November 20, 1995: The Death of Sergei Grinkov

"Kayta" & Sergei

November 20, 1995: Sergei Grinkov dies of a heart attack, while practicing with his wife and figure skating partner, Ekaterina Gordeeva, in Lake Placid, New York. He was 28 years old, and an autopsy showed that he had severely clogged coronary arteries.

Sergei Mikhailovich Grinkov was born on February 4, 1967 in Moscow. Ekaterina Alexandrovna Gordeeva was born on May 28, 1971, also in Moscow. Sergei and "Katia" were paired up in 1981, at ages 14 and 10, respectively, by coach Vladimir Zaharov.

Together, competing for the Soviet Union, they won the Gold Medal in pairs skating at the European Championships in 1988 and 1990; at the World Championships in 1986, 1987, 1989 and 1990; and at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary.

They were married on April 20, 1991, and began touring in Stars On Ice, in America. They had to drop out when Katia was found to be pregnant. On September 11, 1992, their daughter, Daria, was born -- in America, in Morristown, New Jersey. Two months later, Katia began training again. By this point, the Soviet Union had fallen, and professionals were allowed to compete in formerly all-amateur events such as the Olympics. Competing for the Russian Federation, they won both the Olympics (in Lillehammer, Norway) and the European Championships in 1994.

On November 20, 1995, they were training for the next round of Stars On Ice, in Lake Placid, on the rink where Gold Medals were won at the 1980 Winter Olympics by Robin Cousins of Britain, Anett Pötzsch of East Germany, and 2 Soviet duos, Irina Rodnina and Alexander Zaitsev in paris and Natalia Linichuk and Gennadi Karponossov in ice dancing -- and also won there by the U.S. hockey team, beating the Soviets and then Finland for the Gold Medal.

During a practice, Grinkov collapsed, having suffered a massive heart attack. Doctors found that he had severely clogged coronary arteries, to the point where his arterial opening was reportedly the size of a pinhole. Later testing revealed that he also had a genetic risk factor linked with premature heart attacks. The risk factor is called the PLA-2 variant, and is also known as the "Grinkov Risk Factor." He was 28 years old. His wife was 24, and their daughter was only 3.

Katia, along with an all-star cast, skated a tribute in his honor titled "Celebration of a Life" in February 1996, which was later televised. She also wrote a book about their life and partnership titled My Sergei: A Love Story, which was later turned into a television movie.

Katia later married and divorced another Russian skating champion, Ilia Kulik, had another daughter, Liza, and ran a skating rink in the suburbs of Los Angeles. In 2020, she married to another Gold Medal-winning skater, David Pelletier of Canada, and they run a rink in Edmonton.

*

November 20, 1995 was a Monday. Baseball was out of season. On ABC Monday Night Football, the San Francisco 49ers beat the Miami Dolphins, 44-20 at Joe Robbie Stadium (now Hard Rock Stadium) in Miami Gardens, Florida.

There were 4 games in the NBA:

* The New Jersey Nets lost to the Utah Jazz, 105-79 at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City, Utah.

* The Houston Rockets beat the Boston Celtics, 98-93 at the new FleetCenter (now the TD Garden) in Boston.

* The Orlando Magic beat the Golden State Warriors, 101-95 at the Orlando Arena.

* And the Portland Trail Blazers beat the Los Angeles Clippers, 113-94 at the new Rose Garden (now the Moda Center) in Portland.

And there were 2 games in the NHL. The Montreal Canadiens beat the Hartford Whalers, 4-3 at the Montreal Forum. Turner Stevenson scored the winning goal, with 1:48 left in overtime. And the Colorado Avalanche and the Edmonton Oilers played to a tie, 3-3 at the Northlands Coliseum (then known as the Edmonton Coliseum).

November 4, 1956: The Hungarian Revolution Is Crushed

Time with a collective "Man of the Year" for 1956.

Note the Communist seal cut out of the flag.

November 4, 1956: Soviet troops enter Hungary to end the Hungarian Revolution that started on October 23. Thousands are killed, more are wounded, and nearly a quarter of a million people leave the country. (Today, the population is about 10 million.)

Cardinal József Mindszenty, the leader of the Catholic Church in Hungary, having previously been imprisoned by the Nazis, was arrested in 1949, and imprisoned and tortured for his anti-Communist activities. He was freed during the Revolution, and given asylum in the U.S. Embassy in Budapest. He became a hero of the movement, remained there until 1971, and died in 1975.

József Mindszenty

The city of New Brunswick, New Jersey once had a large Hungarian community, and their St. Ladislaus Roman Catholic Church has a memorial to the Revolution and a statue of Mindszenty out front.

Imre Nagy, Chairman of the Council of Ministers (effectively, the Prime Minister) from July 4, 1953 to April 18, 1955, wasn't so lucky. He was forced out of office by hardliner András Hegedüs, who was forced out by the Revolution on October 24, fleeing to the Soviet Union. Nagy was reappointed, dissolved the secret police (ÁVH), and withdrew Hungary from the Warsaw Pact on November 1.

Imre Nagy

When the Soviet tanks rolled in, he fled to the Yugoslavian Embassy, hoping that country's leader, Josip Broz Tito, a fellow anti-Moscow Communist, could protect him. He was lured out of the embassy under false promises on November 22, was arrested, and was deported to Romania. On June 16, 1958, Nagy was tried and executed for treason alongside his closest allies, and his body was buried in an unmarked grave. His remains would be repatriated to Hungary after the 1989 revolution. (Hegedüs returned to Hungary thereafter, but taught at a university rather than return to governing, and lived until 1989.)

Soccer team Budapest Honvéd FC was out of the country at the time of the Revolution, playing Athletic Bilbao in the European Cup. Eliminated, they managed to get their families out of the country. Their stars, the bulk of the "Magnificent Magyars" team that won the 1952 Olympics, embarrassed England at Wembley Stadium in 1953, and reached the 1954 World Cup Final, went elsewhere, including some staying in Spain: Ferenc Puskás to Real Madrid, and Sándor Kocsis and Zoltán Czibor to FC Barcelona. 

