October 22, 1926: "The Sun Also Rises" Is Published

October 22, 1926, 100 years ago: The Sun Also Rises, written by Ernest Hemingway, is published by Charles Scribner's Sons. Although Hemingway had previously been a journalist, and had published short stories, this was his 1st novel, and it set the tone for a writing style that would change literature.

The novel is a roman à clef: The characters are based on real people in Hemingway's social circle, and the action is based on real events, particularly Hemingway's life in Paris in the 1920s, and a trip to Spain in 1925 for the "running of the bulls" festival in Pamplona and fishing in the Pyrenees.

Hemingway, then 27 years old, presented his notion that what was already being called the "Lost Generation," considered to have been decadent, dissolute, and irretrievably damaged by their experiences in World War I, which had ended just 8 years earlier, was, instead, resilient and strong. Hemingway investigated the themes of love and death, the revivifying power of nature, and the concept of masculinity.

However, in his treatment of women, art imitated life: The character of Lady Brett Ashley is promiscuous and untrustworthy. Hemingway married 4 times, and it's been suggested that he mistreated all 4 wives, but got a great novel out of each: The Sun Also Rises, A Farewell to Arms (a version of his experience in World War I, published in 1929), For Whom the Bell Tolls (a version of his experience in the Spanish Civil War, published in 1940), and The Old Man and the Sea (based on stories he heard from fishermen in Cuba, published in 1952).

Along with The Great Gatsby by his friend F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Main Street by Sinclair Lewis, The Sun Also Rises is 1 of 3 definitive novels of the "Roaring Twenties" and the "Lost Generation." But it has not really stood the test of time: Not only does Lady Brett look bad in an era of feminism, but the character of Robert Cohn is treated badly, leading to the charge the Hemingway was anti-Semitic; and bullfighting, which Hemingway celebrated in this book and in several short stories, has come to be seen by the wider world as barbaric.

Hemingway himself, though an incredibly talented writer, was a barbaric man, who never met a human being, man or woman, that he didn't want to hit; never met a woman that he didn't want to have sex with; and never met an animal he didn't want to shoot. On July 2, 1961, he shot and killed the most dangerous animal he ever faced: Himself. He was his own worst enemy, and he was just short of turning 63.

Top 10 World Series with the "Smallest Markets"

The 2026 World Series will be between the Milwaukee Brewers, Champions of the National League, and the Tampa Bay Rays, Champions of the American League.

The Rays previously won Pennants in 2008 and 2020; the Brewers, only in 1982. Neither has ever won a World Series. One will win their 1st in the next few days.

And they will face each other as the smallest-market matchup in World Series history.

These are, as sports management puts it, "small markets." Although, with the way sports is presented these days, there really is no longer any such thing as a "small market."

Note that this is based on how small the market was at the time; and that this is tilted toward the post-expansion era. When it was just the "Original 16," people thought in terms of "cities," not "metropolitan areas" or "markets."

Note also that it's the cities' rankings in Major League Baseball, not overall in America; that I'm not counting the Canadian cities of Toronto and Montreal; and that changes in a city's ranking can be not just due to changes in population, but due to moving, although the only moves since 1971-72 have been the Montreal Expos to Washington in 2004-05 and the Oakland Athletics to Sacramento in 2024-25.

1. 2026: Milwaukee, 26th, vs. Tampa Bay, 16th. Total: 42.

2. 1985: Kansas City, 24th, vs. St. Louis, 12th. Total: 36.

3. 2006: St. Louis, 18th, vs. Detroit, 13th. Total: 33.

4. 1982: Milwaukee, 21st, vs. St. Louis, 12th. Total: 33.

5. 2013: St. Louis, 20th, vs. Boston, 12th. Total: 32.

6. 2014: Kansas City, 23rd, vs. San Francisco, 6th. Total: 29.

7. 1980: Kansas City, 24th, vs. Philadelphia, 4th. Total: 28.

