December 12, 2012: The 12-12-12 Concert for Hurricane Sandy Relief

Billy Joel

December 12, 2012: When terrorists struck New York City on September 11, 2001, people from all over the world chipped in to help, and a tribute concert to the victims and the rescue workers was held at Madison Square Garden. When Hurricane Katrina wrecked New Orleans on August 29, 2005, a fundraising concert was held at The Garden. When Hurricane Sandy pounded New York and New Jersey on October 29, 2012, a fundraising concert at MSG was inevitable.

As with the Concert for New York City in 2001, there were non-singing celebrities on hand. Returning from that show were host Billy Crystal, Susan Sarandon, Adam Sandler, Paul Shaffer and Jimmy Fallon. Among the musical performers who had also been at the CFNYC were Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards (who brought the rest of the current Rolling Stones lineup with them), The Who's Roger Daltrey and Pete Townsend, Billy Joel, Eric Clapton, Jon Bon Jovi, and Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder.

"Sprung from cages on Highway 9":

Sayreville's Jon and Freehold's Bruce

Among those new to this show were Bruce Springsteen -- one of the few bills he's ever shared with Joel -- Roger Waters of Pink Floyd, Aerosmith, Alicia Keys, Chris Martin of Coldplay, and Kanye West in a rare moment of sane behavior; and nonmusical personalities Whoopi Goldberg, Kristen Stewart, Jon Stewart (no relation), Chelsea Clinton (but not Bill or Hillary, as in 2001), Stephen Colbert, Sean "Diddy" Combs, Olivia Wilde, James Gandolfini, Chris Rock, Seth Meyers, Blake Lively, Katie Holmes, Jason Sudeikis, and Quentin Tarantino and his Django Unchained stars Jamie Foxx and Christoph Waltz.

*

December 12, 2012 was a Wednesday. Baseball was out of season. Football was in midweek. There was only 1 game played in the NHL that night: The New Jersey Devils beat the Tampa Bay Lightning, 5-4 at the Tampa Bay Times Forum (now the Benchmark International Arena) in Tampa. The Devils blew a 2-0 lead, and then nearly blew a 5-2 lead, but hung on for the win.

In contrast, there were 13 NBA games, with all but 4 teams in the league playing. Given that Madison Square Garden was occupied, it isn't surprising that the New York Knicks were one of them, along with the Los Angeles Lakers, the Detroit Pistons and the Portland Trail Blazers. The teams that did play:

* The Brooklyn Nets beat the Toronto Raptors, 94-88 at the Air Canada Centre (now the Scotiabank Arena) in Toronto.

* The Boston Celtics beat the Dallas Mavericks, 117-115 in double overtime at the TD Garden.

* The Chicago Bulls beat the Philadelphia 76ers, 96-89 at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia.

* The Los Angeles Clippers beat the Charlotte Bobcats, 100-94 at the Time Warner Cable Arena (now the Spectrum Center) in Charlotte. The following year, with the New Orleans Hornets, who used to be the Charlotte Hornets, gave up the name to become the New Orleans Pelicans, the Bobcats took on the Charlotte Hornets name.

* The Atlanta Hawks beat the Orlando Magic, 86-80 at the Amway Center in Orlando. (It's now named the Kia Center.)

* The Golden State Warriors beat the Miami Heat, 97-95 at the American Airlines Arena (now the Kaseya Center) in Miami.

* The Houston Rockets beat the Washington Wizards, 99-93 at the Toyota Center in Houston.

* The Oklahoma City Thunder beat the New Orleans Hornets, 92-88 at the Chesapeake Energy Arena (now the Paycom Center) in Oklahoma City. Kevin Durant led all scorers on the night with 35 points.

* The Indiana Pacers beat the Cleveland Cavaliers, 96-81 at the Bankers Life Fieldhouse (now the Gainbridge Fieldhouse) in Indianapolis.

* The Milwaukee Bucks beat the Sacramento Kings, 98-85 at the Bradley Center in Milwaukee.

* The Minnesota Timberwolves beat the Denver Nuggets, 108-105 at the Target Center in Minneapolis.

* The Utah Jazz beat the San Antonio Spurs, 99-96 at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City (then named the EnergySolutions Arena).

* And the Phoenix Suns beat the Memphis Grizzlies, 82-80 at the US Airways Center (now the Mortgage Matchup Center) in Phoenix.

November 19, 1983: The New Jersey Devils' "Mickey Mouse Game"

This was the only photograph of the game that I could find.

Every other photo I saw purporting to be of this one

showed the Devils in white and the Oilers in blue,

meaning it would have been at the Meadowlands.

November 19, 1983: The New Jersey Devils go into the Northlands Coliseum in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada to play the Edmonton Oilers. At the time, the Devils were in only their 2nd season in New Jersey, but their 10th season overall, having previously been the Kansas City Scouts (1974-76) and the Colorado Rockies (1976-82), and still weren't much better than that.

In contrast, the Oilers were the defending Champions of what was then called the NHL's Clarence Campbell Conference (now the Western Conference), and were loaded with future Hall-of-Famers: Center Wayne Gretzky was breaking NHL scoring records, right wing Jari Kurri had become the League's best playmaker, Paul Coffey its best defenseman, Kevin Lowe another of its best defensemen, center Mark Messier its best team leader, right wing Glenn Anderson one of its best two-way players, and Grant Fuhr perhaps its best goaltender.

Within the game's 1st 3 minutes and 7 seconds, 3 shocking things happened: At 59 seconds, Gretzky was sent to the penalty box for hooking, giving the Devils a power play; at 1:43, Dave Cameron opened the scoring for the Devils; and, at 3:07, with the teams at full strength, Jan Ludvig scored, to give the Devils a 2-0 lead.

It was just about all Oilers thereafter: Edmonton won, 13-4. Messier, later to enrage and sadden Devils fans as Captain of the New York Rangers, was injured and didn't play. But Gretzky had 3 goals and 5 assists, Kurri had 5 goals and an assist, Willy Lindström had 3 goals and an assist, Coffey had a goal and an assist, Jim Playfair had a goal and an assist, Lowe had 3 assists, Tom Roulston had 2 assists, Anderson had an assist, even Fuhr had an assist. 

The starting goaltender for the Devils was Ron Low, a former Oiler. After 2 periods, he was pulled, and former New York Islander backup goalie Glenn "Chico" Resch, later a popular broadcaster for the Devils, was put in. It made little difference.

After the game, Gretzky told a reporter for the Edmonton Sun:

How long has it been for them? Three years? Five? Seven? Probably closer to nine. Well, it's about time they got their act together. They're ruining the whole league. They better stop running a Mickey Mouse organization and put somebody on the ice. I feel damn sorry for Ron Low and Chico Resch.

I was about to turn 14. I was not a little kid anymore. I was old enough to be angry at Gretzky with something more than a child's tantrum. I was enraged. This? Coming from a guy who hadn't won a Stanley Cup yet? What right did he have to talk about my team this way?

On the other hand, at that age, I was also aware enough to know that Gretzky had a point: The Devils were horrible. From the start of the season on October 5 until November 26, Thanksgiving weekend, they won 2 games and lost 22. They were playing as poorly as any team in the history of the League. Doing that in your 1st season is understandable. Not in your 2nd season. Especially when it's really your 10th season.

Calling us "a Mickey Mouse operation" (some sources misquoted it as "a Mickey Mouse outfit") was a bit too kind: The Devils were playing like the '62 Mets, without being entertaining in their buffoonery. There was no "Marvelous" Marv Throneberry on this team. No Jimmy Piersall. No Elio Chacón. No Clarence "Choo Choo" Coleman. The '83-'84 Devils were, arguably, worse than the '62 Mets. They weren't "lovable losers," they were just losers.

Things did pick up a little: From November 29, 1983 to March 17, 1984, the Devils went 15-26-7, not quite a respectable pace, but a considerably less embarrassing one. On January 15, the Oilers came to the Meadowlands, and the Jersey fans were out for blood.

Gretzky got the hell booed out of him. Some fans came in Disney World-style Mickey Mouse ear-hats. Some wore T-shirts or sweatshirts with pictures of Mickey Mouse on them. One fan held up a sign showing a Devils player, complete with a devil's horns and tail, roughing up Mickey Mouse wearing a Number 99 Oilers jersey. The Oilers won, but it was only 5-4, and a considerably better game. The Devils were not a "Mickey Mouse operation" on that night.

My thanks to Sports Illustrated for covering this game,

and for printing this picture.

But from March 19 to April 1, they lost their last 8 games of the season. To make matters worse, they still didn't finish with the NHL's worst record: By 2 games, the Pittsburgh Penguins did, and got the 1st pick in the 1984 NHL Draft: Mario Lemieux. The Devils drafted 2nd, taking Kirk Muller: A good player, who scored 357 goals in the NHL, 183 of them for the Devils, and later helped the Montreal Canadiens win a Stanley Cup -- but hardly a legend.

After this, Gretzky led the Oilers to 4 Stanley Cups in 5 years. Then, in 1988, at his request, because he'd married an actress, Janet Jones, the Oilers traded him to the Los Angeles Kings. He never won another Cup. In contrast, the Oilers won another, without him, 2 years later. Since 1988, with Gretzky as a player, a coach and a team owner, the Cup total is Devils 3, Gretzky 0.

*

November 19, 1983 was a Saturday. These 8 other NHL games were played that day:

* Each of the NHL's "Original Six" teams played another of them. The New York Rangers and the Boston Bruins played to a tie, 6-6 at the Boston Garden.

* The Montreal Canadiens and the Chicago Black Hawks, played to a tie, 5-5 at the Montreal Forum.

* The Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Detroit Red Wings, 5-4 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.

* The New York Islanders beat the Washington Capitals, 6-2 at the Nassau Coliseum.

* The Hartford Whalers and the Quebec Nordiques played to a tie, 4-4 at the Colisée de Québec.

* The St. Louis Blues and the Pittsburgh Penguins played to a tie, 4-4 at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh.

