November 16, 1962: "One Day In the Life of Ivan Denisovich" Is Published

November 16, 1962: One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn begins to be serialized in Novy Mir (New World), a Soviet literary magazine. It was assigned to my high school English class, and it took me most of the book before I realized that "Shukhov," the apparent protagonist, and "Ivan Denisovich," as he was addressed by the gulag guard, were the same person. It was even longer -- seeing an interview in which Gorbachev was addressed by the journalist as "Mikhail Sergeyevich" -- before I understood that Russians informally addressed each other by "(First name) (middle name)" instead of "(First name)."

The story is set in a Soviet labor camp in the early 1950s, when Joseph Stalin was still alive and in charge of the Soviet Union. The book's publication was an extraordinary event in Soviet literary history, since never before had an account of Stalinist repressions been openly distributed.

Solzhenitsyn (1918-2008), like his character Shukov, had been a dedicated Communist who was falsely accused of being a spy during World War II, and spent 8 years in a gulag. He was then sent into exile for criticizing Stalin in a private letter. This led him to return to his family's Russian Orthodox Church. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1970.

But his 1973 publication of The Gulag Archipelago made him a chelovek ne privetstvuyetsya -- that's Russian for "persona non grata." He lived in America from 1976 to 1994, having had his Russian citizenship restored, and he moved back to his homeland.

*

November 16, 1962 was a Friday. Baseball season was over. Football was in midweek. And no NHL games were scheduled. But there were 3 NBA games played that day:

* The New York Knicks lost to the San Francisco Warriors, 127-111 at the old Madison Square Garden. Wilt Chamberlain had a good night for the Warriors, scoring 73 points.

* The Syracuse Nationals beat the Boston Celtics, 113-105 at the Onondaga County War Memorial (now the Upstate Medical University Arena) in Syracuse, New York.

* And the Cincinnati Royals beat the St. Louis Hawks, 120-111 at the Cincinnati Gardens.

October 15, 1966: Bill Russell Becomes the NBA's 1st Black Head Coach

October 15, 1966: The Boston Celtics open the NBA season by defeating the San Francisco Warriors, 121-113 at the Boston Garden. Rick Barry scores 41 points for the Warriors, but, as usual, the Celtics have a more balanced team, led by 29 points from Sam Jones.

Bill Russell scores only 8 points, but he had other things on his mind. Namely, he was now a player-coach, the 1st black coach in NBA history, and, unless you count Fritz Polland of the 1st NFL Champions, the 1920 Akron Pros (and the NFL was hardly a major league at that point), the 1st black coach in the history of North American major league sports. That this happens on the birthday of Willie O'Ree, and in the building he also called home with the Bruins, is interesting, but not especially relevant to Russell's story.

The Celtics would fall to the Philadelphia 76ers in the Eastern Conference Finals this season, but Russell would lead them to the NBA title in 1968 and 1969 -- making him the most recent player-coach to lead a team to a World Championship.

Alas, while Bill Russell is still one of the Top 10 players in NBA history, he didn't do so well as a coach when he didn't have Bill Russell as a player: With himself playing, his coaching record is 162-83, for a winning percentage of .661; otherwise, with the 1974-77 Seattle SuperSonics and the 1987-88 Sacramento Kings, he's 100-122, .450; overall, 341-290, for a winning percentage of .540.

*

October 15, 1966 was a Saturday. Among the other NBA games played that day was the Chicago Bulls making their debut. Guy Rodgers scored 36 points, and they beat the St. Louis Hawks, 104-97 at the Kiel Auditorium. For most of their history, the Bulls will be at least good, and, at times, historically good.

* Also, the New York Knicks lost to the Philadelphia 76ers, 128-112 at the Philadelphia Civic Center. Wilt Chamberlain scored 28 points and had 21 rebounds.

* The Los Angeles Lakers beat the Baltimore Bullets, 126-115 at Baltimore Civic Center (now the CFG Bank Arena). Elgin Baylor of the Lakers and Gus Johnson of the Bullets each scored 36 points.

* And the Cincinnati Royals beat the Detroit Pistons, 103-99 at the Cincinnati Gardens. Oscar Robertson scored 37 points.

This was one of the rare seasons in which the NBA started before the NHL, which didn't begin for another 4 days. The baseball seasons ended 6 days earlier, when the Baltimore Orioles swept the Los Angeles Dodgers in the World Series. But there was college football on this day, including the following games:

* Number 1 Michigan State beat Ohio State, 11-8 at Ohio Stadium in Columbus.

* Number 2 Notre Dame beat North Carolina, 32-0 at Notre Dame Stadium in South Bend, Indiana. Notre Dame and Michigan State were on a collision course, and played to a 10-10 tie, and the National Championship voters awarded it to Notre Dame. Michigan State were robbed.

