November 18, 1978: The Jonestown Massacre

November 18, 1978: The Jonestown Massacre takes place. When I was a kid, there were 3 stories that really freaked me out: The Son of Sam case, the Three Mile Island nuclear plant meltdown, and the Jonestown story.

James Warren Jones was born on May 13, 1931 in Crete, Indiana, a small town just west of the State Line with Ohio, thus about halfway between the capitals of Indianapolis and Columbus. He became a Pentecostal minister, and founded what would become the Peoples Temple (note the lack of an apostrophe, a sign that it was for all peoples) in Indianapolis in 1955.

At a time and in a place when it was dangerous to do so -- Indiana was one of the few Northern States where the Ku Klux Klan made serious inroads -- the Rev. Jim Jones reached out to black people and supported civil rights causes.

In 1965, he moved his organization to San Francisco, and became involved with charities and political groups there. He preached what he called "Apostolic Socialism," probably safer to do in traditionally leftist San Francisco than in any other American city.

He helped to get George Moscone elected Mayor in 1975, and also built alliances with City Supervisor Harvey Milk (America's 1st openly gay elected public official), Assemblyman Willie Brown (later to be Mayor himself), and even Governor Jerry Brown. He even met First Lady Rosalynn Carter, who spoke well of him.

But he had spent years with a paranoia building inside him. His move to California brought him into contact with drugs, which expanded his paranoia. He began thinking that the U.S. government was against him and his Temple.

He began to look to establish a colony elsewhere, and found it in the South American nation of Guyana. He brought many of his followers down with him to "Jonestown" -- some willingly, some by coercion. He said he was building a "socialist paradise." But by the Autumn of 1978, reports had reached America that there were human rights abuses in Jonestown, including some San Franciscans saying their family members were being held there against their will.

Leo Ryan, a Congressman whose District included many of the families, went to Guyana to investigate. He took some people who wanted to leave back to his plane. But before they could board, they were ambushed by gunmen. Ryan and 4 others were shot to death.

Jones knew that he couldn't get away with killing a Congressman. The game was up. And so, like so many cult leaders before him and after him, he decided that it was time to tell his followers that the end times had arrived. He served his followers Flavor Aid laced with cyanide. Some drank it willingly. Some did not. When it was over, 918 people, 304 of them children, were dead. Jones was 47 years old.

(It is from this story that the expression "drank the Kool-Aid," meaning "believed the ridiculous lie," came about, but it wasn't Kool-Aid, it was Flavor Aid.)

The story shocked the world. The story hit San Francisco particularly hard. As if that city hadn't been through enough over the years.

Things would get worse for San Francisco. The next week, there would be a double assassination, the assassin would come close to getting away with it, a deadly disease would devastate the city, and an earthquake that many feared would be "The Big One" would hit, all within the next 11 years.

Within a few months, there was a feature film, Guyana: Cult of the Damned, a fictionalized account, with Stuart Whitman as "Reverend James Johnson." In 1980, CBS aired the TV-movie The Guyana Tragedy, The Story of Jim Jones, starring Powers Boothe. Apparently, Leonardo DiCaprio is now in talks with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to star in a new film about Jones.

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November 18, 1978 was a Saturday. These key games were played in college football that day:

* Number 1 Penn State were not scheduled. The following week, they beat their arch-rivals, the University of Pittsburgh, then ranked Number 15. Since, at the time, the Nittany Lions were not in any league, and were thus not tied to any bowl game, this pretty much guaranteed a de facto National Championship Game against whoever ended up Number 2 in the country.

* Number 3 Alabama also did not play that week. The week before, they beat Number 10 Louisiana State. Two weeks after, they beat Auburn to clinch the Southeastern Conference Championship. They rose to Number 2, and that set up a Number 1 vs. Number 2 showdown with Penn State in the Sugar Bowl. Alabama won, 14-7, and won the National Championship.

* Number 2 Nebraska was upset by Missouri, 35-31 at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln, Nebraska.

* Number 4 Oklahoma beat Oklahoma State, 62-7 at Memorial Stadium in Norman, Oklahoma. A week earlier, Oklahoma had been Number 1, but lost to Nebraska, 17-14. That gave Nebraska the Big Eight Conference Championship, and the Big 8's automatic bid to the Orange Bowl. But Nebraska's loss to Missouri led to the Orange Bowl committee setting up the 1st ever bowl game rematch. Oklahoma won it, 31-24.

* Number 5 USC beat UCLA, 17-10 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. That got USC the Pacific-Ten Conference title.

* Number 7 Michigan beat Number 15 Purdue, 24-6 at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The Wolverines went on to beat Ohio State the next week. But they had lost to Michigan State earlier in the season. Due to violations before this season, Michigan State was on probation, therefore, while they shared the Big Ten Conference title with Michigan, they were ineligible for the league's Rose Bowl bid. So Michigan got it. But USC beat them in the Rose Bowl, on an alleged "phantom touchdown," as Charles White appeared to have fumbled as he crossed the goal line.

* Number 8 University of Houston had the week off, a week after beating Number 6 Texas in Austin. But the following week, having moved up to Number 5, they went to Lubbock and lost to Texas Tech. But their win the next week over crosstown rival Rice clinched the Southwest Conference title.

* Number 10 Notre Dame, with a quarterback named Joe Montana, beat Number 20 Georgia Tech, 38-21 at Grant Field in Atlanta. The next week, they went to Los Angeles and lost to USC. They closed the season at the Cotton Bowl, where Montana led a tremendous comeback for the Fighting Irish to win, 35-34.

* Number 12 Clemson beat Number 11 Maryland, 28-24 at Byrd Stadium in the Washington suburb of College Park, Maryland. (It's now named SECU Stadium.) This clinched the Atlantic Coast Conference title for Clemson, who went on to beat Ohio State in the Gator Bowl. Clemson won a game that ended in great controversy, through no fault of theirs.

* Rutgers beat Holy Cross, 31-21 at Fitton Field in Worcester, Massachusetts. But they weren't in a league, and they had only played 1 game against what would then have been considered a major college football team. It was their season opener, losing to Penn State, 20-17. So they weren't ranked.

Maybe they could have gone to a decent bowl game. But the next week, they lost at home to Colgate. A quickie game was set up for December 16 in the Meadowlands, called the Garden State Bowl, the 1st bowl game in the Scarlet Knights' history. It was a joke. And they lost it, 34-18 to Arizona State.

The football team at my high school, East Brunswick in Middlesex County, New Jersey, was not scheduled for that day, as it was the Semifinals of the State Playoffs, and we did not qualify.

There were 10 games played in the NBA: 

* The New York Knicks beat the Milwaukee Bucks, 102-100 at Madison Square Garden.

* The New Jersey Nets lost to the Kansas City Kings, 114-100 at the Kemper Arena in Kansas City. (It's now named the Hy-Vee Arena.

* The Washington Bullets beat the Denver Nuggets, 119-114 at the Capital Centre in the Washington suburb of Landover, Maryland. The Bullets overcame 35 points from Nuggets star David Thompson.

* The Atlanta Hawks beat the Philadelphia 76ers, 124-116 at The Omni in Atlanta. The Sixers lost despite 32 points from Julius "Dr. J" Erving.

* The Boston Celtics beat the Cleveland Indians, 92-90 at The Coliseum in the Cleveland suburb of Richfield, Ohio.

* The Phoenix Suns beat the Detroit Pistons, 119-105 at the Silverdome in the Detroit suburb of Pontiac, Michigan.

* The Houston Rockets beat the San Antonio Spurs, 126-120 at The Summit in Houston. Rick Barry, playing out the string with the Rockets after a fine career with Golden State, scored 38 points. (The arena has since been converted into the Central Campus of the Lakewood Church, Dr. Joel Osteen's "megachurch.")

* The San Diego Clippers beat the New Orleans Jazz, 114-111 at the San Diego Sports Arena. (The arena is now named the Pechanga Arena. The Clippers moved to Los Angeles in 1984. The Jazz moved to Utah the next season.) Randy Smith, an All-Star for the Clippers while they were still the Buffalo Braves, scored 36 points.

* The Golden State Warriors beat the Seattle SuperSonics, 112-104 at the Oakland Coliseum Arena.

* And the Portland Trail Blazers beat the Indiana Pacers, 123-111 at the Portland Memorial Coliseum.

There were 7 games played in the NHL:

* The New York Rangers beat the Minnesota North Stars, 7-2 at the Metropolitan Sports Center in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota. Carol Vadnais scored 2 goals for the Broadway Blueshirts.

* The New York Islanders beat the Philadelphia Flyers, 8-2 at the Nassau Coliseum. Mike Bossy and Clark Gillies each scored 2 goals.

* The Toronto Maple Leafs beat the St. Louis Blues, 3-1 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.

* The Buffalo Sabres beat the Detroit Red Wings, 3-1 at the Olympia Stadium in Detroit.

