December 31, 1988: The Fog Bowl & Five-Way Mario

December 31, 1988: The Chicago Bears host the Philadelphia Eagles in an NFC Divisional Playoff at Soldier Field in Chicago. It was Mike Ditka coaching the team he'd led to a Super Bowl win 3 seasons before, against a team coached by Buddy Ryan, who'd been the defensive coordinator for those Bears, and with whom he'd never gotten along.

Chicago is known for nasty Winter weather, and plenty of games at Soldier Field, both at its 1924 original (as this one was) and at its 2003 replacement, have had bitter cold, or snow, or rain, or wind blasting in off Lake Michigan, just 2 blocks away, or some combination thereof.

But they'd never been hit by fog before. San Francisco is the American city best known for fog, and while Giants games at Candlestick Park had to be called due to fog, 49ers games there never have. Cleveland Municipal Stadium had seen some Indians games called due to fog, but not Browns games. Chicago? Fog was one weather condition they were not used to.

At kickoff, the sky was a perfect, cloudless blue. Mike Tomczak threw a 64-yard touchdown pass to Dennis McKinnon, putting the Bears up, 7-0. The Eagles came right back, but only got to the 26-yard line, and Luis Zendejas missed a field goal attempt.

A Seth Joyner interception of Tomczak gave the Eagles a quick next chance, but they committed 2 penalties that nullified touchdowns. Coach Buddy Ryan, so great with defense but totally clueless on offense, went for the field goal again, and, this time, Zendejas converted, making it 7-3 Chicago.

Kevin Butler missed a field goal for the Bears. Randall Cunningham drove the Eagles down the field, and got to 4th & 1 on the Bear 4. He tried a quarterback sneak, but a measurement suggested that he didn't get it, turning the ball over. A fumble recovery early in the 2nd quarter gave the Eagles another chance, but, again, they could only get a field goal attempt out of it, and it was 7-6 Chicago.

Neal Anderson ran for a touchdown, increasing the Bears' lead to 14-6. A Butler field goal made it 17-6, with 2:03 left in the half. This was when the fog arrived, coming in off the Lake. The Eagles managed a field goal before the half, and the teams went into the locker rooms with the score Bears 17, Eagles 9.

CBS had hired a helicopter to provide aerial images. The copter was forced to land, because the fog was so thick. The right thing for the officials to do would have been to suspend the game until the fog lifted. But they didn't, deciding that the fog posed no danger to fans or players (unlike, say, lightning), and they sent the teams out for the 2nd half.

Tomczak and Cunningham couldn't see their receivers. Terry Bradshaw was CBS' color commentator, and he said it was the most frustrating game he had ever seen. I watched this game on CBS, and I couldn't see anything, either. I was reminded of one of the earliest games I'd ever seen, a Los Angeles Rams vs. Minnesota Vikings Playoff game that was so muddy, I couldn't tell which team was which, despite the contrast in their colors. (The Rams' blue and gold, the Vikings' purple and white.) Come to think of it, that game was also on a New Year's Eve, in 1978, exactly 10 years earlier. The Rams won it, 34-10.

The Eagles had the 1st drive of the 2nd half, getting to the Bear 12, but an interception put an end to that. The Bears drove, but stalled, and Butler missed another field goal. An interception was turned into Zendejas' 4th field goal of the game, and the Eagles closed to within 17-12 by the end of the 3rd quarter.

Tomczak was knocked out of the game with an injury, and former starter Jim McMahon was back. He got the Bears into field goal range, and Butler added the 3 points. Around this time, Dan Hampton, the Bears' Hall of Fame defensive end, asked referee Jim Tunney what the score was, because he couldn't see the scoreboard. Never mind read it well enough to make out the numbers, he couldn't see the board. After the game, Hampton told the media, "If I'd known it was only 20-12, I would've played harder!"

The Eagles had 1 last chance, but Cunningham threw his 3rd interception of the game. He threw for 407 yards, but no touchdowns.

There had been football games known as "The Fog Bowl" before. On December 1, 1962, the Grey Cup, the Championship game of the Canadian Football League, at Exhibition Stadium in Toronto, also off a Great Lake (Lake Ontario), was suspended and resumed the next day. The Winnipeg Blue Bombers beat the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, 28-27. And on December 28, 1974, steam rising off the frozen artificial turf at the Sun Bowl in El Paso, Texas resembled fog. Mississippi State beat North Carolina, 28-26.

Within half an hour of the final gun of this game at Soldier Field, the fog lifted. Eagle fans still believe that if the game had been suspended once the fog rolled in, and restarted once it lifted, their team would've won. I don't think so: These were still Ditka's Bears, and Ryan was a terrible head coach who would have found a way to lose. And even if they had won it, they would have had to play the NFC Championship game away to the 49ers at their Joe Montana-to-Jerry Rice peak. The Bears did play the 49ers, at Soldier Field (the Bears had the better record), and, with no weather issues, the 49ers won.

This game has been cited as part of "The Curse of Billy Penn": From 1983, when the Philadelphia 76ers won the NBA Championship, until 2008, when the Phillies won their next World Series, no Philadelphia professional sports team won a World Championship. The suggestion was that the construction of One Liberty Place in 1987, making it taller than the statue of William Penn atop City Hall, caused Penn's spirit to put a curse on the city's teams.

*

December 31, 1988 was a Saturday. One other NFL Playoff game was played: The Cincinnati Bengals beat the Seattle Seahawks, 21-13 at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati. The Bengals won the AFC Championship Game, and the 49ers beat them in Super Bowl XXIII.

There were no NBA games scheduled. But there were 9 NHL games, including all 3 New York Tri-State Area teams:

* The New Jersey Devils lost to the Pittsburgh Penguins, 8-6 at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh. This was the game in which Mario Lemieux scored all 5 ways in which a player can score: Even-strength (at 4:17 of the 1st period), shorthanded (at 7:50 of the 1st), on the power play (at 10:59 of the 1st), a penalty shot (11:14 of the 2nd, and this was also shorthanded), and empty net (19:59 of the 3rd, in other words with 1 second left in regulation).

* The New York Rangers beat the Chicago Blackhawks, 4-1 at Madison Square Garden.

* The New York Islanders beat the Washington Capitals, 6-4 at the Nassau Coliseum

* The Philadelphia Flyers beat the Buffalo Sabres, 3-2 at the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium.

* The Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Quebec Nordiques, 6-1 at Maple Leaf Garden in Toronto, in the 1st half of CBC's Hockey Night In Canada doubleheader.

* The Hartford Whalers beat the Detroit Red Wings, 3-2 at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit.

* The Minnesota North Stars beat the St. Louis Blues, 6-2 at the Metropolitan Sports Center in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota.

* The Winnipeg Jets played the Calgary Flames to a 4-4 tie, at the Olympic Saddledome in Calgary.

* And the Montreal Canadiens beat the Edmonton Oilers, 4-2 at the Nassau Coliseum, in the 2nd half of the CNBC doubleheader. 

December 31, 1984: Rick Allen's Car Crash

December 31, 1984: Rick Allen, the drummer for British hard-rock band Def Leppard, is badly injured in a car crash, outside the hometown of most of the band's members, Sheffield, South Yorkshire.

Allen, himself from Dronfield, in Derbyshire, in the East Midlands, was thrown from his Chevrolet Corvette. He had a seat belt on. The belt did not restrain him. It did restrain his left arm, severing it.

