September 27, 1946: CHARGE!

Tommy Walker

September 27, 1946, 80 years ago: The familiar sports sound of, "Da da da DAT da DAH! Charge!" makes its debut.

Thomas Luttgen Walker was born on November 8, 1922 in Milwaukee. This Tommy Walker is not the character from The Who's rock opera Tommy. But this one also has a musical legacy, connected to sports.

Both a placekicker on the University of Southern California football team and a trumpeter in the school's marching band, he wrote a fanfare that he said was a combination of cavalry charge calls and "The Call to the Post" at horse races.

After playing it, "Da da da DAT da DAH!" he would yell, "Trojan warriors, charge!" That night, at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, USC opened their season by beating Washington State, 13-7. Eventually, the "Trojan warriors" part was dropped, and it is now universally known as "Charge!"

Walker later became the director of events at nearby Disneyland, produced the Opening Ceremony of the 1984 Olympic Games in his adopted hometown of Los Angeles, and died in 1986, shortly after producing the TV broadcast of the Centennial celebrations for the Statue of Liberty.

A New York Yankees legend said that Eddie Layton invented "Charge!" when he debuted as Yankee Stadium organist in 1967. He didn't, and never claimed he did. But, at that time, he did invent the rhythm that gets played there before "Charge!": "DUN dun dun dun DUN dun dun dun... " Mike Burke, then president of the Yankees, heard the fans clapping along with it, and told him to make it a regular thing. He did, and began following it with "Charge!" He remained at the Stadium organ until 2003, and died a year later.

Eddie Layton

Sports Illustrated cleared the matter up in a 1990 article, showing that it was Tommy Walker who created "Charge!"

September 26, 1876: The 1st National League Pennant

September 26, 1876, 150 years ago: The Chicago White Stockings beat the Hartford Dark Blues, 7-6 at the 23rd Street Grounds in Chicago. This clinches the Pennant in the National League, in its 1st season of operation.

William Hulbert, the founder of the NL, was the team's owner. Al Spalding, though only 25 years old when the season began, was the manager, and pitched 61 of their 66 games. Cal McVey, one of the 1869-70 Cincinnati Red Stockings, the 1st openly professional team, pitched 11.

The catcher was James "Deacon" White. Adrian Constantine Anson was the 3rd baseman, and the team captain, so he was nicknamed "Cap." He would eventually move to 1st base, which McVey played when he wasn't pitching. Charles Roscoe "Ross" Barnes played 2nd base, hit the 1st National League home run, and won the 1st NL batting title with a .429 average. John Peters was the shortstop. The outfield was John Glenn in left, Paul Hines in center, and Bob Addy in right. Fred Andrus and Oscar Bielaski were backups.

The NL standings ended up as follows:

Team	W	L	Pct.	GB	Home	Road
Chicago White Stockings	52	14	.788	—	25‍–‍6	27‍–‍8
Hartford Dark Blues	47	21	.691	6	23‍–‍9	24‍–‍12
St. Louis Brown Stockings	45	19	.703	6	24‍–‍6	21‍–‍13
Boston Red Caps	39	31	.557	15	19‍–‍17	20‍–‍14
Louisville Grays	30	36	.455	22	15‍–‍16	15‍–‍20
New York Mutuals	21	35	.375	26	13‍–‍20	8‍–‍15
Philadelphia Athletics	14	45	.237	34½	10‍–‍24	4‍–‍21
Cincinnati Reds	9	56	.138	42½	6‍–‍24	3‍–‍32

What happened to these teams? Only two still exist. In 1903, the former White Stockings became the Chicago Cubs. In 1912, the former Red Caps became the Boston Braves; in 1953, the Milwaukee Braves; in 1966, the Atlanta Braves. There would later be teams named the Philadelphia Athletics, the Cincinnati Reds and the St. Louis Browns, but they were not holdovers from 1876.

The 23rd Street Grounds, also known as 23rd Street Park and the State Street Grounds, was built after the White Stockings' previous home, the Union Base-Ball Grounds, was destroyed in the Great Chicago Fire in 1871. It was bordered by 23rd, State, 24th and Dearborn Streets. They played there from 1872 to 1877. 