Since that year's Olympics were given to Melbourne, Australia, in the Southern Hemisphere, they began on November 22 so the weather would be warm. Throughout the Olympics, Hungarian athletes were cheered by fans from the host nation and other countries. Many of them gathered in the boxing arena when Laszlo Papp won a Gold Medal.

A few days later, the crowd was with the Hungarian water polo team in its match against the Soviet Union which became known as "the Blood In the Water Match." The game became rough and, when a Hungarian player, Ervin Zador, was forced to leave the pool with blood streaming from a cut over his eye, a riot almost broke out. But police restored order, and the game was called early, with Hungary leading 4–0. The Hungarians went on to win the Gold Medal.

At the end of the calendar year, Time magazine named the Hungarian Freedom Fighters their Men of the Year. This was before they made the distinction "Person (or People) of the Year," although women had been recognized as such before.

At the same time as the Hungarian Revolution, the "Polish October" was taking place. President

Bolesław Bierut, a Stalinist dictator, had died on March 12. On June 28, a demonstration by workers in Poznań was crushed, leading to at least 57 and possibly more than 100 deaths. In October, a reform faction took over, led by Władysław Gomułka. However, Gomulka's administration ended up getting more and more repressive until his removal in 1970. As Hungary, Poland, and the rest of Eastern Europe found out, post-Stalin Communism was only a slight improvement over Stalinist Communism.

*

November 4, 1956 was a Sunday. These NFL games were played:

* The New York Giants beat the Pittsburgh Steelers, 17-14 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh.

* The Chicago Cardinals beat the Philadelphia Eagles, 28-17 at Comiskey Park in Chicago.

* The Cleveland Browns beat the Green Bay Packers, 24-7 at Milwaukee County Stadium.

* The Chicago Bears beat the Los Angeles Rams, 35-24 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

* The Detroit Lions beat the San Francisco 49ers, 17-13 at Kezar Stadium in San Francisco.

* And the Baltimore Colts and the Washington Redskins had a bye week.

Three games were played in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks beat the Fort Wayne Pistons, 96-83 at the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum in Fort Wayne, Indiana. (It still stands.)

* The St. Louis Hawks beat the Syracuse Nationals, 78-76 at the Onondaga County War Memorial in Syracuse, New York. (It still stands, as the Upstate Medical University Arena.) Dolph Schayes had 28 points and 25 rebounds for the Nats, but it wasn't enough.

* And the Minneapolis Lakers beat the Rochester Royals, 88-87 at the Minneapolis Auditorium. (This venue does not still stand.)

Two games were played in the NHL. The New York Rangers lost to the Boston Bruins, 4-1 at the Boston Garden. And the Montreal Canadiens beat the Chicago Black Hawks, 1-0 at the Chicago Stadium. The Toronto Maple Leafs and the Detroit Red Wings were not scheduled.

October 23, 1968: The Silent Protest of Věra Čáslavská

October 23, 1968: As Tommie Smith and John Carlos proved a few days earlier, at the Olympic Games in Mexico City, Věra Čáslavská proved that actions, or even the smallest of gestures, can speak louder than words.

Věra Čáslavská was born on May 3, 1942, in Nazi-occupied Prague, in what is now the Czech Republic. The gymnast won 3 Gold Medals at the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo, and 4 more at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City, in each case winning the all-around individual title.

The 1968 Olympics were less than 2 months after the Soviet Union crushed the Prague Spring in her homeland. To make matters worse, dodgy judging cost her an additional Gold Medal. So, during the presentation for her all-around Gold, as her National Anthem was played, she bowed her head in protest.

She was prohibited from traveling abroad upon her return, and only with the Velvet Revolution of 1989 was her reputation officially restored. She went into coaching, married a fellow Olympic Medalist, had 2 children, and died of cancer on August 30, 2016, at age 74.

*

October 23, 1968 was a Wednesday. Baseball season ended 13 days earlier, when the Detroit Tigers beat the St. Louis Cardinals in Game 7 of the World Series. Football was in midweek. There were 5 games in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks beat the Milwaukee Bucks, 114-112 at the Milwaukee Exposition and Convention Center Arena, a.k.a. The MECCA (now the UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena).

* The Boston Celtics beat the Cincinnati Royals, 108-101 at the Boston Garden. Celtics player-coach bill Russell, in his last season, scored just 10 points, but grabbed 30 rebounds.

* The Atlanta Hawks beat the Chicago Bulls, 106-91 at the Alexander Memorial Coliseum (now the McCasmish Pavilion) in Atlanta.

* The Detroit Pistons beat the Los Angeles Lakers, 117-110 at Cobo Hall (now Huntington Place) in Detroit. Dave Bing scored 39 points for the Pistons, and Eddie Miles had 28. For the Lakers, Elgin Baylor scored 31, while Wilt Chamberlain scored 29 and had 21 rebounds.

* And the Seattle SuperSonics beat the San Diego Rockets, 118-117 at the Seattle Center Coliseum.

There was 1 game in the American Basketball Association: The Kentucky Colonels beat the Indiana Pacers, 112-108 at the Indiana State Fair Coliseum (now the Corteva Coliseum) in Indianapolis.

There were 4 games in the NHL:

* The New York Rangers beat the Oakland Seals, 6-1 at the new Madison Square Garden.

* The Toronto Maple Leafs beat the St. Louis Blues, 6-4 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.

* The Chicago Black Hawks beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 8-5 at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh.

* The Montreal Canadiens beat the Los Angeles Kings, 5-2 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California.

* And the Boston Bruins, the Detroit Red Wings, the Philadelphia Flyers and the Minnesota North Stars were not scheduled.

October 20, 1968: The Fosbury Flop

October 20, 1968: Dick Fosbury wins the Gold Medal in the high jump at the Olympic Games in Mexico City. In so doing, he changed the event forever.

Richard Douglas Fosbury was born on March 7, 1947 in Portland, Oregon. Most of the track & field legends from the Beaver State come from the University of Oregon, the Ducks. He went to Oregon State, the Beavers. He's not the greatest athlete from the state, but he is the most influential.

Up until the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City, high-jumpers used what was known as the scissors kick, throwing a front leg over the bar, and then the rest of the body, with the face up; or the straddle technique, pretty much the same but with the face down. At the time, that was the most advisable way to do it, as, like long-jumpers, they landed in a pit of sand. Fosbury couldn't clear 5 feet, the minimum standard in Oregon high school track at the time, using the techniques in place at the time.