* The Minnesota North Stars beat the Winnipeg Jets, 8-7 at the Metropolitan Sports Center in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota. Brian Bellows scored the winning goal with 2:03 left in overtime.

* The Buffalo Sabres beat the Calgary Flames, 5-2 at the Saddledome in Calgary.

* And the Philadelphia Flyers, the Los Angeles Kings and the Vancouver Canucks were not scheduled.

There were 10 games played in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks beat the Detroit Pistons, 104-101 in overtime at Madison Square Garden. Bernard King scored 32 points.

* The New Jersey Nets lost to the San Antonio Spurs, 109-100 at the HemisFair Arena in San Antonio. George Gervin scored 32 points.

* The Philadelphia 76ers beat their arch-rivals, the Boston Celtics, 92-91 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia.

* The Washington Bullets beat the Utah Jazz, 126-113 at the Capital Centre in the Washington suburb of Landover, Maryland.

* The Atlanta Hawks beat the Seattle SuperSonics, 104-92 at The Omni in Atlanta.

* The Houston Rockets beat the Golden State Warriors, 125-105 at The Summit in Houston. (The arena has since been converted into the Central Campus of the Lakewood Church, Dr. Joel Osteen's "megachurch.")

* The Dallas Mavericks beat the Phoenix Suns, 116-107 at the Reunion Arena in Dallas.

* The Chicago Bulls beat the Indiana Pacers, 110-105 at the Chicago Stadium.

* The Denver Nuggets best the Milwaukee Bucks, 133-126 at the McNichols Arena in Denver. The Nugs got 32 points from Alex English and 30 from Kiki Vandeweghe. In defeat, the Bucks got 43 points from Sidney Moncrief.

* And the Los Angeles Lakers beat the Portland Trail Blazers, 117-110 at the Portland Memorial Coliseum.

And there were college football games played, including the following, some of which were rivalry games:

* Number 2 Texas beat Baylor, 24-21 at Memorial Stadium in Austin, Texas.

* Rivalry: Number 4 Illinois beat Northwestern, 56-24 at Dyche Stadium (now Ryan Field) in the Chicago suburb of Evanston, Illinois.

* Number 6 Southern Methodist University (SMU) beat Arkansas, 17-0 at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock, Arkansas.

* Rivalry: Number 8 Michigan beat Number 10 Ohio State, 24-21 at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor.

* Rivalry: Number 9 Brigham Young University (BYU) beat Utah, 55-7 at Cougar Stadium (now LaVell Edwards Stadium) in Provo, Utah.

* Rivalry: Number 11 Iowa beat Minnesota, 61-10 at Kinnick Stadium in Iowa City.

* Rivalry: Number 13 Clemson beat South Carolina, 22-13 at Williams-Brice Stadium in Columbia, South Carolina.

* Number 14 West Virginia were upset by Syracuse, 27-16 at the Carrier Dome (now the JMA Wireless Dome) in Syracuse, New York.

* Rivalry: Number 15 Washington were upset by Washington State, 17-15 at Husky Stadium in Seattle.

* Rivalry: Number 17 Pittsburgh were held to a tie by Penn State, 24-24 at Pitt Stadium in Pittsburgh.

* Rivalry: Number 18 Boston College beat Holy Cross, 47-7 at Sullivan Stadium (later Foxboro Stadium) in the Boston suburb of Foxborough, Massachusetts.

* Rivalry: Number 19 Missouri were upset by Kansas, 37-27 at Memorial Stadium in Lawrence, Kansas.

* Rivalry: The College of William & Mary beat the University of Richmond, 24-15 at Cary Field in Williamsburg, Virginia.

* Rivalry: Virginia Tech beat Virginia, 48-0 at Scott Stadium in Charlottesville.

* Rivalry: North Carolina beat Duke, 34-27 at Kenan Stadium in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

* Rivalry: Tennessee beat Kentucky, 10-0 at Commonwealth Stadium (now Kroger Field) in Lexington, Kentucky.

* Rivalry: Mississippi (Ole Miss) beat Mississippi State, 24-23 at Mississippi Veterans Memorial Stadium in Jackson.

* Rivalry: Louisiana State (LSU) beat Tulane, 20-7 at the Superdome in New Orleans.

* Rivalry: Miami University beat the University of Cincinnati, 14-10 at Yager Stadium in Oxford, Ohio.

* Rivalry: Western Michigan beat Eastern Michigan, 14-10 at Waldo Stadium in Kalamazoo.

* Rivalry: Purdue beat Indiana, 31-30 at Memorial Stadium in Bloomington, Indiana.

* Rivalry: Wyoming beat Colorado State, 42-17 at War Memorial Stadium in Laramie, Wyoming.

* Rivalry: The University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) beat the University of Southern California (USC), 27-17 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

* Rivalry: Oregon and Oregon State played to a 0-0 tie at Autzen Stadium in Eugene. The game was played in a cold, driving rainstorm, resulting in 11 turnovers, 4 missed field goals, and no points. Usually called "the Civil War," this edition of the rivalry became known as "the Toilet Bowl."

* Among the service academies, Air Force beat Notre Dame, 23-22 at Notre Dame Stadium in South Bend, Indiana; while Army and Navy were idle, preparing for their game against each other, to be held across the country at the Rose Bowl, outside Los Angeles in Pasadena, California, the 1st time it was being held west of Chicago. Navy won, 42-13.

* And in New Jersey, Rutgers lost to Temple, 24-23 at Rutgers Stadium in Piscataway.

Also, in English soccer, Arsenal beat Everton, "the Blue Club in Liverpool," 2-1 at Highbury in North London.

And actor Adam Driver, best known as Ben Solo/Kylo Ren in Star Wars Episodes VII, VIII and IX, was born on this day.

October 25, 2007: The Prudential Center Opens

October 25, 2007: The Prudential Center opens, at 165 Mulberry Street in Newark, with a concert by Jon Bon Jovi.

Eventually, the address would be changed to 25 Lafayette Street. It is bounded by Edison Place on the north, Mulberry Street on the east, Lafayette Street on the south, and Broad Street on the west, although there is a row of buildings between Broad Street and the arena.

It replaces the Meadowlands Arena, in East Rutherford, known from 1981 to 1996 as the Brendan Byrne Arena; then until 2007 as the Continental Airlines Arena; and thereafter as the Izod Center. That arena had opened on July 2, 1981, with a concert by Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band. So it was somewhat appropriate that the replacement was opened with a concert by a later New Jersey rock and roll legend.

It has been home to the NHL's New Jersey Devils and Seton Hall University's basketball team since it opened. It was also a temporary home to the NBA's New Jersey Nets from 2010 to 2012, and the WNBA's New York Liberty in 2011 and 2012.

Its location, in the downtown of New Jersey's largest city, 3 blocks from Newark's version of Pennsylvania Station, makes it considerably more convenient an arena than the Meadowlands, which, until New Jersey Transit built the Meadowlands Rail Spur in 2009, was only accessible by 1 of 2 ways: Driving, or a bus that had to be picked up at the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Midtown Manhattan. Since 2007, a person wanting to see a Devils game can take the train, on NJT's Northeast Corridor or North Jersey Coast Lines; or a bus, the Number 67.

The Devils won 3 Stanley Cups, reached 1 other Stanley Cup Finals, and won 7 Division titles at the Meadowlands. Since moving into "The Rock," nicknamed for Prudential Insurance's use of the Rock of Gibraltar as a symbol, they have won 2 Division titles, and reached the Stanley Cup Finals in 2012 -- but have missed the Stanley Cup Playoffs in 9 of the last 10 years. And the building has replaced the Meadowlands Arena as New Jersey's leading rock concert venue.

*

October 25, 2007 was a Thursday. The Devils opened the season on the road, because it wasn't clear that the arena would be ready when the 2007-08 NHL season opened -- and, as it turned out, it wasn't. They played the 1st game there 2 days later, losing 4-1 to the Ottawa Senators. Chris Neil scored the 1st goal, while Brian Gionta scored the 1st Devils goal. On Halloween, 4 days later, they got their 1st win in the new building, 6-1 over the Tampa Bay Lightning.

These 9 NHL games were played on October 25:

* The Devils lost to their arch-rivals, the New York Rangers, 2-0 at Madison Square Garden. Nigel Dawes scored both goals.

* The Boston Bruins beat the Chicago Blackhawks, 3-1 at the building now named the TD Garden in Boston.

* The Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Philadelphia Flyers, 5-2 at the St. Pete Times Forum in Tampa. (It's now named the Benchmark International Arena.)

* The Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 5-2 at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh. (It was then named the Mellon Arena, before reverting to its original name.)

* The Columbus Blue Jackets beat the St. Louis Blues, 3-0 at Nationwide Arena in Columbus.

* The Nashville Predators beat the Atlanta Thrashers, 3-0 at the Sommet Center in Nashville. (It's now named the Bridgestone Arena.)

* The Edmonton Oilers beat the Minnesota Wild, 5-4 in a shootout, at the Northlands Coliseum in Edmonton.

* The Phoenix Coyotes beat the Anaheim Ducks, 1-0 at the Honda Center in the Los Angeles suburb of Anaheim, California.

* And the Los Angeles Kings beat the Dallas Stars, 2-1 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. (It's now named the Crypton.com Arena.)

The 2007-08 NBA season opened 5 days after the Prudential Center did. There was one other sporting event of note on October 25: Game 2 of the World Series. The Boston Red Sox beat the Colorado Rockies, 2-1 at Fenway Park in Boston. The Rockies got to Curt Schilling for a run in the 1st inning, but the Sox tied the game in the 4th, and that ended the only lead Colorado had in the entire Series, which Boston swept.

October 9, 1974: The Wilbur Mills Scandal

October 9, 1974: Representative Wilbur Mills of Arkansas is pulled over by U.S. Park Police at the Tidal Basin in Washington, D.C. His headlights are off. He is drunk. A woman gets out of the car and jumps into the Basin. She is taken to St. Elizabeth's Mental Hospital. The woman is not Polly Mills, the Congressman's wife. She is Annabelle Battistella, a stripper from Argentina, who goes by the stage name Fanne Foxe.

