robin Yount went 2-for-4.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 10-4 at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh. Willie Stargell, Rennie Stennett and Al Oliver hit home runs. Bruce Kison was the winning pitcher. Bob Gibson, in his final season, pitched 5 innings of relief.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Cleveland Indians, 8-3 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Jim Palmer outpitched Jim Bibby. Brooks Robinson and Lee May hit home runs for the O's. Tribe player-manager Frank Robinson did not put himself into the game against his former team.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Atlanta Braves, 9-2 at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati. Don Gullett outpitched Phil Niekro. Joe Morgan went 3-for-4 with a home run, a walk, and 4 RBIs. Pete Rose went 2-for-5. Johnny Bench went 1-for-5 with an RBI.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Detroit Tigers, 6-2 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. Each team scored a run in the 10th inning, but the Red Sox scored 4 in the top of the 12th. Carl Yastrzemski went 1-for-4 with 2 walks.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 9-7 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Steve Carlton started for the Phils, but reliever Gene Garber blew the lead. Mike Schmidt appeared as a pinch-hitter, and did not reach base.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Oakland Athletics, 7-6 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota. Reggie Jackson and Gene Tenace hit back-to-back homers in the top of the 8th, to give the A's a 6-4 lead. But Steve Braun led off the bottom of the 9th with a home run. After giving that up, Rollie Fingers gave up 3 straight singles to Tom Kelly (the Twins' future World Series-winning manager), Danny Walton and Dan Ford to tie the game. Jim Todd intentionally walked Rod Carew to set up the double play, but Larry Hisle singled home the winning run.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Houston Astros, 4-2 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.

* The San Diego Padres beat the San Francisco Giants, 7-1 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco.

* The California Angels and the Kansas City Royals were rained out at Royals Stadium (now Kauffman Stadium) in Kansas City. The game was made up as part of a doubleheader on September 12. The Royals swept, 10-2 and 7-2. Over the 2 games, George Brett went 6-for-9. with 3 RBIs.

* And the New York Mets, the Montreal Expos, the Chicago White Sox and the Texas Rangers were not scheduled.

May 16, 1980: This Magic Moment

May 16, 1980: It's been 10 years since an injured center had to take the court anyway, to stop the New York Knicks from losing the NBA Championship to the Los Angeles Lakers. This time, it's the Lakers who have the legendary but injured center: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

But Earvin "Magic" Johnson, though 21 years old and "only" 6-foot-9 (the same height as Bill Russell), moves over to the center position, and scores 42 points, an NBA Finals record for a rookie, and leads the Lakers to a 123-107 win over the Philadelphia 76ers, in Game 6 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia, and gives the Lakers their 2nd NBA Championship.

Kareem and Magic will go on to combine for 4 more titles in the 1980s. The 76ers, led by Julius "Dr. J" Erving, will lose to them again in 1982, before finally beating them in 1983.

The really surprising thing about this game is that CBS only aired it on tape delay at 11:30 PM. Such a travesty was never allowed to happen again. That's one reason this game is seen as an NBA landmark. The other is that it took the rivalry between Magic and Larry Bird, which began in the Final of the 1979 NCAA Tournament, still the most-watched college basketball game ever, and raised it to a professional level. In every year of the 1980s, either Johnson or Bird would be in every NBA Finals, and they would play each other 3 times, with Johnson winning of those. From 1980 to 1991, Johnson's Lakers reached 9 Finals, winning 5; from 1981 to 1987, Bird's Celtics would reach 5 Finals, winning 3.

*

May 16, 1980 was a Friday. Football was out of season. The Stanley Cup Finals were between Games 2 and 3, and the New York Islanders went on to beat the Philadelphia Flyers in 6 games. This was part of a remarkable run for the Philadelphia teams: Between May 1980 and January 1981, each of the city's teams in the "Big Four" North American sports would reach its sport's Finals, but only the Phillies would win, taking the World Series over the Kansas City Royals in 6 games in October. The following January, the Eagles reached their 1st Super Bowl, but lost it to the Oakland Raiders.