Until this moment, Allen seemed to be living a charmed life with one of the biggest bands in the world. On his 15th birthday, November 1, 1978, he was admitted to the band, after responding to their classified ad for a new drummer. On his 16th birthday, they opened for one of the biggest rock bands in the world, AC/DC.

But at 21, his career seemed to be over. As lead singer Joe Elliott said, "If I lose my arm, I can still sing. If he loses his voice, he can still play drums." How can a drummer play drums with one arm?

Allen had a specially-rigged drum kit made by Whirlwind USA, whose cables allowed his left foot to play the parts his left hand would have. This setup made its debut on August 5, 1986, at the Monsters of Rock festival, at the Donington Park race track in Leicestershire, England. The band went on to have its biggest album, Hysteria, in 1987.

Def Leppard's guitarists, Phil Collin and Steve Clark, were known as "The Terror Twins." Clark died from excessive drinking in 1991. He was subsequently replaced by Dio guitarist Vivian Campbell. He, Allen, Elliott, Collin and bass guitarist Rick Savage (his real name, not a stage name) are still together in 2022.

*

December 31, 1984 was a Monday. Baseball was out of season. The NFL was between its Divisional Playoffs and its Conference Championships. There were 2 college football bowl games. Virginia beat Purdue, 27-24 in the Peach Bowl at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium. And West Virginia beat Texas Christian University (TCU), 31-14 in the Bluebonnet Bowl at the Astrodome in Houston.

There were no games played in the NBA, but there were 4 games played in the NHL:

* The New York Islanders lost to the Minnesota North Stars, 4-3 at the Metropolitan Sports Center in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota.

* The New Jersey Devils lost to the Buffalo Sabres, 6-4 at the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium.

* The Quebec Nordiques and their arch-rivals, the Montreal Canadiens, played to a 4-4 tie at the Montreal Forum.

* And the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Detroit Red Wings played to a 4-4 tie at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit.

December 25, 1984: Bernard King Decks the Halls

December 25, 1984: For about a year now, the best basketball player in the world has not been Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, or Magic Johnson, or Larry Bird, or Julius Erving, and certainly not newly-minted NBA rookie Michael Jordan. It's been Bernard King.

The Brooklyn native, who had starred at the University of Tennessee with later Knick teammate Ernie Grunfeld -- they called it "The Bernie and Ernie Show" -- had just turned 28, and was dropping stunning performances, game after game. On January 31 and February 1, 1984, he became the 1st NBA (or ABA) player in 17 years to score at least 50 points in back-to-back games.

On this Christmas Day, he came down the chimney at Madison Square Garden and scored 60 points, a record for the "new" Garden that opened in 1968. He scored 21 points in the 1st quarter, 19 in the 2nd, 11 in the 3rd, and 9 in the 4th.

In spite of this performance for the New York Knicks, the cross-river New Jersey Nets beat them, 120-114. Micheal Ray Richardson scored 36 for New Jersey. (Yes, he spells his name "Micheal," not "Michael.")

King was only the 10th player in NBA history to score at least 60 in a game. Joe Fulks was the 1st to do it, with 63 in a 1949 game for the Philadelphia Warriors. George Mikan scored 61 in a 1952 game for the Minneapolis Lakers. Fulks and Mikan were the only players to do it before the 1954 institution of the 24-second shot clock.

Wilt Chamberlain had done it 32 times, topping out at 100. At the time, the record for anyone other than Chamberlain was 73, by David Thompson, on the last day of the 1977-78 season. On the exact same day, George Gervin scored 63, and won the scoring title for the season.

Elgin Baylor had scored 60 or more 4 times, including a Playoff record 61 in 1962. On November 15, 1960, Baylor topped out at 71, against the Knicks at "the old Garden," and that remains a record for any building named Madison Square Garden, college or pro.

The other players to score 60 in an NBA game before King were Jerry West with 63 in 1962, Rick Barry with 63 in 1974, and Pete Maravich with 68 in 1977.

Sadly, 'Nard saw his reign come to an end on March 23, 1985, with a terrible knee injury in Kansas City. He had been averaging 32.9 points per game up until then, and that would lead the league. That game ended up being the 1st of 12 straight games the Knicks, already plagued with injuries, lost to end the season. Then they got the 1st pick in the 1985 NBA Draft, and selected Patrick Ewing.

King came back for 6 games at the end of the 1986-87 season. The Knicks thought that was all they could get out of him, so they traded him to the Washington Bullets. Incredibly, he played 4 seasons for them, including 1988-89, when he played in 81 out of 82 games; and 1989-90, when he played in all 82. He missed 1991-92 in its entirety, again due to the knee, and closed his career with the team with whom he started -- the Nets, playing 32 games in 1992-93.

He was 37 years old. Knick fans can only wonder what they could have done from the Autumn of 1985 to the Spring of 1993 with a healthy Bernard King added to Patrick Ewing, Mark Jackson and Charles Oakley.

His injuries kept his career numbers down. He was belatedly elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame. He was not named to the NBA's 50th Anniversary 50 Greatest Players in 1996, but was named to their 75th Anniversary 75 Greatest Players in 2021.

King's 60 remained a record for the new Garden until January 24, 2014, when Carmelo Anthony set a building record, and a Knick franchise record, with 62 points in a 125-96 win over the team then known as the Charlotte Bobcats. Baylor's 71 remains a record for any Garden. The college record was set by Oscar Robertson of the University of Cincinnati, scoring 56 points to outscore Seton Hall all by himself on January 9, 1958.

Scoring 60 points in an NBA game has now been done 87 times.

*

December 25, 1984 was a Tuesday. Elsewhere in the NBA that Christmas Day:

* The Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Atlanta Hawks, 109-106 at The Coliseum in the Cleveland suburb of Richfield, Ohio.

* The Philadelphia 76ers beat the Detroit Pistons, 109-108 at the Silverdome in the Detroit suburb of Pontiac, Michigan.

* And the Portland Trail Blazers beat the Golden State Warriors, 106-97 at the Portland Memorial Coliseum.

The day saw no games in the NHL, and no bowl games in college football.

Also on this day, twin Australian singers, actresses and fashion designers Jessica and Lisa Origliasso were born.

December 23, 1982: Chaminade Upsets Virginia

December 23, 1982: The biggest upset in the history of college basketball occurs.

In the 1981-82 season, the University of Virginia went 30-4, and finished the regular season ranked Number 3 in the country, led by 7-foot-4 center Ralph Sampson and future NBA coach Rick Carlisle. But they only split their regular-season games against the University of North Carolina, and lost by 1 point in overtime to the University of Maryland on the last day of the season, so they had to share the Atlantic Coast Conference title. They lost to Carolina in the ACC Tournament Championship Game. And they only got to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament, losing to the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Nevertheless, Sampson would return, and they entered the 1982-83 season ranked Number 1. They played in a tournament in Tokyo, Japan, where they beat the University of Houston, led by Hakeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler; and the University of Utah. Before making the trip, they had hoped to schedule a game against the University of Hawaii for their return trip, but couldn't. Another Hawaii school stepped in. And so, the Virginia Cavaliers went into that game 8-0, and still Number 1.

The Hawaii school in question was Chaminade University of Honolulu. It was (and remains) a Catholic school, run by the Society of Mary, founded by Father William Joseph Chaminade, a priest who barely survived persecution during the French Revolution. The school competed in the NAIA, roughly equivalent to NCAA Division IV. Their teams are known as the Silverswords, not for actual swords, but for a plant that thrives in Hawaii's tropical climate.

This was only their 8th season of varsity basketball. They had previously played Virginia 3 times, including the season before, losing all 3 games by wide margins. Despite now having the home-court advantage, there was no reason to expect them to give the Cavs much of a challenge.