As Chairman of the House of Representatives' Committee on Ways and Means, which handles tax legislation, Mills was considered one of the most powerful politicians in America. And he had done so well by his constituents in Central Arkansas that, along with the Democratic tide following Watergate, he was overwhelmingly re-elected the next month anyway. But it all turned Mills from a man respected but in relative obscurity, and Foxe from someone unknown outside D.C., into national celebrities and comedians' fodder.

A 2nd drunken incident after the election forced Mills to resign as Chairman. He chose to check himself into rehab, and did not run for re-election in 1976. He became an activist for substance abuse treatment, and lived until 1992, at age 82.

After appearing in 3 films and 2 Playboy centerfolds, and writing a book, The Stripper and the Congressman, Fanne Foxe disappeared from public view in 1977, moved to Clearwater, Florida, in the Tampa Bay area, remarried, got new college degrees, and worked as a diving instructor. She died in 2021, at 84.

*

October 9, 1974 was a Wednesday. Also on this day, Oskar Schindler died in in Hildesheim, Lower Saxony, West Germany at age 66. Although a member of the Nazi Party and the Abwehr, Germany's military intelligence agency, he ran a factory where he employed over 1,200 Jews and, through his connections, kept them from being deported and becoming victims of the Holocaust.

He bankrupted himself with purchases for his workers and bribes of officials. He was financially supported by the people he saved for the rest of his life. He is the only former member of the Nazi Party buried in Jerusalem, and the only one recognized with the highest honor the Israeli government gives to non-citizens: "Righteous Among the Nations."

In 1982, Thomas Keneally wrote a novel about him, Schindler's Ark. In 1993, Steven Spielberg turned it into the film Schindler's List, starring Liam Neeson. It won Best Picture at the next year's Academy Awards.

The NHL's 2 new expansion teams both made their debut on this day. The Washington Capitals get pounded by the New York Rangers 6-3, at the Capital Centre in suburban Landover, Maryland. Jim Hryculk scored the Caps' 1st goal.

The Caps' 1st season was historically bad, including not winning a single game on the road until their last, after which they skated around the ice with a garbage can as if it were the Stanley Cup. They would seem snakebit, losing Playoff series they should have, including the 4-overtime "Easter Epic" Game 7 against the New York Islanders in 1987.

Moving to the MCI Center in downtown D.C. in 1997 seemed to help, as they went on to make their 1st Stanley Cup Finals in their 1st season there. But they got swept in 4 straight, and continued to fall short, as the name of the arena was changed to the Verizon Center. But with the name changed again to the Capital One Arena, they finally got back to the Finals in 2018, and won their 1st Cup.

Also on this day, the Kansas City Scouts were no luckier than were the Caps. They lost their debut, 6-2 to the Toronto Maple Leafs at Maple Leaf Gardens. After 2 bankrupt years at Kansas City's Kemper Arena, they moved to Denver in 1976, becoming the Colorado Rockies. They were not appreciably better, making the Playoffs only in 1978, and in 1982 they moved again... becoming the New Jersey Devils.

The Devils now hang Scouts and Rockies jerseys in a display case at their current home, the Prudential Center in Newark. These are pretty much the only nods they make to their pre-Jersey history. While the NHL would return to Denver in 1995, and both the Islanders and the Pittsburgh Penguins would threaten to move to Kansas City's new Sprint Center arena as bargaining chips to get their own new arenas, the NHL has never gone back to K.C.

There were 4 other NHL games played on this opening night of the season:

* The New York Islanders played the Montreal Canadiens to a tie, 5-5 at the Montreal Forum.

* In an "Original Six" matchup, the Detroit Red Wings beat the Chicago Black Hawks, 2-1 at the Olympia Stadium in Detroit.

* The Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Minnesota North Stars, 4-2 at the Metropolitan Sports Center in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota.

* And the St. Louis Blues and the California Golden Seals played to a tie, 4-4 at the Oakland Coliseum Arena.

The World Hockey Association season started 6 days later; the NBA season, 8 days; the American Basketball Association season, 9 days. And football was in midweek. But each of baseball's major leagues saw its Pennant clinched that day. The Oakland Athletics beat the Baltimore Orioles, 2-1 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. Jim "Catfish" Hunter outpitched Mike Cuellar.

And the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 12-1 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. Don Sutton was the winning pitcher, and future Dodger Jerry Reuss the losing pitcher. Willie Stargell provided the Bucs' only run with a home run, but Steve Garvey hit 2 for the Dodgers. The A's went on to beat the Dodgers in the World Series, in 5 games.

October 5, 1982: The New Jersey Devils Debut

October 5, 1982: The New Jersey Devils play their 1st regular-season game, a 3-3 tie against the Pittsburgh Penguins at the Brendan Byrne Arena in East Rutherford, Bergen County, New Jersey. As a favor to his friend, team owner John McMullen, John Amirante, usually the National Anthem singer for the New York Rangers, sings the Anthem for this game.

The franchise had begun play in 1974, as the Kansas City Scouts. After 2 terrible seasons, they were sold to a group that moved them to Denver, Colorado, and renamed them the Colorado Rockies, a name that would later be given to Denver's Major League Baseball team.

The Rockies made the Playoffs in 1978, but only in that season. By 1982, they were losing money fast. McMullen, a native of Montclair in Essex County, a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy who rose to the rank of Commander (the Academy went on to name their hockey rink for him), and a marine engineer in civilian life, bought the Rockies on May 27, 1982, and announced he would move them into the newly-constructed Meadowlands Arena, named for the recently-retired Governor who got it built.

Dr. John McMullen with the Stanley Cup

McMullen, who was then also the owner of MLB's Houston Astros, also had to compensate the Rangers, the defending Stanley Cup Champion New York Islanders, and the Philadelphia Flyers for territorial indemnification. Doing this for the New York Knicks and the Philadelphia 76ers had almost sunk the owners of the ABA's New York, soon to be New Jersey, Nets when they joined the NBA in 1976, and they were still terrible when they moved into the Meadowlands in 1981. But McMullen could afford the $20 million or so that it took to buy the team, move it, and pay off the regional rivals.

The 1st goal in team history was scored just 2 minutes and 21 seconds into the game, by team Captain Don Lever, a former Vancouver Canucks star, assisted by Steve Tambellini and Bob MacMillan. At 5:23, Hector Marini made it 2-0, assisted by Aaron Broten and Brent Ashton. At 6:31, Rick Kehoe brought the Pens within 2-1.

Don Lever

At 16:18 of the 2nd period, the Penguins went on a power play, and Pat Boutette fired past former New York Islanders backup goaltender Glenn "Chico" Resch to tie the game. Just 13 seconds into the 3rd period, Kehoe scored on another power play. But 5:03 in, the magically-named Merlin Malinowski tallied for New Jersey, assisted by Bob Lorimer and Marini. With no overtime in the regular season in those days, the game ended tied.

Three days later, also at home, the Devils played their 2nd game, and got their 1st win, against, appropriately enough, the Rangers. As of October 18, they were 3-1-3. Then they started playing like an expansion team, and went on a streak of 7 losses, followed by 3 ties, followed by 7 more losses and a tie, an 18-game winless streak, before finally winning again on November 27.

They finished with a record of 17 wins, 49 losses and 14 ties, for 48 points, finishing 5th in what was then named the Lester Patrick Division, ahead of only the Penguins. Of the 21 teams then in the NHL, they ranked 19th, ahead of only the Penguins and the Hartford Whalers.

Although Resch was a terrible goalie, he would become a beloved broadcaster for the team. Broten was the last remaining Original Devil, playing with them until 1990. His brothers Neal and Paul would also play for the Devils, and Neal, a member of the U.S. team that won the 1980 Olympic Gold Medal, would score the goal that secured the team's 1st Stanley Cup.

It would take until 1988 for the Devils to make the Playoffs, reaching Game 7 of the Conference Finals before falling. They did so again in 1994. They won the Stanley Cup in 1995, 2000 and 2003, losing in the Finals in 2001 and 2012. However, despite moving out of the Meadowlands and into their own building, the Prudential Center in downtown Newark in 2007, they have made the Playoffs only once since those 2012 Finals, and still look like they're going in circles.

UPDATE: The Devils have retired 5 uniform numbers. They retired 3 for defenseman Ken Daneyko, 4 for defenseman Scott Stevens, 27 for defenseman Scott Niedermayer, and 30 for goaltender Martin Brodeur. All 4 of those were key on the 1st Stanley Cup win in 1995. They were also key on the 2000 and 2003 Stanley Cup wins, as was the team's all-time leading scorer, left wing Patrik Eliáš, for whom Number 26 was retired.

In addition, the Devils have a Ring of Honor. It includes founding owner John McMullen, 1995 Cup-winning head coach Jacques Lemaire, and the other player who was on all 3 Cup wins, left wing Sergei Brylin, whose Number 18 remains in circulation.

*

October 5, 1982 was a Tuesday. There were 2 other NHL games played that day. In a rematch of the previous season's Stanley Cup Finals, the New York Islanders lost to the Vancouver Canucks, 2-1 at the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver. But the Isles would go on to win their 4th straight Stanley Cup that season, anyway.

And in "The Battle of Alberta," the Edmonton Oilers beat the Calgary Flames, 7-5 at the Northlands Coliseum in Edmonton. Wayne Gretzky was coming off the most spectacular offensive season any hockey player has ever had, and went on to lead the Oilers to their 1st Stanley Cup Final, where they lost to the Islanders. The next season, the Oilers beat the Isles in the Finals to win their 1st Cup.

It was a Tuesday, so while it was during the NFL season, there were no games played that day. And the NBA wouldn't start its season until later in the month. Major League Baseball had just started its Playoffs. In Game 1 of the American League Championship Series, at Anaheim Stadium (now Angel Stadium) in the Los Angeles suburb of Anaheim, California, the California Angels beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 8-3. Tommy John outpitched Mike Caldwell. Fred Lynn hit a home run for the Halos, and Gorman Thomas hit one for the Brew Crew.