* The Colorado Rockies beat the Chicago Black Hawks, 8-3 at the McNichols Arena in Denver. Gary Croteau and Joe Contini each scored 2 goals for the New Jersey Devils-to-be.

* The Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Los Angeles Kings, 3-1 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California.

* And the Montreal Canadiens beat the Vancouver Canucks, 4-2 at the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver.

Only 1 game was played in the World Hockey Association, in its final season: The Birmingham Bulls beat the New England Whalers, 3-2 at the Springfield Civic Center in Springfield, Massachusetts. (It's now known as the MassMutual Center. The Whalers were playing there temporarily because the roof at the Hartford Civic Center collapsed earlier in the year. The Hartford Civic Center is now named the XL Center, the Whalers are now the Carolina Hurricanes, and the Bulls did not survive the NHL-WHA merger.)

Also, Arsenal drew with Everton, 2-2 at Highbury in North London. 

November 9, 2006: Rutgers Football Grows Up

November 9, 2006: The football team at Rutgers University has what is -- after 1869, anyway -- its signature moment.

Under head coach Greg Schiano, and his aggressive recruiting of New Jersey, New York State, Connecticut, Eastern Pennsylvania, and even Florida, where he'd been an assistant at the University of Miami, collectively calling all of those places "The State of Rutgers," the Scarlet Knights were having their best season since 1976, when they went undefeated against a considerably lesser schedule.

They began the season by beating North Carolina in Chapel Hill, 21-16. They hosted Illinois at Rutgers Stadium -- the 41,500-seat horseshoe in Piscataway, Middlesex County, New Jersey has since been expanded into a 52,454-seat bowl -- and won, 33-0. They hosted Ohio University (not Ohio State), and won, 24-7.

That got them into the Top 25, with a ranking of Number 23. Their next game wasn't going to help them: It was a home game against Howard University, a historically black FCS school, and RU won, 56-7. The next game should have helped them: It was away to South Florida in Tampa, and they won, 22-20. Still, they dropped to Number 24.

After a week off, they went to Annapolis, Maryland, and beat Navy, 34-0. Now, they had risen to Number 19. They played away to the University of Pittsburgh. They never beat Pitt away. This time, they did, 20-10. They rose to Number 16. They hosted Connecticut, and won, 24-13.

Now, the Scarlet Knights were 8-0 -- but still so little respected that they were only ranked Number 15 in the country. On a Thursday night, November 9, they would have a nationally-telecast (ESPN) prime-time game against Number 3 Louisville. The winner of this game would have the inside track to winning the Big East Conference.

A crowd of 44,111 fans crammed into the Piscataway horseshoe. (It's now a 52,000-seat bowl.) At that point, only 7 times had a Rutgers "home game" had more fans, all of them at Giants Stadium at the Meadowlands: Against Florida in 1986; and against Penn State in 1977, 1983, 1985, 1989, 1992 and 1995. (The October 3, 1992 game against Penn State remains a record crowd for a Rutgers home game: 72,203. Rutgers lost, 38-24.)

Louisville scored first. At the end of the 1st quarter, Rutgers scored a touchdown to tie it, but Louisville returned the ensuing kickoff for a touchdown. And they scored a 2-point conversion. It was Cardinals 15, Scarlet Knights 7.

In the 2nd quarter, Louisville added a touchdown and a field goal, to make it 25-7. But Ray Rice, later to be a figure of terrible controversy, scored a touchdown to make it 25-14 at the half. He scored another touchdown in the 3rd quarter, to get RU within 25-20. But placekicker Jeremy Ito missed the extra point.

With 10:13 left in regulation, Ito kicked a 46-yard field goal, to tie the game at 25. RU's defense held until the final minute. Quarterback Mike Teel drove them down the field, and with 13 seconds to go, Ito attempted a 28-yard field goal. It was perfect. Rutgers led 28-25.

Fans stormed the field. And, as a Rutgers fan for nearly 30 years at that point, used to seeing them blowing it, I was worried that they wouldn't be able to clear the field, thus rendering the field unplayable, and forfeiting the game. But they did clear the field, and Louisville were unable to do anything on their last 2 plays.

Rutgers had beaten the Number 3 team in the country, and the entire country -- or, at least, all of that part of the country that cared about college football -- saw it. The Scarlet Knights had grown up. It was a truly magical moment for the country's 1st college football program.

Just 9 days later, they blew it. Now ranked Number 7, they went to Cincinnati, and lost to the University of Cincinnati, 30-11. They came home and beat Syracuse on Thanksgiving Saturday, 38-7. But the following week, they went to Morgantown and lost to West Virginia, 41-39 in overtime. Despite having been beaten by Rutgers, Louisville won the Big East Championship anyway.

Rutgers closed its season in Houston, beating Kansas State in the Texas Bowl, 37-10. They finished at 11-2, ranked Number 12 in the country.

Teel was drafted by the Seattle Seahawks in 2009, and was on the roster for that entire season, but never entered a regular-season game, and was released. In the 2010 preseason, he was signed and released, first by the New England Patriots, then by the Chicago Bears. He has since gone into coaching.

Ito was signed and released by the New Orleans Saints in 2008. In 2009, he played for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats of the Canadian Football League, and was released. 

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November 9, 2006 was a Thursday. So there were no other college football games played. There were no NFL games played. The baseball season was over. There were 3 games played in the NBA that night:

* The Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Chicago Bulls, 113-94 at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland. (It's now named the Rocket Arena.)

* The Dallas Mavericks beat the Phoenix Suns, 119-112 at the US Airways Center in Phoenix. (It's now named the Mortgage Matchup Center.) Dirk Nowitzki scored 35.

* And the Golden State Warriors beat the New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets, 121-116 at the Oakland Coliseum Arena (then named the Oracle Arena). Baron Davis scored 36 points.

There were 8 games played in the NHL:

* The New Jersey Devils beat the Chicago Blackhawks, 2-1 in a shootout at the Brendan Byrne Arena at the Meadowlands. (Okay, it was officially named the Continental Airlines Arena at that point.) Yes, the Devils won in a shootout. Back then, it wasn't that big a deal. Today, it would be.

* The New York Islanders beat the Philadelphia Flyers, 3-1 at the Wachovia Center (now the Xfinity Mobile Arena) in Philadelphia.

* In an "Original Six" matchup, the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Boston Bruins, 6-4 at the TD Garden in Boston.

* The Carolina Hurricanes beat the Washington Capitals, 5-0 at the RBC Center in Raleigh. (It's now the Lenovo Center.)

* The Columbus Blue Jackets beat the St. Louis Blues, 4-2 at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis. (It's now the Enterprise Center.)

* The Dallas Stars beat the Phoenix Coyotes, 1-0 at the Jobing.com Arena in the Phoenix suburb of Glendale, Arizona. (It's now the Desert Diamond Arena.)

* The San Jose Sharks beat the Los Angeles Kings, 7-3 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.

* And the Anaheim Ducks beat the Vancouver Canucks, 6-0 at General Motors Place in Vancouver. (It's now named the Rogers Arena.) 

November 9, 1946: Army vs. Notre Dame, "The Game of the Century"

November 9, 1946: One of those college football games that gets the label "Game of the Century" is played at the original Yankee Stadium.

The football team at the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York -- 47 miles north of The Stadium, and they'd used both it and the nearby Polo Grounds as a home-away-from-home a few times -- was usually just called "Army." The teams, as were the students, were known as the Cadets. But, by this point, they were already being called "the Black Knights of the Hudson" in the press. In 1999, the Academy dropped "Cadets," and made "Black Knights" official.

Unlike most college football teams, Army didn't have a manpower drain due to World War II: Quite the opposite: They were training men for war. As a result, head coach Earl "Red" Blaik had the best backfield in the sport, and that included the NFL: Felix "Doc" Blanchard, Number 35; and Glenn Davis, Number 41. Due to their running style, Blanchard became known as "Mr. Inside" and Davis as "Mr. Outside."

In 1943, Army went 7-2-1. They were ranked Number 3 when they played the University of Notre Dame, ranked Number 1, at Yankee Stadium, and lost, 26-0. Army also lost their season finale, to Navy, at Municipal Stadium in Philadelphia (later renamed John F. Kennedy Stadium), 13-0.

But they went 9-0 in 1944, and were named National Champions. This included a 59-0 shellacking of then-Number 5 Notre Dame at Yankee Stadium, and a 23-7 win over Navy at Municipal Stadium in Baltimore. (Memorial Stadium was built on the site in 1954.)

In 1945, again, they went 9-0 and were named National Champions. This included another game at Yankee Stadium, against Notre Dame, then Number 2, and they won it 48-0. And they beat Navy, who had risen to Number 2, 32-13 at Philadelphia Municipal Stadium.

