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.

October 19, 2006: The Yadier Molina Game

October 19, 2006, 20 years ago: Game 7 of the National League Championship Series at Shea Stadium. New York Mets vs. St. Louis Cardinals for the Pennant. In the top of the 6th, Met starter Óliver Pérez has held the Cards to a 1-1 tie, but Scott Rolen blasts a drive to deep left field. It looks like a 2-run home run, the kind of big-game shot that fans of the losing team will lament for the rest of their lives.

Except Endy Chávez jumps up, reaches over the top of the wall, and snares it. He then fires back to the infield to double Jim Edmonds off 1st and end the threat. Shea erupts in fan noise.

It seemed like one of "these omens in baseball," that historian Doris Kearns Goodwin likes to talk about. It is the greatest catch made by a Met since Tommie Agee and Ron Swoboda in the 1969 World Series. It is, potentially, the most important defensive play made by a Met since the "Ball Off the Wall Play" against the Pittsburgh Pirates on September 20, 1973, by Cleon Jones, Wayne Garrett and Ron Hodges.

This was a sign. This is it. This will be remembered as The Endy Chávez Game. This will be remembered as a night when the Mets won the Pennant. This is the Mets' year. And the Yankees had already been eliminated. The Mets are taking New York back. They're taking New York back tonight!

In the top of the 9th, the score still 1-1, the Cards had a man on, and catcher Yadier Molina stepped up against Met reliever Aaron Heilman. If Heilman could just get out of this inning, the Mets would have the meat of their order coming up in the bottom of the 9th. And while Molina is one of the best defensive catchers of our time, he was not, then, regarded as much of a hitter.

But he hits a drive to left, and Chávez can't reach this one. No one can. Home run. Cards 3, Mets 1, and the Mets are down to their last 3 outs.

In the bottom of the 9th, José Valentín and Chávez lead off with singles off rookie closer Adam Wainwright. The tying runs are on base, and the Pennant-winning run at the plate, with nobody out. And Shea is buzzing again, as if the Molina homer hadn't happened.

But Wainwright strikes Cliff Floyd out looking, and gets José Reyes to fly out. Wainwright walks Paul Lo Duca to bring up Carlos Beltrán with the bases loaded, with the Pennant-winning run on 1st, and 2 men out.

With 2 strikes, Wainwright throws a curve on the outside corner. Just like Floyd, Beltran never even takes the bat off his shoulder. Strike 3. Ballgame over. Mets lose. Pennant dream over.

For the 2nd time, the Cardinals have a Pennant-winning top of the 9th home run. The 1st time was by Jack Clark, against the Dodgers in Game 6 of the 1985 NLCS.

This was an absolutely crushing defeat. How could the Mets blow it? After all, they were the best team in baseball, right? Certainly, the 97-win Mets were better than the 83-win Cards, right? Beyond any doubt, the Mets were now the best team in New York, better than the Yankees, right? How could this happen?

It could happen because the Mets choked. Again. Game 7 of the '06 NLCS was the last postseason game played at Shea Stadium. Then came the near-misses of the next 2 years, and a dreary down period. Then came a thrilling run to the 2015 Pennant, and blowing all 5 games of the World Series, including the one they ended up winning, followed by a Wild Card berth in 2016, and then the 2022 collapse. Then came their run to the 2024 NLCS, which they lost. The Curse of Kevin Mitchell lives.

Ironically, the temporary hero Chávez and the permanent goat Heilman would end up being traded away together, the Mets sending them to the Seattle Mariners after the 2008 season. And, in October 2013, Carlos Beltrán played in the World Series... for the Cardinals.

October 19, 1946: The Rutgers-Princeton "Cannon War"

"Big Cannon," with Nassau Hall behind it

October 19, 1946, 80 years ago: Princeton beats Rutgers, 14-7 at Rutgers Stadium. An attempt to steal the cannon proves even more embarrassing for RU.

Rutgers University is in New Brunswick, in Middlesex County, New Jersey. (The stadium is across the Raritan River, in Piscataway.) Princeton University is in the town of the same name, in Mercer County. They are separated by 17 miles of State Route 27. In 1869, Rutgers beat Princeton in "the first college football game," in New Brunswick, hence Rutgers calls itself "the Birthplace of College Football."

Two cannons were left on the Princeton campus after the War of the American Revolution, although neither of them were used in the Battle of Princeton of January 3, 1777, as is often claimed. "Big Cannon" is located behind Nassau Hall in the center of the quadrangle there, called "Cannon Green," and "Little Cannon" is situated between Whig and Clio Halls.