The Angels would also win Game 2 in Anaheim. But the Brewers won the next 3 in Milwaukee, winning their 1st Pennant, and becoming the 1st team ever to come back from a 2-0 deficit in either League's Championship Series. Despite having such veteran stars as John, Lynn, Reggie Jackson, Rod Carew, Don Sutton, Bobby Grich and Don Baylor, the Angels choked. 

September 4, 1991: The New Jersey Devils Are Awarded Scott Stevens

September 4, 1991: Edward Houston, an arbitrator hired by the National Hockey League, awards St. Louis Blues defenseman Scott Stevens to the New Jersey Devils, as compensation for the Blues signing left wing Brendan Shanahan. Each player had been a restricted free agent.

Aside from the move of the team itself, from Denver as the Colorado Rockies, to the Meadowlands on May 27, 1982, this is the most important day in the history of the franchise now known as the New Jersey Devils, as it began their rise from pretenders to contenders to champions.

A native of Kitchener, Ontario, outside Hamilton, Stevens debuted in the NHL with the Washington Capitals in 1982. He became one of the nastiest players in the League, racking up at least 154 penalty minutes in all 8 seasons he played with the Caps, topping 200 minutes 4 times, and peaking with 283 in 1986-87.

In 1990, he signed with the Blues as a restricted free agent. The Caps refused to match the offer, and received 2 draft picks as compensation, 1 of which was used on Sergei Gonchar, who became another All-Star defenseman, and helped the Caps reach their 1st Stanley Cup Finals in 1998. So they didn't lose much in the deal.

The Blues named Stevens their Captain for the 1990-91 season. He scored only 5 goals, but had 44 assists. He also had 150 penalty minutes, a career low, but still a lot.

But he wasn't just a dirty player: He was good one. In his 1st 9 seasons, he had scored 103 goals, had 375 assists, had a plus/minus of 113, made 3 All-Star Games. In 1991, Team Canada selected him for the Canada Cup, hockey's version of the World Cup, which Canada won.

When the Blues signed Shanahan, who had already scored 94 goals for the Devils and was a key figure in their run to the 1988 Prince of Wales Conference Finals, the Devils were owed compensation, and Stevens was awarded to them. At first, he didn't want to report, citing organizational disarray, including the trading of their Captain, Kirk Muller, to the Montreal Canadiens for Stéphane Richer and Tom Chorske. The team had already promised the Captaincy to defenseman Bruce Driver, but Stevens was offered an Assistant Captaincy -- an "A" on his jersey, rather than a "C." He accepted.

After just 1 season, Driver willingly gave up the C, and it was awarded to Stevens without hesitation. Driver himself said, "What has Scott Stevens done for this team? What hasn't he done?" He got them into the Playoffs in 1992 and 1993, to the Eastern Conference Finals in 1994, and to their 1st Stanley Cup in 1995.

And he never racked up more than 124 penalty minutes in his 13 seasons with the Devils, although he became famous for his devastating hits, including on Vyacheslav Kozlov of the Detroit Red Wings in the 1995 Stanley Cup Finals, Eric Lindros of the Philadelphia Flyers in the 2000 Eastern Conference Finals, and Paul Kariya of the 2003 Stanley Cup Finals. His weapon became known as simply "The Shoulder," and a meme was made up: "Guns don't kill people, Scott Stevens kills people."

Ranger fans treated Mark Messier as "the Messiah." But he only captained 2 Stanley Cup winners, and only 1 of those was in the New York Tri-State Area. Stevens captained 3, short only of the Islanders' Denis Potvin with 4.

Before his career ended with a concussion early in 2004, Stevens had been selected for 13 All-Star Games, helped the Devils reach 4 Stanley Cup Finals, winning 3 of them, and was awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy as the Most Valuable Player of the 2000 Playoffs.

In 2006, his Number 4 became the 1st uniform number retired by the Devils. In 2007, he was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame. In 2017, he was named to the NHL's 100th Anniversary 100 Greatest Players, along with Devils teammates Martin Brodeur and Scott Niedermayer -- and Brendan Shanahan, who had also gone on to win 3 Stanley Cups, but with the Detroit Red Wings, after leaving the Blues.

*

September 4, 1991 was a Wednesday. These Major League Baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees beat the Texas Rangers, 3-2 at Arlington Stadium in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas. Scott Sanderson started for the Yankees, but reliever Greg Cadaret became the winning pitcher. Steve Sax hit a home run. Don Mattingly went 0-for-4.

* The New York Mets lost to the Houston Astros, 8-3 at Shea Stadium. Jim Deshaies outpitched David Cone. Howard Johnson hit 2 home runs for the Mets, but it was far from enough.

* The Montreal Expos beat the Atlanta Braves, 8-4 at the Olympic Stadium in Montreal. 

* The Boston Red Sox beat the California Angels, 2-0 at Fenway Park in Boston. Joe Hesketh had a 6-hit shutout going with 2 out in the 6th, but manager Joe Morgan (not the great Cincinnati Reds 2nd baseman) took him out, and replaced him with Greg Harris, who got through the 8th. Jeff Reardon pitched a perfect 9th, to preserve the 4-hit shutout. It was almost a reverse of the previous night's game, when the Angels had a 3-pitcher 2-0 shutout win.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 5-1 at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia.

* The Toronto Blue Jays beat the Baltimore Orioles, 3-1 at the SkyDome (now the Rogers Centre) in Toronto. Cal Ripken went 1-for-4. 

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Kansas City Royals, 4-1 at the new Comiskey Park (now Rate Field) in Chicago. George Brett was injured, and did not play.

* The Milwaukee Brewers beat the Oakland Athletics, 2-0 at Milwaukee County Stadium. Bill Wegman pitched 8 innings of 4-hit shutout ball, and Doug Henry completed the 4-hit shutout. Greg Vaughn hit a home run. Robin Yount went 0-for-3, but had an RBI on a sacrifice fly. Paul Molitor went 2-for-4 with a walk. Rickey Henderson went 1-for-3 with a walk and a stolen base.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Minnesota Twins, 8-4 at the Metrodome in Minneapolis.

* The San Diego Padres beat the Chicago Cubs, 5-1 at Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego. Tony Gwynn did not play.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 8-3 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the San Francisco Giants, 8-3 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. Barry Bonds came in as a pinch-hitter, stayed in to play left field, and went 0-for-2.

* And the Seattle Mariners and the Detroit Tigers were not scheduled.

July 11, 2013: The Curse of Kovalchuk

July 11, 2013: Ilya Kovalchuk is just 30 years old, and one of the top hockey players in the world. Nevertheless, on this day, he announces his retirement. He said he wanted to spend more time with his family.

When I read that, I wrote this in my blog, Uncle Mike's Musings:

Uh... huh. When a politician says he's resigning, or not running for another term, because he wants to "spend more time with my family," that means "I did something wrong, and my wife found out about it, and I have to make it up to her."

Did I mention Kovalchuk is just 30 years old? This past season was shortened because NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman is an asshole and locked the players out, so Kovy only played 37 games and scored 11 goals. But look at this chart: Year, age he was when the season ended (his birthday is April 15), goals scored:

2002: 19, 29 (debuts in NHL with the Atlanta Thrashers)
2003: 20, 38
2004: 21, 41 (leads the League)
2005: 22, 0 (entire season canceled, lockout, Bettman's an asshole)
2006: 23, 52 (Jonathan Cheechoo led the League with 56)
2007: 24, 42 (Vincent Lecavalier led with 52)
2008: 25, 52 (Alex Ovechkin led with 65)
2009: 26, 43 (Ovechkin led with 56)
2010: 27, 41 (1st season with the Devils; Sidney Crosby & Steven Stamkos both had 51)
2011: 28, 31
2012: 29, 37
2013: 30, 11

Total goals in NHL play: 417, seemingly well on his way to Hall of Fame election.

Total goals with the Devils: 89.

In 2012, the Devils reached the Stanley Cup Finals, and in the Playoffs, Kovy had a league-leading 8 goals, plus 11 assists.

He came from one of the great sports clubs on this planet, Spartak Moscow, better known for its soccer team, which, from its 1935 founding, was the most popular sports team in the Soviet Union, and it remains the most popular in the Russian Federation. He's also scored 6 goals for Russia in Olympic play.

What bothers me about Kovy's "retirement" is not that it happened, but how, when, and the appearance of why:

How: At the age of 30, when most hockey players are well in their prime. True, since the 2010-11 season began, he hasn't been what he was from 2002-03 to 2009-10. But he sure seems like a good option, especially since there are only 2 players on the Devils who scored more goals in 2012-13, and one of them, David Clarkson, has already buggered off to his hometown team, the Toronto Maple Leafs. (Right. Have fun trying to win a Stanley Cup there. It's only been 46 years.) The other is Patrik Eliáš, and he signed a new contract with the Devils, and at age 37 shows no sign of slowing down.

Indeed, this should be another sign: For whatever reason, hockey players maintain their peak longer than athletes in the other major sports. Dainius Zubrus just turned 35, and while he's not an out-and-out scoring cog, he's still a good all-around player, and shows no sign of slowing down.

When: After the NHL Draft, making it harder for Devils general manager Lou Lamoriello to make the kind of moves that have Devils fans frequently saying, "In Lou we trust."

Why (apparently): The rumor is that he's sick of Bettman's assholery and the shenanigans of his puppetmasters, the NHL team owners, and would rather play back home in Mother Russia, in the Kontinental Hockey League. (That's not a purposeful misspelling, meant to tweak the Russkies: It is actually spelled with a K.)

On the other hand, playing in the KHL, which doesn't have a salary cap, means that he can pretty much make as much money as he can con someone into paying him. Considering that Spartak are building a new stadium for their soccer team, I'm guessing it won't be them. Anzhi Makhachkala, for the moment, only play soccer, not hockey, but if they start a hockey team, they can certainly afford Kovalchuk.