In 1946, they won their 1st 7 games. They beat Villanova at home, 35-0. They beat a rising Oklahoma team at home, 21-7. They beat Cornell at home, 46-21. They went to Ann Arbor and beat Number 4 Michigan, 20-13. They hosted Columbia and won, 48-14. The played Number 13 Duke at the Polo Grounds, and won 19-0. They hosted West Virginia and won, 19-0. They went into Yankee Stadium for the Notre Dame game with a 25-game winning streak.

Notre Dame, based in South Bend, Indiana and known as the Fighting Irish, were coached by Frank Leahy. They won the National Championship in 1943, led by quarterback Angelo Bertelli, who won the Heisman Trophy. In 1944, they went 8-2, losing to Navy and Army in back-to-back games. In 1945, they went 7-2-1. Their loss to Army was immediately preceded by a tie against Navy, and they also lost to the Great Lakes Naval Training Station team.

But in 1946, they were ready to make another run at the National Championship. They beat eventual Big Ten Champion Illinois in Champaign, 26-6. They beat the University of Pittsburgh at home, 33-0. They beat Purdue at home, 49-6. They went to Number 17 Iowa and beat them, 41-6. Then they went to Baltimore and beat Navy, 28-0. They were 5-0 and ranked Number 2 as they went into The Bronx to face Army.

When the teams took the field, there were 4 men who had, or would, win the Heisman Trophy: Blanchard won it in 1945, Davis would win it for 1946, Notre Dame quarterback Johnny Lujack would win it for 1947, and Notre Dame end Leon Hart -- due to the war, freshmen were temporarily made eligible -- would win it for 1949.

Johnny Lujack

There was already history between these teams, and not just in the 3 preceding seasons. In 1913, when Army was one of the top teams in the country and Notre Dame was almost unnoticed, Notre Dame became the 1st college football team to make headlines with the passing game, and upset Army at West Point.

In 1924, they played each other at the Polo Grounds, and Notre Dame won. Nationally-syndicated sportswriter Grantland Rice labeled Notre Dame's backfield "the Four Horsemen." In 1928, they played each other at Yankee Stadium, and Notre Dame coach Knute Rockne invoked the memory of George Gipp, a player who had starred for their 1920 National Championship team and then died, telling them to "win one for the Gipper." The Fighting Irish did just that.

Now, these two powerhouses were playing to set the winner up for the National Championship, in front of 74,121 fans. They saw it in color, but people seeing photographs and newsreels after the fact only saw black & white, and had trouble telling the teams apart: Army wore black jerseys, Notre Dame navy blue ones, and both teams wore gold helmets, with Army's having a black stripe down the middle.

The Corps of Cadets, in formation on the field prior to the game

With the New York and Eastern press pushing Army, and the Chicago and Midwestern press pushing Notre Dame, it was billed as "The Game of the Century."

Sometimes, when a game gets that label, it lives up to the hype. This one did not. Notre Dame had 6 turnovers, 3 of them interceptions of Lujack by Arnold Tucker, who was also Army's quarterback, and finished 5th in the Heisman balloting, behind Davis, Charley Trippi of Georgia, Lujack and Blanchard. (Future Detroit Lions Hall of Fame quarterback Bobby Layne finished 8th.) Army had 4 turnovers.

Notre Dame fumbled on their 1st possession of the game, giving Army the ball on the Notre Dame 23-yard line. But the Cadets couldn't capitalize, and turned the ball over on downs. Notre Dame got to Army's 4-yard line in the 2nd quarter, but also turned it over on downs. Neither Blaik nor Leahy was willing to attempt a field goal; at the very least, the game should have been 3-3 at that point.

In the 3rd quarter, Lujack threw deep, but Tucker intercepted him. Tucker looked like he might return it all the way for a touchdown, but Lujack himself brought him down. A few plays later, Davis tried an option pass, but was intercepted.

And that was the game's last scoring threat. Blanchard and Davis were held to a total of 79 yards. Neither team attempted a field goal. Final score: Army 0, Notre Dame 0. Leahy called it "a terrific battle of defenses."

Army went to Philadelphia, and beat Penn at Franklin Field, and went back there 2 weeks later and beat Navy, to finish the season 9-0-1. Notre Dame hosted Northwestern and beat them, went to New Orleans and beat Tulane, and closed the season by beating Number 16 USC at home.

Neither team accepted an invitation to a postseason bowl game, which was usually the case for each of them. (Although, by playing at Tulane Stadium, site of the Sugar Bowl, it could be argued that Notre Dame played in an equivalent game.) Number 3 Georgia beat Number 9 North Carolina in the Sugar Bowl. Number 5 Illinois beat Number 4 UCLA in the Rose Bowl, the 1st time that game would officially be between the Champions of the Big Nine and the Pacific Coast Conference, the leagues now known as the Big Ten and the Pacific Twelve (or Pac-12). Number 10 Rice beat Number 7 Tennessee in the Orange Bowl. And Number 16 Arkansas beat Number 8 Louisiana State in the Cotton Bowl.

So the question for the National Championship wasn't whether 9-0-1 Army or 8-0-1 Notre Dame was going to receive it, but which one of them. After the season, the Associated Press (AP) released a final poll, with Notre Dame at Number 1 and Army at Number 2. The American Football Coaches Association poll, which became the United Press International (UPI) poll in 1958, also chose Notre Dame. A few minor polls chose Army, and one chose 11-0 Georgia. But Notre Dame was the main pick.

Army eventually extended their unbeaten streak to 31 games, before October 25, 1947, losing to Columbia in a game known as "The Miracle of Morningside Heights." Two weeks after that, they lost to Notre Dame again.

Notre Dame repeated as National Champions, although they split the polls with Michigan. (Now considered big rivals, the teams did not play each other that season.) Only a tie with USC in the season finale spoiled things for the Fighting Irish in 1948, as they again split the polls with Michigan. They went undefeated again in 1949, and there was no split. It was 4 straight National Championships, and a 39-game unbeaten streak. Not until October 7, 1950 did they lose again, at home to Purdue.

That streak would be a record until 1957, when Oklahoma made it 47 straight. Just as would be the case with UCLA basketball and their record 88-game streak from 1971 to 1974, the last team to beat Oklahoma, and the next one, was Notre Dame.

The 1913 game at West Point was the 1st between Army and Notre Dame. They also played each other at West Point in 1914, 1915, 1916, 1917, 1919, 1920, 1921 and 1922. They played at Ebbets Field in 1923. They played at the Polo Grounds in 1925. They played at Yankee Stadium from 1925 to 1929, at Soldier Field in Chicago, Yankee Stadium again from 1931 to 1946. They played at South Bend in 1947, fulfilling their contract. But then they called the rivalry off, as they agreed that the hype had gotten out of control.

They resumed in 1957, at Philadelphia Municipal Stadium. They played at Notre Dame in 1958, 1966, 1970, 1974, 1980, 1985, 1998 and 2006. They played at Shea Stadium in 1965, the old Yankee Stadium in 1969, and West Point in 1973. They played at Giants Stadium in 1977, 1983 and 1995. They played at the new Yankee Stadium in 2010 -- with Notre Dame as the official home team despite Army's proximity -- and the Alamodome in San Antonio in 2016.

Notre Dame leads the rivalry, 39-8-4. Army hasn't beaten Notre Dame since 1958, when Army had Heisman Trophy winner Pete Dawkins. That was Blaik's last season as Army head coach. He lived until 1989. Leahy stayed at Notre Dame through the 1953 season, one more National Championship, and lived until 1973.

The U.S. Army spun the U.S. Air Force off in 1947, and Doc Blanchard was part of its charter officer corps. He later coached Army's freshman football team. He flew 84 combat missions in the Vietnam War, and retired with the rank of Colonel. He served as Commandant of the New Mexico Military Institute, and died in 2009.

Unlike Blanchard, Davis did serve out his military commitment and then play pro football. Unfortunately, when he and Blanchard were filming the movie Spirit of West Point in early 1947 -- which turned out to be Blanchard's last football action -- Davis injured his knee, and arrived with the Los Angeles Rams as damaged goods. He reached the NFL Championship Game in 1950, losing to the Cleveland Browns; and got the Rams back into it in 1951, this time beating the Browns.

Although he made the Pro Bowl in 1950, the knee held him back. And the Rams were loaded in their backfield, with players like Paul "Tank" Younger, "Deacon" Dan Towler and V.T. "Vitamin" Smith. A reinjury of the knee cost Davis the entire 1952 season, and he was released afterward, never to play again. Although both he and Blanchard were elected to the College Football Hall of Fame during their lifetimes, neither became a pro legend. Davis became the organizer of charity events for the Los Angeles Times, and died in 2005.

Lujack played 4 seasons in the NFL, all with the Chicago Bears, succeeding Hall-of-Famer Sid Luckman as starting quarterback. He led the NFL in passing yards and passing touchdowns in 1949, and, despite being a quarterback, led it in rushing touchdowns in 1950. He made the Pro Bowl in 1950 (making him, for the only time in his career, a teammate of Glenn Davis) and 1951.