23rd Street Grounds

Hulbert, Spalding, Anson and White have been elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. White was the last survivor of the 1876 White Stockings, living until 1939. Hulbert, Spalding and Anson were elected to the Chicago Cubs Hall of Fame.

Bob Pettit, 1932-2026

News flash for kids: The history of the NBA did not begin with LeBron James. News flash for Generation X: It didn't begin with Michael Jordan, or with Magic Johnson and Larry Bird. News flash for Baby Boomers: It didn't begin with Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain, either.

Before any of them, there was Bob Pettit. It didn't begin with him, either, but he was one of the earliest great NBA players.

Robert Lee Pettit Jr. was born on December 12, 1932 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He was cut from the varsity basketball team at Baton Rouge High School as a freshman, and again as a sophomore. He played in a church league, and then grew 5 inches in a year, reaching 6-foot-7. He made All-City as a junior, and led the school to a State Championship as a senior.

Other notable graduates of Baton Rouge High: Pro Football Hall-of-Famer Jim Taylor, Baseball player Dalton Jones, singers Jimmy Clanton and Johnny Rivers, and Governor Bobby Jindal.

Pettit stayed in town, and attended Louisiana State University, leading the Southeastern Conference in scoring all 3 years he was on the varsity. Upon his graduation in 1954, the school retired his Number 50, making him the 1st LSU athlete so honored in any sport.

He was drafted by the Milwaukee Hawks, and moved with them to St. Louis in 1955. He was named NBA Rookie of the Year in 1955. In 1956, he led the league in scoring and rebounding, and led it in scoring again in 1959. He was named Most Valuable Player both times.

He helped the Hawks reach the NBA Finals in 1957, '58, '60 and '61, and his 50-point performance in Game 6 led them to the Championship in 1958. It remains the only time the Hawks franchise, which moved to Atlanta in 1968, has ever won the title. It hasn't even been to the Finals since 1961. Despite an ABA team in the 1974-75 and 1975-76 seasons, St. Louis has never had an NBA team again.

Pettit was named to 11 All-Star Games, and was named the Game's MVP 4 times. He was the 1st player to score over 20,000 points, although before he retired in 1965, Chamberlain surpassed him as the league's all-time leading scorer. He was named to the NBA's 25th, 35th, 50th and 75th Anniversary Teams. He, Russell, Bob Cousy and George Mikan were the only men named to all 4 of those teams. He was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1970, and the Hawks retired his Number 9.

During his playing career, he was listed as 6-foot-9 and 205 pounds. In a 1991 interview for Sports Illustrated, he said that if he played in the current era, with its weight training, he might have been a solid block of 270 pounds, and be a power forward on the same level as the man then considered the best at the position, his fellow LSU grad Karl Malone. Given that Chamberlain said that Pettit gave him trouble, I believed him.

After retiring from basketball, Pettit worked in the banking industry in Baton Rouge, and then founded a financial consulting company. He and his wife, Carole, had 3 children and 11 grandchildren. He died this past Wednesday, September 23, 2026, in the New Orleans suburb of Metairie, Louisiana, at the age of 93.

His death leaves Cliff Hagan as the last surviving member of the 1958 NBA Champion St. Louis Hawks.

September 24, 1956: "Peyton Place" Is Published

Grace Metalious

September 24, 1956, 70 years ago: Peyton Place is published by Julian Messner, Inc. Grace Metalious wrote a tale of women challenging views of femininity and sex in a small New England town during and after World War II.

Marie Grace DeRepentigny was born on September 8, 1924 in Manchester, the largest city in New Hampshire, but not a particularly large city. (In the 2020 Census, its population was a little over 115,000.) She acted in local plays, then married George Metalious, had a child, and began writing.

She titled her 1st novel The Tree and the Blossom, but she and George agreed that the book would work better if the title were the name of the town. Near their residence of Durham, New Hampshire, was a town named Potter Place, but she wasn't daring enough to name the book after a real nearby town. She looked through an atlas, and found a town named Payton in Texas.