For the War of 1812, Big Cannon was transported to New Brunswick to help defend the city against potential attack by the British, remaining on the Rutgers campus, where it was used for training during and after the American Civil War of 1861-65 by Rutgers cadets, until it was taken back to Princeton in 1875 by the "Princeton Blues," a local militia.

On the night of April 25, 1875, 10 members of the Rutgers Class of 1877 set out to take Big Cannon from Princeton. However, they were unable to move it, so instead they returned to New Brunswick with Little Cannon. Princeton responded with a raid on Rutgers, stealing some muskets, and the presidents of the colleges exchanged polite but demanding correspondence. Eventually, a joint committee settled the matter, and Little Cannon was returned to Princeton, escorted by the New Brunswick Police Chief. In other words, Rutgers was forced to cave.

On October 19, 1946, a contingent of Rutgers men slipped onto the Princeton campus, and again tried to steal the famed Big Cannon. This attempt was even more disastrous than the first. They attached one end of a heavy chain to the cannon and the other to their car, a Ford. Surprised by Princeton students and the police, they gunned the engine of the car so hard that the car, weighted down by the cannon, was torn in half. The Rutgers students managed to escape, but with neither the car nor the cannon.

This is what a 1946 Ford looks like.

This was not a little car.

On the eve of the annual Rutgers-Princeton game of 1971, Big Cannon was apparently "stolen" again. A 5-foot-deep hole was found where the cannon sat. Campus police were baffled that the cannon had been taken, given its extreme weight. After crime photos were taken, it appears that a hole had simply been dug next to Big Cannon, and the dirt from the hole used to bury it. The kind of trickery that New Jersey native David Copperfield would have used to make people think the cannon had "disappeared."

Reports appeared in the Rutgers newspaper, the Daily Targum, as well as nearby papers such as the New Brunswick-based Daily Home News, the Princeton Packet and The Times of Trenton. (Rutgers won the game, 33-18.)

With Rutgers having committed to "big-time" (sometimes written as "bigger time") football, and Princeton having committed to the smaller-time Ivy League, the schools haven't played each other in football since 1980, a 44-13 Rutgers win in Piscataway, although they still play each other in other sports.

Big Cannon at Princeton is routinely painted red by Rutgers students, particularly in the week leading to Rutgers commencement, as well as on other notable Rutgers dates. In November 2011, a group of Rutgers students who went to paint the cannon in Princeton brought a video camera with them and made a documentary about the tradition.

The footage became part of a larger project about the history of the Cannon War and its perception in the minds of current students today. The film, Knights, Tigers, and Cannons. Oh My!, by Zack Morrison, premiered at the New Jersey Film Festival in September 2012, and won the award for Best Student Film. 

October 19, 1901: Edward Elgar Debuts His "Pomp and Circumstance Marches"

October 19, 1901, 125 years ago: Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1 and March No. 2 premiere, at Philharmonic Hall in Liverpool. The marches are conducted by their composer, Edward Elgar. Two days later, he conducts them again at Queen's Hall in London.

Elgar was born on June 2, 1857 in Lower Broadheath, Worcestershire, in the West Midlands of England. By the age of eight, Elgar was taking piano and violin lessons, and his father, who tuned the pianos at many grand houses in Worcestershire, would sometimes take him along, giving him the chance to display his skill to important local figures.

In 1879, he took up the post of conductor of the attendants' band at Powick Hospital, a psychiatric institution outside Worcester. In 1882, he became a violinist with a Birmingham orchestra. He married Alice Roberts in 1886, and they lived in her hometown of Great Malvern, outside Worcester. By 1892, his own compositions began to be performed. In 1899, his Enigma Variations made him world-famous.

Elgar took the phrase "Pomp and Circumstance" from Act 3, Scene 3 of William Shakespeare's tragedy Othello:

Farewell the neighing steed and the shrill trump,
The spirit-stirring drum, th'ear-piercing fife,
The royal banner, and all quality,
Pride, pomp, and circumstance of glorious war!

Pomp and Circumstance was written in 6 "Marches": No. 1 in D major in 1901; No. 2 in A minor, also in 1901; No. 3 in C minor in 1904; No. 4 in G major in 1907; No. 5 in C major in 1930; and No. 6 in G minor, which remained unpublished at his death on February 23, 1934, from colon cancer, at the age of 76.

The five original marches were dedicated to friends of Elgar's: The conductor Alfred E. Rodewald, the composer Granville Bantock, and the organists Ivor Atkins, G.R. Sinclair, and Percy Hull. He did not get a chance to make a dedication for March No. 6.