8. 2016: Cleveland, 24th, vs. Chicago, 3rd. Total: 27.

And 4 others were tied for the 9th and 10th spots, with 26:

2008: Tampa Bay, 20th, vs. Philadelphia, 6th. 

2007: Denver, 19th, vs. Boston, 7th.

1997: Cleveland, 14th, vs. Miami, 12th. 

1987: Minneapolis, 14th, vs. St. Louis, 12th. 

Detroit and St. Louis had faced each other 3 times before 2006, but the last of those was in 1968, when there were just 20 teams in MLB.

The smallest-market matchups in the other sports? In the NHL, we just had it this year, when the Carolina Hurricanes, of the Raleigh-Durham area, beat the Vegas Golden Knights.

In the NBA, it was last year, when the Oklahoma City Thunder beat the Indiana Pacers, of Indianapolis. And in the NFL, it was in 2010, in Super Bowl XLIV, when the New Orleans Saints beat the Indianapolis Colts.

World Series Where Both Teams Had Never Won Before

The 2026 World Series will be between the Milwaukee Brewers, Champions of the National League, and the Tampa Bay Rays, Champions of the American League.

The Rays previously won Pennants in 2008 and 2020; the Brewers, only in 1982. Neither has ever won a World Series. One will win their 1st in the next few days.

World Series where both teams had never won before:

1903 Boston Americans (Red Sox) beat Pittsburgh Pirates

1905 New York Giants beat Philadelphia Athletics

1906 Chicago White Sox beat Chicago Cubs

1907 Chicago Cubs beat Detroit Tigers

1920 Cleveland Indians (Guardians) beat Brooklyn Robins (Dodgers)

1980 Philadelphia Phillies beat Kansas City Royals

2026 Milwaukee Brewers vs. Tampa Bay Rays

1992 sort-of counts: The Toronto Blue Jays had never won a Pennant before; while the Atlanta Braves had won the World Series, but in Boston and Milwaukee, not yet in Atlanta.

2002 sort-of counts: The team then known as the Anaheim Angels had never won a Pennant before; while the San Francisco Giants had won the World Series, but in New York, not yet in San Francisco.

2010 sort-of counts: The Giants were in it again, and the Texas Rangers had never won a Pennant before.

It hasn't happened in the NFL since 1982, when the San Francisco 49ers beat the Cincinnati Bengals in Super Bowl XVI.

It sort-of happened in the NBA in 2025: The Oklahoma City Thunder beat the Indiana Pacers in the Finals. The Pacers won 3 titles in the ABA, but are now 0-2 in NBA Finals. The Thunder last won in 1979, as the Seattle SuperSonics. If you don't count that, then it last happened in 2006, when the Miami Heat beat the Dallas Mavericks.

The NHL's last occurrence was relatively recent: In 2023, the Vegas Golden Knights beat the Florida Panthers to win the Stanley Cup.

October 20, 2001: The Concert for New York City

Sir Paul with cops and firemen

October 20, 2001, 25 years ago: The Concert for New York City is held at Madison Square Garden. Played just 6 weeks after the 9/11 attacks, emotions were still running deep. Most of the audience was cops, firemen, rescue workers, and people who had lost family members in the attacks, many of them holding up photos of the victims. Billy Crystal was the master of ceremonies.

David Bowie opened the show with Simon & Garfunkel's "America," then did his own "Heroes" with a full band. Also on hand: Bon Jovi, Jay-Z, Goo Goo Dolls, Destiny's Child (including Beyoncé), Eric

Clapton & Buddy Guy, the Backstreet Boys, Macy Gray, James Taylor, John Mellencamp & Kid Rock, Five For Fighting, and Janet Jackson.

Billy Joel showed up drunk, and went into rehab not long thereafter. Of course, he played "New York State of Mind." But first, he played "Miami 2017." On September 10, 2001, it looked like the apocalypse he'd predicted for The City in 1976 had been prevented. But on the 11th, it came far too close to reality: "I watched the mighty skyline fall" -- although it was the World Trade Center, not the Empire State Building, that he saw "laid low" in the song He later joined Elton John, who had played his New Yorker-themed "Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters," for a performance of Elton's "Your Song."