Valeriy Brumel, winning the Gold Medal for the Soviet Union

at the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo, with the straddle technique

But the advent of foam-rubber landing surfaces made it possible for Dick to invent "the Fosbury Flop": Just before reaching the bar, he would turn his back to the bar, push up with both legs, go over, and land head and shoulders first, which would have been deadly with the sand pits. At the 1968 Olympics, he won the Gold Medal with a jump of 7 feet, 4 1/4 inches, an Olympic record.

The Fosbury Flop

He was just 21 1/2 years old, but he had changed the sports world: For half a century, everyone has done the Flop. He remains involved in track & field, and in 2014 ran for the Idaho State House as a Democrat, but lost.

Dick Fosbury in 2015

*

October 20, 1968 was a Sunday. In the NFL:

* The New York Giants lost to the San Francisco 49ers, 26-10 at Yankee Stadium.

* The Chicago Bears beat the Philadelphia Eagles, 29-16 at Franklin Field in Philadelphia.

* The Cleveland Browns beat the Baltimore Colts, 30-20 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore.

* The New Orleans Saints beat the Pittsburgh Steelers, 16-12 at Pitt Stadium in Pittsburgh.

* The Green Bay Packers and the Detroit Lions played to a tie, 14-14 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit.

* The Dallas Cowboys beat the Minnesota Vikings, 20-7 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota.

* The football version of the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Washington Redskins, 41-14 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis.

* And the Los Angeles Rams beat the Atlanta Falcons, 27-14 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

And in the American Football League:

* The New York Jets beat the Houston Oilers, 20-14 at the Astrodome in Houston.

* The Boston Patriots beat the Buffalo Bills, 230-6 at Fenway Park in Boston.

* The Miami Dolphins beat the Cincinnati Bengals, 24-22 at Nippert Stadium in Cincinnati.

* The Kansas City Chiefs beat their arch-rivals, the Oakland Raiders, 24-10 at Kansas City Municipal Stadium.

* And the San Diego Chargers beat the Denver Broncos, 55-24 at San Diego Stadium (later Jack Murphy Stadium and Qualcomm Stadium).

The baseball season ended 10 days earlier, with the Detroit Tigers beating the St. Louis Cardinals in Game 7 of the World Series. There were no games in the NHL. There were 4 games played in the NBA:

* The Philadelphia 76ers beat the Los Angeles Lakers, 114-96 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia. The Lakers got 36 points from Elgin Baylor, 20 from Jerry West, but only 15 from Wilt Chamberlain. The Sixers got 35 points from Hal Greer.

* The Boston Celtics beat the Detroit Pistons, 106-88 at Cobo Hall (now Huntington Place) in Detroit.

* The Phoenix Suns beat the Seattle SuperSonics, 116-107 at the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix.

* And the San Diego Rockets beat the San Francisco Warriors, 123-108 at the Cow Palace outside San Francisco in Daly City, California. Elvin Hayes had 32 points and 24 rebounds for the Rockets, who moved to Houston in 1971.

And there was 1 game played in the American Basketball Association: The Oakland Oaks beat the Indiana Pacers, 144-133 at the Indiana State Fairgrounds Coliseum (now the Corteva Coliseum) in Indianapolis.

October 18, 1968: Bob Beamon's Leap

October 18, 1968: The greatest performance in Olympic history, that of the U.S. track & field team, continues. Bob Beamon sets a world record in the long jump at the Olympic Games at the Estadio Universitario in Mexico City.

How long is it? It's so long, it's beyond the means of the available measuring equipment. As with Mickey Mantle's home runs, but with far more need, a tape measure is found, and an accurate measurement is taken: 8.90 meters.

The crowd is stunned. But, as an American, not familiar with the metric system, Beamon doesn't know what 8.90 meters means. The old world record was 27 feet, 7¼ inches. Beamon's jump is 29 feet, 2½ inches. He has broken both the 28-foot and 29-foot barriers.

In the Olympics, where races -- on foot, in pools, on bicycles, on skis, on boats, and in various Winter sports vehicles -- are determined by hundredths of seconds, and distances by fractions of an inch, he has not only surpassed the old record by a foot and a half, he's increased it by nearly 6 percent.

He collapses into the arms of his teammate, Ralph Boston, the 1960 Gold Medalist and the 1964 Silver Medalist in the event, who ends up taking the Bronze Medal this time. Lynn Davies, the Welshman who won the 1964 Gold Medal for Great Britain, tells him, "You have destroyed this event." He does not medal at all. Nor does Igor Ter-Ovanesyan, the half-Ukranian, half-Armenian competing for the Soviet Union: After Bronze Medals in 1960 and 1964, he finishes 4th this time. The Silver Medal goes to Klaus Beer of East Germany, who jumps 26 feet, 10½ inches -- 28 inches short of the Gold.

Beamon's jump becomes known as the Leap of the Century, and stands as a world record for 23 years, before Mike Powell extends it by 2 inches in 1991. It still stands as an Olympic record.

Beamon was a native of South Jamaica, Queens, New York, the same neighborhood that produced Governor Mario Cuomo, rapper 50 Cent, and my grandmother, Grace Golden. After that Gold Medal, he was drafted by one of the NBA's brand-new expansion teams, the Phoenix Suns. He didn't sign, staying at Long Island's Adelphi University and getting his degree. He now operates a museum in Florida. It has now been 54 years -- including 13 Olympiads -- since Beamon's jump, and, to this day, only 1 human being has beaten it.

*

October 18, 1968 was a Friday. Football was in midweek, so there were no games. The baseball season had ended on October 10, with the Detroit Tigers beating the St. Louis Cardinals in Game 7 to win the World Series. There were no games played in the ABA and the NHL. But there were 4 NBA games played:

* The Philadelphia 76ers beat the Los Angeles Lakers, 114-96 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia. Elgin Baylor scored 36 points for the Lakers, but it wasn't enough, as Hal Greer's 35 led the Sixers to victory. Wilt Chamberlain scored 15 points and grabbed 17 rebounds. This was his 1st game with the Lakers... having been traded there by his hometown 76ers.