* Number 3 Alabama beat Tennessee, 11-10 at Neyland Stadium in Knoxville, Tennessee. Alabama would finish undefeated and, unlike Michigan State and Notre Dame, also untied. If you don't think Michigan State were robbed, certainly, Alabama were.

* Number 4 UCLA beat Penn State, 49-11 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

* Number 5 Southern California beat Stanford, 21-7 at the old Stanford Stadium in the San Francisco suburb of Palo Alto, California. USC won the title in the Athletic Association of Western Universities, a precursor to the league now named the Pacific-Twelve Conference.

* Number 6 Nebraska beat Kansas State, 21-10 at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln, Nebraska. Nebraska won the Big Eight Championship, but lost to Alabama in the Sugar Bowl.

* Number 7 Georgia Tech beat Auburn, 17-3 at Cliff Hare Stadium (now Jordan-Hare Stadium) in Auburn, Alabama.

* Number 8 Florida, led by quarterback Steve Spurrier, who went on to win the Heisman Trophy, beat North Carolina State, 17-10 at Carter Stadium in Raleigh, North Carolina. That stadium had opened just the week before, as N.C. State lost to South Carolina. It was renamed Carter-Finley Stadium in 1979. Florida went on to beat Georgia Tech in the Orange Bowl.

* Number 9 Purdue beat Michigan, 22-21 at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Because the Big Ten Conference still had that stupid rule that a team couldn't go to the Rose Bowl in back-to-back years, Champions Michigan State were ineligible, so 2nd-place Purdue went. Led by quarterback Bob Griese, the beat USC. It was Purdue's 1st bowl game ever, and remains their only Rose Bowl win.

* Army beat Rutgers, 14-9 at Rutgers Stadium in Piscataway, New Jersey.

* Navy beat Pittsburgh, 24-7 at Pitt Stadium in Pittsburgh.

* And Princeton lost to Colgate, 7-0 at Palmer Stadium in Princeton.

Also on this day, Bob McNab makes his debut for Arsenal. The left back doesn't make much of a difference, as the Gunners lose 3-1 to a strong Leeds United team at Highbury. But McNab will go on to help Arsenal win the 1970 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, and both the Football League and the FA Cup, "the Double," in 1971.

April 24, 1967: The 76ers' Vengeance

April 24, 1967: The Philadelphia 76ers beat the San Francisco Warriors, the former Philadelphia team, 125-122 at the Cow Palace outside San Francisco. This was Game 6 of the Finals, and it capped one of the greatest seasons in NBA history.  It is their 1st title since moving to Philadelphia 4 years ago, the 3rd NBA title for the city (the Warriors had won it in 1947 and 1956), and the 1st World Championship for Wilt Chamberlain.

The 76ers, who started out 41-3 on their way to a then-NBA record 68 wins, had Hall-of-Famers Chamberlain, Hal Greer, Chet "the Jet" Walker, Larry Costello and rookie Billy Cunningham. They also had Wally Jones, whom fellow Overbrook High of West Philly graduate Wilt called "the first man in space" because of his jumping ability. Jones later converted to Islam, and slightly altered his name to Wali Jones. ; Bill Melchionni, later to win ABA titles with the New York Nets; and another rookie, Matt Guokas, whose father, Matt Sr., had played on the '47 Warriors and became a great broadcaster for the Philadelphia Eagles.

They were coached by Alex Hannum, who had also led the 1958 St. Louis Hawks to the title, and would lead the 1969 Oakland Oaks to the ABA title. Their general manager was Jack Ramsay, who would coach the Portland Trail Blazers to the NBA title in 1977.

Wilt celebrated all summer long. And now you know why 1967 was known as the Summer of Love.

Cunningham would coach their 1983 NBA Champions. Matt Guokas Jr., whose father Matt Sr. was a member of the Philadelphia Eagles' 1948 and '49 NFL Champions, was a reserve on the '67 76ers, and a broadcaster for the '83 76ers. The team has never won an NBA title without Cunningham and Gukoas being involved.

The Warriors had won the NBA Championship in 1947 and 1956, while playing in Philadelphia. Chamberlain played for them from 1959 to 1965, including their 1962 move to San Francisco. The Syracuse Nationals, who had won the NBA Championship in 1955, moved to become the 76ers in 1963. The Warriors changed their name to the Golden State Warriors in 1971, and have won the Championship in 1975, 2015, 2017, 2018 and 2022. So the Warriors have won 7 titles, the 76ers have won 3, and Philadelphia has won 4 -- but none since 1983.

The 76ers retired Chamberlain's Number 13, Greer's Number 15 and Cunningham's Number 32. Those men, along with Wali Jones, Chet Walker, Bill Melchionni, head coach Jack Ramsay, statistician Harvey Pollack, public address announcer Dave Zinkoff and broadcaster Bill Campbell, have been elected to the Philadelphia Sports Hall of Fame.