He returned to Notre Dame as an assistant coach in 1952 and '53, and then became a successful car dealer. As far as I know, Johnny Lujack, now 97 years old, is the last surviving player from this game. He is also the earliest living Heisman Trophy winner. (UPDATE: He died in 2023, leaving Dawkins as the earliest living Heisman winner.)

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November 9, 1946 was a Saturday. There were other major college football games played that day:

* Number 3 Georgia beat Florida, 33-14 at Fairfield Stadium in Jacksonville, the precursor stadium to the Gator Bowl and the stadium now named TIAA Bank Field.

* Number 6 Michigan beat Michigan State, 55-7 at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor.

* Rutgers beat Lafayette, 41-2 at Rutgers Stadium in Piscataway, New Jersey.

* And Princeton lost to Virginia, 20-6 at Palmer Stadium in Princeton, New Jersey.

The baseball season was over. There were 4 games played in the brand-new Basketball Association of America, the league that would become the NBA:

* The Providence Steamrollers beat the Pittsburgh Ironmen, 76-66 at the Rhode Island Auditorium in Providence.

* The Detroit Falcons beat the Boston Celtics, 69-46 at the Olympia Stadium in Detroit.

* The Chicago Stags beat the Toronto Huskies, 62-54 at the Chicago Stadium.

* And the St. Louis Bombers beat the Washington Capitols, 70-69 at the St. Louis Arena.

And there were 2 games played in the NHL:

* The New York Rangers lost to the Toronto Maple Leafs, 4-2 at Maple Leaf Gardens.

* And the Montreal Canadiens beat the Boston Bruins, 5-2 at the Montreal Forum.

Also, Arsenal lost to Preston North End, 2-0 at Deepdale in Preston, Lancashire. 

November 5, 1996: President Bill Clinton Is Re-Elected

November 5, 1996: President Bill Clinton is re-elected, winning 379 Electoral Votes to Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole's 159. Clinton wins 49.2 percent of the popular vote, while Dole wins 40.7, and Reform Party candidate Ross Perot wins 8.4 percent but no Electoral Votes.

Clinton went over the necessary 270 Electoral Votes with the States that closed at 9:00 PM, Eastern Time.

After the failure of his health care initiative in 1994, Clinton saw his Democratic Party battered in the midterm elections, with the Republicans taking both houses of Congress. Dole, from Russell, Kansas -- always mentioning his hometown, not just his State -- had first been elected to Congress in 1960, and to the U.S. Senate in 1968. He was nominated for Vice President under Gerald Ford in 1976. He ran for President in 1980, but didn't get far. He became Senate Majority Leader after the election of 1984, but the Democrats regained the Senate in 1986, making him the Minority Leader.

He ran for President again in 1988, and finished 2nd in delegates to Vice President George H.W. Bush, who was elected. In 1992, Clinton beat Bush to become President-elect. The next morning, mere hours after Clinton clinched victory in a 3-man race in which Perot got 19 percent of the popular vote (but no Electoral Votes), Dole pointed out, "57 percent of Americans did not vote for Bill Clinton, and I intend to represent that majority on the floor of the U.S. Senate. If Bill Clinton has a mandate, then so do I."

Clinton was now 1-0 in Presidential elections. Dole was 0-2, 0-3 if you count 1976. Clinton got just under 45 million votes for President. Dole got 2.3 million votes in the 1988 Republican Primaries. Dole himself had just been re-elected to the Senate in 1992, with 244,000 votes. And he then represented a caucus of 43 Senators. He was in no position to claim any majority, especially against a man who had just gotten almost 45 million votes. The 57 percent of American voters who chose someone other than Clinton? As far as I know, not one of them voted for Bob Dole for President, not even as a write-in candidate.

But the '94 election restored Dole to the post of Majority Leader. And Newt Gingrich, a Pennsylvania native who moved to Georgia to teach at a college, and was first elected to Congress in 1978 and used fiery rhetoric to get into the Republican Party's leadership in the U.S. House of Representatives in 1989, became the Speaker of the House.

Dole was considered mean, a reputation he got in his 1976 Vice Presidential debate with Walter Mondale, and deepened in his 1988 Presidential run. But, politically speaking, he was still a center-right candidate, willing to compromise for the greater good of the country. Gingrich was not: He was frequently called a "firebrand" and a "bombthrower."

Like most politicians, especially Republicans, he wanted to balance the federal budget. But his plan severely cut social services -- and also seriously cut taxes, especially on the wealthy. This didn't work when Ronald Reagan was President in the 1980s, and actually created the conditions that led to Clinton's election in 1992. As we have since seen, it didn't work in 2001, and it didn't work in 2017. It would not have worked in 1995.

Every year, the federal budget takes effect on October 1. That is, "Fiscal Year 1996" ran from October 1, 1995 to September 30, 1996. If no deal between Congress and the President is in place by October 1, they can pass a "continuing resolution": For the length of the resolution, the proportions of the previous fiscal year continue.

But Clinton and the Republicans controlling Congress couldn't reach a deal by September 30. So they passed a continuing resolution that ran until November 13. But the Republicans refused to pass a new one by November 14. So, at midnight on November 13, the government shut down.

And the Republicans went before the media and said it was Clinton's fault. Except Clinton also went before the media, and pointed out that he was still willing to make a deal, and the Republicans weren't. Finally, he called Dole and Gingrich into the Oval Office. So often willing to compromise on things, seemingly desperate to get re-elected, but angering many in his own party, Clinton told them, "I don't care if I go down to 5 percent in the polls. If you want that budget signed into law, you're going to have to get somebody else behind this desk."

For once, Clinton held his ground. And polls showed that more people supported his stance than the Republicans' stance. Their approval rating plummeted. Finally, on November 19, they caved. And when the general election campaign got underway, the Democrats aired commercials showing Dole and Gingrich together so many times, it began to look like Gingrich was Dole's running mate.

Having been the Republican nominee for Vice President in 1976, and having run for the Republican nomination for President in 1980 and 1988, Dole had practically been running for President in the 1996 election since the day after the 1992 election ended. Politically-themed comedian Mark Russell, who was 10 years younger than Dole, and specialized in rewriting pre-rock-and-roll songs for political issues of the time, wrote for one of his periodic TV specials on PBS:

This old man, Robert Dole

has the White House as his goal.

For 20 years, there in his eye, a glint.

This old man can't take a hint.

And yet, Russell followed this song by saying, "I'm thinking of voting for Bob Dole. I figure it'll be the last chance to have a President who's older than I am!" (UPDATE: He turned out to be right, living to see the Presidencies of George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Donald Trump and Joe Biden, all younger.)

Dole officially announced his candidacy on April 10, 1995. Despite losing the New Hampshire Primary to Pat Buchanan, an archconservative journalist who had previously worked for Presidents, Nixon, Ford and Reagan, he won enough Delegates to secure the nomination on March 19, 1996.

He traveled the country on a plane he named, after his position in the Senate, Leader Ship. Then he rolled the dice, and resigned from the Senate on June 11, to show the American people he was focused only on the election: "I have nowhere to go, except the White House, or home." He changed his plane's name to Citizen Ship.

(Dole was succeeded as Majority Leader by his Majority Whip, Trent Lott of Mississippi. He remains the highest-ranking native of that State in American politics.)

At the Republican Convention, at the San Diego Convention Center, Dole chose a real running mate: Jack Kemp, former pro quarterback, former Congressman from Buffalo, New York, a 1988 Presidential candidate like Dole, and Secretary of Housing and Urban Development under President Bush. Kemp had long been the darling of the conservative tax-cut movement, and boosted Dole in the polls.

In his acceptance speech, on August 15, Dole said, "Let me be the bridge to an America that only the unknowing call myth. Let me be the bridge to a time of tranquility, faith, and confidence in action." This was a blunder: In his acceptance speech, at the United Center in Chicago, Clinton said, "We do not need to build a bridge to the past. We need to build a bridge to the future, all the way to the 21st Century!"

After that, Clinton and his running mate, Vice President Al Gore, solidified their lead, and Dole and Kemp never really got close to them. Near the end of the campaign, Dole tried to make a big deal about Clinton's "scandals," but nobody could pin anything on him. And Clinton seemed to be handling his role as Commander-in-Chief well. And, just as in 1992, the issue of "the economy, stupid" helped him: This time, he was in charge, and it was doing well.

Dole didn't run a bad campaign, but once Clinton won the battle over the budget, Dole never had a chance.

Comedian Mort Sahl, closing in on half of century of joking about politicians of both parties, said, "There were 4 million people in the American colonies, and we had Washington, Adams, Jefferson and Franklin. Now, we have over 200 million, and the top 2 guys are Clinton and Dole. What can you draw from this? Darwin was wrong!"