The game was played at the Honolulu International Center, which opened in 1964, and is best known as the location of Elvis Presley's Aloha from Hawaii Via Satellite concert of January 14, 1973. The building still stands, named the Neal S. Blaisdell Center for the Mayor who got it built, and a statue of Elvis stands outside.

But on this night, reflecting the fact that hosts Chaminade seemed to be terribly overmatched, only 3,383 of the arena's 8,800 seats were filled. Tipoff was 7:40 PM Hawaii time -- 1:40 AM Eastern Time. The game was not broadcast on ESPN.

And the only non-Hawaii, non-Virginia sportswriter covering the game was Michael Wilbon of The Washington Post. He was in Honolulu to cover the Aloha Bowl on Christmas Day, since one of the Post's local teams, the University of Maryland, was in it. (Maryland lost, 21-20 to the University of Washington.)

Fans of ESPN's Pardon the Interruption, which Wilbon has co-hosted with fellow former Post columnist Tony Kornheiser since 2001, know that he will watch any basketball game, anywhere, anytime. As an ACC team and a rival of Maryland, he had some familiarity with the Virginia team. He probably decided, "What the heck, I'm gonna cover it. Maybe there'll be a story here." His instinct served him well.

On defense, Chaminade double-teamed Sampson, sometimes triple-teaming him. On offense, they tried to fast-break their way to jump shots. They jumped out to leads of 6-2, 15-10 and 19-12. Virginia caught up, but were unlucky, as it seemed like their shots just would not go in. At the half, it was tied, 43-43.

Virginia jumped out to a lead in the 2nd half, but Chaminade scored 7 straight points to tie it, 56-56. Right after this, Sampson made a turnaround jump shot to put Virginia back on top. But this was followed by Mark Rodrigues sending an alley-oop pass to Tim Dunham (not Tim Duncan), who dunked over Sampson. Chaminade's Richard Haenisch said, "After that play, I think we all got the feeling we could actually win."

With just under 6 minutes to go, Chaminade took a 64-62 lead. With 35 seconds to go, Chaminade led 74-72. Virginia missed 3 shots, and a foul sent Chaminade to the free throw line. Sampson only scored 12 points, although he added 17 rebounds. It wasn't enough: Chaminade won, 77-72. An NAIA team had beaten the Number 1 team in the country.

The game ended after 3:00 AM on the East Coast. At ESPN headquarters in Bristol, Connecticut, Chris Berman and Tom Mees were anchoring SportsCenter, and the machine on their desk that showed scores showed "VIRGINIA 72 CHAMINADE 77." Berman, not having footage to show, said, "We can't tell you what happened, but the Number 1 team in college basketball has lost to... " He paused, and said, "We don't even know who they are." He probably didn't even know how to pronounce it: "SHAM-in-AHD."

Now, everybody knew who Chaminade were. That was almost not the case: Their board of trustees was considering changing the school's name to the University of Honolulu. They couldn't change it now: The brand name had become too good. (There was precedent: Only a year after shocking the basketball world by winning the 1966 NCAA Tournament, Texas Western University changed its name to the University of Texas at El Paso.)

Virginia finished the regular season 29-5, again sharing the regular-season ACC title with North Carolina, losing the ACC Tournament Final to North Carolina State, and losing to N.C. State again in the NCAA Tournament's Elite Eight, as Jim Valvano's Wolfpack won the National Championship, to cap a season of upsets.

Chaminade finished the season 34-5, ranked Number 1 in NAIA, and got to the Semifinals of the NAIA Tournament. They were no fluke: They beat Louisville later in that 1982-83 season (in which Louisville made the NCAA Final Four) and in 1983-84. Also in 1983-84, they beat Southern Methodist University, then ranked Number 3.

In honor of their legendary upset of Virginia, the Maui Invitational was created in 1984, in which Chaminade compete with 7 major college teams. They now compete in NCAA Division II, in the Pacific West Conference, with fellow Hawaii teams Hawai'i Pacific University in Honolulu and the University of Hawaii at Hilo, in Hilo on Hawai'i, a.k.a. The Big Island. But Chaminade have never won a Conference Championship, or made the Division II Final Four.

In 2018, Virginia would suffer another embarrassing upset, becoming the first 1st seed in an NCAA Tournament to lose to a 16th seed, the University of Maryland at Baltimore County. They rebounded to win the National Championship the next season.

*

December 23, 1982 was a Thursday. Baseball was out of season. Football was in midweek. There were 7 games played in the NBA:

* The New Jersey Nets beat the Washington Bullets, 97-90 at the Brendan Byrne Arena at the Meadowlands.

* The Denver Nuggets beat the Detroit Pistons, 135-127 at the Silverdome in the Detroit suburb of Pontiac, Michigan. Alex English scored 43 points for the Nuggets.

* The Milwaukee Bucks beat the Atlanta Hawks, 101-90 at the Milwaukee Exposition, Convention Center and Arena, or "The MECCA." Since 2014, it has been named the UW-Panther Arena.

* The Phoenix Suns beat the Dallas Mavericks, 125-106 at the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix.

* The Los Angeles Lakers beat the San Diego Clippers, 120-115 at the San Diego Sports Arena. (It's now the Pechanga Arena.)

* The Portland Trail Blazers beat the Houston Rockets, 88-82 at the Portland Memorial Coliseum.

* And the Seattle SuperSonics beat the Golden State Warriors, 120-95 at the Seattle Center Coliseum.

And there were 7 games played in the NHL:

* The New York Islanders lost to the Washington Capitals, 5-1 at the Nassau Coliseum.

* The Quebec Nordiques beat their arch-rivals, the Montreal Canadiens, 6-3 at the Colisée de Québec.

* The Boston Bruins beat the Hartford Whalers, 5-1 at the Hartford Civic Center (now the PeoplesBank Arena).

* The Detroit Red Wings beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 6-4 at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit.

* The St. Louis Blues beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 7-3 at the St. Louis Arena.

* The Edmonton Oilers beat the Los Angeles Kings, 6-2 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California.

* And the Calgary Flames beat the Vancouver Canucks, 6-3 at the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver.

December 22, 1984: The Subway Vigilante

December 22, 1984: Bernhard Goetz shoots 4 men on a New York Subway train, and becomes known as "The Subway Vigilante."

In the 1960s, '70s and '80s, crime had escalated in American cities due to rising poverty and drug use, and New York City seemed to be its symbolic capital. And with personnel cutbacks in police departments due to budget shortfalls, it seemed like no one was doing anything about it.

In New York, Subway stations and trains were seen as particularly bad. The graffiti that stained the stations and the trains didn't help. I grew up in Central Jersey, a 45-minute bus ride from Midtown Manhattan.

When my mother let me go into The City, it was always with her, and we always took taxicabs. Never mind that taxis were dangerous, because the drivers tended to be maniacs, and we once got into 3 accidents in a single ride: She said the Subway was unsafe. (Disclaimer: Her father had driven a taxi in The City, so she may have been biased.) Only once before I turned 15 did she let me go to a Yankee game via the Subway, and she went with me, hating every minute of both the ride up and the ride back.

Goetz was born in Queens, and grew up Upstate before being sent to boarding school in Switzerland. He came back for college, and became an electrical engineer. In 1981, he was attacked by 3 young black men in the Canal Street subway station, injuring and robbing him. The attackers were caught, but never served time. This angered him, and he applied for a permit to carry a concealed weapon. He chose a 5-shot .38-caliber revolver.