*

April 24, 1967 was a Monday. Croatian basketball star Dino Rađa (his name usually written in English as Dino Rajda) was born on this day. This was also the day that Soviet cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov became the space race's 1st in-flight fatality. I have a separate entry for this event.

The Stanley Cup Finals were between Games 2 and 3. The series was tied, 1-1, and the Toronto Maple Leafs ended up beating the Montreal Canadiens in 6 games.

And there were 3 games played in baseball:

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Washington Senators, 7-4 at District of Columbia Stadium in Washington. (It was renamed Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium in 1969.) Carl Yastrzemski went 1-for-5.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Houston Astros, 3-1 at the Astrodome in Houston. Pete Rose went 2-for-2 with 2 walks.

* And the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 6-5 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. Lou Johnson singled Wes Parker home in the bottom of the 13th inning. Lou Brock went 3-for-6 with a walk, 3 stolen bases, and 2 RBIs.

April 24, 1967: The 1st Spaceflight Fatality

April 24, 1967: Less than 3 months after the American space program has its 1st tragedy, the Soviet space program suffers the world's 1st in-mission spaceflight fatality.

The plan was to launch Soyuz 1 and unmanned Soyuz 2, have them link up, and have each craft's cosmonauts (the Soviet term for astronauts) switch, and land in the opposite craft. This was considered essential for any future manned landing on the Moon. Colonel Vladimir Komarov, a 40-year-old Air Force engineer from Moscow, was chosen for Soyuz 1. For Soyuz 2, the crew was Valery Bykovsky, Yevgeny Krunov and Aleksei Yeliseyev.

But things began going wrong quickly. The Soyuz (meaning "Union") craft, had lots of design flaws. After the fall of the Soviet Union, a former KGB Agent, claimed that the government wanted the flight to go forward anyway. He also claimed that Yuri Gagarin, the 1st man in space, was aware of these flaws, and tried to "bump" Komarov for the mission, knowing that he could then tell officials that the flaws made the flight too dangerous, and that they would never risk their country's greatest living hero on what amounted to a suicide mission.

Nevertheless, with Komarov aboard, Soyuz 1 was launched on April 23, from the usual Soviet launch site, the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. But one of its solar panels failed to unfold, leading to a shortage of power. By orbit 13, the automatic stabilization system was completely dead, and the manual system was only partially effective.

The crew of Soyuz 2 modified their mission goals, preparing themselves for a launch that would include fixing the solar panel of Soyuz 1. But thunderstorms at Baikonur affected the booster's electrical system, causing the mission to be postponed: One way or another, Soyuz 1 was coming back to Earth without linking up with Soyuz 2.

The flight director decided to abort Soyuz 1. After 18 orbits, the retrorockets were fired, and the craft re-entered the Earth's atmosphere. At first, it seemed like Komarov might return safely: In contact with Gagarin on the ground, he said, "Everything is going fine! The ship was oriented correctly."

To slow the descent, first the drogue parachute was deployed, followed by the main parachute. However, due to a defect, the main parachute did not unfold. Komarov then activated the manually deployed reserve chute, but it became tangled with the drogue chute, which did not release as intended. As a result, the descent module fell to Earth in Karabutak, Kazakhstan, at about 89 miles per hour, and it exploded. Komarov was killed instantly, and his body was burned beyond recognition. His ashes were interred in the Kremlin Necropolis.

Gagarin the national hero died soon, anyway, in the crash of a plane's test flight the following year. The Soyuz 1 tragedy delayed the launch of Soyuz 2 and Soyuz 3 until October 25, 1968. The original mission of Soyuz 1 and Soyuz 2 was ultimately achieved by Soyuz 4 and Soyuz 5, on January 15, 1969. But that delay, with the addition of the explosion of an uncrewed N-1 rocket on July 3, 1969, and the American landing of Apollo 11 on the Moon 17 days after that, led the Soviets to decide that landing a cosmonaut on the Moon was no longer worth it, and they called it off. From that point onward, they concentrated on space stations, including the Salyut and Mir programs.

Khrunov and Yeliseyev were part of the Soyuz 4/5 mission, which turned out to be Khrunov's only spaceflight. He died in 2000. Bykovsky flew 3 missions, and died in 2019. Yeliseyev also flew 3 missions. As of April 24, 2022, he is still alive. 

*

April 24, 1967 was a Monday. Croatian basketball star Dino Rađa (his name usually written in English as Dino Rajda) was born on this day.

The NBA Championship was won on this day. The Philadelphia 76ers beat the San Francisco Warriors, 125-122 at the Cow Palace in Daly City, California, just south of the San Francisco city line. This was Game 6 of the Finals, and it capped one of the greatest seasons in NBA history. I have a separate entry for this event.

The Sixers got off to a 41-3 start, and set an NBA record with 68 wins, and had 5 Hall-of-Famers: Wilt Chamberlain (finally winning his 1st NBA title, after being the best player in the league since his arrival in 1959), Hal Greer, Chet Walker, Larry Costello, and "sixth man" Billy Cunningham. Head coach Alex Hannum and general manager Jack Ramsay were also elected.