She changed the spelling, and told her husband, "Wonderful. That's it, George: Peyton Place. Peyton Place, New Hampshire. Peyton Place, New England. Peyton Place, USA. Truly a composite of all small towns where ugliness rears its head, and where the people try to hide all the skeletons in their closets."

Her agent knew it was too racy -- by 1950s standards, anyway -- for a major publisher to touch it. So she showed it to Kitty Messner, wife of publisher Julian Messner, whose company would eventually be bought out by Simon & Schuster.

The story starts in 1937. Constance leaves Peyton Place for New York City at a young age, and meets a man in the fabrics business, named Allison MacKenzie, who already is married with children. They have an affair, and Constance becomes pregnant with MacKenzie's child. MacKenzie dies a few years after his daughter, also named Allison, is born.

Constance and her daughter adopt Allison's last name before returning to Peyton Place as a "widow" and child, and Constance alters her daughter's birth date to make her appear legitimate. In the years after World War II, with the money she's saved as well as what she received from her late lover's will, she opens up an apparel store called the Thrifty Corner. Allison grows up lonely and isolated, idealizing the father she never had, and dreaming of a future as a published author.

The poorer side of Peyton Place is represented by the Cross family, Nellie and Lucas Cross and their daughter Selena, who is Nellie's biological daughter, but not Lucas'. Paul, Lucas's son and Selena's stepbrother, left Peyton Place after accusing Lucas of stealing his money. Nellie and Lucas later have a child together, Joey, who lives with the couple and Selena in "the shacks," a poor section of town being targeted for redevelopment. Selena and Allison become friends, but the drastic difference in their socioeconomic situations ensures the friendship does not last long.

When Selena turns 14 years old, Lucas begins to abuse her, impregnating her and leaving local doctor Matthew Swain in a troublesome situation in which he decides to perform an abortion. The doctor makes Lucas leave town, and after she discovers this, Nellie commits suicide by hanging.

Critics hated the book, but Grace noted the its runaway sales, and struck back, saying, "If I'm a lousy writer, then an awful lot of people have lousy taste." When people complained about how the book discussed sex, she said, "Even Tom Sawyer had a girlfriend, and to talk about adults without talking about their sex drives is like talking about a window without glass."

But 1956 was the height of the Ike Age. "Good people" did not talk about "those things" in public. Actually, that was part of the point of the novel: They talked about them in private, and kept it all under the rug -- until they no longer could. It was the year that Elvis Presley shocked America by shaking his legs and his hips.

But it was also the year that Grace Kelly was married off to a European prince to end rumors of her being a high-class slut. It was the year that Allen Ginsberg's poem Howl, with its profanities and its homosexual references, was banned as obscene. And it was the year the film The Ten Commandments showed "great sin" at the foot of Mount Sinai, but nothing that couldn't be shown to kids even then.

Grace wrote a sequel, Return to Peyton Place, in 1959, and 2 more novels, but heavy drinking led to her death at age 39 on February 25, 1964 -- the day Muhammad Ali first became Heavyweight Champion of the World. She once said, "If I had to do it over again, it would be easier to be poor. Before I was successful, I was as happy as anyone gets."

A movie was quickly made, and Peyton Place the film premiered on December 12, 1957, with Lana Turner as Constance and Diane Varsi as Allison. Because of the Hays Code, some of the more sexually explicit details are altered. For example, while an abortion for Selena is discussed, she overhears this, runs away, falls, and suffers a miscarriage instead. Return to Peyton Place was made in 1961, with Eleanor Parker and Carol Lynley.

ABC aired the prime-time soap opera Peyton Place from 1964 to 1969, with Dorothy Malone and Mia Farrow. In 1985, NBC aired Peyton Place: The Next Generation. Clearly not based on anything new that Grace Metalious had written, Malone reprises her role as Constance. By this point, Farrow had become too big a star to cast in a TV-movie, and the standards for what could be shown and spoken of on television had changed. So Allison is mentioned as having been raped, impregnated, and institutionalized and later murdered in Boston.