He was setting himself up to be life imitating art. In the 1974 film Death Wish, Charles Bronson played Paul Kersey, a man whose wife was killed and his daughter raped during a home invasion and robbery, and took to shooting criminals. He ended up shooting and killing 2 would-be muggers on a AA Train. Of course, in order to avoid the charge of racism, white actors were cast as the muggers.

(The AA was relabeled the K in 1985, and discontinued in 1988. Someone once asked me what would have happened if Kersey had met the titular gang from the 1979 film The Warriors on the Subway. The answer is obvious: Nothing would have happened. The Warriors, too, only wanted to get home safely, and would not have disturbed Kersey. So he would have left them alone, too.)

On December 22, 1984, 4 African-Americans from The Bronx boarded a downtown Number 2 Train. James Ramseur was 18 years old. The other 3 were all 19: Barry Allen (definitely not to be confused with the comic book character of the same name, the superhero known as The Flash), Troy Canty and Darrell Cabey. They told the police they were on their way to rob a video arcade in Manhattan.

When the train got to 14th Street and 7th Avenue, it was about 1:30 in the afternoon. Goetz, then 37 years old, boarded, and sat across from the 4 teenagers. They surrounded him, to prevent anyone from interfering, and Canty said, "Give me five dollars." He later told the police it was an attempt at panhandling, not a mugging. None of them had pulled any kind of weapon.

Goetz did, and fired it. He ended up wounding all four. Cabey was paralyzed, while the others' wounds were not nearly as serious.

Goetz got off the train, went home, gathered some belongings, and fled the city. He rented a car, and drove 185 miles to Bennington, Vermont, destroying the evidence: He burned his recognizable blue jacket, and dismantled the gun, scattering the pieces in the woods.

For a few days, the shooter's identity was unknown. But people praised him for standing up to criminals and taking action against them. Christmas came and went, and his identity was still unknown.

But on December 26, someone called the New York Police Department's anonymous tip line, and mentioned Goetz' name and his previous mugging. On December 29, the police got a warrant and searched his apartment. On December 31, New Year's Eve, having heard of these developments, Goetz knew the game was up. He drove to Concord, New Hampshire, and turned himself in to the police there. By the time the ball dropped in Times Square at 12:00 Midnight, the world knew his name.

He told the Concord police that New York City was "lawless," and that the criminal justice system was "a joke," "a sham," and "a disgrace." On January 3, 1985, he was extradited to Manhattan.

It was between Ronald Reagan's re-election as President and his Inauguration for a 2nd term. It was the time of action films starring Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Chuck Norris, and the aforementioned Charles Bronson. Except this was real, and Bernhard Goetz became a folk hero for the time, at least among right-wingers, angry at crime and bigoted toward black people in general. For liberals, he was no hero, but they had to admit that there had to be a better way to fight crime than what was being done.

Goetz would end up convicted of "criminal possession of a weapon in the third degree," but acquitted of the attempted murder and first-degree assault charges, due to his claims of self-defense. He was sentenced to 1 year in jail, 1 year of psychiatric treatment, 5 years of probation, 200 hours of community service, and a $5,000 fine (about $14,000 in 2022 money). He ended up serving 8 months.

A civil trial found that Goetz had "acted recklessly and had deliberately inflicted emotional distress on" the paralyzed Cabey. Cabey was awarded $43 million (about $121 million today) -- $18 million for "pain and suffering," and $25 million in "punitive damages." Goetz soon declared bankruptcy. In a 2004 interview with Fox News host Nancy Grace, he admitted -- bragged? -- that he hadn't paid a penny.

Crime peaked in New York in 1990, then finally began to go down a little bit. In 1994, President Bill Clinton signed the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, a bill sponsored in the Senate by Joe Biden of Delaware, later to be President himself; and in the House by Chuck Schumer of New York and Richard Durbin of Illinois, both later to be elected to the Senate. Its provisions, including the hiring of new police officers, changes in tactics, and tougher penalties for crimes led to a huge dropoff in crime, especially in New York.

During the 1996 World Series, just 2 years later, the NYPD revealed that, despite being in the South Bronx, which had been one of the most crime-ridden neighborhoods in America, 96 percent of the crime within a block of Yankee Stadium was ticket scalping, a nonviolent offense. In 2006, New York ranked 194th out of 210 American cities with at least 100,000 people in terms of violent crime. By 2014, crime rates were comparable to those of the early 1960s, before the big wave began.

In 1986, James Ramseur was convicted of rape and robbery, served 14 years in prison, and died in 2011 of a drug overdose. He was 45 years old. Darryl Cabey remains paralyzed and brain-damaged, supposedly with the cognitive ability of an 8-year-old. Barry Allen also went to prison for an unrelated robbery, serving 4 years. Troy Canty went to drug rehab and got clean. I can find no reference as to what Allen and Canty are doing now. The 3 survivors are all 57 years old.

Goetz is 75. In 2013, he was arrested for selling marijuana, but the charges were dismissed the next year. He has became a vegetarian activist. In 2019, he publicly announced that he would no longer do interviews.

Also in 2019, the film Joker premiered. Director Todd Phillips delivered a variation on the story of the comic book villain, traditionally the nemesis of Batman. Setting it in 1981 in fictional Gotham City, he included a scene reminiscent of the Goetz case, and also of the Subway shooting scene in Death Wish.

Not counting individuals implied as being part of a group, like the Beatles and the performers at Woodstock, "Bernie" Goetz is 1 of 4 people mentioned in Billy Joel's 1989 song "We Didn't Start the Fire" who are still alive at the end of 2022. The others are Brigitte Bardot, Chubby Checker and Bob Dylan. Goetz is easily the youngest of them, and is likely to be the last survivor.

I'm hoping he turns out not to be. He was no hero.

*

December 22, 1984 was a Saturday. It was the off-season for Major League Baseball. An NFL Playoff game was played that day: The Seattle Seahawks beat the Los Angeles Raiders, 13-7 at the Kingdome in Seattle.

Three college football bowl games were played that day:

* Florida Citrus Bowl, at the Citrus Bowl (now Camping World Stadium) in Orlando: Georgia and Florida State played to a 17-17 tie.

* Sun Bowl, at the Sun Bowl in El Paso, Texas: Maryland 28, Tennessee 27.

* Cherry Bowl, at the Silverdome in the Detroit suburb of Pontiac, Michigan: Army 10, Michigan State 6.

There were 9 NBA games played that day. The New York Knicks were not involved in any of them, but the New York Tri-State Area's other team was:

* The New Jersey Nets lost to the Philadelphia 76ers, 107-93 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia. Moses Malone led all scorers with 26 points, Andrew Toney scored 25, former Net Julius "Dr. J" Erving scored 20, and Otis Birdsong scored 24 in defeat.

* The Atlanta Hawks beat the Washington Bullets, 119-101 at The Omni in Atlanta. Dominique Wilkins, "The Human Highlight Film," scored 31 points.

* The Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Indiana Pacers, 106-103 at the Market Square Arena in Indianapolis. Phil Hubbard scored 30 for the Cavs.

* The Chicago Bulls beat the Boston Celtics, 110-85 at the Chicago Stadium. Danny Ainge led the defending NBA Champions with 16 points, and Larry Bird only scored 10. Leading all scorers in the game, with 32 points, was a Bulls rookie named Michael Jordan.

* The Milwaukee Bucks beat the San Antonio Spurs, 101-90 at the Milwaukee Exposition, Convention Center and Arena, or "The MECCA." Since 2014, it has been named the UW-Panther Arena.

