October 26, 1951: Joe Louis' Last Stand

October 26, 1951: Desperate for money to pay a mounting tax bill, Joe Louis, who stood as Heavyweight Champion of the World longer than anyone (12 years, 1937-49) and defended the title more than anyone (25 times), climbs into the ring at the old Madison Square Garden for a purse of $300,000 – about $3.4 million in 2022 money.

He fights Rocky Marciano, then a rising contender who comes into the fight at 37-0. He idolized Louis: telling the press, "This is the last guy I want to fight." It had nothing to do with his own ability, or whatever Louis had left.

It is a mismatch: Marciano is 28, is in superb shape, and has a sledgehammer for a right hand; Louis is 37, struggles with his weight, and his arms and legs, once the fastest in the fight game despite his being a heavyweight, have terribly slowed. Marciano actually knocks Louis out of the ring in the 8th round. Ruby Goldstein, maybe the best referee in the business and himself a former lightweight contender, wisely stopped the fight at that point.

Marciano went back to his dressing room, and cried over what he had done to his greatest hero, and even went over to see him, and said, "I'm sorry, Joe." Sugar Ray Robinson, then Middleweight Champion, was in Louis' dressing room to console him, and was also crying.

Eleven months later, Marciano knocked Jersey Joe Walcott out to become the Heavyweight Champion. He held the title for 3 years, then retired undefeated at 49-0. Louis, still needing money, humiliated himself as a professional wrestler, and not a very good one.

Both men's lives ended badly: Marciano's in a plane crash in Iowa in 1969, just before his 46th birthday; Louis' in a wheelchair, unable to pay his medical bills, with Frank Sinatra hosting a benefit concert for him in Las Vegas in 1978, which kept Louis afloat until he finally passed away in 1981, at 67.

As a Sergeant in the U.S. Army in World War II, he was laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery, on the order of President Ronald Reagan, and with Sinatra delivering the eulogy. Marciano was interred in a crypt at Forest Lawn Memorial Cemetery in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

*

October 26, 1951 was a Friday. William "Bootsy" Collins, bass guitarist for George Clinton's P-Funk Empire, was born on this day.

The baseball season was over. Football was in midweek. The NBA season wouldn't start for another 6 days. The NHL season had started, but no games were scheduled. So there were no scores on this historic day.

September 23, 1952: Rocky Marciano Knocks Out Jersey Joe Walcott

September 23, 1952: The Heavyweight Championship of the World is contested at Municipal Stadium in South Philadelphia. The title had changed hands there before, in 1926, when, with the stadium brand-new, Gene Tunney won it on a decision over Jack Dempsey.

Jersey Joe Walcott, from Pennsauken, New Jersey, right across the Delaware River from Philadelphia, was 38 years old, making him, at the time, the oldest Heavyweight Champion ever. It had been a long struggle to the top, including avenging a defeat to future Light Heavyweight Champion Joey Maxim; 2 title fights against Joe Louis, with many observers saying he had been robbed of the title in the 1st; and 4 title fights against Ezzard Charles, winning the last 2. He went into this fight with a record of 49-18-1 -- an excellent ratio, but a large number of losses for a champion.

His opponent had no losses. Rocky Marciano, from Brockton, Massachusetts, outside Boston,  was 29, and came in at 42-0. But as impressive as that looked, he had beaten only one big name, and that was Louis, a year earlier.

And, as Marciano admitted, "This is the last guy I want to fight." Louis was a hero, but he was also absolutely finished as a fighter. But he needed money badly, and so he got into the ring with Marciano. It was over in the 8th around, and a lot of people inside Madison Square Garden, including Marciano himself, were crying after the fight. But he had earned his shot at the title.

$15.00 in 1952 works out to about $166.75 in 2022.

It was a contrast of styles, "puncher vs. boxer" -- that is, Marciano just plain hit guys as hard as he could, while Walcott, while certainly strong enough to do that, preferred to wear his opponents down. Many old-time boxing fans liked such combinations.