Cunningham would coach their 1983 NBA Champions. Matt Guokas Jr., whose father Matt Sr. was a member of the Philadelphia Eagles' 1948 and '49 NFL Champions, was a reserve on the '67 76ers, and a broadcaster for the '83 76ers. The team has never won an NBA title without Cunningham and Gukoas being involved.

The Warriors had won the NBA Championship in 1947 and 1956, while playing in Philadelphia. Chamberlain played for them from 1959 to 1965, including their 1962 move to San Francisco. The Syracuse Nationals, who had won the NBA Championship in 1955, moved to become the 76ers in 1963. The Warriors changed their name to the Golden State Warriors in 1971, and have won the Championship in 1975, 2015, 2017, 2018 and 2022. So the Warriors have won 7 titles, the 76ers have won 3, and Philadelphia has won 4 -- but none since 1983.

The Stanley Cup Finals were between Games 2 and 3. The series was tied, 1-1, and the Toronto Maple Leafs ended up beating the Montreal Canadiens in 6 games.

And there were 3 games played in baseball:

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Washington Senators, 7-4 at District of Columbia Stadium in Washington. (It was renamed Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium in 1969.) Carl Yastrzemski went 1-for-5.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Houston Astros, 3-1 at the Astrodome in Houston. Pete Rose went 2-for-2 with 2 walks.

* And the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 6-5 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. Lou Johnson singled Wes Parker home in the bottom of the 13th inning. Lou Brock went 3-for-6 with a walk, 3 stolen bases, and 2 RBIs.

April 20, 1964: Nelson Mandela Says He Is Prepared to Die

April 20, 1964: Nelson Mandela is on trial for treason in Johannesburg, South Africa. He tells the judge about his ideal, "My lord, if it needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die."

He was born on July 18, 1918, in Mvezo, in the Eastern Cape province of what was then known as the Union of South Africa, a self-governing dominion of the British Empire (and, after 1947, the British Commonwealth). As a result, the white minority, a combination of British and Dutch-ancestry "Boers" or "Afrikaners," instituted policies of racial segregation, called "apartheid," far beyond what Great Britain ever had.

Mandela claimed to have inherited a "proud rebelliousness" and a "stubborn sense of fairness" from his father. He was at university when World War II broke out, and supported the British Empire and opposed Nazi Germany. He became a lawyer, and rose through the ranks of the African National Congress, the leading advocacy organization for black South Africans. In 1958, his work with the ANC got him charged with treason. The charges were dropped, but, at the age of 40, he was already on the apartheidists' radar.

On October 5, 1960, a referendum -- with only white people voting -- to become the Republic of South Africa was narrowly approved, and the country officially left the British Commonwealth on May 31, 1961. This permitted a tightening of the apartheid laws.

In response to these whites-only actions, the ANC passed a resolution declaring "No Constitution or form of Government decided without the participation of the African people who form an absolute majority of the population can enjoy moral validity or merit support either within South Africa or beyond its borders." Mandela himself wrote:

The adoption of this part of the resolution did not mean that conference preferred a monarchy to a republican form of government. Such considerations were unimportant and irrelevant. The point at issue, and which was emphasized over and over again by delegates, was that a minority Government had decided to proclaim a White Republic under which the living conditions of the African people would continue to deteriorate.

In response to this, the government cracked down as never before. Mandela and 2 others founded uMkhonto we Sizwe, meaning "Spear of the Nation," or "MK" for short. Inspired by the success of Fidel Castro's revolution in Cuba -- and, in spite of his virtues, Castro and Mandela would be lifelong friends -- the group carried out a bombing campaign in December 1961.

On August 5, 1962 -- the day Marilyn Monroe died -- Mandela was arrested, and was held prisoner in Pretoria, the administrative capital of South Africa, before his trial. (Unusually, the nation has three capitals. Cape Town is the legislative capital, and Bloemfontein is the judicial capital. Johannesburg is the largest city, and the unofficial capital of South African culture, but not in any official way a capital.)

On April 20, 1964, in what became known as the Rivonia Trial, Mandela testified on his own behalf, delivering what became known as the "I Am Prepared to Die Speech." He closed:

I have dedicated my life to this struggle of the African people. I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons will live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal for which I hope to live for and to see realized. But, My Lord, if it needs to be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.

On June 12, Mandela was convicted. The prosecution asked for the death penalty. Instead, the presiding judge, Justice Quartus de Wet, sentence him to life in prison. Mandela was taken to Robben Island.

His speech was published worldwide, and many people who came to admire him for it feared that it would be the last they ever heard from him. He served 27 years.

*

April 20, 1964 was a Monday. Actors Crispin Glover and Andy Serkis were born. So was longtime NFL placekicker John Carney.