Allison's daughter, Megan MacKenzie, goes to Peyton Place, meets her grandmother, and gets involved with Dana Harrington, played by Bruce Greenwood, but breaks up with him after finding out -- incorrectly, as it turns out -- that he is her half-brother. Megan's actual father tries to kill her to silence her, but she survives, and the man who started this round of intrigue gets what's coming to him. Megan recovers, and rejoins Dana, giving the saga something of a happy ending.

In 1968, country singer Tom T. Hall wrote "Harper Valley P.T.A.," and Jeannie C. Riley's recording of it hit Number 1. In the song, the local Parent-Teacher Association complains that Mrs. Johnson, a widow with a daughter in the town's junior high school, is dating again and wearing short skirts. Mrs. Johnson strikes back and, as we would say today, spills all the tea, closing with, "This is just a Peyton Place, and you're all a bunch of Harper Valley hypocrites!"

It all seems so tame now. The 1950s really were a different planet.

Yanks Can Only Split, Rays Clinch

The Yankees needed to sweep all 4 of these games with the Tampa Bay Rays at Yankee Stadium II, just to have a chance at the American League Eastern Division title going into the regular-season-ending series at home to the Baltimore Orioles. If the Rays won even 1 of the 4, it was over.

It didn't look good.

Yesterday, because of an earlier rainout, there were 2 games. The opener went well. Ben Rice led off the bottom of the 4th inning with a double, and Cody Bellinger hit a home run. That was all that Carlos Rodón needed, as he pitched 8 innings, and was brilliant: No runs, 3 hits, no walks, 8 strikeouts. David Bednar pitched a perfect 9th. Yankees 2, Rays 0, in front of 41,421 in the big ballyard in The Bronx.

So there was still a chance.

The nightcap ended that chance. A crowd of 38,656 saw Max Fried give up a run in the 3rd. It was still only 1-0 Rays after 6, but Aaron Boone made the opposite of his usual mistake: He left the starter in too long, and Fried allowed single, single, flyout, RBI single to start the 7th. Reliever John Schreiber allowed 2 more runs, and the game was effectively over, even before Ryan Yarbrough and Michael Fulmer allowed 2 more runs in the 8th.

The Yankees scored a run in the 7th, and 1 in the 9th -- how doesn't really matter -- but it was far from enough. Rays 6, Yankees 2. The Rays clinched the AL East title, on our field. It is their 5th AL East title, as they previously won it in 2008, 2010, 2020 and 2021.

To put that in perspective: This is the Rays' 29th season, and they have 5 Division titles, plus 2 Pennants. In contrast, the Mets are in their 65th season -- yes, the organization is now eligible for Social Security and Medicare -- and they only have 6 Division titles, having won the National League East in 1969, 1973, 1986, 1988, 2006 and 2015. Of course, they have 5 Pennants to the Rays' 2, and 2 World Series wins to the Rays' none. The Yankees have won 21 Division titles, and that doesn't count their 1st-place finishes in the single-division American League of 1903 to 1968, or being in 1st place at the time of the Strike of '94.

So the Division title is out. And we found out yesterday that Aaron Judge, due to his calf strain, is not expected back for the length of the AL Wild Card Series.

That series will be a best-2-out-of-3, and will be played on September 29 and 30, and, if necessary, October 1, all at Yankee Stadium, because the Yankees have the 4th seed. They will play the 5th seed, which is yet to be determined, but currently stands to be... the Boston Red Sox. The Chicago White Sox currently hold the 6th seed, but they're 3 games behind the Red Sox, so it's probably going to be The Scum coming in for 2, maybe 3 games.

And we won't have Judge, or Giancarlo Stanton. We will, however, have Cam Schlittler and Gerrit Cole, but we have to give them runs.

Title 28 still seems a long way off.

September 23, 2001: The 9/11 Memorial Service at Yankee Stadium -- and the Jets Make Tom Brady Possible

September 23, 2001, 25 years ago: New York City holds a memorial service to the victims of the terrorist attack that destroyed the World Trade Center, 12 days earlier. It is held at the largest outdoor seating area within the City's Five Boroughs: Yankee Stadium.