At first, it looked like the fans weren't going to get their money's worth: Walcott knocked Marciano down in the 1st round, the 1st of only 2 times in Rocky’s career that he was knocked off his feet. From there, Walcott put up a comfortable lead over the challenger, although Marciano kept constant pressure on the champion, scoring heavy blows through the fight.

Walcott spent most of the fight using his superior boxing skills and his longer reach to keep the Marciano on the outside, where he could more easily pick his shots and effectively counter Marciano's punches. Marciano attempted to close the distance, hoping to wear the champion down with constant punching.

Going into the 13th round, Walcott was ahead on all scorecards -- 8-4 and 7-5 by the judges and 7-4 by referee Charley Daggert -- and seemed poised to win the fight by a decision. But less than a minute into the round, Marciano landed a short but devastating right hook.

All by itself, this punch produced 2 of the most iconic photographs in boxing history. One, by Herbert Scharfman, at the point of impact, showed Walcott's face distorted by the punch. The other, taken by Al Fenn half a second later, showed beads of sweat popping out of Walcott's bald head.

Walcott went down 43 seconds into the round, and Daggert counted him out. Marciano was the new Champion.

The Ring magazine certainly thought the fans got their money's worth. They named this fight the Fight of the Year, the 13th round the Round of the Year; and, in 1996, the 16th Greatest Title Fight of All-Time.

There was a rematch on May 15, 1953, at Chicago Stadium. This time, it was no contest: Marciano knocked Walcott out at 2;25 of the 1st round. Walcott never fought again, and became a referee. Unfortunately, that part of his career is best known for him losing control of the 2nd fight between Muhammad Ali and Sonny Liston in 1965.

In 1970, Walcott was elected Sheriff of his native Camden County. In 1975, he was named Chairman of the New Jersey State Athletic Commission. He held the post until 1984, and was responsible for establishing Atlantic City as a major prizefighting venue after casino gambling was legalized effective in 1978. He lived until 1994.

*

September 23, 1952 was a Tuesday. Jim Morrison was born that day. No, not the lead singer for The Doors. This Jim Morrison was a major league infielder, usually a backup, from 1977 to 1988. Also born that day was major league pitcher Dennis Lamp. And this was the day that Richard Nixon, running for Vice President under Dwight D. Eisenhower, defended himself against corruption charges on national television with what became known as the Checkers Speech. I have a separate entry for that event.

Only 10 Major League Baseball teams were in action that day:

* A doubleheader was split at Ebbets Field. The Brooklyn Dodgers beat the Philadelphia Phillies in the opener, 5-4. Johnny Rutheford outpitched Karl Drews. George "Shotgun" Shuba hit a home run. This game clinched the National League Pennant for "Dem Bums."

The Phillies won the nightcap, 1-0. Billy Loes pitched 10 shutout innings, and Curt Simmons pitched 11. Johnny Wyrostek doubled home Eddie Waitkus in the top of the 12th, making a winning pitcher out of Kent Peterson, and a losing pitcher out of Jim Hughes.

In the 1st game, Jackie Robinson went 1-for-4 with an RBI; and Duke Snider went 1-for-3 with a walk and 2 RBIs. Both went 0-for-1 in the 2nd game, and then were rested the rest of the way.

* The Philadelphia Athletics beat the Washington Senators, 4-3 at Shibe Park in Philadelphia.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Cleveland Indians, 10-1 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium.

* The St. Louis Browns beat the Detroit Tigers, 3-1 at Briggs Stadium in Detroit. (It was renamed Tiger Stadium in 1961.)

* And the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Cincinnati Reds, 4-3 at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis. Stan Musial doubled home the winning run in the bottom of the 10th inning. 

September 21, 1955: Rocky Marciano vs. Archie Moore

September 21, 1955: Rocky Marciano defends the Heavyweight Championship of the World against the reigning Light Heavyweight Champion, Archie Moore. The fight turns out to be worthy of both men.

Marciano was born as Rocco Francis Marchegiano on September 1, 1923, in Brockton, Massachusetts, outside Boston, had become champion 3 years earlier, on September 23, 1952, at Municipal (later John F. Kennedy) Stadium in Philadelphia, knocking out Jersey Joe Walcott in the 13th round after surviving a 1st-round knockdown himself. He came into this fight with a career record of 48-0, with 42 knockouts. He won a rematch with Walcott, knocking him out in the 1st round. He knocked out Roland La Starza, then won 2 decisions against former Champion Ezzard Charles. His last fight before this one was a technical knockout of Don Cockell.