Football was out of season. The Stanley Cup Finals were between Games 4 and 5. The Toronto Maple Leafs would beat the Detroit Red Wings in 7 games. Game 2 of the NBA Finals was played. The Boston Celtics beat the San Francisco Warriors, 124-101 at the Boston Garden. Wilt Chamberlain scored 32 points and had 25 rebounds, but, as usual, the Red Auerbach-coached, Bill Russell-led Celtics were the better team. They won the series in 5 games.

And there were 4 baseball games played:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Boston Red Sox, 4-0 at Fenway Park. Bill Monbouquette allowed 7 hits over 8 innings, but no runs, and Dick Radatz allowed 2 more hits but finished the shutout. Carl Yastrzemski went 1-for-4, and Tony Conigliaro hit his 2nd career home run.

Bob Meyer had a poor start for the Yankees, and was traded to the Los Angeles Angels 2 months later. Bobby Richardson got 3 hits, Mickey Mantle and Elston Howard 2 each, Tom Tresh and Joe Pepitone 1 each, and that was it.

* The Houston Colt .45s beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 7-1 at Colt Stadium in Houston. The Colts became the Houston Astros the next season.

* The Milwaukee Braves beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 7-1 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. Hank Aaron went 0-for-5.

* And the San Francisco Giants beat the Cincinnati Reds, 5-2 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. Willie Mays went 3-for-4 with an RBI. Willie McCovey hit a home run. Frank Robinson went 1-for-5. Pete Rose went 0-for-4 with a walk.

April 16, 1967: "Major League" Soccer Begins In America

The 1967 Oakland Clippers

April 16, 1967: For the first time, the United States of America has what European countries would consider a "top flight football league." We call the sport "soccer," and the league was called the National Professional Soccer League.

There were 10 teams, most owned by men who already owned major league sports teams, as you can see in this table:

Franchises	Stadiums (Capacity)	Owners
Atlanta Chiefs	Atlanta (Fulton County) Stadium (50,893)	William Bartholomay (Atlanta Braves)
Baltimore Bays	Memorial Stadium (52,185)	Jerold Hoffberger (Baltimore Orioles)
Chicago Spurs	Soldier Field (100,000)	William B. Cutler, Michael Butler
Los Angeles Toros	Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum (93,000)	Dan Reeves (Los Angeles Rams -- not the later Denver Broncos coach)
New York Generals	Yankee Stadium (67,000)	RKO General Inc., Elser Enterprises Inc.
Oakland Clippers	Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum (53,000)	Joseph O'Neill, H.T. Hilliard
Philadelphia Spartans	Temple University Stadium (20,000)	John Rooney (Pittsburgh Steelers)
Pittsburgh Phantoms	Forbes Field (35,714)	Peter Block, Richard George (Pittsburgh Penguins)
St. Louis Stars	Busch Memorial Stadium (50,000)	Bob Hermann/Bill Bidwill (St. Louis Cardinals-football)
Toronto Falcons	Varsity Stadium (25,000)	Joseph Peters

The NPSL refused to pay a $25,000 entry fee to the governing body of American soccer, the United States Soccer Federation (USSF). As a result, FIFA, the governing body of world soccer, branded the NPSL an "outlaw league."

The United Soccer Association (USA) did pay the fee, and was recognized by both the USSF and FIFA. But they started later, and imported entire teams from Britain, Europe and Latin America to represent cities that many of their players had never heard of.

The NPSL kicked off on Sunday, April 16 with a full slate of 5 matches attended by a total of 46,547 fans. The largest crowd of the day was found at Temple University Stadium in Philadelphia, where 14,163 cheered the hometown Spartans to a 2–0 victory over the Toronto Falcons.

The most notable game however, was Baltimore's 1–0 victory over Atlanta in front of a crowd of just 8,434 at Memorial Stadium. It was televised by CBS, which had signed a two-year contract to broadcast a game every Sunday afternoon live and in color. The announcing team was Jack Whitaker and former Tottenham Hotspur and Northern Ireland captain Danny Blanchflower, who was not impressed with the standard of play, and did not hesitate to say so.

The NPSL was also criticized after Pittsburgh's 2–1 triumph over Toronto in the Falcons' home opener at Varsity Stadium on Sunday, May 14. Of the 21 fouls that afternoon, eleven were called to allow CBS to insert commercials into its telecast. Referee Peter Rhodes also admitted that he had forced players to fake injuries to serve the same purpose. This raised many questions about whether the TV networks and their sponsors were having too much influence over televised sporting events.

The NPSL did however attract some notable players including three former Aston Villa players Phil Woosnam, Vic Crowe and Peter McParland, who, together with another veteran of England's Football League, Ron Newman, all turned out for Atlanta Chiefs.

Two ex-Real Madrid players, Juan Santisteban and Yanko Daucik, turned out for the Baltimore Bays and Toronto Falcons respectively. Santisteban made the NPSL All-Star team, and Daucik finished as the league's top scorer.