Melissa Etheridge's microphone went out during her acoustic performance of "Come to My Window," but everybody was singing along anyway, and none of those hard-edged, blue-collar cops and firemen gave a damn that she was openly gay. (Well, maybe a few from Staten Island. But, as for the rest, this was New York.) Her mike went out again as she did an acoustic version of Springsteen's "Born to Run" -- and nobody flinched as she sang lines of love and passion to a woman named Wendy.

Mick Jagger and Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones sang "Salt of the Earth" and "Miss You" (with its reference to walking through Central Park in the '70s). When they were done, Mick said, "If there's one thing we've learned from all this, it's that you don't fuck with New York!" True.

The Who came out, with former Beatle Ringo Starr's son Zak Starkey filling in on drums for the late Keith Moon, and it turned out to be bass player John Entwistle's last performance. They did a nasty "Who Are You," an intense "Baba O'Riley," a melancholy "Behind Blue Eyes," and a roaring "Won't Get Fooled Again." Crystal said, "I'd never seen The Who live before. It was great to see these middle-aged men get out on stage and kick ass."

With Elvis Presley dead and unavailable, it was appropriate that the show closed with a surviving Beatle, Paul McCartney, who played, among others, "Yesterday," his new song "Freedom," and "Let It Be." 

October 20, 1996: The 1st MLS Cup

October 20, 1996, 30 years ago: The 1st Major League Soccer season comes to a climax with the 1st MLS Cup Final, held on neutral ground at Foxboro Stadium in the Boston suburb of Foxborough, Massachusetts, home of the NFL's New England Patriots and MLS' New England Revolution.

MLS was then divided into Eastern and Western Conferences. The Tampa Bay Mutiny ran away with the East, with D.C. United, the league's Washington team, 12 points back. But in the 1st round of the Playoffs, DCU beat the New York Tri-State Area's team, the NY/NJ MetroStars in a shootout.

This started a rivalry known as the Atlantic Cup. Despite Metro's 2005 rebranding as the New York Red Bulls, the chance to jump on the traditional New York vs. New England rivalry from the outset, and the later establishments of the Philadelphia Union and New York City F.C., DCU remain the team that Metro/Red Bull fans most want to beat: "The D.C. Scum."

DCU went on to eliminate the Mutiny in the Conference Final. In the West, the Los Angeles Galaxy won by 8 points over the Dallas Burn, and then, in the Playoffs, beat the San Jose Clash and the Kansas City Wiz to make the Final.

(Respectively, those teams are now named F.C. Dallas, the Houston Dynamo and Sporting Kansas City. The original Clash were renamed the San Jose Earthquakes before moving to Houston in 2006, and a new Earthquakes team began play in 2008.)

Boston and Washington had never previously played in a major league sports final. Due to the NBA and the NHL being split into geographic conferences, it hasn't been possible in those leagues.

It had been possible in Major League Baseball only from 1903, when the World Series began, until 1952, when the Boston Braves moved, and could no longer play the Washington Senators in the World Series. It became possible again with the 2005 arrival of the Washington Nationals, but they have never played the Boston Red Sox in a World Series.

It was, and remains, possible for the Patriots to play the Washington Commanders (who actually started out in Boston, from 1932 to 1936) in the Super Bowl, but it hasn't happened.

Foxboro Stadium, replaced by Gillette Stadium in 2002, seated 61,000, but the stadium operators were surprised that over 40,000 tickets were sold, so they had to open the upper deck. But Hurricane Lili swept through the Northeast, postponing Game 1 of the World Series in New York the night before. A tarp wasn't enough, as the natural grass field got soaked. A postponement was considered, but rejected. Out of 42,368 people who bought tickets, 34,643 showed up, including 7,000 DCU fans who made the 400-odd-mile trip north.