Like a lot of great fighters, he won some fights he probably should have lost, finding some inner reserve of courage that allowed him to overcome an opponent who looked better for most of the night. His 2nd fight with Charles was an example: In the 6th round, Charles split Marciano's nose at the nostril. Charles quickly realized what he'd done, and pounded away at the nose.

Between the 7th and 8th rounds, Marciano's trainer, Charley Goldman, told him he couldn't stop the bleeding. Ruby Goldstein, one of boxing's top referees, told them that if the bleeding weren't stopped at the end of the 8th, he would call the fight off and award Charles the win. Marciano knocked Charles out in that round.

Like later boxer Sonny Liston, and baseball pitchers Satchel Paige and Dizzy Dean, Moore's origins are in dispute. His birth name is not: Archibald Lee Wright. He always insisted that he was born on December 16, 1916 in Collinsville, Illinois, outside St. Louis. His mother, Lorena Wright, who would have known, said it was December 13, 1913 in Benoit, Mississippi, in the Delta. Some people came to believe he was even older than that. Wikipedia accepts the 1913 date as correct, so I'm going to go with that.

At any rate, he and his mother were abandoned by his father, Thomas Wright, so Lorena sent him to live with an aunt and uncle in St. Louis, Cleveland and Willie Pearl Moore. He took their name because, in his words, "It was less questions to be Moore."

"The Old Mongoose" grew up in St. Louis, and and learned to box while serving in the New Deal's Civilian Conservation Corps. He was undefeated in his 1st 17 professional fights. In 1943, at 29, he won the California State Middleweight Championship. His career record was 54-5-5: He had already fought professionally 64 times. In 1947, he won the State's Light Heavyweight title. He was now 87-13-7.

Finally, on December 17, 1952, right after his 39th (or 36th) birthday, he went into the St. Louis Arena, and defeated Joey Maxim in a unanimous decision, to win the Light Heavyweight Championship of the World. This made him one of the oldest first-time champions in any weight class, but, of course, no record could be authenticated. His record was now 134-19-8. Six months later, he won a rematch with Maxim -- having fought 6 times in between. Six months after that, having won 2 fights in Argentina, he fought Maxim a 3rd time, and won again.

On June 22, 1955, at the Polo Grounds in New York, he defended the title against Carl "Bobo" Olson, then the Middleweight Champion of the World. This should have been a good fight. It wasn't: Moore, presumably 41, took Olson, 26, out in the 3rd round. It was now clear that Moore, at 149-19-8, should have a shot at Marciano. Like Marciano's 2 fights with Charles, the fight with Moore would be at Yankee Stadium. It was originally scheduled for September 20, while the Yankees were on the road, but, due to concerns over Hurricane Ione, it was postponed for one night. Marciano was 32 years old, while Moore was 41, or maybe 38.

Watching Rocky on film led Archie to believe that he would be vulnerable to a left hook. When the fight began, Archie learned that, due to the angle of Rocky's defensive crouch, he could hit Rocky with a hook only if he placed himself in position to be hit back. And in the 2nd round, it was a right hand, rather than a left, that knocked Rocky down, only the 2nd knockdown of his career, after Walcott had done it. But, as Walcott found out 12 rounds later, that was not a good sign.

Rocky got up at the count of 2. But referee Harry Kessler gave him a standing 8-count -- probably a good idea, but, under the rules of the time, not mandatory in championship fights. Archie admitted in his memoir that he went "blind and stupid with rage," going for the knockout.

And that was his mistake. Rocky pounded away, knocking Archie down 4 times. Archie stubbornly kept getting back up. Finally, in the 9th round, Rocky floored Archie for a 5th time, and he couldn't get up. Rocky Marciano was 49-0.