What no one yet knew was that the government shutdown, at the same time that it was securing Clinton's win, was also setting the stage for the biggest crisis of his Presidency: Among the volunteers working in the White House during the government shutdown, and was among the young staffers welcoming him back to the White House with a hug the day after the election, was a young woman named Monica Lewinsky.

The Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics was established at the University of Kansas in 2003, on the occasion of Dole's 80th birthday. It performs some of the same functions as a Presidential Library, but it is not the same thing. Dole died in 2021, at the age of 98.

*

November 5, 1996, like all modern U.S. Election Days, was a Tuesday. The baseball season was over. Football was in midweek. But there were 10 games played in the NBA that day:

* The New York Knicks lost to the Los Angeles Lakers, 98-92 at Madison Square Garden. Shaquille O'Neal scored 26 points.

 

* The Detroit Pistons beat the Philadelphia 76ers, 83-81 at the new CoreStates Center (now the Xfinity Mobile Arena) in Philadelphia.

* The Toronto Raptors beat the Dallas Mavericks, 100-96 at the SkyDome in Toronto. (It's now named the Rogers Centre.) Walt Williams scored 34 for the Raptors.

* The San Antonio Spurs beat the Cleveland Cavaliers, 74-68 at the Gund Arena in Cleveland. (It's now named the Rocket Arena.)

* The Chicago Bulls beat the Vancouver Grizzlies, 96-73 at the United Center in Chicago. Michael Jordan led the scoring with 22 points.

* The Los Angeles Clippers beat the Denver Nuggets, 82-78 at the McNichols Arena in Denver.

* The Minnesota Timberwolves beat the Phoenix Suns, 98-95 at the AmericaWest Arena (now the Mortgage Matchup Center) in Phoenix.

* The Portland Trail Blazers beat the Golden State Warriors, 111-93 at the Oakland Coliseum Arena.

* The Houston Rockets beats the Sacramento Kings, 102-80 at the Arco Arena in Sacramento. (It's now named the Sleep Train Arena.) Hakeem Olajuwon matched his uniform number by scoring 34 points.

* And the Atlanta Hawks beat the Seattle SuperSonics, 117-95 at the KeyArena in Seattle.

Only 1 NHL game was played, and it wasn't in the country holding the election: The Toronto Maple Leafs beat the St. Louis Blues, 6-3 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto. 

November 2, 1976: Jimmy Carter Is Elected President

Note the 2nd line of the headline:
Gotta get that local angle in.

November 2, 1976: Former Governor Jimmy Carter of Georgia edges incumbent President Gerald Ford, to reclaim the White House for the Democratic Party.

Ford had been Vice President when President Richard Nixon resigned on August 9, 1974. He was left with a recession he struggled to get under control, and the aftermath of the Watergate scandal that brought Nixon down. A month later, Ford pardoned Nixon for all crimes he committed, or may have committed, as President. That infuriated people who wanted to believe that Ford would be the honest man that Nixon wasn't.

Carter capitalized on that, telling voters, "I will never lie to you." It seemed to work: That statement, and the fact that he wasn't a "Washington insider" like so many other candidates for the Democratic nomination, made Carter stand out from the pack. At the Democratic Convention at Madison Square Garden, he took one of those insiders, Senator Walter Mondale of Minnesota, as his Vice Presidential nominee. The Carter-Mondale ticket left New York with a 33-point lead in the polls.

It didn't help Ford that he had waffled on a federal bailout for New York City's government, which was close to bankruptcy. At first, he refused, leading to the famous Daily News headline: "FORD TO CITY: DROP DEAD." That scared New York State officials, so they stepped in and helped the City get its house a little closer to being in order. That convinced Ford that a smaller bailout was okay.

So now, Ford had ticked off people in the City who thought he didn't care, and he'd ticked off conservatives in the Republican Party who didn't want any bailout for the city they hated the most. (Yes, conservatives hate New York more than they hate Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago or Boston.) To try to win the conservatives back, Ford announced that his original choice for Vice President, Nelson Rockefeller, himself a former Governor of New York, would not be the Party's nominee for the office in 1976.

That wasn't good enough. Ronald Reagan, who had been an actor and then Governor of California, was the darling of the conservative movement, and he challenged Ford in the Republican Primaries, and got almost enough Delegates to dethrone him at the Republican Convention at the Kemper Arena in Kansas City. (The building is now named the Hy-Vee Arena.) Ford chose Senator Bob Dole of Kansas as his new running mate.

Twenty years later, himself nominated for President, Dole would seem too moderate for current Republicans. But in 1976, he was considered acceptable by the Reagan wing of the Party. Which shows just how far to the right the Party had shifted, even by 1996.

Before the Republican Convention, Carter led Ford in the polls by a whopping 33 points. But things began to turn Ford's way. He went on a railroad "whistle-stop tour" like Harry Truman in 1948, because his "Rose Garden strategy" of staying in the White House and "acting Presidential" wasn't working.

He shored up support in the South, the Midwest and the West, leading conservative New York Times columnist William Safire, who had been a speechwriter for Nixon, to coin the phrase "The Winning West," saying that it had become more important than "The Solid South." Dole brought some supporters back. The economy finally began to improve, after the 1st-ever combination of unemployment and inflation, a.k.a. "stagflation," in American history in 1973, '74 and '75.

And the Carter campaign made enough minor mis-steps that Carter's drop in the polls mirrored what might have happened if he'd had one major mis-step. Indeed, it could be argued that, despite winning the Presidency, Carter's political stock was never higher than during the 1976 Democratic Convention.

And while he was pro-civil rights, there was still a stigma: No Southerner had been elected President without first being the Vice President since Zachary Taylor in 1848. (Woodrow Wilson had been born in Virginia, but was a New Jersey-based politician. And he was the only Southern-born politician even nominated between 1848 and 1976.)

There were some zingers, but nothing really nasty. Ford questioned Carter's experience, and Carter responded by saying that, if experience were the deciding factor, "we would have kept Richard Nixon." There was a brief question about Ford's taxes, and the special counsel investigating decided there was not enough evidence to recommend charges. But before that decision, Carter addressed it very deftly: "I don't know what the facts are about Mr. Ford and his income tax. He does!" The implication being, "What's he hiding? Haven't we had enough of that?"

Ford attacked what he perceived to be Carter's weakness and indecisiveness: "He wanders, he wavers, he waffles, and he wiggles!" He also said, "There was a great, great President, many years ago, named Teddy Roosevelt, who said, 'Speak softly and carry a big stick.' Jimmy Carter speaks loudly, and carries a fly swatter!" One day, he delivered his stump speech 10 times. By the 9th time, he was so tired, it came out "fly swapper"; on the 10th try, "fly spotter." Still, each man seemed to be enjoying himself on the campaign trail.

But the debates doomed Ford. In one, he was asked about Soviet influence in Eastern Europe, and said, "There is no Soviet domination in Eastern Europe, and there never will be under a Ford Administration." This statement was meant to suggest that he wouldn't let it happen. But most people knew that it had already happened, long before he took office, and it fed into the idea that Ford -- a graduate of the University of Michigan and Yale Law School, 2 of America's finest institutions of higher learning -- was dumb.

And in the Vice Presidential debate, Dole attacked the Democrats by saying that World War I, World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War were "all Democrat wars." This was completely stupid: The Vietnam War started under Dole's idol, fellow Kansan Dwight D. Eisenhower; and the others, once Democratic Presidents got America involved, Republicans in Congress wholeheartedly supported the war efforts. Indeed, with World War I, Republicans wanted it more than Democrats; and in World War II, Republicans didn't want to get involved at first, because they supported the fascist Axis against the Soviet Union.

On Election Day, November 2, the race was a virtual dead heat in the final poll. When the votes were tallied, it was definitive, but just barely. Carter got 40.8 million votes, Ford 39.1 million; Carter got 50.1 percent of the popular vote, Ford 48.0; Carter won only 23 States, to Ford's 27; but Carter's States added up to 297 Electoral Votes, Ford's to 240.

How close was it? Carter won Mississippi's 7 EVs by 15,000 votes, Wisconsin's 11 by 36,000, and Missouri's 12 by 61,000. Shift those 122,000 votes to Ford, and the EV count would have been Ford 271, Carter 267.

Carter won Pennsylvania by 123,000 votes. But shifting that 1 State, with 27 EVs, wouldn't have been enough to swing the election to Ford. Shifting New York would have been: Carter won it by 288,767 votes. Shift its 41 EVs, and it would have been Ford 281, Carter 256.

Ford's supporters were left to wonder. If only:

* Nixon had resigned a little sooner, giving Ford more time to turn things around.

* Ford hadn't pardoned Nixon, killing off some of the massive goodwill with which he began his Administration.