Dan Calichman, a defender from Huntington, Long Island, New York, who was ordinarily the Galaxy's Captain, had to sit the match out, suspended 1 game due to yellow card accumulation. So another defender, Miami native Robin Fraser, wore the armband on this occasion.

Their lineup also included Mexican goalkeeper Jorge Campos, Ecuadoran forward Eduardo Hurtado, U.S. national team stars Cobi Jones and Chris Armas, and, oddly for an American team, a player from Iran, defender Arah Noamouz. Their manager was German, Lothar Osiander.

DC was managed by Bruce Arena, who had built the great soccer program at the University of Virginia, and would go on to become MLS' greatest manager, winning 5 Cups -- 2 with D.C., 3 with L.A. His Captain was midfielder John Harkes, a native of one of the places that could legitimately be called Soccertown, U.S.A.: Kearny, Hudson County, New Jersey.

Also in the lineup: Mark Simpson, who, oddly for a goalkeeper, wore Number 2; American defenders Eddie Pope and Jeff Agoos; a pair of Bolivians, midfielder Marco Etcheverry and forward Jaime Moreno; and forward Raúl Díaz Arce, who would go on to become the El Salvador national team's all-time leading scorer.

ABC broadcast the match. In only the 5th minute, Hurtado scored on a header to put L.A. ahead. He celebrated by doing a belly-flop on the soaked grass. It remained 1-0 to L.A. through halftime. In the 56th minute, Armas made it 2-0 to L.A.

With rain coming down and the wind getting worse, it was beginning to look like the Galaxy had the game in the bag. Arena rolled the dice, bringing on American midfielders Tony Sanneh and Shawn Medved as substitutes. It worked: Sanneh headed in an Etcheverry free kick in the 73rd.

In the 78th, Jones tried to put it away for the Galaxy, but hit the crossbar. In the 81st, United were awarded another free kick. Etcheverry took it, and Campos was able to punch it away. But Medved scored on the rebound, and the game was tied.

According to league rules at the time, overtime would be sudden death. The 1st team to score would have a "Golden Goal," and be Champions. In the 94th minute, Etcheverry took a corner, and Pope scored it. D.C. United had won, 3-2. Etcheverry, who assisted on all 3 goals, was named Man of the Match.

D.C. United would win 3 of the 1st 4 MLS Cups, and 4 of the 1st 9. L.A. wouldn't win their 1st until 2002, but have now won 5, and remain the league's leader in titles. Through the 2025 season, here are the Final records of all MLS teams to have played in the Final:

Los Angeles Galaxy, 6-4: 2002, 2005, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2024

D.C. United, 4-1: 1996, 1997, 1999, 2004

Columbus Crew, 3-1: 2008, 2020 2023

Seattle Sounders, 2-2: 2016, 2019

Houston Dynamo, 2-2: 2006, 2007

Sporting Kansas City, 2-1: 2000, 2013

San Jose Earthquakes, 2-0: 2001, 2003

Toronto F.C., 1-2: 2017

Chicago Fire, 1-2: 1998

Portland Timbers, 1-2: 2015

Real Salt Lake, 1-1: 2009

Colorado Rapids, 1-1: 2010

Los Angeles FC, 1-1: 2022

Atlanta United, 1-0: 2018

New York City FC, 1-0: 2021

Inter Miami, 1-0: 2025

F.C. Dallas, 0-1

Vancouver Whitecaps, 0-1

New York Red Bulls, 0-2

New England Revolution, 0-5

Of the 10 charter MLS teams from 1996, the Tampa Bay Mutiny folded without reaching a Final; among the other 9, only the MetroStars/Red Bulls and the Revolution have failed to win at least 1 Cup.