On this day, these Major League Baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees beat the Texas Rangers, 6-2 at Yankee Stadium. Tommy John outpitched former Yankee George "Doc" Medich. Ruppert Jones hit 2 home runs, and Reggie Jackson hit 1.

* The New York Mets beat the Atlanta Braves, 5-3 at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium. Pete Falcone outpitched Phil Niekro. John Stearns went 2-for-5 with 3 RBIs.

* The Montreal Expos beat the Cincinnati Reds, 2-1 at the Olympic Stadium in Montreal. Steve Rogers outpitched Tom Seaver. Johnny Bench did not play.

* The Toronto Blue Jays beat the Oakland Athletics, 1-0 at Exhibition Stadium in Toronto. Roy Howell singled Bob Bailor home with the winning run in the bottom of the 11th inning. Jesse Jefferson of the Jays and Mike Norris both went the distance.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Cleveland Indians, 2-1 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Carl Yastrzemski went 0-for-2 with 2 walks.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Detroit Tigers, 2-1 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. Eddie Murray went 1-for-3 with a walk.

* The Seattle Mariners beat the Chicago White Sox, 4-2 at Comiskey Park in Chicago.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 4-3 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota. Robin Yount went 0-for-3. Paul Molitor went 2-for-4. The Twins and Brewers never developed the same kind of rivalry as the Vikings and the Packers, or the Universities of Minnesota and Wisconsin.

* The California Angels beat the Kansas City Royals, 11-1 at Royals Stadium (now Kauffman Stadium) in Kansas City. Rod Carew went 3-for-6 with 3 RBIs. George Brett went 2-for-4.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Houston Astros, 3-0 at the Astrodome in Houston. Mike Schmidt went 1-for-3 with an RBI. Pete Rose went 0-for-3 with a walk. Dick Ruthven outpitched J.R. Richard.

Richard had a great 1st half of the season, and was named the National League's starting pitcher in the All-Star Game. But Richard would only pitch 9 more games after this, and 1 more after that All-Star Game. He then had a stroke, and was unable to rehab his way back to major league pitching. Had he been able to pitch, the Astros might have beaten the Phillies in the NL Championship Series. Instead, the Phillies won, and won the World Series.

* The San Diego Padres beat the Chicago Cubs, 3-0 at San Diego Stadium (later Jack Murphy Stadium and Qualcomm Stadium). Randy Jones pitched a 3-hit shutout, outpitching Mike Krukow. Dave Winfield went 1-for-3 with 2 RBIs.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 8-6 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. Willie Stargell did not play.

* And the San Francisco Giants beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 4-3 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco.

April 30, 1971: A Title for Oscar Robertson

April 30, 1971: The Milwaukee Bucks win the NBA Championship, in only their 3rd season. It remains a record for the NBA.

It took them half a century to win another.

The Bucks and the Phoenix Suns had both come into the NBA as expansion teams for the 1968-69 season. Like most expansion teams, both of them struggled: The Bucks finished last in the Eastern Division with a record of 27 wins and 55 losses, while the Suns finished with the worst record in the entire league, at 16-66. By all rights, they should have had the top pick in the 1969 NBA Draft.

But, at the time, a coin flip between the teams with the 2 worst records was held to decide who got the rights to the 1st overall pick. The idea was that a team trying to lose in order to get the top pick -- "tanking" would eventually become the expression -- might end up losing it to the team with the 2nd-worst record.

The Bucks won the coin flip, and, naturally, they picked Lew Alcindor, the center who had led UCLA to the last 3 National Championships. Alcindor had already converted to Islam, and, after the 1971-72 season, he announced that he had changed his name to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

Lew/Kareem immediately turned the Bucks from a 27-55 team into a 56-26 team, and a Division Champion. In the 1970 off-season, the Bucks made a trade with the Seattle SuperSonics, acquiring guard Lucius Allen, Kareem's UCLA teammate.