Ilya, you could have been a Devils Legend. Instead, you're a weasel.

Granted, there have been more hated former players. The most hated would have to be Scott Gomez, for going to the hated Rangers for more money. But he has done nothing since leaving the Devils: Not for The Scum (hockey edition), not for the Montreal Canadiens, not for the San Jose Sharks. Whereas, for the Devils, he appeared in 3 Stanley Cup Finals, winning 2 Cups.

Eventually, we should forgive Gomer. But Kovy? He's a rat jumping off a ship he thinks is sinking.

In the short term, we're going to have to come up with a player, or players, capable of scoring 30 goals in a season. In the long term, that's a lot of money we won't have to pay him.

But I'm reminded of something that Angelo Cataldi of Philadelphia sports-talk station WIP said of the only 2 coaches ever to lead the Philadelphia Eagles to a Super Bowl berth, and how Delaware Valley fans compare them.

In spite of winning more regular-season games, winning more Playoff games, reaching more Playoff berths, and reaching more NFL or NFC Championship Games, than any other Eagles coach, Andy Reid, now gone, is not as loved as Dick Vermeil, who was bossman of the Broad Street Birds for a comparatively brief time and left while he still should have had a lot of good years left.

However, but, by his own admission, Vermeil might not have had a lot of good years left if he had stayed, because he was running himself ragged. "Burned out" was the term he used. Since he's still alive, and, after a long layoff that included college football broadcasting on ABC, won a Super Bowl with another team, it's hard to say he made the wrong decision.

Cataldi: "Vermeil has friends all over America. Reid has money under the cap."

So, again, in another league, a salary cap dictates how competitive a team is allowed to be.

I hate salary caps. Sure, they give lesser teams a chance. But they don't give them much of a chance. And when your team does start winning, it means that winning has to stop sooner than it would have if you were allowed to make the adjustments necessary to stay on top.

So Kovalchuk is gone. He could have been a Devils Legend.

Instead, he's a reminder that, while our club is a good one, with a good history, it could have been so much better.

This is not the time to rip into the Cult of Saint Lou. There will be other times to expose Lamoriello as The Big Bald Cheapskate. This is not his fault.

This is Gary Bettman's fault, for being an asshole who has harmed the National Hockey League far more than he has helped it.

And this is Ilya Kovalchuk, for taking a bad situation, and making it worse, when he could have stayed and, at least for his own team, made it better.

The dirty Russian weasel. Ilya Kovalchuk. A quitter of a hockey player from Russia. Sarah Palin can see his contract from her house.

In the 10 seasons since, the Devils made the Playoffs only once. Are the Devils under "The Curse of Kovalchuk"? Or is there another reason for their struggles? Probably poor management, which is usually the case when a sports team seems to be "cursed."

*

Kovalchuk signed with SKA Saint Petersburg, and played with them until 2018, winning 3 KHL titles. In 2018, with the Russian Federation suspended from Olympic competition, a team called "Olympic Athletes from Russia" was set up, and he led them to the Gold Medal at the Winter Olympics in Pyeonchang, South Korea, and was named the Most Valuable Player of the tournament.

He then returned to the NHL, playing the 2018-19 season with the Los Angeles Kings. He played the COVID-interrupted 2019-20 season with the Kings, the Montreal Canadiens, and the Washington Capitals, bringing his NHL goal total to 443. He then returned to Russia.

As if I needed another reason to despise Kovalchuk: In 2018, he joined Putin Team, a group of Russian celebrities founded by Ovechkin, to support President Vladimir Putin. Among the other members were hockey stars Pavel Bure and Evgeni Malkin, and figure skater Evgeni Plushenko.

(UPDATE: He retired in 2024, after 1 last season with Spartak. As of the elections of 2026, he has not been elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame.)

*

July 11, 2013 was a Thursday. This was also the day that the TV show Orange Is the New Black premiered. I have a separate entry for this event.

These Major League Baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees beat the Kansas City Royals, 8-4 at Yankee Stadium. Andy Pettitte outpitched Ervin Santana. Derek Jeter went 1-for-4 with an RBI. Ichiro Suzuki went 1-for-3 with a walk, a stolen base, and an RBI. Alex Rodriguez was injured, and did not play.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Washington Nationals, 3-1 at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Texas Rangers, 3-1 at Camden Yards in Baltimore.

* The Atlanta Braves beat the Cincinnati Reds, 6-5 at Turner Field (now Center Parc Stadium) in Atlanta.

* The Tampa Bay Rays beat the Minnesota Twins, 4-3 at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 4-2 at Progressive Field in Cleveland.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Detroit Tigers, 6-3 at Comerica Park in Detroit.

* The Chicago Cubs beat their arch-rivals, the St. Louis Cardinals, 3-0 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. How many Cubs does it take to pitch a 4-hit shutout? This time, 5: Edwin Jackson allowed 3 hits over 7 innings, and 4 relievers finished the job.

* The Arizona Diamondbacks beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 5-3 at Chase Field in Phoenix.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Colorado Rockies, 6-1 at Coors Field in Denver.

* The San Francisco Giants beat the San Diego Padres, 4-2 at Petco Park in San Diego.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Seattle Mariners, 8-7 at Safeco Field (now T-Mobile Park) in Seattle. Daniel Nava singled Jackie Bradley Jr. home with the winning run in the top of the 10th inning. David Ortiz went 0-for-3 with 2 walks.

* And the Houston Astros, the Los Angeles Angels, the Miami Marlins, the New York Mets, the Oakland Athletics and the Pittsburgh Pirates were not scheduled.

July 2, 1981: The Meadowlands Arena Opens

July 2, 1981: The arena planned for the Meadowlands Sports Complex in East Rutherford, Bergen County, New Jersey opens. It is named the Brendan Byrne Arena, for the outgoing Governor who got it built.

It is 7.7 miles west of Times Square in Midtown Manhattan, New York City -- like its football neighbor, Giants Stadium, roughly the same distance as Yankee Stadium in The Bronx, north, and Shea Stadium in Queens, east; but across a State Line, so there is, however subtle, a culture shift.

The Complex is off Exit 16W of the Western Spur of the New Jersey Turnpike, at the intersection of New Jersey Route 3. New Jersey Route 120 -- at the time, Route 20 -- bisects the complex: The Stadium and the Racetrack are to the west, the Arena to the east. For most of the arena's existence, its address has been 50 Route 120.

The 1st event was a concert by Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band. Bruce, a native of Freehold, Monmouth County, New Jersey, began a 6-night stand there. Other notable acts to perform there during their heyday include the Rolling Stones in 1981, Queen in 1982, Rush and New Jersey natives Bon Jovi in 1986, Michael Jackson in 1988, and The Dave Matthews Band in 1999.

On December 7 and 8, 2003, Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel played the Arena during their Old Friends Reunion Tour. The opening act was one of their inspirations, without whom they never would have made it: The Everly Brothers.

The intended main tenant for the building was the NBA's New Jersey Nets, who had spent the previous 4 seasons at the 9,000-seat Rutgers Athletic Center after moving from Long Island as the New York Nets. Their 1st game was on October 30, 1981, and they lost to their neighbors (they were rarely "rivals"), the New York Knicks, 103-99.

The Nets made the Playoffs in their 1st 5 seasons in the building, and in 15 of their 29 overall seasons there. They won the NBA Eastern Conference title in 2002 and 2003. They won the Atlantic Division in 2002, '03, '04 and '06. Sounds decent.

But they had as many horrible seasons as good ones. They went 19-63 in 1987-88, 17-65 in 1989-90, 16-34 in 1999, and 26-56 4 times. They were 12-70 in their last season in the building, 2009-10. And when they finally got into the NBA Finals, they were swept by the Los Angeles Lakers in 2002, and lost in 6 games to the San Antonio Spurs in 2003.

Finally, on March 24, 2004, Bruce Ratner bought the team, and announced the intention to move them to a new arena he was planning for Brooklyn. It didn't open until the start of the 2012-13 season, leaving the Nets as a lame duck franchise for a whopping 8 years, the last 2 (2010-11 and 2011-12) at the Prudential Center in Newark.

From 1985 to 2007, Seton Hall University, in nearby South Orange, Essex County, used the Arena for games too big for their 1,655-seat on-campus Walsh Gymnasium. They reached the NCAA Final in 1989, losing to the University of Michigan in overtime. In the 2010-11 season, after every other tenant had left, Fordham University in The Bronx used it as home court for 4 games.

In 1996, the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament held its Final Four at the Arena, and this remains the only time it's been held in the New York Tri-State Area since 1951. On March 30, the Semifinals were held: The University of Kentucky beat the University of Massachusetts, 81-74; and Syracuse University beat Mississippi State University, 77-69. In the Final on April 1, Kentucky beat Syracuse, 76-67.

The New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority, which oversees the Meadowlands Complex, also wanted to bring an NHL team to the Arena. On May 27, 1982, they got one: The New Jersey Devils. The franchise had begun play in 1974, as the Kansas City Scouts. After 2 terrible seasons, they were sold to a group that moved them to Denver, Colorado, and renamed them the Colorado Rockies, a name that would later be given to Denver's Major League Baseball team.

The Devils played their 1st regular-season game on October 5, 1982, a 3-3 tie against the Pittsburgh Penguins. For 5 years, they were terrible, enduring such slights as a 13-4 loss away to the Edmonton Oilers in 1983, after which Wayne Gretzky called the Devils "a Mickey Mouse operation"; a snow-ridden game in 1987 that attracted only 334 fans; and games against nearby teams like the New York Rangers, the New York Islanders, the Philadelphia Flyers and the Boston Bruins that seemed like home games for the visitors.

Finally, in the 1987-88 season, the Devils made the Playoffs, and got to within 1 game of the Stanley Cup Finals. They did so again in 1993-94, but lost a Game 7 to the Rangers in double overtime at Madison Square Garden, after blowing Game 6 at home.