Speculation grew as to who Marciano would fight next, to go for 50-0. The answer turned out to be no one: On April 27, 1956, he announced his retirement from boxing. And, unlike so many other champions, he stayed retired: He never fought again.

In 1961, he hosted The Main Event, a syndicated TV show, where he would interview a celebrity, and then show a famous fight, sometimes one of his own. He was killed in a plane crash on August 31, 1969, a day short of his 46th birthday.

Moore kept fighting, and, in 1956, got a shot at filling the vacancy in the Heavyweight Championship caused by Marciano's retirement. But he lost to Olympic Champion Floyd Patterson, and that would be his last shot at the Heavyweight title.

In 1962, approaching what may have been his 49th birthday, and still officially the Light Heavyweight Champion of the World, he fought a non-title bout against 20-year-old Olympic Champion Cassius Clay, and was knocked out in the 4th round. He fought once more, won, and retired with a record of 186-23-10. That's one hundred eighty-six wins, twenty-three losses and 10 draws.

Like many boxers, he became an actor. Like many boxers, he became a boxing trainer. He was in George Foreman's corner in Zaire in 1974 when Foreman fought the man who nearly ended his own career in 1962, now, of course, known as Muhammad Ali.

Archie Moore died on December 9, 1998. He was just short of turning 85. Or 82. A year later, the Associated Press named him the greatest light heavyweight boxer of all time.

*

September 21, 1955 was a Wednesday. These baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees beat the Washington Senators, 7-3 at Griffith Stadium in Washington. Bob Turley outpitched Chuck Stobbs. Yogi Berra went 1-for-5 with an RBI. Mickey Mantle did not play. The Yankees did get a home run, from an unlikely source: Billy Martin.

* The New York Giants swept a doubleheader from the Pittsburgh Pirates, 7-2 and 7-3 at the Polo Grounds. In the opener, Willie Mays went 3-for-4 with 2 RBIs, while Roberto Clemente went 1-for-4. Clemente didn't play in the nightcap, and Mays had to leave it early due to an injury. He was replaced by Dusty Rhodes, who went 2-for-5 with a home run and 2 RBIs.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Boston Red Sox, 8-7 at Fenway Park in Boston. Willy Miranda singled home the winning run in the top of the 13th inning. A rookie 3rd baseman named Brooks Robinson went 0-for-3 for the Orioles. A veteran left fielder named Ted Williams pinch-hit for the Red Sox, and drove in a run with a sacrifice fly.

* The Cincinnati Redlegs (as the Reds were known from 1954 to 1958) beat the Milwaukee Braves, 14-5 at Crosley Field in Cincinnati. Hank Aaron went 1-for-4.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Kansas City Athletics, 10-1 at Briggs Stadium (later Tiger Stadium) in Detroit. Al Kaline went 2-for-5 with an RBI, to help nail down his distinction as the youngest batting champion in American League history, breaking the record of an earlier Tiger star, Ty Cobb.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Cleveland Indians, 7-2 at Comiskey Park in Chicago.

* The Chicago Cubs beat their arch-rivals, the St. Louis Cardinals, 7-5 at the 1st Busch Stadium (formerly the last Sportsman's Park) in St. Louis. Randy Jackson's triple led a 4-run top of the 13th for the Cubs. The Cards scored 2 in the bottom of the 13th, but fell short. Ernie Banks went 0-for-3, but drew 3 walks. Stan Musial went 3-for-5 with a home run and 2 RBIs.

* And the Brooklyn Dodgers and the Philadelphia Phillies were not scheduled.

September 17, 1954: William Golding Publishes "Lord of the Flies"

September 17, 1954: William Golding publishes his 1st novel, Lord of the Flies. Then about to turn 43, Golding had written it after reading what he deemed to be an unrealistic portrayal of stranded children in the youth novel The Coral Island: a Tale of the Pacific Ocean, published in 1857 by R.M. Ballantyne. That book included themes of the civilizing effect of Christianity, and the importance of hierarchy and leadership. Golding asked his wife, Ann, if it would "be a good idea if I wrote a book about children on an island, children who behave in the way children really would behave?"