* The Kansas City Kings beat the Detroit Pistons, 129-123 at the Kemper Arena in Kansas City. (It's now named the Hy-Vee Arena.) This would be the Kings' last season in Kansas City, as they soon moved to Sacramento. Mike Woodson, the future Knicks coach, scored 31 for them in this game.

* The Houston Rockets beat the Denver Nuggets, 125-107 at The Summit in Houston. (It's now the Lakewood Church Central Campus, the "megachurch" of televangelist Joel Osteen.) 

* The Dallas Mavericks beat the Utah Jazz, 113-96 at the Salt Palace in Salt Lake City.

* And the Phoenix Suns beat the Portland Trail Blazers, 110-108 at the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix.

There were 9 NHL games that day, and all 3 of the New York Tri-State Area's teams were in action, 2 of them against each other:

* The New York Rangers beat the New Jersey Devils, 5-3 at the Brendan Byrne Arena. Pierre Larouche scored 2 goals for the Broadway Blueshirts. The Devils' scorers were Captain Mel Bridgman, Dave Pichette and Doug Sulliman.

* The New York Islanders beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 5-2 at the Nassau Coliseum.

* The Washington Capitals beat the St. Louis Blues, 7-5 at the Capital Centre in the Washington suburb of Landover, Maryland.

* The Quebec Nordiques beat the Buffalo Sabres, 3-1 at the Colisee de Quebec.

* The Montreal Canadiens beat the Hartford Whalers, 10-5 at the Montreal Forum.

* In an "Original Six" matchup broadcast live on CBC's Hockey Night In Canada, the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Boston Bruins, 6-4 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.

* The Minnesota North Stars beat the Detroit Red Wings, 5-4 at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit.

* The Winnipeg Jets beat the Los Angeles Kings, 6-2 at the Winnipeg Arena.

* And in the HNIC nightcap, in the Battle of Alberta, the defending, and soon to be again, Stanley Cup Champions, the Edmonton Oilers, clobbered the Calgary Flames, 7-1.

Also, Arsenal drew with Watford, 1-1 at Highbury in North London.

December 21, 1988: The Bombing of Pan Am Flight 103

December 21, 1988: Pan Am Flight 103 is blown up over Lockerbie, Scotland. It is one of the most notorious cases of terrorism to date, and remains the deadliest ever to occur in the British Isles.

A Boeing 747, it had taken off from Frankfurt, Germany at 4:19 PM, and stopped over at Heathrow Airport in London at 5:40. At 6:25, it took off again, heading for John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York. After a refueling, it would then have taken off for Detroit, its final stop.

But at 7:03 PM, Greenwich Mean Time -- 2:03, U.S. Eastern Time -- the plane exploded over Lockerbie, about 15 miles northwest of the Scotland-England "border," 74 miles south of Edinburgh, 72 miles southeast of Glasgow, and 341 miles northwest of Central London.

The bombing and crash claimed the lives of all 259 individuals on board the plane, and 11 people on the ground below. The victims were citizens of 21 countries. Of those killed, 190 were United States citizens, making the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 the deadliest terrorist attack against American civilians prior to September 11, 2001. It remains the deadliest attack in the history of the United Kingdom.

The bombing didn't just kill 270 people. Essentially, it killed Pan American World Airways as well: Already in financial trouble, Pan Am never recovered, and went out of business on December 4, 1991, just under 3 years later.

The bombing hung over the Christmas season in both America and Britain. On December 23, 2 days later, reports surfaced that the U.S. Embassy in Finland received bomb threats against a Pan Am flight. On December 28, 5 days after that, British investigators reported that a bomb in the luggage compartment caused the explosion.

The bombing came 2 1/2 years after President Ronald Reagan retaliated for Libyan terrorist attacks that had killed American soldiers stationed in Europe, by bombing targets in Libya, including a palace owned by dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

Conservatives used to tell me that once Reagan bombed Libya, Gaddafi left Americans alone. He did – until he gave Reagan, who was to leave office a month later due to term limits, something dictators don't officially have, this going-away present.

Arrest warrants were issued for two Libyan nationals in November 1991. After protracted negotiations and United Nations sanctions, on April 5, 1999, Gaddafi handed over the two men for trial at Camp Zeist, the Netherlands. On January 31, 2001, Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, a Libyan intelligence officer, was found guilty of 270 counts of murder in connection with the bombing. He remains the only person ever convicted of involvement. The other man handed over, Lamin Khalifah Fhimah, was found not guilty, and released.

On November 2, 2009, having been diagnosed with cancer, the Scottish government released him on compassionate grounds. He had been in custody for 10 1/2 years, for murdering 270 people. He lived until May 20, 2012.

In 2003, Gaddafi accepted Libya's responsibility for the Lockerbie bombing, and paid over $1 billion dollars in compensation to the families of the victims, a very unusual outcome for a terrorist bombing. He maintained that he had never personally given the order for the attack.

He finally answered for his crime on October 20, 2011. His former Minister of Justice, Mustafa Abdul Jalil, claimed that Gaddafi had personally ordered the attack.

As of December 21, 2022, Lamin Khalifah Fhimah is still alive.

*

December 21, 1988 was a Wednesday. Baseball was out of season. The NFL was in midweek, and there were no college bowl games that day. There were 6 games in the NBA:

* The New Jersey Nets beat the Dallas Mavericks, 122-120 in overtime at the Brendan Byrne Arena at the Meadowlands.

* The Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Boston Celtics, 115-114 at the Boston Garden.

* The Utah Jazz beat the Washington Bullets, 98-82 at the Capital Centre in the Washington suburb of Landover, Maryland.

* The Milwaukee Bucks beat the Charlotte Hornets, 112-100 at the Charlotte Coliseum.

* The Seattle SuperSonics beat the Miami Heat, 109-101 at the Miami Arena.

* And the San Antonio Spurs beat the Sacramento Kings, 125-107 at the HemisFair Arena in San Antonio.

And there were 8 games in the NHL:

* The New York Rangers lost to the Buffalo Sabres, 5-2 at Madison Square Garden.

* The New Jersey Devils and the Winnipeg Jets played to a tie, 5-5 at the Winnipeg Arena.

* The Montreal Canadiens beat their Provincial rivals, the Quebec Nordiques, 6-4 at the Montreal Forum.

* The Boston Bruins beat their fellow New Englanders, the Hartford Whalers, 4-3 at the Hartford Civic Center (now the PeoplesBank Arena).

* The Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 6-1 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.

* The Washington Capitals beat the Chicago Blackhawks, 4-3 at the Chicago Stadium.

* The Vancouver Canucks beat the Edmonton Oilers, 3-1 at the Northlands Coliseum in Edmonton.

* And The Los Angeles Kings beat the Minnesota North Stars, 8-6 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California.

December 20, 1987: The Doña Paz Disaster

December 20, 1987: The ferry MV Doña Paz collides with the oil tanker MT Vector in the Tablas Strait of their home country, the Philippines. With an estimated death toll of 4,386 people and only 24 survivors, it remains the deadliest peacetime maritime disaster in history.

Built by Onomichi Zosen of Hiroshima, Japan, the ship was launched on April 25, 1963 as the Himeyuri Maru, with a passenger capacity of 608. In October 1975, the Himeyuri Maru was bought by Sulpicio Lines, and renamed the Don Sulpicio. After a fire aboard in June 1979, the ship was refurbished and renamed Doña Paz.

Traveling from Leyte Island to the Philippine capital of Manila, the vessel was seriously overcrowded, with at least 2,000 passengers not listed on the manifest. It has also been claimed that the ship did not have a radio, and that the life jackets were locked away.