The Oakland Clippers laid claim to the regular season title, boasting both the best record and the most total points in either division. In the NPSL Finals, the Western Division champion Clippers defeated the Bays, winners of the Eastern Division for the NPSL Championship by virtue of a 4–2 aggregate. Former Manchester United star Dennis Viollet gave Baltimore a 1–0 win on Sunday, September 3 before a home crowd of 16,619. Six days later, in the second leg at Oakland, Dragan Đukić scored a hat trick as the Clippers won 4–1, in front of 9,037.

On the same day as the second leg of the NPSL final, the St. Louis Stars defeated Philadelphia, 2–1, in a battle of division runner-ups held in St. Louis before a crowd of 9,565. The victory gave the Stars a birth in the Commissioner's Cup versus Oakland. On September 18, the Clippers completed the NPSL "treble," by defeating the Stars for the Commissioner's Cup in front of 8,415 fans at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis, by the score of 6–3.

*

April 16, 1967 was a Sunday. American-style football was out of season, but a full slate of Major League Baseball games was played:

* The New York Yankees played one of the longest games in their history, beating the Boston Red Sox, 7-6 in 18 innings. Eventual Cy Young Award winner Jim Lonborg and eventual Seattle Pilot Fred Talbot started, and neither got through the 6th inning.

Al Downing pitched innings 14 through 18 for the win. In spite of the game being as long as 2 games, no home runs were hit. Joe Pepitone went 4-for-9 with 3 RBIs. Mickey Mantle went 0-for-3, then drew a walk, and was replaced by a pinch-runner, Ray Barker, who also took over for him at 1st base. For the Red Sox, Carl Yastrzemski went 5-for-8 with an RBI, Tony Conigliaro went 5-for-7 with 3 RBIs, and Rico Petrocelli went 4-for-8 with an RBI.

* The New York Mets lost to the Philadelphia Phillies, 2-0 at Connie Mack Stadium in Philadelphia.

* The Atlanta Braves beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 4-1 at Atlanta Stadium. (It was renamed Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium in 1975.) Hank Aaron went 0-for-1 with 3 walks, 1 of them intentional.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Chicago Cubs, 6-5 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. Roberto Clemente went 1-for-4, and Ernie Banks went 1-for-5.

* The Cincinnati Reds swept a doubleheader from the San Francisco Giants at Crosley Field in Cincinnati. The Reds won the 1st game, 4-1; and the 2nd game, 6-0, with Mel Queen pitching a 6-hit shutout. Willie Mays did not play in either game, Pete Rose went 1-for-8 with 2 RBIs, and Johnny Bench's major league debut was still 4 months away.

* The Chicago White Sox swept a doubleheader from the Washington Senators at Comiskey Park. The Pale Hose won the opener, 7-3. They won the nightcap, 4-3, when Jerry Adair drew a walk with the bases loaded... in the bottom of the 16th inning.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Houston Astros, 11-8 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis.

* A doubleheader was split at Kansas City Municipal Stadium. The Detroit Tigers won the 1st game, 6-3. The Kansas City Athletics won the 2nd game, 11-7. Al Kaline went 4-for-8 with a home run and 2 RBIs in the twinbill.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Minnesota Twins, 4-3 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota.

* A doubleheader was split at Anaheim Stadium. The California Angels won the 1st game, 5-4. Jim Fregosi singled home the winning run in the bottom of the 10th inning. The Baltimore Orioles won the 2nd game, 3-0. Brooks Robinson went 1-for-8, and Frank Robinson went 3-for-9 with 2 RBIs.

Game 2 of the NBA Finals was played at the Convention Hall of the Philadelphia Civic Center. The Philadelphia 76ers beat the Golden State Warriors, 126-95, to take a 2-0 lead in the series. Rick Barry scored 30 points for the Warriors, who had played in Philadelphia from 1946 to 1962. But for the Sixers, who debuted in 1963 after having been the Syracuse Nationals, Hal Greer scored 30, Billy Cunningham had 28, and, while he only had 10 points, Wilt Chamberlain also had 38 rebounds and 10 assists.

The Stanley Cup Playoffs were underway, but this was a day off in them. The Toronto Maple Leafs led the Chicago Black Hawks 3 games to 2, and would win that series 3 days later. The Montreal Canadiens had already swept the New York Rangers in 4 straight. On May 2, the Leafs would beat the Canadiens in Game 6, to take their 13th Cup, their 4th in the last 7 years. They have never made the Stanley Cup Finals again.

April 1, 1964: The Dumbest Trade In NFL History

April 1, 1964: The Philadelphia Eagles trade quarterback Sonny Jurgensen to the Washington Redskins, for quarterback Norm Snead. This was the dumbest trade in NFL history.