They became more successful than the Nets ever have, winning the Stanley Cup at home on June 24, 1995, beating the Detroit Red Wings, 5-2, to complete a 4-game sweep. They won the Cup on the road in Dallas in 2000, and at home again in 2003 against Anaheim. The Devils appeared in 1 other Finals, in 2001, losing at home in Game 6 and in Denver in Game 7.

Scott Stevens lifts the Stanley Cup at the Brendan Byrne Arena,

June 24, 1995. One of the greatest nights of my life.

In the Spring of 2003, the Arena hosted both the NBA and the NHL Finals, something done by only 4 other arenas: The Boston Garden in 1957, '58 and '74; Madison Square Garden in 1972 and '94; The Spectrum in Philadelphia in 1980; and the Chicago Stadium in 1992. (None has ever won both, with some John Starks bricks preventing the closest call in 1994.) The Arena hosted the NBA All-Star Game in 1982, and the NHL All-Star Game in 1984.

In 1996, a Republican-controlled State legislature, angry at Byrne for signing the State's income tax into law, vengefully took his name off the building, and put, of course, a corporation's name on it, that of Continental Airlines, based at Newark International Airport. Byrne said, "I was immortal for 15 years." Byrne lived until 2018, outliving the usefulness of the arena named for him, if not the building itself. Byrne also outlived Continental Airlines: They were bought out by United Airlines in 2012.

Building a sports complex in East Rutherford, just off the New Jersey Turnpike, close to the Lincoln Tunnel and to New York City, seemed like a great idea in the 1970s. But after Giants Stadium and the Meadowlands Racetrack opened in 1976, the drawbacks kicked in.

There was plenty of parking, but it was poorly managed. Getting in and out took forever. Taking public transportation was no good: You couldn't do it from most of New Jersey, as the Meadowlands Rail Line didn't open until 2009 (in time for the football teams to move next-door to what's now MetLife Stadium), and the buses from New York's Port Authority Bus Terminal got stuck in traffic on Routes 495 and 3.

And the smell wasn't too good, even before all that exhaust settled over the area, and combined with the natural swamp air to form what Jerry Seinfeld might have called "some sort of mutant funk."

The arena that opened in 1981, known as the Izod Center from 2007 until the building's official closing in 2015 -- didn't improve things. One level of concourse for two levels of seats simply doesn't work if there's more than 12,000 people in the building. Then again, until the Nets got good in the 2001-02 season, that was rarely a problem for them. It wasn't a problem all that often after that, either. And it wasn't often a problem for the Devils, either.

The arena was drafty, especially in the upper deck. The sight lines weren't great: The older Madison Square Garden and Nassau Coliseum both had better ones. The sound didn't carry well, even though the sound system was always too loud -- perhaps to cover up for the fact that crowds generally weren't big, unless championship teams with marquee players were in.

The Nets and the Devils both had to get out of that arena. Both did. After considering building next-door, and next-door to the Hoboken Terminal, the Devils opened the Prudential Center in downtown Newark in 2007. The Nets moved there in 2010, and finally the Barclays Center in Brooklyn opened in 2012, and the Nets moved there.

Surrounded by the American Dream Meadowlands retail complex

The Meadowlands Arena, all naming rights having lapsed, was closed in 2015, and was targeted for demolition. But not so fast: It has found a second life, converted into a TV and film studio, for productions such as the new version of The Equalizer, starring Queen Latifah, who, under her original name of Dana Owens, was an All-State basketball player at nearby Irvington High School in Essex County.

Not what we expected the Arena to be on its 40th Anniversary -- but at least it got to have one. Some stadiums and arenas with better histories don't last that long.

*

July 2, 1981 was a Thursday. The NFL, the NBA and the NHL were all out of season. And the Major League Baseball Players' Association was on strike.

But there was one score on this historic day. It was in the Canadian Football League. The Saskatchewan Roughriders beat the Toronto Argonauts, 19-18 at Exhibition Stadium in Toronto.

June 24, 1995: New Jersey's Champions

June 24, 1995: New Jersey got a sports World Championship it could call its own.

The National Hockey League approved the sale of the Colorado Rockies to an ownership group led by Dr. John McMullen, a naval engineer who was then also the owner of Major League Baseball's Houston Astros, on May 27, 1982. The NHL also approved the team's move from Denver to the Brendan Byrne Arena, in the Meadowlands Sports Complex, in East Rutherford, Bergen County, New Jersey. On June 30, the new name of the team was announced: The New Jersey Devils.

On October 5, 1982, they played their 1st regular-season game, home to the Pittsburgh Penguins, and it ended in a 3-3 tie. Three days later, they hosted the team that was geographically, but not yet emotionally, their rivals, the New York Rangers, and got their 1st win, 3-2.

Their early days were tough. They started their 2nd season 2-20. On November 19, 1983, they went to Edmonton to play the Oilers, who were on their way to their 1st Stanley Cup, and lost 13-4. Wayne Gretzky, now the best player in the sport, told the media after the game, "Well, it’s time they got their act together. They’re ruining the whole league. They had better stop running a Mickey Mouse organization, and put somebody on the ice."

It's hard to argue that he was wrong. Nevertheless, for those of us who were Devils fans from Day One, it pissed us off. From November 29 to December 17, we went on a pretty good run, going 5-3-2. On January 15, 1984, we had a rematch with the Oilers at the Meadowlands, and the place sold out. Many fans came wearing Mickey Mouse hats, the "ears" hats sold at Disney World. We lost, but this time, it was only 5-4. On January 27, we went back to Edmonton, and got a 3-3 tie.

It took until 1988 for the Devils to make the Playoffs for the 1st time -- not counting 1978 as the Rockies. We clinched in overtime of the last day of the regular season, then beat the crumbling New York Islander dynasty in the 1st round, then upset the Washington Capitals to make the Conference Finals, driving a superior Boston Bruin team to the full 7 games.

That series was highlighted -- or lowlighted, depending on how you look at it -- by a confrontation after Game 3. Devils head coach Jim Schoenfeld, formerly a take-no-shit defenseman for the Buffalo Sabres, had had it with referee Don Koharski, who seemed to give the Bruins every break. He yelled at Koharski in the tunnel, with fans able to see. Koharski fell, got up, and accused Schoenfeld of pushing him. Schoenfeld yelled back, "You fell, you fat pig! Have another doughnut! Have another doughnut!"

The Devils missed the Playoffs in 1989, but made it again in 1990, 1991, 1992 and 1993, failing to win a round each time. In 1992, they lost to the Rangers in 7 games in the 1st round. In 1994, they beat the Buffalo Sabres, and then the Bruins, and faced the Rangers in an epic series. It went the full 7, and Game 7 went to double overtime, before Stephane Matteau scored to put the Rangers into the Stanley Cup Finals.

It was the greatest hockey game I've ever seen -- and my team lost it, to the team I hate the most. In that sport, anyway.

*

A defeat like that can crush a team. Or it can show them just how close they are, and remind them that they do not want to feel like that again. The 1994-95 season was delayed due to a labor dispute, and when the regular season was over, the Devils were the 5th seed in the NHL Eastern Conference.

Head coach Jacques Lemaire and assistant coach Larry Robinson had both been elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame already, for their play with the 1970s Montreal Canadiens. Lemaire had won 8 Cups with them; Robinson, 6. They knew how to build a winner.

Jacques Lemaire

And general manager Lou Lamoriello was building one. In goal was Martin Brodeur, a Montreal native, whose father, Denis, had been Canada's goaltender at the 1956 Winter Olympics, and had long been the photographer for both the Canadiens and baseball's Montreal Exops. His backup was Chris Terreri, who had played at Providence College when Lamoriello was the head coach there.

Martin Brodeur

The defense was led by Scott Stevens. Playing for the Capitals, Stevens had been one of the dirtiest players in the NHL. But he had matured, and figured out the difference between aggressive and dirty. The Devils acquired him in 1991, and he so impressed everyone that Bruce Driver willingly gave up the team captaincy the next season.

"Guns don't kill people, Scott Stevens kills people"

Driver had been with the Devils since the team's 2nd season, 1983-84. So had another defenseman, Ken Daneyko. So had right wing John MacLean, whose overtime goal in the last game in 1988 got the team its 1st Playoff berth.

In addition to Stevens, Driver and Daneyko, the defense included exciting young players Scott Niedermayer and Shawn Chambers, and a tough Swede -- yes, Don Cherry, they do exist -- named Tommy Albelin.

In addition to MacLean, the forwards included Neal Broten. At this point, Ken Morrow of the Islanders was the only member of the U.S. team that won the Gold Medal in the 1980 Winter Olympics to have won the Stanley Cup. Broten, whose brothers Aaron and Paul had also played for the Devils, was looking to become the 2nd.

Neal Broten

There was also Bobby Carpenter, who made the cover of Sports Illustrated as a high school player in the Boston suburbs in 1981, a cover whose caption called him "THE CAN'T-MISS KID," and suggested that he might be the best American hockey player ever. He wasn't exactly hit with "The Dreaded SI Cover Jinx," as he did make an All-Star Game. But this was his 14th season in the NHL, and aside from the 1990 Finals with his hometown Bruins, he had never gotten close to the Stanley Cup.

There were more connections to the Canadiens. Wingers Claude Lemieux and Stéphane Richer had played on the Habs' 1986 Stanley Cup winners, making them the only former Cup winners on the '95 Devils. Another winger, Tom Chorske, had also played in Montreal.

Claudie was a bit of a dirty player, but I loved him, for 3 reasons: He scored goals, he didn't take any shit, and he seemed to up his game against the 2 teams Devils fans hate the most: The New York Rangers (a.k.a. The Scum), and the Philadelphia Flyers (a.k.a. The Philth).

"One, two, Claudie's coming for you.

Three, four, he'll knock you out and then he'll score."

Wingers Mike Peluso and Bobby Holík, and center Randy McKay formed a forward line known as the Crash Line, the unit Lemaire sent out when he needed a little aggressiveness. Another winger was Bill Guerin, the 1st Hispanic player in NHL history, preceding future Devil Scott Gomez. And Jim Dowd, from the successful hockey program at Brick Township High School in Ocean County, was the 1st New Jersey native to play for the Devils.