Pomp and Circumstance, March No. 1 includes the trio section "Land of Hope and Glory." It is the section that truly popularized the work, since it became the "Coronation Ode" for the Coronation of King Edward VII on August 9, 1902.

It is often known as "The Graduation March," and is played as the processional tune at many high school and college graduation ceremonies. It was first played at such a ceremony on June 28, 1905, at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, where the Professor of Music, Samuel Sanford, had invited his friend Elgar to attend commencement, and receive an honorary doctorate of music. Elgar repaid the compliment by dedicating his Introduction and Allegro to Sanford later that year.

At the time, Woolwich Arsenal Football Club were playing soccer in South London. In 1913, they moved to North London, and became Arsenal F.C. In 1979, having had to go to 4 replays in the 3rd Round of the FA Cup against Sheffield Wednesday, the last 3 of them on neutral ground at Filbert Street, home of Leicester City, Arsenal fans -- nicknamed "Gooners," after the team's nickname, "the Gunners" -- adapted Elgar's "Land of Hope and Glory" into this song:

We all follow The Arsenal

over land and sea!

(And Leicester!)

We all follow The Arsenal

on to victory!

The next season, after going to 3 replays of the FA Cup Semifinal against Liverpool, losing the Final to West Ham United, seeing Liverpool win the Football League title, and seeing Nottingham Forest win the European Cup, the Gooners redid the song again:

We hate Nottingham Forest!

We hate Liverpool, too!
(And Tottenham!)

We hate West Ham United!

But Arsenal, we love you!

October 16, 1946: The Nuremberg Executions & Gordie Howe's Debut

Göring, at the far left (or so to speak)

In the year 1947, America was able to do fun things again. In that year, we desegregated baseball, established network television, began watching Howdy Doody Time on said television, invented the microwave oven and the transistor, and began looking for UFOs.

But first, in 1946, we had serious work to tend to: Punishing Nazis.

October 16, 1946, 80 years ago: Ten Nazi war criminals, convicted of crimes against humanity, are executed by hanging at the Palace of Justice in Nuremberg, Germany. They included:

* Joachim von Ribbentrop, age 53, Adolf Hitler's Foreign Minister.

* Julius Streicher, 61, Nazi Germany's top propaganda publisher.

* General Alfred Jodl, 56, Chief of the Armed Forces, who had signed the surrender papers on V-E Day.

* Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel, 64.

* Hans Frank, 46, Governor-General of occupied Poland.

You may have seen the "Hitler Rants Parodies," based on a scene from the 2004 film Downfall, starring Bruno Ganz as Hitler. Christian Redl played Jodl in that scene, and Dieter Mann played Keitel.

As for the other 2 Generals that Hitler had asked to remain in the room: Hans Krebs, played by Rolf Kanies, and Wilhelm Burgdorf ("Mein Führer, this is an outrage!"), played by Justus von Dohnányi, both committed suicide in the Bunker on May 2, 1945. Krebs was 47, and Burgdorf was 50.

Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels, not named, also remained in the room. He committed suicide in the Bunker the day before. He was 47, and was played by Ulrich Matthes. Also not named, but remaining in the room, was Martin Bormann, head of the Nazi Party Chancellery. He escaped on May 2, but saw the Soviets closing in, and committed suicide. He was 44, and was played by Thomas Thieme. SS leader Heinrich Himmler committed suicide in British custody on May 23. He was also 44. He did not appear in the scene, but did appear in the film, and was played by Ulrich Noethen.

Not among the condemned, but scheduled to be so, was Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring, the highest-ranking Nazi official to have survived V-E Day. He had made an appeal, asking to be shot as a soldier instead of hanged as a common criminal, but the court refused. So he committed suicide with a potassium cyanide capsule the night before he was to be hanged. He was 53. He also was not in the scene, but was in the film, played by Mathias Gnädinger.

October 16, 1946 was a Wednesday. Actress Suzanne Somers was born.

With the World Series having ended the day before, with the St. Louis Cardinals beating the Boston Red Sox in Game 7, there was only one sporting event on this day. And it is the NHL debut of Gordie Howe. The 18-year-old native of Floral, Saskatchewan wore Number 17, instead of the familiar 9 that he will start wearing the next season. The right wing scores against Walter "Turk" Broda, and the Detroit Red Wings play the Toronto Maple Leafs to a 3-3 tie at the Olympia Stadium in Detroit.

The goal will be the 1st of 786 that the man who becomes known as Mr. Hockey will score for the Wings, going on to win 4 Stanley Cups and becoming the greatest player the game has ever known, and I don't want to hear about no Number 99: Gordie was better. We lost him in 2016, at the age of 88.