And they acquired Cincinnati Royals star Oscar Robertson, perhaps the best all-around player the game had ever seen. "The Big O" had come from Indianapolis, and had gotten the University of Cincinnati into what would eventually be called the NCAA Final Four in 1959 and 1960. For 10 years, he starred for the Royals, setting NBA career records for assists and steals (both of them since broken).

In the years to come, having a "triple-double" -- double figures, 10 or more, in points and 2 of 3 other categories, rebounds, assists and steals -- in a single game is considered a big deal. The term wasn't yet in use in 1961-62, but, that season, Robertson averaged a triple-double per game: 30.8 points, 11.4 assists, and 12.5 rebounds. There is no record of how many steals he had, or averaged: He might have averaged a quadruple-double for the season.

But despite having Robertson, rebound specialist Jerry Lucas, and another All-Star, Jack Twyman, the Royals never reached the NBA Finals. In fact, to this day, the franchise, which has been the Sacramento Kings since 1985, has only reached the Finals once, when they won the 1951 NBA Championship as the Rochester Royals.

The closest they got was reaching the Eastern Division Finals, in 1963 and 1964, losing to the Boston Celtics both times. It's also no coincidence that those were the 2 seasons between the move of the Philadelphia Warriors to San Francisco and the Warriors trading Wilt Chamberlain to the team that replaced them, the Philadelphia 76ers. (The Warriors lost the 1964 NBA Finals to the Celtics.) Indeed, from 1956 to 1969, 14 seasons, the Eastern Division playoff title was won by the Celtics or a Philadelphia team every year.

Finally, before the 1970-71 season, Robertson was traded to the Bucks. Today, we would say that Milwaukee were trying to "build a superteam," with Larry Costello, who played on the 1967 NBA Champion Philadelphia 76ers, coaching Alcindor at center, Bob Boozer and Bob Dandridge at forward, and Robertson and Allen at guard, with good reserves in Jon McGlocklin and McCoy McLemore. Alcindor/Abdul-Jabbar (33), Robertson (1), Dandridge (10) and McGlocklin (14, which had been Robertson's number in Cincinnati) would all get their numbers retired by the Bucks.

The Bucks beat the San Francisco Warriors in the 1st round of the Playoffs, then eliminated the Los Angeles Lakers in the Western Conference Finals. They would play the Baltimore Bullets, who had beaten the 76ers, and then the defending NBA Champion New York Knicks in the Eastern Conference Finals.

Coached by Gene Shue, the Bullets were favored. They had Earl "the Pearl" Monroe, the flashiest player in the game. They had Gus Johnson, one of the game's early dunk artists. And they had Wes Unseld, one of the NBA's earliest true power forwards. All 3 would make the Basketball Hall of Fame, as would Bucks Robertson and Abdul-Jabbar.

Game 1 was on April 21, at the at the Milwaukee Arena. In 1974, it was renamed the Milwaukee Exposition, Convention Center and Arena, or "The MECCA." Since 2014, it has been named the UW-Panther Arena. (Kareem's thoughts on that nickname -- and on New York's Madison Square Garden being known as "the Mecca of Basketball" and "the Mecca of Boxing" -- are not publicly known.) The Bucks won, 98-88. Game 2 was 4 days later, at the Baltimore Civic Center. In a stunning results, the Bucks won that game in a blowout, 102-83.

Game 3 was 3 days later, in Milwaukee, and the Bucks won, 107-99. Just 2 nights later, in Baltimore, the Bucks finished the job, 118-106. The Bucks seemed to do better in Baltimore than they did in Milwaukee.

For the great Oscar, it was his one and only title. For Kareem, it was his 1st of 6 – but the only one in Milwaukee. In 1974, the Bucks returned to the Finals, losing to the Celtics. Game 7 of that Finals was Robertson's last game, as he retired.