Jim Dowd

On May 11, 1995, while the Devils were in the 1st round of the Playoffs, the NBC sitcom Seinfeld aired the episode "The Face Painter." Patrick Warburton played David Puddy, a mechanic who was dating Elaine Benes (Julia Louis-Dreyfus). Jerry Seinfeld (playing a fictional version of himself) had gotten tickets for Game 1 of a Playoff series with the Rangers at The Garden (suggesting that the episode took place the year before), and took Cosmo Kramer (Michael Richards) and Elaine, who took Puddy.

It turns out, Puddy is a Devils fan, from New Jersey, and not only is he wearing a Number 30 Martin Brodeur jersey, but he's painted his face in Devils colors, and he ends up making a spectacle of himself. In real life, Warburton was born in New Jersey, in Paterson, Passaic County, but grew up in the suburbs of Los Angeles.

Patrick Warburton as David Puddy

During the episode, a broadcaster announces that a Devils goal has been scored by Richer. Richer also scored 2 goals, including the overtime winner, in my 1st live NHL game, a 5-4 Devils win over the Rangers at The Garden on December 23, 1992. This guy hated the Rangers so much, he even scored against them on sitcoms.

Stéphane Richer

Speaking of sitcoms: In 1993, on an episode of Living Single, East Orange native Dana Owens, a.k.a. Queen Latifah, became the 1st person to wear a Devils jersey on a scripted TV show. Her character, Khadijah James, wore Number 1, and the name on the back was the name of the magazine she published and edited: "FLAVOR."

Now, the Devils had to back up Puddy's claim: "Don't mess with the Devils, buddy! We're Number 1! We beat anybody! We're the Devils! The Devils! Haggggh!"

*

They faced the Bruins in the 1st round, and beat them in 5 games. The clincher, on May 14, 1995, was the last competitive sporting event at the Boston Garden, after 67 years as the home of the Bruins and 49 years as the home of the NBA's Boston Celtics, who had already been eliminated from their league's Playoffs.

In the next round, the Pittsburgh Penguins were the opponents. Mario Lemieux was sitting the season out due to injury, but Jaromir Jagr was at his peak. The Devils didn't care. Claude Lemieux, no relation to Mario, had only scored 6 goals in the shortened regular season, but was the biggest reason the Devils won this series, also in 5 games. Game 4, at the Meadowlands, was won with Broten scoring in the 3rd period to tie it and in overtime to win it.

Then came the Conference Finals. The Devils had gotten that far in 1988 and 1994, but faltered both times. This time, it was against another geographic rival, the Philadelphia Flyers, who had eliminated the defending champion Rangers in the preceding round.

The teams split the 1st 2 games, with the road team winning each time. Game 5 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia, on June 11, 1995, may be the key game in the history of the Devils' franchise. It was 2-2 with 44 seconds left in regulation. Claude Lemieux struck again, firing a wobbly shot from the blue line, about 65 feet. Flyer goaltender Ron Hextall never saw it.

The Spectrum may never have been so quiet. I was not. I saw that goal at the Ruby Tuesday restaurant at the Brunswick Square Mall in my hometown of East Brunswick, Middlesex County, New Jersey. When that puck went in the net, I jumped and yelled. And nobody told me to be quiet. It was then that I knew that the Devils had finally taken Central Jersey away from the Rangers. The 1994 Cup win by the Broadway Blueshirts -- or Broadway Boozehounds -- no longer mattered. South Jersey may still have been Flyer country, but from the New York State Line to Interstate 195, New Jersey now belonged to the Devils.

The Devils held on to win, 3-2, and clinched their 1st Conference title at the Meadowlands 2 days later, on June 13.

The Devils had now won 8 Playoff games on the road: In Games 1, 2 and 5 in Boston; Games 2 and 5 in Pittsburgh; and Games 1, 2 and 5 in Philadelphia. This was stunning, but it suggested they had a chance in their 1st-ever Stanley Cup Finals.

*

But it would be against the Detroit Red Wings. This team was loaded. It had the best regular-season record. It had future Hall-of-Famers: Steve Yzerman, Paul Coffey, Viacheslav Fetisov (who had been a Devil from 1989 until earlier that season), Nicklas Lidstrom, Dino Ciccarelli, Mark Howe, Sergei Fedorov.

And some players who perhaps should be in the Hall: Keith Primeau, Vyacheslav Kozlov, Vladimir Konstantinov, Darren McCarty, Kris Draper, Mike Vernon, and another 1980 Gold Medal winner, Mike Ramsey. And a couple of tough guys: Mike "Krusher" Krushelnyski and Stu "the Grim Reaper" Grimson.

Fetisov, Fedorov, Kozlov and Konstantinov would be joined the next year by Igor Larionov, forming "The Russian Five." Larionov would later help the Devils win a Cup, and is also in the Hall of Fame. He wasn't there yet in 1995, but it didn't make a difference: The Wings were good, fast, and tough.

June 17, 1995: Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals is held at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit. The Red Wings are in the Finals for the 1st time in 29 years, and looking for their 1st Cup in 40 years. The Devils are in their 1st Finals. Something's got to give.

When the Devils players are introduced, each one, it seemed to me on TV, was greeted not with actual boos and hisses, but a shout of "Boo, hiss!" Even though this was my team, I thought it was brilliant. It was years before I found out that the actual shout was, "Who cares?" That was disappointing.

But the noise in "The Joe," combined with all the hype the Wings had rightly gotten, for being one of the most talent-laden teams ever, and their 8-0 record at home in these Playoffs, had me wondering if the Devils were even going to win a game.

In the Fox TV booth, Dave Maloney, a former New York Ranger captain, said, "I like the Wings in 7." Given what we were up against, I would have gladly taken that.

A funny thing happened on the way to defeat: Richer and Ciccarelli traded power-play goals in the 2nd period, and then, early in the 3rd, Lemieux continued one of the hottest postseason streaks ever. Devils 3, Red Wings 2. It was the Devils' 9th road win of the Playoffs, their 1st Stanley Cup Finals win ever, and the theft of the home-ice advantage for the series. Three wins to go.

June 20, 1995: Game 2. A goal from Dowd with 1:24 left in regulation, plus an empty-netter, gave the Devils a 4-2 win. It was their 10th road win of the Playoffs, a new record.

Nobody can believe it. New Jersey fans are shocked. Detroit fans are shocked. Fans of the NHL's other 24 teams are shocked. Two wins to go.

And yet, while all this was going on, there was a rumor that the Devils would be sold and moved to Nashville, where what's now known as the Bridgestone Arena was going up. This would be one hell of a betrayal by the NHL. Sure, in the movie Slap Shot, the Charlestown Chiefs were being moved just as they were threatening to win their minor league's championship, but that was the movies. This was real life.

Would we really lose our team at the moment of greatest glory? In all of major league sports history in North America, that had (and still has) happened only once: Despite winning the 1945 NFL Championship while playing in a great football city, the Cleveland Rams hadn't been drawing well -- soldiers not yet being fully demobilized from World War II had something to do with it -- and moved to Los Angeles for the 1946 season.

But, for now, the Meadowlands was still home, and the Meadowlands Marauders were coming home, up two games to none. (I made up the name "Meadowlands Marauders." Nobody else ever called the Devils that. I now call them the Mulberry Street Marauders, since the Prudential Center is on Mulberry Street in downtown Newark. I even have a Facebook page with that name.)

June 22, 1995: Game 3. Because of the lockout that delayed and shortened the season, this was the 1st NHL game played after the Summer Solstice. It was also the 1st Finals game in any sport played at the Brendan Byrne Arena. (The Devils would also reach the Finals there in 2000 and 2001, the Nets in 2002, and both teams in 2003.)

One of the things that amazed me was how many fans came to the Arena wearing the former jerseys, the red and green ones, that had been switched to scarlet and black for the 1992-93 season. It was as if they were sending the message: "We remember what it was like to be so bad, which is why it now feels so good to be so good."

Nobody expected the Devils to beat the Detroit Red Wings 2 straight in Detroit, but they did. So, by this point, nobody is surprised when the Devils take a 5-0 lead, on goals by Driver, Lemieux (his 13th goal of the Playoffs, after scoring only 6 in the regular season), Broten, McKay and Holík. The Wings scored 2 late goals, but it didn't matter. The Devils win 5-2. One win to go.

If they could do it, it would be the 1st World Championship for a New Jersey team. Sure, the New York Giants had won Super Bowl XXI in 1987, and Super Bowl XXV in 1991, while playing in Giants Stadium in the Meadowlands Sports Complex. But they still officially kept "New York" as their name. This, if it could be finished, would be a World Championship for New Jersey. The Devils would be New Jersey's Champions.

The Meadowlands had never been louder. That record will last just 48 hours.

*

June 24, 1995. It was a Saturday. The temperature stayed in the 70s in daylight, and dropped into the 50s that night. I did not yet have a Devils jersey, but I had a shirt with red and black stripes, which I had worn to my 1st live NHL game, because it was Devils colors. They won that night, so I'd worn it to every live game I'd been to since. It didn't always work. But it felt right to wear it on this night, even though it had long sleeves and it was the 1st week of Summer.

The Brendan Byrne Arena, as the Meadowlands arena was then known, had a hockey seating capacity of 19,040 -- convenient for mocking the Rangers, until they broke their "Curse of 1940." (For basketball, it was 20,089.) There was no way I was going to get inside: Getting to the arena was possible, but the scalpers would be charging prices far outside my price range.

So I set my VCR to record WNYW-Channel 5, the Fox station in New York, and decided to go to my original hometown, Bloomfield, in Essex County. With Route 3, which passes the Meadowlands Complex, being just to the north of town, this would put me reasonably close. I went to the Town Pub at 378 Broad Street, ordered dinner (this is one detail I don't remember), and, as the Fox broadcast began at 8:00, began ordering Red Dog beer (this, I do remember), because I'd gone to the Yankees' home opener 2 months earlier, and tried it then, and liked it.