* Ford had given New York City the bailout at first, he could have won New York -- but he might not have won close States like Oregon, Maine, Virginia, and, most notably, Reagan's home State of California with its 45 EVs.

* Reagan had dropped out of the Primaries after losing Illinois, where he was born and raised, to Ford, allowing Ford to consolidate his intraparty support sooner.

* The economy had begun to improve, even a little bit sooner.

* Ford had come up with a better debate answer on Eastern Europe.

* Dole had come up with a better debate answer on foreign policy.

Had any one of those things happened, instead of what did happen, Ford could well have won, and continued as President all the way until January 20, 1981.

Already having big majorities in both houses of Congress, there wasn't much for the Democratic Party to gain there: They added just 1 seat in the House, giving them 292 seats; and 1 in the Senate, giving them 61. Neither major party has had that many since.

Among the new Senators elected were Democrats Howard Metzenbaum of Ohio (who beat Bob Taft Jr., son of a Senate Majority Leader and grandson of a President), Daniel Patrick "Pat" Moynihan of New York; and Republicans Richard Lugar of Indiana, Orrin Hatch of Utah, John Heinz of Pennsylvania (of the Pittsburgh condiment-making family), and Harrison Schmitt of New Mexico (who walked on the Moon on the Apollo 17 mission).

Maybe Ford was better off for having lost: Carter was left with the energy crisis, a hard situation in Iran, and a new round of recession and inflation. If Ford had what amounted to a 2nd term, he might have struggled just as much (if not with exactly the same attempted solutions), and he might now be considered one of the country's worst Presidents, if a well-meaning one.

Time magazine named Carter their Man of the Yar for 1976. He started his Inaugural Address by thanking "my predecessor, for all he has done to heal our land." That healed some of the bitterness that had come up between them during the campaign, and the two men remained on friendly terms for the rest of Ford's life, which came to a close in 2006, at the age of 93. At the time, Ford was the longest-lived President in American history. At 98, and still alive at this writing, Carter now holds that title. (UPDATE: Carter became the 1st President to live to reach a 100th birthday, dying shortly after it.)

The 1976 campaign remains the last one to date that was relatively civil. In 1980, Reagan and the Republicans ran a campaign that terribly mocked Carter, and it worked. As time has gone by, Presidential elections gotten nastier and nastier. The zingers that Ford and Carter traded in the Bicentennial Year now seem rather quaint by comparison.

Also on Election Day 1976, New Jersey voters approved casino gambling in Atlantic City. This would one day have repercussions in another Presidential race, as Donald Trump ran in 2016 despite building 3 casino-hotels in A.C., and having them all go bankrupt. Some businessman he turned out to be.

There's a Jimmy Carter Presidential Parkway and a Jimmy Carter Boulevard in his home State of Georgia. A statue of him stands outside the State Capitol in Atlanta. The city is also home to his Presidential Library, and the Carter Center, an institute dedicated to peaceful change all over the world. They opened on October 1, 1986, his 62nd birthday. Given his U.S. Navy experience, it was appropriate that a nuclear-powered submarine was named the USS Jimmy Carter, SSN-23, in service since 2004.

While he was born and raised in Los Angeles, actor Richard Paul had become known for his impressions, and his impression of Carter led to him being cast as Mayor Teddy Burnside in the sitcom Carter Country, which aired on ABC in the 1977-78 and 1978-79 TV seasons. In a retroactive irony -- Bill Clinton was first elected Governor of Arkansas in 1978 -- the name of the fictional Georgia town on the show was Clinton Corners. The TV show The Dukes of Hazzard, based in a fictional Georgia County, also debuted during Carter's Presidency. While it was filmed in 1976, the Georgia-based movie Smokey & the Bandit premiered in 1977.

Statue, State House, Atlanta, Georgia

Carter remains the only President born in, or representing, Georgia.

Carter has been played by Dan Aykroyd on Saturday Night Live, Ed Beheler in Sextette in 1978 and Hot Shots! Part Deux in 1993, and Brad Maynard in the pilot of the 1st live-action TV version of the superhero comedy The Tick in 2001. (A Soviet robot had been programmed specifically to kill Carter, not whoever was currently President, and was revived in what was then the present day.)

UPDATE: Carter became the 1st President to live to be 100 years old, on October 1, 2024. He had said he wanted to live long enough to vote for Kamala Harris over Donald Trump in the election on November 5. He did. He died on December 29.

*

November 2, 1976, like all Election Days in modern American history, was a Tuesday. The baseball season was over. The football season was in midweek. There were 4 games played in the NBA that day:

* The Milwaukee Bucks beat the Seattle SuperSonics, 125-113 at the Milwaukee Exposition, Convention Center and Arena, or "The MECCA." Since 2014, it has been named the UW-Panther Arena. Bod Dandridge scored 37 points.

* The New Orleans Jazz beat the Boston Celtics, 115-97 at the Superdome in New Orleans. "Pistol Pete" Maravich scored 43 for the Jazz, who moved to Utah in 1979.

* The Golden State Warriors beat the Detroit Pistons, 111-98 at the Oakland Coliseum Arena.

* And the Portland Trail Blazers beat the Atlanta Hawks, 129-116 at the Portland Memorial Coliseum.

There were 2 games in the NHL:

* The New York Islanders beat the Colorado Rockies, 5-1 at the McNichols Arena in Denver. This was the Rockies' 1st season in Denver. They would play 6 there, making the Playoffs only in 1978, before moving to become the New Jersey Devils in 1982.

* And the Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Los Angeles Kings, 7-1 at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh.

In the World Hockey Association:

* The Phoenix Roadrunners beat the Quebec Nordiques, 5-3 at the Colisee de Quebec.

* The San Diego Mariners beat the Birmingham Bulls, 4-3 at the Jefferson County Civic Center in Birmingham, Alabama, now known as the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex.

* The Houston Aeros beat the Winnipeg Jets, 3-1 at the Winnipeg Arena.

* And the Calgary Cowboys beat the Minnesota Fighting Saints, 4-3 at the Stampede Corral in Calgary. 

October 31, 1975: Queen Release "Bohemian Rhapsody"

October 31, 1975: The British rock band Queen release their single "Bohemian Rhapsody," from their album A Night at the Opera. It was entirely written by lead singer Freddie Mercury, produced by Roy Thomas Baker, and recorded at Rockfield Studios 1 at Rockfield, Monmouth, Wales, about 37 miles northeast of the Welsh capital of Cardiff, and 154 miles west of London.

Traditionally, Bohemia is the westernmost part of Czechia, a.k.a. the Czech Republic, and, before that, the westernmost part of Czechoslovakia. Before that, it belonged to the Austrian Empire; before that, the Holy Roman Empire; before that, it was an independent Kingdom of Bohemia.

But the title of the song does not refer to the place. Rather, it refers to Bohemianism, defined as "the practice of an unconventional lifestyle," often involving musical, artistic, literary or spiritual pursuits.

And yet, the song contains no lyrics reflecting this. It is actually several songs in one:

* It opens with a 49-second vocal part with minimal instrumentation.

* Its 2nd movement, 2 minutes and 16 seconds, has 2 verses, narrated by a man who has committed a murder, and is now on the run, writing a message to his mother.

* Its 3rd movement, 1 minute and 2 seconds, has little relationship to the other 2, and contains features of opera, reflecting the title of the album more than that of the song.

* Its 4th movement, 47 seconds, is pure hard rock, and its lyrics seem to have only the slightest relationship to what has come before.

* Its 5th and final movement, a little over 1 minute (how many additional seconds depends on how long you consider the fadeout to be) is a callback to its 1st, about how nothing seems to matter.

A promotional film was made on November 10 -- the day the SS Edmund Fitzgerald sank -- and helped to usher in the era of music videos. Its diamond formation of the band's faces, a copy of the photo that Mick Rock took for the cover of their 1974 album Queen II, become iconic: Mercury at the bottom, guitarist Brian May at the top, drummer Roger Taylor on the left, and bass guitarist John Deacon on the right.

For younger fans (including myself) who only became fans of Queen with their 1980 album The Game, or even later after their appearance at Live Aid in 1985, it was hard to imagine Mercury clean-shaven with long hair, rather than the more familiar later image of short hair and the thick bushy mustache -- apparently, known in gay circles as a "cockduster."

Supposedly, the image of the band was inspired by a photo of German actress Marlene Dietrich from the 1932 film Shanghai Express, but it is also reminiscent of the shadowy-faced cover of the 1963 album With The Beatles (known as Meet The Beatles on its early 1964 release in America).

The song hit Number 1 on the British music charts, and stayed there for 9 weeks. In America, its 6-minute length was considered an issue for radio stations -- more, apparently, than was asking its audience to show sympathy for the song's narrator, an admitted murderer -- and it only reached Number 9.