* The Boston Celtics beat the Detroit Pistons, 106-88 at Cobo Hall in Detroit. (The building still stands, but is now named the TCF Center.)

* The Phoenix Suns, the team that Bob Beamon turned down, play the 1st game ever played by a major league team calling Arizona home. They win it, too, getting 27 points from Gail Goodrich, and defeating last year's expansion team, the Seattle SuperSonics, 116-107 at the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum.

* And the San Diego Rockets beat the San Francisco Warriors, 123-108 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, and changed their name to the Golden State Warriors.

One more note from sports: Michael Stich, the German tennis player who won Wimbledon in 1991, was born on this day.

October 16, 1968: The Smith-Carlos Salute

October 16, 1968: American sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos, teammates at San Jose State University, win the Gold and Bronze Medals, respectively, in the 200 meters, at the Olympic Games in Mexico City, Mexico. Smith sets a world record, winning the race in 19.83 seconds, the 1st time 20 seconds had been beaten in the race. Peter Norman of Australia wins the Silver Medal.

But when they take the podium to receive their medals, all 3 -- including Norman, a critic of the infamous White Australia Policy (barring non-Europeans from immigrating), accepting Smith and Carlos' request -- are wearing pins of the Olympic Project for Human Rights. Smith and Carlos remove their shoes, revealing not bare feet as is usually remembered, but black socks.

This was further complicated by several black athletes boycotting the Games, including the top amateur basketball player in America, UCLA center Lew Alcindor, a.k.a. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Today, Kareem still says he did the right thing. University of Houston forward Elvin Hayes, who went up against Kareem in 2 epic games in the 1967-68 season, also chose not to play. The situation was also complicated by a story most Americans didn't know about: A massacre of protesting students by the Mexican government, just a few days before. The government kept that story quiet.

Smith, born in Clarksville, North Texas on June 6, 1944 (D-Day), and raised in Lemoore, Central California, wears a black scarf around his neck to represent black pride. Carlos, a black Cuban from Harlem who was a year minus 1 day younger (born on June 5, 1945), had his tracksuit top unzipped, to show solidarity with all blue-collar workers in the U.S., and wore a necklace of beads, which he described as being "for those individuals who were lynched, or killed, and that no one said a prayer for, that were hung and tarred. It was for those thrown off the side of the boats in the Middle Passage." This term referred to the sea voyage taking slaves from Africa to the Americas, North, Central and South.

They had intended to wear black gloves on each hand, but Carlos forgot his pair. Norman suggested that Smith give Carlos his left glove, and that's why Smith raised his right fist in what was then interpreted as "the Black Power Salute" (Smith has always insisted it was "a human rights salute") as "The Star-Spangled Banner" started playing, while Carlos raised his left, which was not the usual Black Power salute. Both men bowed their heads.

Tommie Smith and John Carlos were the biggest sports-related story -- of the day, and the year. It would have been the biggest sports-related story of the decade, if not for Muhammad Ali refusing to be drafted the year before, and being stripped of the Heavyweight Title because of it.

The U.S. Olympic Committee kicked Smith and Carlos off the Olympic team immediately. Both received condemnation from the white U.S. media and death threats from anonymous sources. A sportswriter for the Chicago American wrote, "Smith and Carlos looked like a couple of black-skinned storm troopers," and called them "ignoble," "juvenile" and "unimaginative." Even if you believe Smith and Carlos were morally wrong, a rational person could not possibly agree with those 3 adjectives. Especially the last: "Unimaginative"?

That sportswriter's name was Brent Musberger. In 1975, he became the host of CBS' studio show The NFL Today. In 1990, he moved to play-by-play of college football and college basketball for ABC and ESPN, retiring after the January 2017 bowl games. In 1999, he addressed his condemnation from 1968: "I object to using the Olympic awards stand to make a political statement." As if the flying of flags and the playing of the Gold Medalist's National Anthem are not, themselves, political statements.

This protest was just 9 days after Jose Feliciano's performance of the National Anthem during the World Series -- which, unlike "The Silent Gesture," was a totally unintentional controversy. It was 7 weeks after the riot at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, 4 months after the assassination of Robert Kennedy, 6 months after that of Martin Luther King, 15 months after the race riots in Newark and Detroit, 16 months after the one in Boston's Roxbury.

At the time, no white person was willing to stand up and publicly say that Smith and Carlos had a point. Today, nearly everyone, except for the truly delusional, is willing to admit that they had one. In 2005, San Jose State dedicated a statue of the medal podium, with an empty space where Norman would have stood, so that anyone who wants to can stand with Smith and Carlos in a personal re-enactment.

Smith went on to teach at Oberlin College, outside Jesse Owens' hometown of Cleveland. It had been the 1st integrated college in America, starting in 1835. He accepted a peace offering from the USOC, a coaching position the U.S. track team at the 1995 Indoor World Championships. Carlos was accepted as part of the organizing committee for the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, and became a high school track coach.

Carlos, left, and Smith receiving the Arthur Ashe Award for Courage

at the 2013 ESPY Awards

On October 16, 2022, Smith is now 75. Carlos is 74. Both have become paid public speakers regarding their stories. Norman died in 2006, and Smith and Carlos traveled all the way to Melbourne for his funeral, and served as the front pallbearers.

On September 28, 2016, the 1st black President, Barack Obama, invited Smith and Carlos to the White House, as part of his reception for the 2016 American Olympic athletes. He said, "We're proud of them. Their powerful silent protest in the 1968 Games was controversial, but it woke folks up, and created greater opportunity for those that followed."

Just 4 months later, Donald Trump was sworn into the office of President. Prior to 1865, we had Presidents who were slaveholders. Afterward, we had Presidents who openly made bigoted statements. But no President has ever pandered more to the elements of bigotry in this country.

Trump has actually voiced support for keeping statues of Confederate "heroes," asking if we would next be tearing down statues of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson because they were slaveholders. No: Whatever else can be said of them, they fought for America, and never against it.

We have had multiple police brutality cases, and the "Black Lives Matter" movement in response. We have gone from the vilification of Smith and Carlos in 1968, to Michael Jordan refusing to endorse Harvey Gantt against race-baiting Senator Jesse Helms in his home State of North Carolina in 1990 because "Republicans buy sneakers, too," to LeBron James taking the court wearing a hoodie in memory of Trayvon Martin and an "I Can't Breathe" T-shirt in memory of Eric Garner, both in 2014.