October 20, 1976: The Sale of Doctor J

October 20, 1976, 50 years ago: The Long Island-based New York Nets are in trouble. They had won the last Championship of the American Basketball Association, and 2 of the last 3, making 3 of the last 5 Finals. Along with the Denver Nuggets, the Indiana Pacers, and the San Antonio Spurs, they were invited to join the NBA for the 1976-77 season.

But, having to pay the NBA $3 million as an entry fee, and having to pay the New York Knicks a $4.8 million "territorial indemnification fee," the Nets owed $7.8 million -- about $45.4 million in today's money.

The Nets offered their biggest star, Julius Erving, whose "operation" on the basketball court earned him the nickname "Doctor J," to the Knicks in exchange for their waiving the territorial indemnification fee. This would have dropped the Nets' fees to $3 million.

The Knicks refused: They wanted the money more than the superstar. This was a tremendous mistake, as they had already fallen far from their 1970 and 1973 NBA Championships with the retirements of Willis Reed, Dave DeBusschere and Jerry Lucas, while Walt Frazier and Bill Bradley were clearly in decline, although Earl Monroe was still good. The Knicks went on to crash and burn.

But so did the Nets: On this day, with the regular season starting the next day, they sold Erving to the Philadelphia 76ers for $3 million, leaving them with only the territorial indemnification fee of $4.8 million. Despite having picked up future Hall-of-Famer Nate "Tiny" Archibald in the trade, the Nets instantly went from the ABA Championship to the worst record in the NBA. It would take until 1981-82, 6 years, to recover, by which point the Knicks had also begun to do so.

The Sixers reached the NBA Finals in 1977, 1980 and 1982, and finally won the Championship in 1983. Then, they got old, and began a decline that has never truly been reversed. They've made the NBA Finals only once since, in 2001.

For the 1977-78 season, the Nets left Long Island, became the New Jersey Nets, and played at the brand-new Rutgers Athletic Center, on Rutgers University's Livingston Campus in Piscataway. (The 9,000-seat chunk of concrete is now named the Jersey Mike's Arena.)

In 1981, they moved to the Meadowlands Sports Complex in East Rutherford, just 7 miles from Midtown Manhattan, when the building alternately known as the Meadowlands Arena, the Brendan Byrne Arena, the Continental Airlines Arena and the Izod Center opened. They played at the Prudential Center in Newark for the 2010-11 and 2011-12 seasons, and then moved back to New York, to the Barclays Center, becoming the Brooklyn Nets.

The Nets didn't win an NBA Playoff series until 1984 -- beating the 76ers, then the defending NBA Champions. They didn't win another until acquiring Jason Kidd in 2001, reaching the next 2 NBA Finals and winning 4 Division titles.

Their move to Brooklyn was ambitious, and they made several acquisitions designed to win a title and take the New York market away from the Knicks. But it hasn't happened, and this first attempt has already been broken up to start over. They are a joke franchise, and, with the exception of the Kidd years, 2001 to 2008, they have been ever since they came into the NBA.

Is there a curse on the Nets? Doctor J, who became a studio analyst for NBA broadcasts, seems like too nice of a guy to have done that, especially since the trade was good for his career. Maybe the fault lies with the owners. The Curse of Roy Boe? The Curse of the Secaucus Seven?

October 20, 1951: The College Basketball Point-Shaving Scandal & the Johnny Bright Incident

Alex Groza

October 20, 1951, 75 years ago: Alex Groza, Ralph Beard and Dale Barnstable of the Indianapolis Olympians are arrested for taking bribes from gamblers to "shave points" while they were at the University of Kentucky. When the dust settled in 1952, they were banned from the NBA for life. UK got its 1952-53 season canceled, and was banned from competing in the NCAA Tournament and the NIT in 1954.

Ralph Beard

Barnstable allegedly took $500 ($6,430 in 2026 dollars), but never confessed. Nor did Groza, whose alleged "cut" was never publicly revealed.