The plot concerns a group of British boys who are stranded on an uninhabited island, and their disastrous attempts to govern themselves. Themes include the tension between groupthink and individuality, between rational and emotional reactions, and between morality and immorality.

The novel contains various references to The Coral Island, such as the rescuing naval officer's description of the boys' initial attempts at civilized cooperation as a "jolly good show. Like the Coral Island." Golding's three central characters -- Ralph, Piggy, and Jack -- have also been interpreted as caricatures of Ballantyne's Coral Island protagonists.

The book is polarizing. In 2003, it was listed at Number 70 on the BBC's The Big Read poll. In 2005, Time magazine named it as one of the 100 best English-language novels published since the magazine's founding in 1923. But many people despise it for its seeming promotion of fascism, for its presumption of a descent into madness without the overseeing of adults, and, my biggest argument when I first read it, for its prose being generally boring.

Golding began a "sea trilogy" with To the Ends of the Earth in 1980, and was awarded the Booker Prize for this. In 1983, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. He was knighted in 1988, and died in 1993.

*

September 17, 1954 was a Friday. Rocky Marciano defended the Heavyweight Championship of the World at Yankee Stadium, against former Champion Ezzard Charles. Marciano had beaten Charles there 3 months earlier.

In the 6th round, Charles opened a cut on Marciano's nose, and his trainer couldn't stop the bleeding. Before the 8th round, the referee, Al Berl, told Marciano that if he didn't knock Charles out in the coming round, he would stop the fight and give it to Charles on a technical knockout. Marciano knocked Charles out in that round. The Ring magazine named it Fight of the Year.

These baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Yankees beat the Philadelphia Athletics, 10-3 at Connie Mack Stadium in Philadelphia. Tommy Byrne went the distance for the win. Yogi Berra hit a home run, and Mickey Mantle went 1-for-4 with a walk.

Two days later, the Yankees would beat the A's, 4-2, and it would be the last home game they would ever play. They played their last 6 games on the road, and moved to Kansas City for the 1955 season. They moved to Oakland in 1968, and wouldn't return to Philadelphia for a regular-season game until the Interleague schedule sent them to play the Phillies in 2003.

* The New York Giants lost to the Philadelphia Phillies, 4-3 at the Polo Grounds. Robin Roberts (22-14) outpitched Johnny Antonelli (21-6). Stan Lopata hit a home run. Willie Mays went 0-for-4.

* The Brooklyn Dodgers lost to the Pittsburgh Pirates, 9-1 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. Billy Loes was knocked out of the box in the 2nd inning. Jackie Robinson went 1-for-4.

* The Washington Senators beat the Boston Red Sox, 8-0 at Griffith Stadium in Washington. Dean Stone pitched a 3-hit shutout. Ted Williams went 0-for-4.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Detroit Tigers, 6-3 at Briggs Stadium in Detroit. (It was renamed Tiger Stadium in 1961.) Al Kaline went 1-for-4 with an RBI.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Chicago White Sox, 5-1 at Comiskey Park in Chicago.

* The Milwaukee Braves beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 6-4 at Busch Stadium (formerly Sportsman's Park) in St. Louis. Stan Musial went 0-for-4. Hank Aaron did not play.

* And the Chicago Cubs and the Cincinnati Reds -- the latter in their 1st of 5 seasons of McCarthyism-forced change of name to "Redlegs" -- were not scheduled.

August 31, 1969: Rocky Marciano's Plane Crash

August 31, 1969: Rocky Marciano and 2 others are killed when their Cessna 172, flying from Midway Airport in Chicago to Des Moines, crashes near Newton, Iowa, 30 miles from their destination. Marciano was a day short of his 46th birthday.

He was born on September 1, 1923, as Rocco Francis Marchegiano, outside Boston in Brockton, Massachusetts. "The Brockton Blockbuster" first fought for the Heavyweight Championship of the World in 1952, against Jersey Joe Walcott, and got knocked down in the 1st round. He got up, and knocked Walcott out in the 13th round. In the rematch, he knocked Walcott out in the 1st.