After Mercury died in 1991, from the effects of AIDS at the age of 45, combined with the song's inclusion in the film Wayne's World, released 3 months later (but filmed before it was publicly known that Mercury was dying), the song went back to Number 1 on the British charts, but still only got to Number 2 in America. The song's title became the title of a 2018 film biography of Mercury, starring Rami Malek.

As of October 31, 2022, the rest of the band is still alive: May is 74, Taylor is 72, and Deacon is 70. Baker is 75.

UPDATE: It took me until 2024 to think of this, but the 1970s were Schrödinger's Decade. There was too much overwrought music, and, at the same time, not enough of it.

In a 2012 episode of the YouTube series Epic Rap Battles of History, "Nice" Peter Shukoff played Freddie Mercury, against "Epic" Lloyd Ahlquist as Frank Sinatra.

*

October 31, 1975 was a Friday. It was also Halloween. The baseball season had just ended, with the Cincinnati Reds winning a fondly-remembered World Series over the Boston Red Sox. College football games were played the next day, and NFL games the day after that. There were 5 games played in the NBA:

* The Boston Celtics beat the Portland Trail Blazers, 112-94 at the Boston Garden.

* The Buffalo Braves beat the Philadelphia 76ers, 92-87 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia.

* The Detroit Pistons beat the Houston Rockets, 131-127 at Cobo Hall in Detroit. Calvin Murphy scored 40 points for the Rockets, and Rudy Tomjanovich, who would later coach them to 2 NBA titles, added 21 points and 16 rebounds. But the Pistons got 24 each from Bob Lanier and Curtis Rowe, and 20 from George Trapp.

* The New Orleans Jazz beat the Milwaukee Bucks, 100-85 at the Superdome.

* And the Los Angeles Lakers beat the Seattle SuperSonics, 120-104 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California.

There were 3 games played in the American Basketball Association, just entering its 9th and, as it turned out, final season: 

* The New York Nets lost to the Spirits of St. Louis, 120-116 in overtime at the Nassau Coliseum. They lost despite 42 points and 14 rebounds from Julius "Dr. J" Erving.

* The Indiana Pacers beat the Denver Nuggets, 111-99 at the Market Square Arena in Indianapolis.

* And the Utah Stars beat the Virginia Squires, 123-116 at the Salt Palace in Salt Lake City.

Only 1 game was played in the NHL: The Atlanta Flames beat the California Golden Seals, 2-0 at the Oakland Coliseum Arena.

Two games were played in the World Hockey Association. The Cleveland Crusaders beat the Quebec Nordiques, 6-2 at The Coliseum in the Cleveland suburb of Richfield, Ohio. And the New England Whalers and the Edmonton Oilers played to a tie, 2-2 at the Northlands Coliseum in Edmonton.

October 23, 1983: The Beirut Barracks Bombing

October 23, 1983: Two truck-borne suicide bombs strike buildings in Beirut, the capital of Lebanon, housing American and French service members of the Multinational Force in Lebanon (MNF), a military peacekeeping operation during the Lebanese Civil War.

One attack, on an American barracks, kills 241: 220 U.S. Marines, 18 U.S. Navy personnel, and 3 U.S. Army personnel. This remains the deadliest single-day death toll for the Marine Corps since the Battle of Iwo Jima in 1945, and the deadliest for America's armed forces overall since the Tet Offensive during the Vietnam War, in 1968. Another attack, on a French base, killed 58 French military personnel and 6 civilians.

The Lebanese Civil War had begun in 1975, and tore apart a nation that had once been a jewel among France's colonies, before independence in 1946, albeit with an intervention by the U.S. and France in 1958. The war continued until 1990, and Lebanon has recovered somewhat. Today, with Israeli, Syrian, American and French troops withdrawn, it is a democratic nation of 5.3 million people, 58 percent Muslim, 36 percent Christian.

Two days later, President Ronald Reagan launched an invasion of the Caribbean island nation of Grenada. Some people believed it was an attempt to cover up the debacle in Beirut. As it turned out, the Grenada plan was in motion well before the Beirut attack: Reagan had flown his National Security Council to his ranch outside Santa Barbara, California to discuss it.

*

October 23, 1983 was a Sunday. This was also the day that NBC News weekend anchorwoman Jessica Savitch died in a car crash. I have a separate entry for that event.

The baseball season had ended a week before, when the Baltimore Orioles beat the Philadelphia Phillies to win the World Series. The NBA season began 5 days later. The NHL season had gotten underway, and 4 games were played that day:

* The New York Rangers beat the New York Islanders, 6-5 at Madison Square Garden. Peter Sundstrom scored the winning goal, 1 minute and 13 seconds into overtime.

* The Philadelphia Flyers beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 8-5 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia.

* The Buffalo Sabres beat the Winnipeg Jets, 5-2 at the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium.

* And the Chicago Blackhawks beat the Calgary Flames, 7-4 at Chicago Stadium.

And there was a full slate of NFL games:

* The New York Jets lost to the Atlanta Falcons, 27-21 at Shea Stadium. This would be their last season at Shea, or in New York City, for that matter. They moved to the Meadowlands the next season.

* The Chicago Bears beat the Philadelphia Eagles, 7-6 at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia.

* The Miami Dolphins beat the Baltimore Colts, 21-7 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. This would be the Colts' last season in Baltimore. They moved to Indianapolis the next season.

* The Washington Redskins beat the Detroit Lions, 38-17 at Robert F. Kennedy Stadium in Washington.

* The New Orleans Saints beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 24-21 at Tampa Stadium.

* The New England Patriots beat the Buffalo Bills, 31-0 at Rich Stadium (later Ralph Wilson Stadium) in the Buffalo suburb of Orchard Park, New York.

* The Cincinnati Bengals beat the Cleveland Browns, 28-21 at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati.

* The Minnesota Vikings beat the Green Bay Packers, 20-17 in overtime at Lambeau Field in Green Bay.

* The Los Angeles Raiders beat the Dallas Cowboys, 40-38 at Texas Stadium in the Dallas suburb of Irving.

* The Kansas City Chiefs beat the Houston Oilers, 13-10 in overtime at the Astrodome in Houston.

* The Denver Broncos beat the San Diego Chargers, 14-6 at Mile High Stadium in Denver.

* The San Francisco 49ers beat the Los Angeles Rams, 45-35 at Anaheim Stadium.

* And the Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Seattle Seahawks, 27-21 at the Kingdome in Seattle.

* The next night, on Monday Night Football, the New York Giants and the St. Louis Cardinals played to a 20-20 tie at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis. 

October 8, 1921: The 1st Football Game on Radio

The 1921 University of Pittsburgh football team

October 8, 1921: For the 1st time, a football game is broadcast on radio. KDKA in Pittsburgh, who had debuted by broadcasting the previous year's Presidential election results, and earlier this year had become the 1st station to broadcast a baseball game, heads for the gridiron.

Harold Arlin, a foreman at KDKA's parent company Westinghouse, was the announcer., for radio's 1st football game, as he had been 2 months earlier for radio's 1st baseball game. He was an engineer working for the station's owner, the Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company. Although he had no background in the nascent radio industry, or in anything else that required the use of his voice, like stage acting, the company assigned him to call these games.

The opponents are the University of Pittsburgh and West Virginia University, a rivalry later nicknamed The Backyard Brawl, at Forbes Field, home of baseball's Pirates. Pitt wins, 21-13. 

Forbes Field

On September 14, 1923, Arlin became the 1st boxing announcer over radio, going to the Polo Grounds in New York, to announce Jack Dempsey's wild comeback to knock Luis Firpo out and retain the Heavyweight Championship of the World.

But after 1921, Arlin never broadcast the Pirates again. He became known as radio's first celebrity interviewer, conducting interviews with William Jennings Bryan, Lillian Gish, Will Rogers and Babe Ruth. He later moved to Mansfield, Ohio, and ran Westinghouse's plant there. He lived until 1896.

*

October 8, 1921 was a Saturday. Some of the other notable college football games of the day:

* The University of Iowa upset Notre Dame, the defending National Champions, 10-7 at Iowa Field in Iowa City. Iowa Stadium was built in 1929, and was renamed Kinnick Stadium in 1972.

* The University of California, on its way to being declared National Champions for 1921, beat the University of Nevada, 51-6 at California Field in Berkeley. California Memorial Stadium was built 2 years later, on the profits of Cal's "Wonder Team."

* Army beat Lebanon Valley College of Annville, Pennsylvania, 33-0 on The Plain at West Point, New York. Michie Stadium opened in 1924.

* Harvard beat Indiana University, 19-0 at Harvard Stadium in Boston. But 3 weeks later, Harvard would be the victims of a stunning upset, 6-0 at Harvard Stadium, by Centre College of Danville, Kentucky.

* In New York City, Columbia beat Wesleyan University, 14-3 at South Field. Baker Field, on which today's Wien Stadium was built, opened in 1923. Fordham beat the Catholic University of America, based in Washington, D.C., 10-0 at Fordham Field in The Bronx. And New York University lost to Brown, 13-0 at Andrews Field in Providence, Rhode Island. 