More recently, in response to Golden State Warriors' leader Stephen Curry said the Warriors would refuse the usual NBA Champions' invitation to the White House, Trump insulted Curry and said he wasn't welcome. LeBron tweeted, "U bum @StephenCurry30 already said he ain't going! So therefore ain't no invite. Going to White House was a great honor until you showed up!"

In 2019, this problem was solved when the NBA Champions turned out to be Canada's team, the Toronto Raptors. With the COVID-19 epidemic interrupting the 2020 NBA season, LeBron and his World Champion Los Angeles Lakers waited until after the election and the Inauguration, and accepted an invitation from President Joe Biden.

And we have gad Colin Kaepernick, the former quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers, blacklisted for kneeling instead of standing during the playing of the National Anthem before games in 2016, and bigots ripping him for it, in print, on the air, and online. Obama suggested that Kaepernick reconsider his action, saying that it bothers war veterans. But Smith and Carlos publicly backed Kaepernick. "Don't hate the kid because he stood up for something to change," Smith said. "He stood up for the right to exercise Amendment 1."

Carlos added, "Protest is a good thing, because you're trying to expose certain things through protest... In any protest, I think you make a statement to try and reach the far ends of the Earth. What better way to do it than if you're in a sport." Sounds like something that Ali, Gold Medalist in heavyweight boxing in the 1960 Olympics under his birth name of Cassius Clay, would have said.

But Donald Trump called Colin Kaepernick "that son of a bitch." And Trump's supporters say that "taking a knee" during the National Anthem is "disrespecting the flag." And Brent Musberger piped up. On October 8, 2017, the yutz, by then 78 years old, tweeted, "Yo #49ers Since you instigated protest, 2 wins and 19 losses. How about taking your next knee in the other team's end zone ?" (In the 2019 season, the 49ers won the NFC Championship.)

Trump doesn't get it. Musberger doesn't get it. All the people calling Kaepernick and the other protestors "disrespectful to the flag" are either too stupid to get it, or too evil to tell the truth. It is not

about the flag, you dumb schmucks. It is about the inalienable right to be treated as a human being, equal to all others.

I am not the first person to say that. Gene Roddenberry, creator of Star Trek, a bomber pilot in World War II, and a former Los Angeles policeman, wrote an episode titled "The Omega Glory," imagining a planet paralleling Earth, down to an America with a Constitution and a Stars & Stripes flag, with the exception that a nuclear war was fought in their equivalent to the late 20th Century.

When Captain James T. Kirk (played by William Shatner, a native of Canada but living in America for over 60 years now) sees that the leader of the society that has replaced America won't give his defeated enemies the same rights he claims for his people, he says that the "holy words" the chief proclaims "must apply to everyone, or they mean nothing!"

That episode aired on March 1, 1968, a month before Dr. King was killed, and 7 months before the Smith & Carlos protest. Roddenberry was a middle-aged white man with some power in his field, and a veteran, whose patriotism could not be questioned by a rational person, and he knew.

The 1st Amendment gave Smith and Carlos, their allies then, and Kaepernick and his compatriots, and their allies now, and me, and you -- whether you are their ally or not -- the right to publicly show their discontent with what is being done to your people, or your people-within-a-people.

It does not give you the right to lie about them and defame them, as Trump and his allies do, as Musberger did then and now. If you cannot respect the First Amendment, then THE FLAG MEANS NOTHING.

There is no place in a modern society for the bigotry that made Trayvon Martin (black, murdered in 2012), Matthew Shepard (gay, murdered in 1998) and Brandon Teena (transgender, murdered in 1993) dead and famous. Or treats Alicia Machado and the parents of Captain Humayun Khan as if they are less than full human beings, less than full Americans. Or puts children in cages -- in concentration camps -- because their parents entered America illegally.

Tommie Smith and John Carlos stood for something. Not because they could, but because someone had to, and their Gold Medal presentation was a golden opportunity.

We don't need a world without Tommie Smith, John Carlos, Muhammad Ali, LeBron James and Colin Kaepernick. We need a world which makes additions to their actions unnecessary.

*

October 16, 1968 was a Wednesday. It was football season, but the middle of the week, so there were no NFL or AFL games. The World Series had ended 10 days earlier, with the Detroit Tigers beat the St. Louis Cardinals.

The American Basketball Association opened its season 2 days later. But there were 3 NBA games played, including the Milwaukee Bucks making their NBA debut. They played the team that became their arch-rivals, the Chicago Bulls, and lost 89-84 at the Milwaukee Exposition and Convention Center Arena, a.k.a. The MECCA (now the UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena).

The Cincinnati Royals beat the Atlanta Hawks, 125-110 at the Alexander Memorial Coliseum (now the Hank McCamish Pavilion), on the Georgia Tech campus in Atlanta. And the Baltimore Bullets beat the Detroit Pistons, 124-116 at the Baltimore Civic Center (now the CFG Bank Arena).

Of the 12 teams in the NHL, 10 were in action, all but the Detroit Red Wings and the Los Angeles Kings:

* The New York Rangers beat the Philadelphia Flyers, 3-1 at the new Madison Square Garden.

* The Toronto Maple Leafs and the Pittsburgh Penguins played to a tie, 2-2 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.

* The Chicago Black Hawks beat the Minnesota North Stars, 10-4 at the Chicago Stadium.

* The Montreal Canadiens beat the St. Louis Blues, 4-2 at the St. Louis Arena.

* And the Boston Bruins beat the Oakland Seals, 2-1 at the Oakland Coliseum Arena (now the Oracle Arena). 

October 1, 1988: Steffi Graf Wins the Golden Slam

October 1, 1988: Steffi Graf, as I mentioned earlier, had already won the Grand Slam. She goes one better: In the first Olympics in which tennis was a medal sport, she wins the Gold Medal -- making what remains, for either men or women, the only "Golden Slam."

Going into 1988, the native of Mannheim, Germany was 18, and had one major to her name, the 1987 French Open. She won the Australian Open on January 23, beating veteran Chris Evert, 6-1, 7-6. On June 4, she repeated as French Open champion, not losing a game in the Final, against Soviet player Natalia Zvereva.