Christian Adolph Jurgensen III was not only a quarterback at Duke, but a fine defensive back, and led them to the 1954 ACC title and a win over Nebraska in the 1955 Orange Bowl. He became Norm Van Brocklin's backup on the Philadelphia Eagles, winning the 1960 NFL Championship. Van Brocklin retired, and Sonny became the starter in 1961, making the 1st of 5 Pro Bowl teams, leading the NFL in passing yards 5 times and in touchdown passes twice.

But in 1964, the Eagles named Joe Kuharich as head coach. Kuharich was a massive prude, and Sonny liked the nightlife, so Joe traded Sonny to the Washington Redskins for their starting quarterback of the time, Norm Snead.

This trade was so dumb! How dumb was it? Over the rest of the decade, the Eagles floundered, while the Redskins got better, eventually becoming the team (albeit quarterbacked by Billy Kilmer, with Sonny as an aging backup) that won the 1972 NFC Championship.

Sonny Jurgensen had the highest career "quarterback rating" of any player before the 1978 rule changes that opened up the passing game: 82.6. Vince Lombardi, who coached the Redskins in the last season of his life, 1969, said, "If we would have had Sonny Jurgensen in Green Bay, we'd never have lost a game." And this is a man who had Bart Starr, the only man to quarterback 5 NFL Championship teams without cheating. Although the thought of Sonny Jurgensen and Paul Hornung playing together on Saturday night before they played together on Sunday afternoon is a scary thought.

Sonny also threw more touchdown passes in the 1960s than any other quarterback -- more than Starr, more than Johnny Unitas, more than Joe Namath. Guess which quarterback threw more interceptions in the 1960s than any other. Did I telegraph the punch enough? It was Norm Snead. And Joe Kuharich traded Sonny for Norm.

Norm didn't seem to have a clue about the trade.

Or about much else.

Snead was named to 5 Pro Bowls, but bounced around. The Eagles let him go after the 1970 season. He played for the Minnesota Vikings in 1971; the New York Giants in 1972, '73 and '74; the San Francisco 49ers in 1974 and '75; and 1 more season with the Giants, in 1976.

His Number 16 was retired -- by Wake Forest University, not by any of the pro teams for which he played. (Okay, the Giants did retire Number 16, but for Frank Gifford. And the 49ers retired it, but for Joe Montana.) He later served as head coach for a vocational-and-technical high school in his hometown of Newport News, Virginia.

Sonny was named to the College and Pro Football Halls of Fame, the NFL's 1960s All-Decade Team, the Philadelphia Eagles Hall of Fame and the Washington Redskins Ring of Fame. He retired after the 1974 season. The next season, he and Hall of Fame linebacker Sam Huff formed a beloved broadcasting team for the Redskins. Sam retired from this role in after the 2012 season, Sonny after 2018.

For most of their history, the team now known as the Washington Commanders did not officially retire uniform numbers, with Sammy Baugh's 33 being the lone exception. But Sonny Jurgensen's Number 9 has only been given out once since he retired after the 1974 season.

That was in 2002, by new head coach Steve Spurrier, to one of his former University of Florida quarterbacks, Shane Matthews. He also gave Number 7, worn by Joe Theismann, to another of his Florida quarterbacks, Danny Wuerffel. Redskin fans were so angry that, before the regular season started, Spurrier got the message, and switched Wuerffel to 17 (there was no outcry over getting him Kilmer's number) and Matthews to 6.

As of April 1, 2022, Sonny Jurgensen and Norm Snead are both still alive. Joe Kuharich died on January 25, 1981 -- by a strange coincidence, the day in which the Eagles played in their 1st NFL championship game since refusing to hire Norm Van Brocklin as head coach. It was Super Bowl XV, and they lost to the Oakland Raiders. He was 63. Sam Huff died on November 13, 2021, at 87.

UPDATE: In 2022, at the age of 88, Sonny Jurgensen finally got his Number 9 retired by the Washington Commanders. Norm Snead died on January 14, 2024, at 84. Sonny died on February 6, 2026, at 91.

*

April 1, 1964 was a Wednesday. Hockey legend Scott Stevens was born.

Baseball was in Spring Training. Football was out of season. The Stanley Cup Playoffs were underway, but no games were played on this day.

There was 1 game played in the NBA, Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals: The St. Louis Hawks beat the San Francisco Warriors, 116-111 at the War Memorial Gymnasium on the campus of the University of San Francisco. For the Hawks, Richie Guerin scored 32 points. For the Warriors, Wilt Chamberlain played all 48 minutes, scored 37 points, and grabbed 22 rebounds, and his team lost a close game -- for him, just another day at the office. The Warriors would win the series in 7 games, before losing the Finals to the Boston Celtics.

February 10, 1966: "Valley of the Dolls" Is Published

February 10, 1966: Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann is published. It becomes the biggest-selling novel in American history.