* In New Jersey, Princeton beat Colgate, 19-0 at Palmer Stadium. And Rutgers lost to Lehigh, 7-0 at Neilson Field in New Brunswick.

October 8 was an off-day in the World Series, which was played entirely at the Polo Grounds in Upper Manhattan, and which the New York Yankees led over the New York Giants, 2 games to 1. But the Giants would win it, 5 games to 3. This remains the last World Series not to be a best-4-out-of-7.

And Arsenal lost to Sunderland, 1-0 at Roker Park in Sunderland, in the North-East of England. 

May 11, 1962: All-Number Phone Calling Begins

The push-button phone arrived the next year, 1963.

May 11, 1962: All-number phone calling begins. No more letters.

In the beginning of wide telephone use, you used to just speak into the receiver, and say, "Operator, get me (Name of Person)." Eventually, there were so many telephones in use that phone numbers were created, and asking the operator to connect you with a specific name, or "person-to-person calling," came with an extra charge.

So "exchanges" were created by the Bell System in 1919. For example, the oldest telephone number still in use in New York City today is that of the Hotel Pennsylvania in Manhattan, across 7th Avenue from Penn Station (for which the hotel was named) and, since 1968, the current Madison Square Garden. The number was PEnnsylvania 6-5000. So if you had a phone with a dial, you would find the number 7, which was for the letters P, R and S (Q was bypassed); and then the 3, for D, E and F; and then 6, 5, and the zero three times.

The Glenn Miller Orchestra often played the Hotel's ballroom, and a song was composed for them, with the title of "PEnnsylvania 6-5000." (Pronounced "Pennsylvania Six Five Thousand.") To this day, if you call the number, you first get the 1940 recording of the Orchestra speaking the number.

(UPDATE: The Hotel Pennsylvania had closed in 2020 due to the COVID epidemic, which I didn't know when I first posted this. It was demolished later in 2022, but the owner of the property, Vornado Real Estate chairman Steven Roth, still holds the legal rights to the phone number, and plans to keep it for the new tower he's building on the site.)

In 1935, John O'Hara wrote a novel titled BUtterfield 8, which was made into a movie in 1960, which got Elizabeth Taylor her Oscar. One of the "Classic 39" episodes of The Honeymooners featured the Kramdens getting a telephone -- yes, up until 1956, they still didn't have one -- and their number became the title of the episode: "BEnsonhurst 0-7741." (The show was always said to be set in the Bensonhurst neighborhood of Brooklyn, even though the address mentioned for their apartment building, 328 Chauncey Street, which actually does exist, is in Bushwick.)

Eventually, the mentioning of phone numbers in movies, and later also television, caused the people who really had those numbers to object to people calling them for fun. So a fake exchange began to be used for fictional numbers: "KLondike 5."

In October 1947, anticipating the growth of post-World War II housing, the Bell System created the North American Numbering Plan, with American Telephone & Telegraph (AT&T) and Bell Canada working together to create Area Codes. On May 11, 1962, the Area Codes went into use. PEnnsylvania 6-5000 became (212) 736-5000. And KLondike 5-xxxx became 555-xxxx.

This did not make everyone happy. Everybody now had to remember a new version of their old phone number, and new versions of the phone numbers of everyone they called on a regular basis. And if they had to call someone from outside their Area Code, they had to dial 10 digits instead of 7.

This led to the rise of push-button phones, and the phasing out of rotary-dial phones. And some people liked the old exchanges. Comedian Allan Sherman wrote "The Let's All Call Up A.T.&T. and Protest to the President March."

Timing is everything. Marvin Gaye, Mickey Stevenson, and George Gordy, brother of Motown Records boss Berry Gordy Jr., wrote "BEechwood 4-5789," but, for reasons unknown, it wasn't recorded by The Marvelettes until May 19, 1962, 8 days after the switchover, and wasn't released until July 11, 2 months later. With Detroit's Area Code, this number would now be (313) 234-5789.

Contrast that with a song that was a hit for Wilson Pickett in 1966: "634-5789 (Soulsville, U.S.A.)," which is one digit off the number in the Marvelettes song. Since then, only one song with a phone number in the title has become a hit: "867-5309/Jenny" by Tommy Tutone.

So, in order to get the Pennsylvania Hotel's recording, you have to dial (212) 736-5000; to call Liz Taylor's call girl character, you'd start with the Area Code and 288; and to call the Kramdens, or whoever would have that number today, (718) 230-7741.

Later films and TV shows occasionally reference the old numbers. A 1974 episode of M*A*S*H, titled "Adam's Ribs," had Hawkeye (Alan Alda) trying to call a barbecue restaurant in Chicago, whose number was DEarborn 5-6798 -- now, (312) 335-6798. And a 1994 episode of Mad About You, "The Last Scampi," had Sylvia Buchman (Cynthia Harris), mother of Paul (Paul Reiser), leaving a message with her number, which she still gives with the old KLondike 5 exchange.

Eventually, the earliest area codes ran out of numbers, and the regions they covered had to be split. For example, in New York City: 212 now serves only about half of Manhattan Island. 718 was created on September 1, 1984, 917 on February 4, 1992 (for mobile phones), 347 on October 1, 1999, and 929 on April 16, 2011.

In New Jersey, 201 originally covered the entire State, starting in 1947. In 1958, Mercer County and South Jersey were split off into 609. In 1991, Central Jersey was split off from 201, and given 908. In 1997, much of North Jersey was split off into 973, so that only Bergen and Hudson Counties still used 201; and some of 908 was split into 732. In 1999, the western half of South Jersey was split off into 856. In 2001, 551 became an overlay of 201, 862 of 973, and 848 of 732. In 2018, 640 became an overlay of 609.

So something that athletes and music personalities sometimes do, shouting out to their Area Code, doesn't work, because you never know when it will be changed. I was born in 201, but where we lived at the time would now be 973 -- or 862. Where I lived from age 3 onward was 201 until I was 21, then it became 908, then 732 when I was 27. And when I got my first mobile phone in 2002, I was once again 908, and still am. Do I really want to "represent the 908"? Not really: I'm still a 201 at heart, even though I have never lived in Bergen or Hudson County.

Of all the changes that happened in America in the 1960s, and particularly during the Administration of President John F. Kennedy, two that were huge parts of our culture, but are rarely talked about now, are the institutions of Area and ZIP Codes.

*

May 11, 1962 was a Friday. It was the off-season for the NFL and the AFL. The NBA season had ended on April 18, with the Boston Celtics successfully defending their title by beating the Los Angeles Lakers in the Finals. The NHL season had ended on April 22, with the Toronto Maple Leafs beating the defending Champion Chicago Black Hawks in the Stanley Cup Finals. But a full slate of Major League Baseball games was played on the day.

* The New York Yankees (at the time, Area Code 212) lost to the Cleveland Indians (216), 7-1 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Jim "Mudcat" Grant went the distance for the Tribe, who knocked Ralph Terry out of the box after 5 innings. Terry's record dropped to 4-3. He finished the season 23-12, winning the Cy Young Award. Bill "Moose" Skowron hit a home run for the Yankees. Mickey Mantle and Yogi Berra both went 0-for-4, while Roger Maris went 1-for-4.

* The New York Mets (212) lost to the Milwaukee Braves (414), 8-5 at the Polo Grounds. Hank Aaron went 2-for-5, his hits including a double but not a home run. Jim Hickman homered for the Mets.

* The Washington Senators (202) beat the Baltimore Orioles (301, now 410), 12-1 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore.

* The Cincinnati Reds (513) beat the Pittsburgh Pirates (412), 3-2 at Crosley Field in Cincinnati. The game was scoreless going into extra innings, and the Pirates thought they had it won with 2 runs in the top of the 10th inning. But the Reds scored 3 in the bottom of the inning, the last on a single by Frank Robinson.

* The Detroit Tigers (313) beat the Boston Red Sox (617), 5-1 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit.

* The Philadelphia Phillies (215) beat the Chicago Cubs (312), 12-2 at Wrigley Field in Chicago.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers (213) beat the St. Louis Cardinals (314), 8-5 at Busch Stadium (formerly Sportsman's Park) in St. Louis.

* The Kansas City Athletics (816) beat the Minnesota Twins (612, now 952), 5-3 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota, in a game called due to rain in the bottom of the 8th inning.

* The Houston Colt .45s (713) beat the San Francisco Giants (415), 7-0 at Colt Stadium in Houston. Gaylord Perry developed an injury, and had to leave the game in the 2nd inning. Richard "Turk" Farrell pitched a 6-hit shutout. Willie Mays got one of those hits.

* And the Los Angeles Angels (213, now 714 in Anaheim) beat the Chicago White Sox (312), 4-2 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.