Dale Barnstable

Beard admitted that he took $700 -- just over $9,000 in 2022 money -- but denied that he had ever shaved points in a game. He claimed that Frank Hogan, the Manhattan District Attorney, conspired with Podoloff of the NBA and Cardinal Francis Spellman, the Archbishop of New York, to go after Midwestern players in an effort to protect players at Catholic colleges.

Beard may have had a point, for want of a better choice of words. The point-shaving scandal also devastated the programs at New York's 3 main non-Catholic basketball schools. City College of New York won both the NCAA Tournament and the NIT in 1950, but some of its players were accused, and the program was never the same again. Nor were their arch-rivals, New York University. Nor was the leading program in Brooklyn, Long Island University.

But the leading Catholic programs in New York? Fordham University in The Bronx wasn't targeted, but that didn't matter much, because they weren't all that successful in basketball. Same with another Bronx school, Manhattan College, a Catholic school that had, as their name suggests, once been based in Manhattan. But St. John's University, in Queens, was the only successful New York City basketball program to emerge from the scandal unscathed and still winning.

If Spellman and Hogan conspired to knock off CCNY, NYU and LIU, while protecting St. John's and Fordham, then they were doing more to "fix" entire college basketball seasons, and defraud young men out of their entire careers, than organized crime had done to fix individual games.

An aside: When John F. Kennedy ran for President in 1960, at a time when no Catholic had ever been elected to that office, he asked Spellman what he should say if someone asks him whether he believes, as Catholic doctrine says, that the Pope is infallible in matters of faith. Spellman said of the Pope at the time, Pius XII, formerly named Eugenio Pacelli and a native of Rome, "All I know is, he keeps calling me 'Spillman.'"

And yet, in that election, Spellman endorsed Richard Nixon. Why? Kennedy was told by his aide Dave Powers that it was personal: "Spellman is the most powerful Catholic in the country. When you become president, you will be." In 1964, with JFK dead, Spellman endorsed his successor, Lyndon Johnson.

Spellman was Archbishop of New York from 1939 until his death in 1967. He now has high schools named after him in The Bronx, and in Brockton, Massachusetts, hometown of champion boxers Rocky Marciano and Marvelous Marvin Hagler. However, since his death, rumors of him being a pedophile priest have been made public.

In 1953-54, Kentucky, still banned from the postseason, went 25-0, and the Helms Foundation declared them -- not NCAA Champion LaSalle or NIT Champion Holy Cross -- the 1954 National Champions.

Groza, brother of Pro Football Hall-of-Famer Lou Groza, would later coach in college and in the ABA. Beard tried to play professional baseball, but his gambling connection got him banned from that sport as well. He became a scout for the ABA's Kentucky Colonels, and worked in the pharmaceutical industry. Barnstable wasn't playing in the pros anyway, but had gotten a job as a high school coach in Louisville, and was fired from that job as a result of the scandal. He later became a successful seller of air filters, and won senior golf tournaments. But none of the 3 were were ever involved in the NBA again, as their bans were never lifted.

Groza died in 1995, Beard in 2007, Barnstable in 2019. Though Groza's Number 15 and Beard's Number 12 were both retired by their school, and each lived to see the honor, neither has ever been elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame. Barnstable's Number 18 has not been retired.

*

Also on October 20, 1951, Drake University of Des Moines, Iowa plays football against Oklahoma A&M – the name will be changed to Oklahoma State in 1958 – at Lewis Field in Stillwater, Oklahoma.

Lewis Field, as it would have appeared in 1951

Drake quarterback Johnny Bright, one of the 1st black players to receive serious consideration for the Heisman Trophy, is assaulted by white A&M defensive tackle Wilbanks Smith. "Unnecessary roughness"? Smith knocked Bright unconscious 3 times in the 1st 7 minutes of the game, the last time breaking his jaw.

A&M won the game, 27-14. It was Drake's 1st loss of the season. Photographs of what becomes known as "the Johnny Bright Incident," by Don Ultang and John Robinson, were featured on the front page of the next day’s Des Moines Register, and won the Pulitzer Prize.