Wimbledon would be a harder nut to crack. She got to the Final, and was up against the best woman Wimbledon had yet seen, Martina Navratilova. Martina took the 1st set, 7-5. But Steffi came back strong, winning the next 2 sets, 6-2 and 6-1.

On September 10, she went into Flushing Meadow, and took the court for the Final of the U.S. Open, against Argentine star Gabriela Sabatini. Graf won the 1st set, 6-3. Sabatini won the 2nd set, 6-3. Suddenly, the Steffi Slam was in doubt. But she removed all down, beating Gabby, 6-1, and finishing the Slam. She matched Maureen Connolly in 1953 and Margaret Court in 1970.

But neither Connolly nor Court had a chance to achieve a "Golden Slam." Off to the Olympic Games in Seoul, Korea, where tennis was a competitive sport for the 1st time since 1924. As with the U.S. and Australian Opens, it was on a hard court, as opposed to the grass of Wimbledon and the clay of the French Open. Miloslav Mečíř of Czechoslovakia won the Gold Medal in men's singles, defeating American Tim Mayotte. Graf played Sabatini in the Final again, and won, 6-3, 6-3. The 1st Golden Slam was done.

Graf won 3 out of 4 majors 4 more times, missing in the French in 1989 and 1993, and the Australian in 1995 and 1996. When her career was over, she had won 22 majors: Wimbledon 7 times, the French Open 6 times, the U.S. Open 5 times, and the Australian Open 4 times.

She topped the Golden Slam in 1999, by joining with President Jed Bartlet to win a mixed doubles match against White House Communications Director Toby Ziegler and Press Secretary C.J. Cregg. Sadly, this match took place prior to the pilot episode of The West Wing, and was only alluded to early in the first season, so we never got to see it.

In 2001, she married Andre Agassi, winner of 4 Australian Opens, 2 U.S. Opens, Wimbledon in 1992, the French Open in 1999, and a 1996 Olympic Gold Medal, for a career Golden Slam. They have a son and a daughter, and live in the suburbs of Agassi's hometown of Las Vegas.

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October 1, 1988 was a Saturday. I'm originally from Bloomfield, New Jersey, but the family moved before I could go to Bloomfield High School. That day, BHS broke a 40-game football winless streak, 39 losses and a tie going back 1983, beating Paramus Catholic, 7-0. I was there, my 1st game at Bloomfield's Foley Field. The night before, I saw my actual Alma Mater, East Brunswick High School, beat Edison, 29-18.

Among the major college football games played that day were these:

* Number 1 Miami beat Missouri, 55-0 at the Orange Bowl in Miami.

* Number 2 University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) beat Number 16 University of Washington, 24-17 at Husky Stadium in Seattle.

* Number 3 University of Southern California beat Arizona, 38-15 at Arizona Stadium in Tucson, Arizona. USC won the Pacific-Ten Conference title.

* Number 4 Auburn beat North Carolina, 47-21 at Jordan-Hare Stadium in Auburn, Alabama. Auburn won the Southeastern Conference title.

* Number 5 Notre Dame beat Stanford, 42-14 at Notre Dame Stadium in South Bend, Indiana. Notre Dame went on to beat Miami in this season's "Game of the Century."

* Number 6 Florida State beat Tulane, 48-28 at the Superdome in New Orleans. Florida State were invited to the Sugar Bowl, and beat Auburn.

* Number 7 West Virginia beat Virginia Tech, 22-10 at Lane Stadium in Blacksburg, Virginia. There was no Big East Conference for football at this point, but West Virginia would have won it. They were invited to the Fiesta Bowl, to play what amounted to a National Championship decider against Notre Dame, but lost.

* Number 8 South Carolina beat Appalachian State, 35-9 at Williams-Brice Stadium in Columbia, South Carolina.

* Number 9 Nebraska beat the University of Nevada at Las Vegas (UNLV), 48-6 at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln, Nebraska. Nebraska won the Big Eight Conference title, but lost the Orange Bowl to Miami, for whom the Orange Bowl stadium was their home field. This was not the first time this happened to Nebraska.

* Number 10 Oklahoma beat Iowa State, 35-7 at Owen Field in Norman, Oklahoma.

* Number 17 Florida upset Number 14 Louisiana State University (LSU), 19-6 at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in Gainesville, Florida.

* Number 19 Michigan beat Wisconsin, 62-14 at Camp Randall Stadium in Madison, Wisconsin. Michigan won the Big Ten Conference title, but lost the Rose Bowl to USC.

* Arkansas, not ranked at the time, beat Texas Christian University (TCU), 53-10 at Razorback Stadium in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Arkansas won the Southwest Conference title, but lost to UCLA in the Cotton Bowl.

* Among the service academies, Army beat Bucknell, 58-10 at Michie Stadium in West Point, New York; Navy beat Yale, 41-7 at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis, Maryland; and Air Force beat New Mexico, 63-14 at Falcon Stadium in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

* And Rutgers beat the University of Cincinnati, 38-9 at the original Rutgers Stadium in Piscataway, New Jersey.

The regular season of Major League Baseball was winding up. These games were played on the next-to-last day:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Detroit Tigers, 6-5 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. Old warhorses Tommy John and Doyle Alexander started, neither of them making it through 6 innings. The Yankees got home runs from Claudell Washington, Randy Velarde and, yes, Ken Phelps. Don Mattingly went 1-for-5. Rickey Henderson went 3-for-5. Dave Winfield was injured. Chet Lemon's home run off Neil Allen in the bottom of the 8th made the difference.

* The New York Mets beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 6-3 at Shea Stadium. Lenny Dykstra hit a home run, in support of Sid Fernandez. The Mets had won the National League Eastern Division title, and were probably the most talented team in baseball. But they blew it in the NL Championship Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Montreal Expos, 5-4 at the Olympic Stadium in Montreal. Mike Schmidt, in what turned out to be his last full season, did not play.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Boston Red Sox, 1-0 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. John Farrell pitched 8 innings of 3-hit shutout ball, and Doug Jones pitched a perfect 9th. Sox starter Jeff Sellers allowed only 1 hit in 7 1/3rd innings, but it was a home run by Luis Medina in the bottom of the 8th.