Like Jack Dempsey, he was a nice guy out of the ring, and hell in it. Like his idol, Joe Louis, he won a lot of fights where he seemed to be losing. His holding of the title made him the 1st Heavyweight Champion to be embraced by television viewers. The fact that he was white and ethnic, not black like Louis or later Champions like Floyd Patterson, Sonny Liston and Muhammad Ali, shouldn't have helped, but did.

He retired in 1956, at 49-0, with 43 knockouts. Among his victims were former Heavyweight Champions Louis, Walcott and Ezzard Charles, and reigning Light Heavyweight Champion Archie Moore, whom he beat in what turned out to be his last fight. He is the only Heavyweight Champion who retired undefeated, and stayed retired. He became an announcer for fights, and even hosted a talk show where he would interview a celebrity and then show a famous fight, sometimes one of his own.

As with Buddy Holly 10 years earlier, the pilot was inexperienced flying at night and in bad weather, and crashed in rural Iowa.

*

August 31, 1969 was a Sunday. These Major League Baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Yankees beat the expansion Kansas City Royals, 5-3 at Yankee Stadium. Fritz Peterson was the winning pitcher. Roy White went 1-for-3 with 2 RBIs. Thurman Munson had made his major league debut that month, but on this day, the catcher was Frank Fernández, who had an unusual day: no official at-bats, 4 walks, and a run scored.

* The New York Mets split a doubleheader with the San Francisco Giants at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. The Mets won the opener, 8-0. Tom Seaver pitched a shutout, allowing 7 hits and 3 walks, striking out 11. The Mets got good production from the bottom of their order: Ron Swoboda, Jerry Grote and Al Weis each had 2 RBIs, while Seaver himself had 1 on a single.

The Giants won the nightcap, 3-2. Ron Taylor walked Jim Davenport with the bases loaded in the bottom of the 11th inning, messing up a good start by Jim McAndrew. Swoboda hit a home run. Willie Mays did not play in either game.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the California Angels, 5-4 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. Frank Robinson went 2-for-3 with a walk and an RBI. Brooks Robinson went 1-for-4 with an RBI.

* The Washington Senators beat the Oakland Athletics, 8-3 at Robert F. Kennedy Stadium in Washington. The Senators got home runs from Frank Howard, Mike Epstein, Ken McMullen and Bernie Allen, as Casey Cox outpitched Jim "Catfish" Hunter. Reggie Jackson went 2-for-3 with a walk and an RBI.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the Atlanta Braves, 8-4 at Atlanta Stadium (later Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium). Ken Holtzman not only outpitched Phil Niekro, but hit a home run for the Cubs. So did Billy Williams. Ernie Banks went 0-for-4. Hank Aaron went 1-for-4.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 7-5 at Crosley Field in Cincinnati. Johnny Bench and Tony Pérez hit home runs, and Pete Rose went 3-for-4 with an RBI.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the expansion Seattle Pilots, 7-2 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. Al Kaline did not play in this game, but Willie Horton hit 2 home runs, and Don Wert hit one. Earl Wilson outpitched Gene Brabender. Maybe the Pilots could have used Jim Bouton. Alas, they had traded him to Houston a few days earlier, as told in Bouton's book Ball Four.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Cleveland Indians, 7-6 at Comiskey Park in Chicago.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Boston Red Sox, 6-2 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota. Harmon Killebrew and Ted Uhlaender hit home runs. Carl Yastrzemski went 1-for-4.

Killebrew won the American League home run race with 49. Howard hit 48. After getting to 31 by the All-Star Break, Reggie Jackson ended up with 47.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Houston Astros, 6-4 at the Astrodome in Houston. Roberto Clemente went 0-for-2 with 3 walks. Willie Stargell went 1-for-5 with 2 RBIs. The Astros used 4 pitchers. Jim Bouton was not one of them. This game did not make a fellow proud to be an Astro.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 4-1 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.

* And the National League's 2 expansion teams played a doubleheader at San Diego Stadium (later renamed Jack Murphy Stadium and Qualcomm Stadium). The San Diego Padres won the 1st game, 5-2. The Montreal Expos won the 2nd game, 6-1. In contrast to the AL, where the Royals only lost 93 games and the Pilots 98, the Expos and Padres both lost 110, bad even by the standards of 1st-year teams.