Neither his school nor the Missouri Valley Conference disciplined Smith, nor did the Conference discipline the school or any of its coaches, in any way. As a result, Drake left the league in protest. So did Bradley University of Peoria, Illinois, also integrated by that point. The NCAA issued new rules about blocking and tackling, and mandated better head protection, including facemasks for helmets. The NFL followed suit in 1954.

Drake returned to the MVC for sports other than football in 1956, and for football in 1971. In 1978, along with the entire MVC, Drake dropped its program to NCAA Division I-AA, then to NCAA Division III in 1987, and back to I-AA (now the Football Championship Subdivision, or FCS) in 1991, where they remain. Today, aside from this incident, Drake's athletics department is best known for the Drake Relays, 2nd only to the Penn Relays as America's leading track & field meet.

Bright recovered from his injuries, played one last game at the college level, and finished 5th in the 1951 Heisman Trophy balloting, which was won by Dick Kazmaier of Princeton, who will likely remain the last Ivy Leaguer to win it. (Ed Marinaro of Cornell finished 2nd in 1971, and remains the last one to even come close. He later played a cop on the TV drama Hill Street Blues.)

Drafted by the Philadelphia Eagles, Bright didn't want to play there -- not because he thought Philadelphia was a racist city (long before Dick Allen and Curt Flood thought so, and Jackie Robinson had been already notoriously subjected to racist abuse there), but because he knew there were a lot of Southern players in the NFL. He would play in Canada, and receive many honors (or, as they would spell it, "honours") there, including 3 straight Grey Cups with the Edmonton Eskimos.

When he retired in 1964, he was the CFL's all-time leading rusher, with 10,909 yards, a total then surpassed in the NFL only by Jim Brown, but Brown's amazing 5.2 yards per carry, often cited as a reason why he's the game's greatest ever player, never mind running back, is actually surpassed by Bright, with 5.5, making him North America's all-time leader in that stat at the time. Only 2 CFL players have passed him in rushing yardage since.

He is a member of the team's Wall of Honour and the College Football and Canadian Football Halls of Fame. Drake retired his Number 43 (he wore 24 with the team then nicknamed the "Esks") and named the field at Drake Stadium after him. After serving as a teacher and principal at an Edmonton high school, he died in 1983 from complications from surgery. Ernie Davis of Syracuse became the 1st black Heisman winner in 1961.

Drake Stadium and Drake Fieldhouse

With some irony, the name of his pro team was cited as racist, insensitive to Native North Americans. In 2020, the name was dropped. With the CFL having canceled its entire season due to COVID restrictions, they didn't have to play a season as "The Edmonton Football Team." In 2021, they became the Edmonton Elks, allowing them to keep their familiar "EE" helmet logo, and projecting a favorable image: Western Canada has lots of elks, a strong animal with good speed for its size.

Built in 1920, Lewis Field was expanded significantly after 1951, and in 2002 was renamed for an oil baron who graduated from Oklahoma State and had contributed heavily to the school: Boone Pickens Stadium.

OSU offered Drake a formal apology for the actions of Wilbanks Smith -- in 2005, 54 years later, and 22 years after Bright's death.

In 2012, Smith gave an interview. He said that, when the Drake Bulldogs and the Oklahoma A&M Cowboys played each other in 1950, a Drake player had purposely hit an A&M player, and injured him, and he wanted revenge. He pointed out that he had hit the returning offending Drake player, who was white, in the same game the same way he had hit Bright. He did not play pro football, and worked as an engineer for Exxon. He died in 2020, at the age of 90.

October 20, 1951 was also the day that CBS, the Columbia Broadcasting System, debuted its "Eye" logo, with the idea being that a TV camera was an "eye."

The 1970s version

Unlike NBC with its Peacock, which they debuted in 1956 as a symbol of color programming, and retired in 1975 before bringing it back in 1980, CBS has kept the Eye logo ever since.