However, official blame was directed at the tanker Vector, which collided with the Doña Paz, and was found to be unseaworthy, and to be operating without a license, a lookout, or a qualified master. 

*

December 20, 1987 was a Sunday. Football star Malcolm Jenkins was born.

Baseball was out of season. These NFL games were played:

* The New York Jets lost to the Philadelphia Eagles, 38-27 at Giants Stadium in the Meadowlands.

* The football version of the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 31-14 at Tampa Stadium. This was the next-to-last game for the "Big Red" before moving to Phoenix.

* The Miami Dolphins beat the Washington Redskins, 23-21 at Joe Robbie Stadium (now Hard Rock Stadium) in Miami Gardens, Florida.

* The Houston Oilers beat the Pittsburgh Steelers, 24-16 at the Astrodome in Houston.

* The New England Patriots beat the Buffalo Bills, 13-7 at Rich Stadium (formerly Ralph Wilson Stadium) in the Buffalo suburb of Orchard Park, New York.

* The New Orleans Saints beat the Cincinnati Bengals, 41-24 at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati.

* The Seattle Seahawks beat the Chicago Bears, 34-21 at Soldier Field in Chicago.

* The Minnesota Vikings beat the Detroit Lions, 17-14 at the Silverdome in the Detroit suburb of Pontiac, Michigan.

* The Indianapolis Colts beat the San Diego Chargers, 20-7 at Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego.

* The Cleveland Browns beat the Los Angeles Raiders, 24-17 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

* The San Francisco 49ers beat the Atlanta Falcons, 35-7 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco.

* The day before, the New York Giants beat the Green Bay Packers, 20-10 at Giants Stadium in the Meadowlands.

* Also the day before, the Denver Broncos beat the Kansas City Chiefs, 20-17 at Mile High Stadium in Denver.

* And the next night, on ABC Monday Night Football, the Dallas Cowboys beat the Los Angeles Rams, 29-21 at Anaheim Stadium (now Angel Stadium of Anaheim).

There were 5 games played in the NBA:

* The Boston Celtics beat the Philadelphia 76ers, 124-87 at the Boston Garden.

* The Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Indiana Pacers, 127-116 at The Coliseum in the Cleveland suburb of Richfield, Ohio.

* The Los Angeles Lakers beat the Seattle SuperSonics, 103-94 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California.

* The Phoenix Suns beat the Sacramento Kings, 120-109 at the original ARCO Arena in Sacramento. Larry Nance Sr. led all scorers on the day with 45 points.

* And the Portland Trail Blazers beat the San Antonio Spurs, 148-126 at the Portland Memorial Coliseum. Clyde Drexler scored 40 points.

There were 7 games in the NHL:

* The New York Rangers lost to the Pittsburgh Penguins, 8-4 at Madison Square Garden.

* The New Jersey Devils lost to the Winnipeg Jets, 4-1 at the Winnipeg Arena.

* The Quebec Nordiques beat the Detroit Red Wings, 4-2 at the Colisée de Québec.

* The St. Louis Blues and the Washington Capitals played to a tie, 1-1 at the Capital Centre in the Washington suburb of Landover, Maryland.

* In an "Original Six" matchup, the Boston Bruins beat the Chicago Blackhawks, 4-2 at the Chicago Stadium.

* The Los Angeles Kings beat the Calgary Flames, 6-3 at the Saddledome in Calgary.

* And the Hartford Whalers and the Vancouver Canucks played to a tie, 3-3 at the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver.

December 17, 1984: Brigham Young University, National Champions

Robbie Bosco

December 17, 1984: The football team at Brigham Young University defeats the University of Michigan, 24-17 in the Holiday Bowl at Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego -- a game that, under the rules of the time, BYU were locked into as Champions of the Western Athletic Conference.

This was not a particularly strong Michigan team, going in at just 6-5, and probably getting the bowl bid solely because of their history. Nevertheless, the Cougars of coach LaVell Edwards and quarterback Robbie Bosco beat them, leading a 4th-quarter comeback down 17-10 and throwing the winning touchdown pass with 1:23 left, and finished an undefeated 13-0 season.

No other team finished the season undefeated. The University of Washington finished 11-1, beating Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl. But their 1 loss, to USC (the University of Southern California), cost them the Pacific-10 Conference title, and if you're not Conference Champions, you shouldn't be crowned National Champions -- a principle that should have been held once the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) and later the Playoffs finally did come, but didn't.

Oklahoma, who won the Big 8 Conference, had been Number 2, but this loss eliminated them. Florida had been Number 3, and won the Southeastern Conference title, but were on probation, and were ineligible for a bowl game, costing them the National Championship.

Put it all together, and, voting on January 2, 1985, the Associated Press (AP) in their poll of college football writers, and United Press International (UPI) in their poll of college football coaches both gave BYU got a very dubious national title.

BYU had some unfair advantages. Being in the WAC, they had a rather weak schedule. The only ranked team they beat all season was the University of Pittsburgh, then Number 3, 20-14 in their season opener. They only beat Hawaii 18-13. They only beat Wyoming 41-38. They only beat the Air Force Academy 30-25. Their season was similar to that of the 1972 Miami Dolphins: They rarely looked like a great team, but they went undefeated, and won the Super Bowl.

Another unfair advantage BYU had was missions. As a school run by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, a.k.a. the Mormons, and named for the man who led the early Church to Salt Lake City -- the University is in Provo, 50 miles to the south -- they send their men on missions, and even "redshirt" their good players, so that their seniors are 23, 24 or 25 years old, playing opponents between 18 and 22 years old.

Then as now, the NCAA usually grants a player 5 years to complete 4 years of eligibility, but allows exceptions for injuries, military service, and, yes, religious missions -- something the 1st Amendment to the Constitution, with its freedom of religion, requires them to allow. Yet other schools famous for being run by religious institutions, such as Catholic schools like Notre Dame and Boston College, don't require missions. Nor do the Protestant schools in Texas that play major college football: Southern Methodist (SMU) in Dallas, Texas Christian (TCU, Disciples of Christ) in Fort Worth, or Baylor (Baptist) in Waco.

The Mormons do require missions, but will grant exceptions in some cases, including that of the man who was their quarterback the 4 previous seasons, and their most famous player ever, who just so happened to be the great-great-great-grandson of the school's namesake: Steve Young. That was seen as a bit hypocritical, because they were viewed as wanted to raise their profile, as well as raise money, off Steve's pro career.

Built in 1964, BYU's Cougar Stadium was renamed for coach Edwards following his retirement after the 2000 season. Under him, they won 19 Conference Championships -- the 1st 18 in the WAC, the last in the new Mountain West Conference -- in a span of 26 seasons. They became known for "mad bomber" quarterbacks, such as Virgil Carter, Gary Sheide, Gifford Nielsen, Marc Wilson, Jim McMahon, Young and Bosco; and, after Bosco, Ty Detmer, John Walsh. (Detmer's brother Koy starred at the University of Colorado.)

LaVell Edwards

Despite finishing 3rd in the Heisman Trophy voting in both 1984 and 1985, and winning a National Championship, Bosco never played a down in the NFL, the USFL or the CFL. Since 1989, he has been employed by BYU. Apparently, they take care of their own. Edwards died in 2016.

*

December 17, 1984 was a Monday. On ABC Monday Night Football, the Miami Dolphins beat the Dallas Cowboys, 28-21 at the Orange Bowl in Miami.