The 1988 American League Eastern Division race was a wild ride. The Red Sox won the Division with a record of 89-73, the Detroit Tigers were 1 game back, the Milwaukee Brewers and the Toronto Blue Jays 2 each, and the Yankees 3 1/2. Five teams within three and a half games. Injuries and needing 1 more quality starting pitcher did the Yankees in. The Indians were 11 back, and the Baltimore Orioles, who got off to the worst start in MLB history, 21 straight losses to open the season, were 34 1/2 back, 54-107.

And yet, the Red Sox lost the AL Championship Series to the Oakland Athletics, getting swept in 4 straight.

* The Toronto Blue Jays beat the Baltimore Orioles, 7-3 at Exhibition Stadium. Cal Ripken went 1-for-3 with a walk.

* The Atlanta Braves beat the Cincinnati Reds, 4-2 at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 9-7 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Barry Bonds did not play.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the California Angels, 10-5 at the Metrodome in Minneapolis.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Kansas City Royals, 3-0 at Royals Stadium (now Kauffman Stadium) in Kansas City. Mélido Turpen Gross Pérez pitched a 2-hit shutout, no walks, 10 strikeouts, outpitching Mark Gubicza, who had won 20 games. Steve Lyons and Mike Diaz each got 3 hits. George Brett went 0-for-4.

* The San Diego Padres beat the Houston Astros, 6-3 at the Astrodome in Houston. Tony Gwynn went 2-for-3.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat their arch-rivals, the San Francisco Giants, 2-1 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. The Dodgers went on to upset the Mets in the NLCS, and upset the Oakland Athletics in the World Series.

* The Milwaukee Brewers beat the Oakland Athletics, 8-3 at the Oakland Coliseum.

* And the Seattle Mariners beat the Texas Rangers, 4-3 at the Kingdome in Seattle. The M's blew a 3-0 lead after 7 innings, but won the game in the 11th, on a home run by Scott Bradley.

And in English soccer, Arsenal crossed from North London to East London, and beat West Ham United, 4-1 at Upton Park. Arsenal went on to win the Football League title the following May.

September 27, 1988: Ben Johnson Is Stripped of His Gold Medal

September 27, 1988: Ben Johnson is stripped of the Gold Medal he won in the 100 meters at the Olympic Games in Seoul, Korea 3 days earlier.

Born in Jamaica in 1961, and living in Canada since age 14, he was able to compete for the latter since he hadn't competed for the former. At the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, he won Bronze Medals in the 100 meters, and as part of the Canadian 4-by-100-meter relay team team. He won the Gold Medal in the 60 meters at the 1985 World Indoor Championships in Paris.

In 1986, he won Gold in the 100 meters at the Goodwill Games in Moscow, and the 100 and the 4-by-100 in the Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh, Scotland. And in 1987, he won the 100 at the outdoor World Championships in Rome and the 60 at the indoor World Championships in Indianapolis. So, along with the defending Gold Medalist, American Carl Lewis, he was one of the favorites to win Gold at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, Korea.

On September 24, Johnson not only beat Lewis, but broke his own world record of 9.83, with a time of 9.79. He was the 1st Canadian to win Gold in the event since Percy Williams in Amsterdam in 1928.

Three days later, the Olympic Doping Control Center announced that Johnson's urine sample contained stanozolol, a banned steroid. He was disqualified, and stripped of both the Gold Medal and his world record. Lewis was awarded the Gold Medal.

Charlie Francis, Johnson's coach, didn't help matters: He said that Johnson couldn't have tested positive for stanozolol, because it made his body "feel tight," and he preferred another steroid, furazabol. When your alibi for robbing a bank is that you were robbing a jewelry store, that's not good.

Johnson was suspended for 3 years, and, upon his return, never won another major race. Meanwhile, Lewis won 2 more Gold Medals in Barcelona in 1992 and another in Atlanta in 1996, although he did not compete in the 100 meters either time.

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September 27, 1988 was a Tuesday. These baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Yankees beat the Baltimore Orioles, 5-1 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. It was the 170th victory of Ron Guidry's career. It turned out to be the last. The losing pitcher was Curt Schilling. Don Mattingly took Schilling deep twice. Schilling has hated the Yankees ever since. Dave Winfield went 0-for-4. Rickey Henderson went 2-for-4 with a walk and 2 RBIs.

* The New York Mets lost to the Philadelphia Phillies, 5-4 at Shea Stadium. Tommy Barrett singled home the winning run in the bottom of the 9th. Mike Schmidt did not play. Mark Carreon hit a home run. Juan Samuel hit one for the Phillies, 2 years before the Mets would trade Len Dykstra for him. The Phillies got the best out of that trade.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the Montreal Expos, 5-3 at the Olympic Stadium in Montreal.

* The Toronto Blue Jays beat the Boston Red Sox, 15-9 at Fenway Park in Boston. Ernie Whitt hit 2 home runs, and had 6 RBIs. Wade Boggs went 4-for-5 with 3 RBIs.

* The Houston Astros beat the Atlanta Braves, 3-2 at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium. Alex Trevino singled home the winning run in the top of the 10th inning.

* The Pittsburgh Penguins beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 3-2 at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh. Barry Bonds did not play.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Detroit Tigers, 4-0 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Tom Candiotti threw his knuckleball for a 4-hit shutout.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Texas Rangers, 3-2 at Comiskey Park in Chicago.

* The Milwaukee Brewers beat the California Angels, 6-5 at Milwaukee County Stadium. Robin Yount went 1-for-4. Paul Molitor went 2-for-4 with an RBI.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Oakland Athletics, 5-0 at the Metrodome in Minneapolis. Allan Anderson pitched a 3-hit shutout. Mark McGwire went 0-for-4.

* The Seattle Mariners beat the Kansas City Royals, 10-3 at Royals Stadium (now Kauffman Stadium) in Kansas City. George Brett went 0-for-3.

* The San Diego Padres beat their arch-rivals, the Los Angeles Dodgers, 8-4 at Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego. Tony Gwynn did not play.

* And the San Francisco Giants beat the Cincinnati Reds, 6-3.