Jacqueline Susann (no middle name) was born on August 20, 1918 in Philadelphia. She acted on early TV, but said, "I got cast as what I looked like: A glamorous divorcée who gets stabbed or strangled." Then she did a lot of commercials, but saw that 25 years of hard work had culminated only in recognition as “the Schiffli girl."

So, having written TV shows and commercials, she turned to fiction. She didn’t get her 1st novel published until she was 45. And she died at 56, from her 2nd bout with cancer, having published only 4 novels. (There was 2 more, posthumously.) But her 2nd novel was Valley of the Dolls, and it sold 17 million copies in her lifetime – now, 31 million.

She was played by Michele Lee in Scandalous Me: The Jacqueline Susann Story in 1998, and Bette Midler in Isn’t She Great? in 2000.

In the 1986 film Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, James T. Kirk (played by William Shatner) jokes that the novels of Susann and Harold Robbins were full of "colorful metaphors," leading Spock (Leonard Nimoy) to sarcastically call them "the giants."

Valley of the Dolls was filmed in 1967, directed by Mark Robson, starring Barbara Parkins, Patty Duke, Susan Hayward, Paul Burke, Lee Grant, and the ill-fated Sharon Tate. Critics panned the film, but it was a hit at the box office. The 1970 film Beyond the Valley of the Dolls went a lot further it terms of sex and drug scenes, and bears no connection to either the previous film or the book on which it was based, other than title.

*

February 10, 1966 was a Thursday. Football star turned announcer Daryl "Moose" Johnston was born.

Baseball and football were out of season. One game was played in the NBA: The San Francisco Warriors beat the Boston Celtics, 128-117 -- a home game for the Celtics, but instead of the Boston Garden, it was at the Rhode Island Auditorium in Providence, Rhode Island. Rick Barry scored 36 points for the Warriors.

Two games were played in the NHL. The New York Rangers lost to the Detroit Red Wings, 6-2 at the Olympia Stadium in Detroit. And the Boston Bruins beat the Montreal Canadiens, 2-0 at the Boston Garden.

January 15, 1965: Wilt Chamberlain Returns to Philadelphia

January 15, 1965: The Philadelphia 76ers lose to their arch-rivals, the Boston Celtics, 104-95 at the Boston Garden.

Nevertheless, this is a good day for the team that, from 1946 to 1963, was known as the Syracuse Nationals: They traded Connie Dierking, Paul Neumann, Lee Shaffer, and $150,000 to the San Francisco Warriors for one man. That one man was Wilt Chamberlain.

A native of West Philadelphia, Wilt came into the NBA in 1959, with the Warriors, then in Philadelphia. He became the greatest player the game had ever seen. He put up point and rebound totals no one had seen before. He put up blocked shot totals that, officially, still haven't been seen, as the NBA didn't begin to record them until 1974-75.

Wilt Chamberlain not only did to offensive stats in basketball what Babe Ruth did to them in baseball and Wayne Gretzky in hockey, he was the best defensive player, too. At the absolute least, 2nd in his time to Bill Russell. 

Despite Wilt's achievements, at the end of the 1961-62 season, the Warriors were sold, and moved across the continent. They would play from 1962 to 1971 as the San Francisco Warriors, then move across the Bay to Oakland, using the name Golden State Warriors. They returned to San Francisco in 2019, but have kept the Golden State name.

After 1 season without an NBA team, 1962-63, Philadelphia got the Syracuse Nationals to move into the Warriors' former home, the Convention Hall of the Philadelphia Civic Center. They were renamed the Philadelphia 76ers. They also adopted the Warriors' former rivalry with the Celtics.

Warriors owner Frank Mieuli was glad to be rid of Wilt, saying, "Chamberlain is not an easy man to love... The fans in San Francisco never learned to love him." There's a reason for that: San Franciscans are notoriously provincial. When the New York Giants baseball team moved there for the 1958 season, the locals loved the great players who debuted there, like Willie McCovey, Orlando Cepeda and Juan Marichal; but, until it was too late, they didn't love the Giants' established star, Willie Mays.

Mieuli wasn't smart enough to figure that out. He was smart enough to figure out that Wilt wasn't happy, but he wasn't smart enough to figure out that trading him was not the answer -- for the Warriors, anyway.

But in his hometown, Wilt was loved. He got the 76ers into the Eastern Conference Finals, though a steal by John Havlicek on the final play of Game 7 gave the Celtics the win. Finally, in 1967, Wilt led a Sixer destruction of the Celtics in the Conference Finals, and then won the title -- beating the Warriors in the Finals.

*

January 15, 1965 was a Friday. Baseball and football were out of season. The NHL had no games scheduled. There were 2 other games in the NBA that night. The Warriors lost to the New York Knicks, 89-87 at the San Francisco Civic Auditorium (now the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium). Because of the trade, Wilt didn't play in this game or in the Sixers-Celtics game. And the Cincinnati Royals beat the Los Angeles Lakers, 124-106 at the Cincinnati Gardens.