In spite of the Stadium's capacity of 57,545, it is believed that just 20,000 people attended. Most likely, it was because only relatives and colleagues of those lost were permitted to attend, rather than that people were still afraid to gather in big crowds.

All 4 major U.S. TV networks broadcast it live. Prayers were offered by Edward Cardinal Egan, the Archbishop of New York, and also from leaders of Protestant, Greek Orthodox, Jewish, Hindu, Sikh, and even Muslim congregations, showing that they were all New Yorkers, that they were all Americans, and that they had all felt the losses of that awful Tuesday morning.

Also speaking were Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Governor George Pataki, U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton, and her husband, former President Bill Clinton. The current President, George W. Bush, did not attend. Former Mayors David Dinkins and Ed Koch, and former Governors Mario Cuomo and Hugh Carey, attended, but did not speak.

On September 11, 2002, the Yankees dedicated a Monument to the victims and rescue workers in the Stadium's Monument Park. As with the other Monuments and Plaques, it was moved to the new Yankee Stadium in 2009.

September 23, 2001 was a Sunday. Major League Baseball had restarted on Monday, September 17, with the week's worth of postponed games moved to the week after the originally-intended end of the regular season.

The Yankees beat the Baltimore Orioles, 5-4 at Camden Yards in Baltimore. The Yankees scored 2 runs in the 8th inning, 1 in the 9th to send the game to extra innings, and 1 in the top of the 10th, when John Parrish walked Bernie Williams with the bases loaded, forcing Nick Johnson home. This made a winning pitcher out of Nick Johnson, in relief of Orlando "El Duque" Hernández.

Cal Ripken, in his last few days as an active player, hit what turned out to be the last home run of his career, his 407th. Johnson homered for the Yankees, going 3-for-5 with 3 RBIs. Derek Jeter got the day off, with Enrique Wilson playing shortstop.

The Mets lost to the Atlanta Braves, 5-4 at Shea Stadium. Brian Jordan led off the top of the 11th inning with a home run, his 2nd homer of the game, making John Smoltz a winning pitcher in relief of Tom Glavine. Joe McEwing hit a home run for the Mets.

*

The NFL also returned to action, after postponing the previous weekend's games. The Giants beat the Kansas City Chiefs, 13-3 at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City.

Both of the planes that hit the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York took off from Logan International Airport in Boston. As it worked out, the next game for the New York Jets and the Boston-area team, the New England Patriots, was against each other, at Foxboro Stadium in the Boston suburb of Foxborough, Massachusetts. (The stadium and the town, officially, had different spellings.)

Jets vs. Patriots was a rivalry that began in the American Football League in 1960. But, unlike such other New York vs. Boston matchups as Yankees vs. Red Sox, Knicks vs. Celtics and Rangers vs. Bruins, it wasn't that much of a rivalry until 1993, when the Patriots hired former Giants coach Bill Parcells, who then took his team back into the Meadowlands once a year to face the Jets. This included the 1996 season, when, with Drew Bledsoe at quarterback, the Patriots went on to win the AFC title, before losing the Super Bowl.

Then, in 1997, the Jets hired Parcells away, and that raised the rivalry more. He left, and in 2000, the Jets thought they'd hired former Parcells assistant Bill Belichick as head coach. He lasted one day, then quit to take the Patriots' job, infuriating Jet fans.

In this game, the Jets led, 10-3, with 3 minutes left in regulation, when Jet linebacker Mo Lewis knocked Bledsoe out of the game. At first, it was believed that Bledsoe had a concussion, serious enough to take him out, but nothing more. But he didn't seem right, and was sent to the hospital, where he was treated for internal bleeding. He almost died.

Bledsoe was replaced at quarterback by Tom Brady. Cliché Alert: The rest is history. The 10-3 score held, the Jets won, and the Pats fell to 0-2. Brady, a 6th-round draft choice out of the University of Michigan, became the starter, and went 5-3. Then he led the Pats to victory in their last 6 regular-season games, including a 17-16 win over the Jets at the Meadowlands, and overtime wins over San Diego ad Buffalo.