Baseball was out of season. No games were played in the NBA. Two were played in the NHL. The St. Louis Blues beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 3-2 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto. And the New Jersey Devils beat the Edmonton Oilers, 5-2 at the Brendan Byrne Arena in the Meadowlands. It had been 7 months since the Oilers, led by Wayne Gretzky, had won their 1st Stanley Cup; and 13 months since Gretzky had called the Devils "a Mickey Mouse organization" following a 13-4 Oilers win over them in Edmonton. Well, Wayne, how did they look after this?

December 14, 1920: George Gipp Dies

December 14, 1920: George Gipp dies of pneumonia, possibly related to a streptococcus infection, at St. Joseph's Hospital in South Bend, Indiana, seat of the University of Notre Dame, where he was a student. He was 25 years old.

He was born on February 18, 1895, 13 days after Babe Ruth, and 16 days after George Halas, in Laurium, on the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. He went to Notre Dame hoping to play baseball. But their head coach, Knute Rockne, thought he would be a good back, both offensive and defensive, in football. Gipp had never played the sport before, but tried it anyway.

Rockne proved to be right: Gipp was named an All-American for the 1920 football season, as Notre Dame went undefeated, 9-0:

* October 2: Beat Kalamazoo College at home, 39-0. (They are now in NCAA Division III.)

* October 9: Beat Western State at home, 42-0. (Also based in Kalamazoo, they are now named Western Michigan University.)

* October 16: Beat Nebraska in Lincoln, 16-7.

* October 23: Beat Valparaiso at home, 28-3. (Valparaiso is based in the Indiana town of the same name.)

* October 30: Beat Army at West Point, 27-17.

* November 6: Beat Purdue at home, 28-0.

* November 13: Beat Indiana at Washington Park in Indianapolis, 13-10.

* November 20: Beat Northwestern in Evanston, 33-7.

* November 25, Thanksgiving Day: Beat Michigan Agricultural in East Lansing, 25-0. (Now known as Michigan State.)

Notre Dame outscored its opponents 251-44, for an average of 29-5. And Gipp was a major reason why, on both sides of the ball. There were no official National Championships in those days, but, retroactively, some sources have listed Notre Dame as such. (Other sources awarded it to Harvard or the University of California.) 

So how did he get sick? Most likely, he was giving punting lessons in cold weather. Being in northeastern Indiana, the cold weather is the reason that the Notre Dame-USC game is played in October when it's the Fighting Irish's turn to host it, and on Thanksgiving Saturday when it's USC's turn to host in Los Angeles.

The more popular version, but the less likely one, is that Gipp, a known carouser, returned to campus after curfew one night, and found his residence hall locked. He went to Washington Hall, the campus' theatre building, because he knew the back door was often unlocked, and spent many post-curfew nights in the hall. This time, the door was locked, so he slept outside, and that's how he got pneumonia.

This story is believable because Gipp was a carouser. He was a gambler, a womanizer, and a drunkard. He was a cardplayer and a pool hustler. He would bet on anything. He even bet on his own team, just like Pete Rose would decades later. He also tended to not show up for classes (mandatory) or Mass (equally mandatory for a Catholic school in those days).

And the University, including Rockne himself, covered up for him. Under modern NCAA rules, Gipp might have singlehandedly gotten Notre Dame put on probation.

At any rate, there were no antibiotics available then. Had there been, he could have recovered quickly, spent a nice Christmas at home on the U.P., and played in the early National Football League and become a star, making bundles of money. He, rather than Red Grange of Illinois and the Chicago Bears a few years later, could have become the NFL's 1st real star. (Or maybe its 2nd, after Jim Thorpe, who was already playing for the Canton Bulldogs.) Alas, in those pre-antibiotic days, you really could die from something as simple as "strep throat."

He was buried in Lake View Cemetery, outside Calumet, Michigan. Laurium put up a monument to him.

On November 10, 1928, Notre Dame played Army at Yankee Stadium. A crowd of 78,188 saw the Cadets lead the Fighting Irish 6-0 at halftime. It wasn't that surprising: Army was undefeated, 6-0, while Notre Dame was only 4-2.

In his halftime pep talk, instead of discussing strategy, Rockne told his players, who would have been in junior high school in 1920, about George Gipp. As Rockne told it, he went to see Gipp on his deathbed, and Gipp told him: 

I've got to go, Rock. It's all right. I'm not afraid. Some time, Rock, when the team is up against it, when things are wrong, and the breaks are beating the boys, ask them to go in there with all they've got, and win just one for the Gipper. I don't know where I'll be then, Rock. But I'll know about it, and I'll be happy.

Having told the 1928 players that story, Rockne concluded by saying, "Gentlemen, this is that game." And the players left the locker room in tears, and came from behind, and beat Army 12-6.

That's the story. But it makes no sense. First of all, why choose this game? Because it was in New York? Because it was against Army? Certainly, Rockne didn't need to be afraid of losing his job: He was already an icon in South Bend.

Second of all, they were only down by 6 points. Maybe if they needed a much bigger effort, to overcome a 2-touchdown deficit, such a speech might be warranted.

Third of all, like I said, those players were just kids when Gipp died. They never saw him play. It's not like there was television back then. The newsreels probably never showed Gipp. For all they knew, Rockne could have been lying, and Gipp could have walked into the room at that moment, and they wouldn't have recognized him. (Another coach, Edward "Slip" Madigan of St. Mary's in the San Francisco Bay Area, allegedly once tearfully told his players about his sick son, and said to win the game for him, when the son walked in, just fine.) Gipp's legend shouldn't have had any effect on the 1928 Fighting Irish.

And fourth of all, if the locker room speech did happen, Rockne probably made it up. As one sportswriter put it, decades later, If Gipp said anything to Rockne as he was dying on December 14, 1920, it was probably more along the lines of, "Put a hundred bucks on the 4 horse in tomorrow's 7th race at Arlington for me."

Rockne was killed in a plane crash near Bazaar, Kansas on March 31, 1931. So, whatever the truth of the final meeting between Gipp and Rockne was, it died with Rockne.

On October 4, 1940, the film Knute Rockne, All-American premiered. Pat O'Brien played the coach. Ronald Reagan, who had played guard at Eureka College in Illinois, now an NCAA Division III school, played Gipp, and played the speech scene straight.

Reagan as Gipp

As Reagan went into politics in the 1960s, and was elected President in 1980, he often played up his connection to Notre Dame. At the 1988 Republican Convention, at the Superdome in New Orleans, knowing he couldn't run for a 3rd term, he told the new nominee, his Vice President, George H.W. Bush (who played baseball at Yale), "Go out there, and win one for the Gipper!" Meaning himself. Bush did win the election.

As Reagan fell victim to Alzheimer's disease, and could no longer make public appearances, campaign signs reading, "WIN ONE FOR THE GIPPER" appeared at rallies for Bob Dole in 1996 and George W. Bush in 2000. Reagan died in 2004, and during Bush's re-election campaign, there were more "Gipper" signs than ever before. They still come up, every 4 years: For John McCain in 2008, for Mitt Romney in 2012, and for Donald Trump in 2016 and 2020.

Reagan's political career was built on many, many lies. The "Win one for the Gipper" story was the first. If the truth about Gipp had been widely known in 1966, when Reagan was making his 1st run for public office, for Governor of California, he might never have won an election. After all, the other movie people tended to remember him for was Bedtime for Bonzo, where he worked with a chimpanzee.