September 27, 1956: Babe Didrikson Zaharias Dies

September 27, 1956: Babe Didrikson Zaharias dies at age 44. Perhaps the greatest female all-around athlete ever, she was also one of the earliest American celebrities to go public with a fight against cancer.

Mildred Ella Didrikson was born on June 26, 1911 in Port Arthur, Texas, later to be the hometown of singer Janis Joplin and football coach Jimmy Johnson. A daughter of Norwegian immigrants, she grew up in Beaumont, Texas, and her mother called her "Babe" all along. So the story she told, that she was nicknamed for Babe Ruth after hitting 5 home runs in a childhood baseball game, was a lie.

She was an accomplished seamstress, eventually making her own golf outfits, and good enough of a singer to get a recording contract and have some regional hits. She moved to Dallas, and played basketball for a team in an "industrial league," where companies sponsored teams made up of their employees, often hiring a "ringer" who was good at a particular sport to be on their payroll with a minimal job, enough to qualify for the league's rules. Babe's Golden Cyclones won the 1931 Amateur Athletic Union women's basketball title.

But it would be in track & field that she would gain worldwide fame. At the 1932 Olympics in Los Angeles, she won the Gold Medal in the 80-meter hurdles and the javelin throw, and the Silver Medal in the high jump. She remains the only track & field athlete of any gender to win medals in running, throwing and jumping events. Had the current event of the heptathlon, treated as a women's version of the decathlon, been in place at the time, she most likely would have won it.

She formed her own touring baseball and basketball teams, and in 1933 she took on the leading female pool player in America at the time, Ruth McGinnis, in New York, but lost.

In 1934, Didrikson pitched in 3 Major League Baseball Spring Training exhibition games: 1 inning, no runs, no hits, 1 walk for the Philadelphia Phillies against the Brooklyn Dodgers on March 20; 1 inning, 3 runs for the St. Louis Cardinals against the Boston Red Soxon March 22; and 2 scoreless innings for the Cleveland Indians against the Class AA New Orleans Pelicans on March 25. That's 3 runs in 4 innings, for an ERA of 6.75, but only 1 of the innings was bad. She also pitched or the barnstorming House of David baseball team, which did not make her wear a fake beard to match their real ones; and is still recognized as the world record holder for the farthest baseball throw by a woman.

In 1935, she began to play golf. In 1938, she competed in the Los Angeles Open, previously open only to men. She competed in men's events through 1945, largely due to the manpower drain of World War II. After that, there would not be another woman in a PGA-sanctioned men's event until Annika Sörenstam in 2003.

At that 1938 Los Angeles Open, which required golfers to pair up, she was paired with George Zaharias, a professional wrestler of Greek descent from Colorado. They were married right before Christmas that year. He quit wrestling, and became her manager. Together, they bought a golf course in Florida, which he managed, and they both played.

She took his surname, telling people that it was pronounced "Za-hairy-ass." Although they never divorced, it wasn't always a happy mairrage: She once remarked, "When I married him, he looked like a Greek god. Now, he looks like a goddamned Greek."

The fact that she didn't marry until age 27 (unusual for women at that time), didn't seem happy in the marriage, had no children, and was often said to have a "manly" appearance, led to speculation, then as now, that she was gay, or perhaps even, as would be said today, transgender.

She never publicly confirmed either during her lifetime, but in 1950, fellow golfer Betty Dodd moved in with the Zahariases. They roomed together on the LPGA tour, and Babe's biographer, Susan Cayleff, herself openly gay, wrote, "They never used the word "lesbian" to describe their relationship, but there is little doubt that their relationship was both sexual and romantic."

She won the 1946 U.S. Women's Amateur, and in 1947 became the 1st American to win the British Ladies Amateur. She won the Women's Western Open 3 times. Fellow Texan Byron Nelson, the top male golfer of the 1940s, said that he knew of only 8 men who could outdrive her. She said, "It's not enough just to swing at the ball. You've got to loosen your girdle and really let the ball have it."

In 1950, she was a founding member of the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA). That year, she completed what was then considered the Grand Slam of women's golf, winning the 3 tournaments then considered "majors": The U.S. Open, the Titleholders Championship, and the Women's Western Open. Also that year, the Associated Press voted her the Greatest Female Athlete of the 1st half of the 20th Century.

In 1953, Babe was diagnosed with colon cancer. In 1954, she made one of the most-heralded comebacks in sports history -- if, that is, you consider golf to be a sport -- when she won the U.S. Women's Open, at the age of 43, while wearing a colostomy bag.

She used her fame to raise awareness for cancer, and her foundation donated to cancer clinics. She was honored for this at the White House by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who, despite the efforts of Donald Trump, is still the President most identified with the game of golf.

But her cancer returned in 1955. Despite her illness, she won the last 2 tournaments in which she played. She is alleged to have said, "I can't die now. I'm just learning how to play golf." The illness disagreed, and its opinion carried on September 27, 1956 in Galveston, Texas. She was only 45.

George Zaharias died in 1984. Betty Dodd died in 1993.

In 1975, Susan Clark starred in the TV-movie Babe, winning an Emmy Award. Life imitated art: Former football star Alex Karras, himself of Greek descent, was cast as George, and he and Clark soon married.

In 2000, despite all the advancements in women's sports over the preceding 50 years, the Associated Press backed up its 1950 announcement by naming Babe Didrikson Zaharias the Woman Athlete of the 20th Century. Sports Illustrated named her the 2nd-greatest female athlete of all time, behind the more recent track star Jackie Joyner-Kersee. ESPN named her 10th on their list of the Top 50 Athletes of the Century, highest among women. Golf Digest magazine ranked her 17th on their list of the greatest golfers, 2nd to Mickey Wright among women.

She has been elected to the World Golf Hall of Fame, and the Sports Halls of Fame in the States of Texas, Colorado and Florida. Her hometown of Beaumont, Texas opened the Babe Didrikson Zaharias Museum.

In 2007, Charles McGrath of The New York Times wrote of her, "Except perhaps for Arnold Palmer, no golfer has ever been more beloved by the gallery."

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September 27, 1956 was a Thursday. It was a day off for what would eventually be called Major League Baseball. Football was in midweek. And the NBA and NHL seasons were a few weeks away from starting. So there were no scores on this historic day.