May 6, 1995: Classic Sports Network Goes On the Air

May 6, 1995: This was one of the best days of my life, although I wouldn't know it for over a year. Because this was the day that Classic Sports Network debuted.

New York City established WUHF on Channel 31 as an experiment to determine the viability of UHF broadcasts within an urban environment. Some of the early programming on WUHF included simulcasts of New York's existing commercial VHF stations; educational films produced by the Television Film Unit, established in 1949, of WNYC, which since 1924 had broadcast on 820 AM, and since 1943 at 93.9 FM, as the City's municipal radio station; college-level distance education telecourses; and, reportedly, a nightly rundown of the New York Police Department's "wanted" criminals list.

The experiment was carried out through the installation of UHF receivers in several hundred test homes, public schools and businesses, with reception monitored by FCC and City engineers. This was successful, and on November 5, 1962, the call letters of New York's Channel 31 were changed to WNYC, to match those of the radio stations.

But in 1995, Mayor Rudy Giuliani, seeing the growth of cable television, and noting that WNYC, both AM and FM, were still successful, decided to sell the station. On June 30, 1996, WNYC-Channel 31 was sold to ITT-Dow Jones. It was replaced by WBIS, showing what was then named Classic Sports Network. Within days, while "flipping channels," I discovered it by accident. I didn't have cable TV at the time, so the picture was fuzzy. But what it showed was a feast for the sports fan's heart.

Classic Sports Network was run by Steve Greenberg, son of Baseball Hall-of-Famer Han Greenberg. I was worried that, given a Baby Boom target audience, it would be one long tribute to Mickey Mantle, the 1969 New York Mets, Joe Namath, the early 1970s New York Knicks, and Muhammad Ali. Indeed, when it debuted on May 6, 1995, it did so with a 15-hour documentary: Muhammad Ali: His Life and Times, hosted by sportswriter Dick Schaap.

And there was a lot of content around Mantle, Namath, the '69 Mets and the Willis Reed and Walt "Clyde" Frazier 1970s Knicks. This included a block of programming centered around "The Miracle of '69," including the '70 Knicks title with Namath leading the Jets to the great upset victory in Super Bowl III and the Mets' run to, and performance in, the 1969 World Series.

But they also showed a lot of special things, including World Series highlight films that hadn't been widely seen in years, and weren't yet available on video; legendary prizefights, including some on The Main Event, a half-hour show hosted by Rocky Marciano, with the 1950s Heavyweight Champion hosting, interviewing guests, and narrating the fights, lasting 14 episodes in 1961; the entire library of the TV shows Greatest Sports Legends and Curt Gowdy's 1974-77 PBS show The Way It Was. They also made a deal with NFL Films to broadcast a lot of vintage stuff. I videotaped as much of it as I could, and those tapes took up a lot of space.

In 1997, ESPN decided it didn't want the competition, but it did want the content: They bought Classic Sports Network from Steve Greenberg and his investors, and rebranded it as ESPN Classic. They kept the logo of an athlete with fists raised, known as "Vic" for "Victory," inside a letter C.

But the beginning of the end was already there, even before the beginning. (Yes, I know: That sounds like a Yogi Berra line.) The Golf Channel began broadcasting on January 17, 1995, nearly 4 months before Classic Sport Network. Speed, a network devoted to auto racing, debuted at the end of that year. The NBA Network was launched in 1999, the NFL Network and The Tennis Channel in 2003, the NHL Network in 2007, the MLB Network in 2009.

By the 2010s, due to the increasing number of sport-, league-, and college conference-specific networks that had assumed rights to the archival and live content that was historically aired by ESPN Classic, a larger amount of programming was devoted to archive content whose rights were owned by ESPN outright, reruns of recent events from ESPN's networks, as well as ESPN original documentaries and overflow coverage of events from other ESPN networks. And much of the footage was also now available on YouTube, so a fan wanting to see a specific broadcast no longer had to wait for ESPN to show it.

So ESPN folded ESPN Classic on December 31, 2021. It's funny: I didn't know it was "born" at the time that it was, and I didn't know that it "died" at the time that it did. But I'm still glad it was "alive."