Mike Emrick, the Devils' usual broadcaster, and former Rangers goalie John Davidson broadcast for Fox, but there was so much noise in the Town Pub that we couldn't hear them. As home teams did in the NHL at the time, the Devils took the ice wearing white jerseys at home, while the Wings did so in red. Just 1 minute and 8 seconds into the game, Broten scored. But only 55 game-seconds after that, Fedorov tied it up.

At 13:01 of the 1st period, Coffey scored a shorthanded goal to make it 2-1 Wings, and, for the 1st time since the final horn of Game 3, clinching on this night was in doubt. What we did not yet know was that the Devils' defense, led by Stevens, would be up to the task, and the Wings would not score another goal that counted for 104 days.

At 17:45, Shawn Chambers tied it back up, and the 1st period ended 2-2. After Fox came back from commercial, I heard the bar break out into boos, and I looked up to see Emrick and Davidson interviewing NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman. I joined in.

The next day, back at home, I ran the tape back, and listened to the interview. The crowd at the Meadowlands, seeing the interview on the arena scoreboard, and believing that Bettman favored the Devils' alleged proposed move to Nashville, chanted, "Bettman sucks!" Emrick asked him about this, and he said, "Never let it go unsaid that hockey fans are passionate!"

The key moment of the game came at 7:56 of the 2nd period. The Devils attacked, and the puck came to Broten. Lefthanded, he tried to shovel the puck past Vernon, who blocked it. He tried a 2nd time, but whiffed on the puck. He tried a 3rd time, and this time, as the instant replay showed, the puck sort of jumped over Vernon's left shoulder, and in.

The best still photo I could find of the goal

It had been 15 years since the native of Roseau, Minnesota participated in the "Miracle On Ice." Now, he had scored what stood to be a Stanley Cup-winning goal.

The 2nd period ended with the score still 3-2 to the Devils. In the 3rd, Sergei Brylin hit a slap shot at 7:46 that seemed to clinch it. At 12:32, Chambers spun and hit a lefty shot that Vernon never saw. The Stanley Cup was in a room somewhere under the stands, and as we roared in that Bloomfield bar, we couldn't hear the goal horn, but Fox put a camera on the Cup.

New Jersey Devils 5, Detroit Red Wings 2. The emotions were flowing. Peluso, one of the tough guys of the era, his long stringy black hair making him look like a member of Mötley Crüe, looked even more so: He was crying over having achieved his dream. He wasn't the only Mike P. in North Jersey with tears of joy in his eyes that night: I did, too.

Mike Peluso, around 11:00 PM, June 24, 1995

As the seconds ticked down, I made sure I looked at my watch so I would always know the exact time that it happened. It was 11:09 PM. Don't bet me. The clock ran out, and, as I learned the next day when I ran the tape back, Emrick said some of the most beautiful words I've ever heard, words I couldn't possibly have heard with all the noise in the bar at 11:09:

The championship to New Jersey! The Devils win the Stanley Cup!

The perfect words for the moment. As Trenton radio station WKXW, 101.5 FM, liked to say, "New Jersey 101.5. Not New York. Not Philadelphia. Proud to be New Jersey." I dearly love New York City. I love Philadelphia, too. I don't like their hockey teams, but I love the cities. But I was born and raised in New Jersey, and raised to love my home State.

Now, New Jersey was World Champions, and a team called the Devils had put me in Heaven. Indeed, the official NHL highlight film for the Finals would be titled Heaven.

A red carpet was laid out from the players' tunnel to center ice, and a table placed on it. The Conn Smythe Trophy, named for the old-time Maple Leafs head coach and general manager, and given to the Most Valuable Player of the Playoffs, was put on the table. Bettman came out, and got booed again. He announced that the Trophy had been awarded to Lemieux. There were a few good choices, but he was the definitive choice.

Then the Stanley Cup was brought out, by 2 employees of the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto, men wearing tuxedos and white gloves. They put it on the table as the fans went wild, always dreaming of seeing the Cup in their building. Now, it was here.

Bettman started talking again, and got booed again. He praised McMullen, Lamoriello, Lemaire, and the team in general. Then he turned to the Captain, and said, "Scott Stevens, this is for you!"

The Commissioner always gives the Cup to the Captain. It is then up to the Captain to decide who gets it next. Stevens knew it should go to the 3 guys who had been there almost from the beginning: MacLean, then Driver, then Daneyko.

Given the role he would eventually occupy in hockey history, it might surprise younger fans to know that Brodeur didn't get it until halfway through. When it was his turn with the Cup, McKay nearly dropped it. (Following the 2nd win in 2000, Stevens gave it to McKay first, since he'd been going through a rough patch.) Lemaire got it last. He'd won 8 Cups as a Canadiens player. This made 9.

I'm not old enough to remember the 1969 World Series -- I was born 2 months later -- but the Devils' '95 Cup win was similar: The team from the New York Tri-State Area had been laughed at for its first few years, then it made an unexpected run to the final, faced an absolutely loaded establishment team, and ended up toying with them, resulting in an unexpected, joyful win that was clinched at home.

But neither win was a "miracle": Both the '69 Mets and the '95 Devils outworked their opponents, and fully deserved it. One major difference: Lemaire was already in his sport's Hall of Fame. Gil Hodges, manager of the '69 Mets, still isn't in his. Also, Jacques chewed a lot more gum than Gil.

It was a long ride home. A bus from Bloomfield back to Penn Station in Newark. A train back to New Brunswick. It was too late to take a bus back to East Brunswick, but I had enough money for a taxi. I don't remember what time I got home. It didn't matter. I was brimming with joy.

There was no ticker-tape parade. The team just had a celebration in the parking lot, in front of the arena. That's another good thing about the team's 2007 move to the Prudential Center: If they ever do win another Cup, they can have a parade up Newark's Broad Street.

Did I say, "move"? Within a few days, it was announced that McMullen had no intention of selling the team, and Nashville had to wait until the 1998-99 season for the Predators to debut.

That red-and-black-striped shirt? I also wore it for the Devils' clinchers of the 2000 and 2003 Stanley Cups. And, while it's not Yankee colors, I thought, why not? I wore it for the Yankees' clinchers of the 1996, 1998, 1999, 2000 and 2009 World Series.

It hasn't always worked, though. It didn't work for the Devils in Game 6 or Game 7 of the 2001 Stanley Cup Finals. It worked in Game 6 of the 2012 Eastern Conference Finals, the Adam Henrique Game, but not Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Finals. It didn't work for the Yankees for Game 7 of the 2001 World Series, or Game 6 of the 2003 World Series, or Game 7 of the 2004 American League Championship Series. And, while it's (sort of) Rutgers colors as well, it's only worked for their football team about half the time.

I still have the shirt. It's got a few small holes in it, and it doesn't fit me anymore, since I'm considerably heavier than I was in 1995. (Even by the 2009 Yankee win, it was too small for me.) I've joked about raising it to the ceiling in my bedroom, like a retired uniform number. But I will never throw it away.

The Shirt, and the Jersey that replaced it

Because it's a reminder of the night that my little hockey team grew up. Expansion team no more. "Mickey Mouse organization"? Get outta here with that crap. The New Jersey Devils had won a title. And would win another. And another. (Still waiting for another, though.)

But, as has been found out by...

* The 1916 Montreal Canadiens
* The 1918 Toronto Maple Leafs (then the Toronto Arenas)
* The 1928 New York Rangers
* The 1929 Boston Bruins
* The 1934 Chicago Blackhawks
* The 1936 Detroit Red Wings
* The 1974 Philadelphia Flyers
* The 1980 New York Islanders
* The 1984 Edmonton Oilers
* The 1989 Calgary Flames
* The 1991 Pittsburgh Penguins
* The 1996 Colorado Avalanche
* The 1999 Dallas Stars
* The 2004 Tampa Bay Lightning
* The 2006 Carolina Hurricanes
* The 2007 Anaheim Ducks
* The 2012 Los Angeles Kings
* The 2018 Washington Capitals and
* The 2019 St. Louis Blues...

There will never be another 1st one. And on this night, New Jersey fans found out. The Devils won the Stanley Cup.

The Championship to New Jersey.

(UPDATE: A 1st Stanley Cup has now been won by the Vegas Golden Knights in 2023, and the Florida Panthers in 2024.)

*

What other scores were there on that historic day? At Ellis Park in Johannesburg, South Africa, the Rugby World Cup Final was held. South Africa, despite being the hosts, were the underdogs to New Zealand, but won, 15-12.

And these baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees beat those pesky Toronto Blue Jays, 10-2 at Yankee Stadium. The only home run in the game was hit by the Jays' Joe Carter. But, for the Bronx Bombers, Luis Polonia, Wade Boggs and Dion James each got 2 hits. Boggs got 3 RBIs, and James and Paul O'Neill each got 2. This was in support of Melido Perez.

* The New York Mets, as they so often did in those days, lost to the Atlanta Braves, 5-4 at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium.

* The Montreal Expos beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 5-0 at the Olympic Stadium in Montreal. Carlos Perez, brother of Melido and Pascual, pitched a 6-hit shutout.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Baltimore Orioles, 6-5 at Camden yards in Baltimore.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Florida Marlins, 5-2 at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 7-2 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Cleveland Indians, 8-3 at the new Comiskey Park (now Rate Field) in Chicago.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 10-9 at Busch Memorial Stadium.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Kansas City Royals, 6-5 at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City.

* The Texas Rangers beat the Oakland Athletics, 6-5 at The Ballpark (now Choctaw Stadium) in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the Houston Astros, 5-2 at the Astrodome in Houston.

* The San Diego Padres beat the Colorado Rockies, 2-0 at Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego. Joey Hamilton pitched a 4-hit shutout.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat their arch-rivals, the San Francisco Giants, 7-0 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. Hideo Nomo had the night's best pitching performance, pitching a 2-hit shutout and striking out 13.

* And the Seattle Mariners beat the California Angels, 3-2 at the Kingdome in Seattle.