Then came the postseason. The Patriots beat the Oakland Raiders in the Divisional Round, in a snowstorm in what became known as "The Tuck Rule Game," in what turned out to be the last game in the 31-season history of Schaefer/Sullivan/Foxboro Stadium. What became Gillette Stadium, and the Patriot Place mall, were being built next-door.

Then came a win over the Steelers in Pittsburgh in the AFC Championship Game, when Brady got hurt, and Bledsoe was able to come back and be a part of the championship run. Then came Brady, and Adam Vinatieri's field goal, giving them an inspirational win over the St. Louis Rams in Super Bowl XXXVI. The Patriots were a bunch of plucky underdogs that had captured the nation's admiration.

But, like most teams that unexpectedly start winning and keep going -- the 1970s Dallas Cowboys, and in the 1990s, the Atlanta Braves, the New York Yankees, the Duke basketball team, and English soccer team Manchester United -- people got sick of them once they were no longer plucky underdogs.

It led to Brady and the Patriots absolutely dominating the AFC Eastern Division, and the Jets in particular, ever since.

And it all started with Mo Lewis hitting Drew Bledsoe too hard. What if Lewis had missed that tackle? Bledsoe would have remained the starter. Maybe the Patriots win fewer games. Maybe it's the Steelers who play the Rams in that Super Bowl. Maybe, instead of 6 Super Bowls, the Patriots win none. Or maybe Bledsoe only lasts another couple of years, and Brady takes over from there, and the Patriots' dynasty is merely delayed, instead of prevented.

We'll never know.

September 23, 1926: Tunney Defeats Dempsey

September 23, 1926, 100 years ago: Jack Dempsey, Heavyweight Champion of the World, defends his title against Gene Tunney at Sesquicentennial Stadium, the centerpiece of Philadelphia's World's Fair celebrating the 150th Anniversary of American independence. The huge horseshoe was packed with 120,557 fans, the largest crowd in boxing history to that point.

Dempsey hadn't fought in 3 years, and it showed. Once the most fearsome puncher ever, the Manassa Mauler couldn't handle the quickness of Tunney, who learned what he called "scientific pugilism" while serving in the U.S. Marine Corps in World War I.

It didn't help that this fight was outdoors, and it rained. By the 10th and final round, it was pouring, and Dempsey could do little to hurt Tunney.

For the 1st time ever, the Heavyweight Championship changed hands on a decision, rather than a knockout. Previously, decisions were considered unsatisfying, and judges were reluctant to take the title away from the Champion unless the challenger had knocked him out.

But this decision was an obvious one, and nobody objected at the time. Dempsey knew he had been fairly beaten: When his wife, actress Estelle Taylor, asked him what happened, he said, "Honey, I forgot to duck." A 15-year-old Illinois kid named Ronald Reagan read this in the newspaper, and, 55 years later, said it to his wife Nancy after he was shot.

Ironically, being dethroned made Dempsey more popular, as he had previously been called a "slacker" and a "draft dodger" for his avoidance of service in World War I. And Tunney, though the more skilled boxer, never developed the same kind of popularity as Dempsey.

Even after Tunney won by decision again a year later, in what became known as "The Long Count Fight," Dempsey's popularity grew, as some people thought he was robbed, not that they considered it Tunney's fault. Tunney, who retired as Champion rather than lose his title in the ring, was respected, but he was never truly loved.

In 1931, the 105,000-seat Sesquicentennial Stadium was renamed Municipal Stadium, and became famous as the neutral site of the Army-Navy Game. It hosted the 1952 fight where Rocky Marciano knocked out Jersey Joe Walcott to take the title.

In 1964, it was renamed John F. Kennedy Stadium. In 1966, it hosted the Beatles. In 1967, The Spectrum was built across the street; in 1971, Veterans Stadium to the north of the Spectrum, creating the South Philly sports complex. In 1985, it hosted the U.S. half of Live Aid. It was demolished in 1992, and the 76ers & Flyers arena now named the Xfinity Mobile Arena was built on the site.

September 23, 1926 was a Thursday. Jazz icon John Coltrane was born that day, and would later establish his home in Philadelphia, the city where Dempsey-Tunney I was held.