George Gipp was a real person, and he really was a great football player. But the thing everybody remembers about him almost certainly isn't true. But, like Reagan's campaign promises, Rockne's Gipper speech was a fraud -- or, as the actual Irish would say, it was blarney -- that worked very well.

*

December 14, 1920 was a Tuesday. There were no scores on this historic day: The college football season was over except for the Rose Bowl, baseball was out of season, the NBA hadn't been founded yet, and while the NHL season was underway, no games were scheduled.

But there was one notable sporting event that day. Jack Dempsey defended the Heavyweight Championship of the World, knocking Bill Brennan out in the 12th round, at the 2nd Madison Square Garden, the one that stood off the actual Madison Square, at 26th Street and 5th Avenue, from 1890 to 1925. It was his only fight at any building with the name Madison Square Garden.

December 13, 1987: The Football St. Louis Cardinals Play Their Last Game

December 13, 1987: The St. Louis Cardinals football team plays its last home game. It is 28 years to the day since the franchise played its last game as the Chicago Cardinals.

I saw this game on television. A kid held up a sign: DEAR SANTA: DON'T LET THEM TAKE MY TEAM. The Cards lost to the New York Giants, 27-24. They played 2 more games on the road, beating the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and losing to the Dallas Cowboys.

After being founded as an athletic club in 1898, the team that became the Chicago Cardinals were a founding franchise of the NFL in 1920. They won the Championship in 1925 and 1947, and reached the Championship Game again in 1948. But they lost the battle for Chicagoans' hearts and minds to the Bears, and moved to St. Louis in 1960.

They went 9-5 in 1963, 9-3-2 in 1964 (finishing 2nd in the NFL Eastern Division, qualifying for the "Playoff Bowl" against the 2nd-place team in the Western Division, the Green Bay Packers, and beating them), 8-5-1 in 1966, 9-4-1 in 1968, and 8-5-1 in 1970.

In 1974, they went 10-4. In 1975, they went 11-3. Both seasons, they won the NFC Eastern Division, but lost in the Divisional Playoff. In 1976, they went 10-4, but missed the Playoffs. So they were at least competitive for most of their run in St. Louis.

After some down years, they reached the strike-forced expanded Playoffs of 1982. As late as 1984, they were 9-7. But with the baseball Cardinals in a glory age, and the NHL's Blues also strong, and St. Louis never having really been a good football town, they struggled for attention and attendance.

After a pair of 11-loss seasons, they were only 7-8 in the strike-shortened 1987 season. This was in spite of CBS Sports' NFL oddsmaker, Jimmy "the Greek" Snyder, predicting a Super Bowl between the Cardinals and the Los Angeles Raiders. (The Raiders were even worse: 5-10, their worst finish in 24 years. That wasn't why CBS fired Snyder, but if it had been, the real reason wouldn't have happened, and he would have been better off.) When Bill Bidwill got the chance to move to Phoenix -- which had nearly gotten the Philadelphia Eagles in 1984 -- he jumped at the chance.

The NFL returned to St. Louis in 1995, when Los Angeles Rams owner Georgia Frontiere, a St. Louis native unhappy with her stadium situation in Anaheim, moved them into Busch Memorial Stadium, using it as a stopgap until what became known as the Trans World Dome, the Edward Jones Dome, and The Dome at America's Center opened in mid-season.

She died in 2008, and in 2010, her children sold the team to minority owner Stan Kroenke. After the 2015 season, unhappy with his lease at the Dome, he moved the team back to Los Angeles, and began building SoFi Stadium. That time, there was little outcry: Only 1,500 fans attended a protest at St. Louis' City Hall. Though plans for a replacement dome have been put forward, the NFL has no plans to expand to St. Louis, and no team owner wants to move to a city that has failed in the League 4 times, twice in the modern era.

UPDATE: The Arizona Cardinals have established a Ring of Honor. It includes all Chicago Cardinals in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio: John "Paddy" Driscoll, Ernie Nevers, Charlie Trippi, Marshall "Biggie" Goldberg, Dick "Night Train" Laine, Ollie Matson, 1947 NFL Championship coach Jimmy Conzelman, and team owner Charles Bidwill. It also includes all St. Louis Cardinals football figures in Canton: Larry Wilson, Jackie Smith, Roger Wehrli and Dan Dierdorf; plus non-Hall-of-Famers Jim Hart and Roy Green.

And from their Arizona years, through the 2025 season, it includes Aeneas Williams, Pat Tillman, Adrian Wilson, Kurt Warner and Carson Palmer. Presumably, Larry Fitzgerald will be inducted within the next few years.

Wilson, Smith, Wehrli, Dierdorf, Hart, Green, Jim Bakken, Johnny Roland, Jim Otis, Irv Goode, Bob DeMarco, Bob Rowe, Conrad Dobler, Terry Metcalf, Ottis Anderson, and coaches Don Coryell and Jim Hanifan have been elected to the St. Louis Sports Hall of Fame.

Wilson, Smith, Wehrli, Dierdorf, Hart, Green, Otis, Goode, Dobler and Hanifan have been elected to the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame. So has running back Mel Gray.

Tillman, Fitzgerald, Jake Plummer, and moving owner Bill Bidwill have been elected to the Arizona Sports Hall of Fame.

*

December 13, 1987 was a Sunday. These other NFL games were played that day:

* The New York Jets lost to the New England Patriots, 42-20 at Sullivan Stadium (formerly Schafer Stadium, later Foxboro Stadium) in the Boston suburb of Foxborough, Massachusetts.

* The Miami Dolphins beat the Philadelphia Eagles, 28-10 at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia.

* The Washington Redskins beat their arch-rivals, the Dallas Cowboys, 24-20 at Robert F. Kennedy Stadium in Washington.

* The Detroit Lions beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 20-10 at Tampa Stadium in Tampa.

* The New Orleans Saints beat the Houston Oilers, 24-10 at the Superdome in New Orleans.

* The Cleveland Browns beat their intra-State rivals, the Cincinnati Bengals, 38-24 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium.

* The Buffalo Bills beat the Indianapolis Colts, 27-3 at the Hoosier Dome in Indianapolis.

* The Green Bay Packers beat the Minnesota Vikings, 16-10 at Milwaukee County Stadium.

* The Kansas City Chiefs beat the Los Angeles Raiders, 16-10 at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City.

* The Los Angeles Rams beat the Atlanta Falcons, 33-0 at Anaheim Stadium (now Angel Stadium of Anaheim).

* The Pittsburgh Steelers beat the San Diego Chargers, 20-16 at Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego.

* The Seattle Seahawks beat the Denver Broncos, 28-21 at the Kingdome in Seattle.

* The next night, on ABC Monday Night Football, the San Francisco 49ers beat the Chicago Bears, 41-0 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco.

Baseball was out of season. There were 3 games in the NBA:

* The Dallas Mavericks beat the Milwaukee Bucks, 113-99 at the Milwaukee Exposition and Convention Center Arena, a.k.a. The MECCA (now the UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena).

* The Los Angeles Lakers beat the Cleveland Cavaliers, 90-89 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California.

* And the Atlanta Hawks beat the Sacramento Kings, 106-100 at the original ARCO Arena in Sacramento, California. A replacement arena opened the next season, also with the ARCO name. Reggie Theus scored 35 in defeat for the Kings.

And there were 3 games in the NHL:

* The Calgary Flames beat the Buffalo Sabres, 7-1 at the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium.

* In an "Original Six" matchup, the Chicago Blackhawks beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 5-1 at the Chicago Stadium.

* And the Philadelphia Flyers beat the Winnipeg Jets, 4-3 at the Winnipeg Arena.