In 1975, thinking that Milwaukee had become too small for him, or perhaps that he was too big for it, Kareem demanded a trade.  For most athletes, this would be considered a very arrogant thing, but he had proved that he was now too big for them. And so, he was traded to the Los Angeles Lakers, where he would win 5 more Championships, and become the NBA's all-time leading scorer.

For the 1973-74 season, the Bullets moved to the next-closest city, becoming the Capital Bullets for 1 season, then the Washington Bullets. In 1997, they moved from the suburbs of Washington to the District of Columbia itself, and became the Washington Wizards. The Baltimore Civic Center still stands, under the name of the CFG Bank Arena.

The Bucks were usually a good team after 1974, at one point winning 7 straight Division titles. But they didn't get back to even the Conference Finals until 2001, and finally won another NBA Championship in 2021. They moved from the MECCA to the Bradley Center, across the street, in 1988; and up one more block to the Fiserv Center in 2018. The MECCA is now home to the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, and is named the UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena.

*

April 30, 1971 was a Friday. The American Basketball Association was between its Division Finals and its Finals. The Utah Stars went on to beat the Kentucky Colonels in 7 games.

Football was out of season. The NHL was in the Stanley Cup Semifinals, with the Montreal Canadiens beating the Minnesota North Stars, and the Chicago Black Hawks beating the New York Rangers.

The day before this, the Rangers won Game 6 on a goal by Pete Stemkowski in the 3rd overtime. I considered making a separate entry for that event, since it's still considered one of the biggest wins in Ranger history. But the Hawks won Game 7 on May 2, so the Stemkowski goal turned out to be, however dramatic, ultimately meaningless, much like the Carlton Fisk home run 4 years later.

And these games were played in Major League Baseball:

* The New York Yankees beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 5-1 at Yankee Stadium. Steve Kline went the distance for the win, and got 2 of the Yankees' 5 hits.

* The New York Mets beat the Houston Astros, 4-1 at the Astrodome in Houston. Ken Boswell singled Bud Harrelson home with the winning run in the top of the 12th inning.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Minnesota Twins, 4-3 at Fenway Park in Boston. Carl Yastrzemski went 0-for-2, but had an RBI on a sacrifice fly. Harmon Killebrew went 1-for-2 with 2 walks and an RBI. Rod Carew did not play.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Washington Senators, 8-1 at Robert F. Kennedy Stadium in Washington.

* The Atlanta Braves beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 7-2 at Atlanta Stadium (later Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium). Hank Aaron went 1-for-3 with a walk.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the San Diego Padres, 5-3 at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh. Roberto Clemente and Willie Stargell each went 1-for-4 with an RBI.

* The San Francisco Giants beat the Cincinnati Reds, 7-5 at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati. Juan Marichal started for the Giants, but Jerry Johnson ended up as the winning pitcher. Willie Mays went 2-for-3 with 2 walks. Pete Rose went 1-for-3 with 2 walks. Johnny Bench hit 2 home runs.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Chicago Cubs, 1-0 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Chris Short pitched a 4-hit shutout. Ernie Banks, in his final season, appeared as a pinch-hitter, and did not reach base.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Montreal Expos, 4-2 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis.

* The Kansas City Royals beat the Baltimore Orioles, 5-4 at Kansas City Municipal Stadium. The O's scored a run in the top of the 9th, but Freddie Patek singled Paul Schaal home with the winning run in the bottom of the 9th. Brooks Robinson went 1-for-3 with an RBI. Frank Robinson appeared as a pinch-hitter, and did not reach base.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the California Angels, 7-4 at Anaheim Stadium (now Angel Stadium of Anaheim). Al Kaline went 1-for-4 with a walk and 2 RBIs.

* And the Oakland Athletics beat the Cleveland Indians, 3-1 at the Oakland Coliseum. Vida Blue went the distance for the win. Reggie Jackson went 0-for-2 with 2 walks.