*

May 6, 1995 was a Friday. Football was out of season. There was 1 game in the NBA Playoffs that day: The San Antonio Spurs beat the Los Angeles Lakers, 110-94 at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas. David Robinson scored 33 points.

The Stanley Cup Playoffs began, with 2 games. The New York Rangers lost to the Quebec Nordiques, 5-4 at the Colisée de Québec. And the Washington Capitals beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 5-4 at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh.

And these games were played in Major League Baseball:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Milwaukee Brewers, 5-2 at Yankee Stadium. Ricky Bones outpitched Jimmy Key. Greg Vaughn hit a home run for the Brew Crew. Jim Leyritz, playing 1st base in place of the idle Don Mattingly, hit one for the Bronx Bombers. Wade Boggs went 3-for-4. But the rest of the Yankees combined only got 4 hits.

* The New York Mets lost to the Cincinnati Reds, 13-11 at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati. This was a game that could have been shown on Classic Sports: The Mets led 11-2 going into the bottom of the 8th inning, but the Reds scored 6 in the 8th and 3 in the 9th to win it. The winning runs came on a home run by Hal Morris. Deion Sanders, Ron Gant and Jerome Walton also homered for this later edition of the Big Red Machine. For the Mets, Rico Brogna and Edgardo Alfonzo each had 3 hits including a home run.

* The Florida Marlins beat the Montreal Expos, 10-3 at the Olympic Stadium in Montreal.

* The Toronto Blue Jays beat the Baltimore Orioles, 7-3 at Camden Yards in Baltimore. Cal Ripken went 1-for-5.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Atlanta Braves, 3-1 at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 13-5 at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Cleveland Indians, 5-2 at Jacobs Field (now Progressive Field) in Cleveland.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Detroit Tigers, 5-3 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Kansas City Royals, 7-4 at the new Comiskey Park (now Rate Field) in Chicago.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Houston Astros, 7-5 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Colorado Rockies, 17-11 at Coors Field in Denver. This was also a game that could have been shown on Classic Sports. Being in "the Mile High City," Coors Field, like the facility it had just replaced as the Rockies' home, Mile High Stadium, was a hitter's haven. Tom Candiotti started for Los Angeles, and Juan Acevedo for Colorado, and both only lasted 2 innings.

For the Dodgers: Mike Piazza went 3-for-6 with a home run and 3 RBIs; Mitch Webster entered the game as a pinch-hitter, and went 1-for-3 with a home run and 2 RBI; Henry Rodríguez went 4-for-6 with 2 RBI, and Gary Ingram pinch-hit for him, and went 2-for-3 with a walk and an RBI; and Eric Karros went 3-for-5 with a walk and 3 RBIs.

For the Rockies: Dante Bichette went 4-for-5 with a home run and 3 RBIs; Roberto Mejía went 1-for-4 with a solo homer; Jorge Brito went 2-for-4 with 3 RBIs; Larry Walker, Walt Weiss and Jason Bates also had 2 hits each; and, pinch-hitting for pitchers, John Vander Wal hit a 3-run homer; and Mike Kingery hit a solo homer.

* The San Francisco Giants beat the San Diego Padres, 13-6 at Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego. Glenallen Hill went 2-for-3 with a solo home run and 2 walks. Jeff Reed went 4-for-4 with a walk and 2 RBIs. Royce Clayton went 2-for-5 with 3 RBIs. Barry Bonds went 2-for-4 with a walk and 2 RBIs. For the Padres, Ken Caminiti went 3-for-5 with a solo homer, and Tony Gwynn went 1-for-5 with an RBI.

* The California Angels beat the Seattle Mariners, 7-5 at Anaheim Stadium (now Angel Stadium of Anaheim). Ken Griffey Jr., Edgar Martínez and Luis Sojo homered for the M's. J.T. Snow and Greg Myers did so for the Halos.

* And the Texas Rangers beat the Oakland Athletics, 4-2 at the Oakland Coliseum. Rickey Henderson was with the A's at the time, but did not play in this game.