Who Was President the Last Time Your Team Won a Title?

Every so often, I point out that the Yankees haven't won a World Series under a Republican President since 1958, when Dwight D. Eisenhower was in office. "The Ike Age."

Then again, having Joe Biden in office will matter for many things, but perhaps not this one: It's not who's running the country that matters to the Yankees' success, but who's running the team. As long as Brian Cashman is the Yankees' chief executive, they're not going to win another Pennant.

Major League Sports Teams that won their last World Championship when Joe Biden was President: The Atlanta Braves, the Milwaukee Bucks, the Tampa Bay Lightning, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Donald Trump: The Los Angeles Dodgers, the Los Angeles Lakers, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Washington Nationals, the Toronto Raptors, the St. Louis Blues, the New England Patriots, the Boston Red Sox, the Golden State Warriors, the Washington Capitals, the Philadelphia Eagles, the Houston Astros, the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Barack Obama: The Chicago Cubs, the Cleveland Cavaliers, the Denver Broncos, the Kansas City Royals, the Chicago Blackhawks, the San Francisco Giants, the San Antonio Spurs, the Los Angeles Kings, the Seattle Seahawks, the Miami Heat, the Baltimore Ravens, the New York Giants, the St. Louis Cardinals, the Dallas Mavericks, the Boston Bruins, the Green Bay Packers, the New Orleans Saints, the New York Yankees, the Pittsburgh Steelers.

George W. Bush: The Philadelphia Phillies, the Boston Celtics, the Detroit Red Wings, the Anaheim Ducks, the Indianapolis Colts, the Carolina Hurricanes, the Chicago White Sox, the Detroit Pistons, the Miami Marlins, the New Jersey Devils, the Los Angeles Angels, the Arizona Diamondbacks, the Colorado Avalanche.

Bill Clinton: The St. Louis (now Los Angeles) Rams, the Dallas Stars, the Chicago Bulls, the Dallas Cowboys, the Houston Rockets, the San Francisco 49ers, the New York Rangers, the Toronto Blue Jays, the Montreal Canadiens.

George H.W. Bush: The Washington Redskins (now the Washington Football Team), the Minnesota Twins, the Cincinnati Reds, the Edmonton Oilers, the Oakland Athletics, the Calgary Flames.

Ronald Reagan: The New York Mets, the Chicago Bears, the Detroit Tigers, the Los Angeles (now Las Vegas) Raiders), the Baltimore Orioles, the Philadelphia 76ers, the New York Islanders.

Jimmy Carter: The Pittsburgh Pirates, the Seattle SuperSonics, the Washington Bullets, the Portland Trail Blazers.

Gerald Ford: The Philadelphia Flyers.

Richard Nixon: The Miami Dolphins, the New York Knicks.

Lyndon Johnson: The New York Jets, the Cleveland Browns.

Dwight D. Eisenhower: The St. Louis (now Atlanta) Hawks, the Detroit Lions.

Harry Truman: The Rochester Royals (now the Sacramento Kings), the Cleveland Indians (now the Cleveland Guardians), the Chicago (now Arizona) Cardinals.

If you don't see your favorite team in a particular sport here, it's because they've never won a World Championship. I didn't include MLS, its predecessor the NASL, or the WNBA.

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November 6, 1816: James Monroe is elected President. Secretary of State to outgoing President James Madison, also formerly Secretary of War, Governor of Virginia, U.S. Ambassador to Britain and France, and Colonel in the Continental Army -- he's the young man seen holding the flag in the famous, if erroneous, painting Washington Crossing the Delaware -- the nominee of the Democratic-Republican Party wins 68 percent of the popular vote, and 183 Electoral Votes.

The Federalist Party disintegrated during the War of 1812, due to its having agitated the country into the war, and its feckless peace offerings during it. They had nominated Senator Rufus King of New York, who won just 31 percent of the vote, and 34 Electoral Votes. He turned out to be the last Federalist nominee for President. Soon, the Democratic-Republicans would split into the Democratic Party and the National Republican Party, later to become the Whig Party.

November 6, 1854: John Philip Sousa is born in Washington, D.C. Perhaps the most famous American of Portuguese descent, he conducted the U.S. Marine Band, playing for Presidents, then formed his own band. The Sousa Band toured from 1892 until 1931, and he died the next year.

"The March King" composed and conducted songs that are still remembered today, most notably "The Stars and Stripes Forever" (1897). In 1923, his band played "The Star-Spangled Banner" before the 1st game at Yankee Stadium. 

November 6, 1860: Abraham Lincoln is elected the 16th President of the United States. He is the 1st nominee of the Republican Party to win the Presidency, making the Republicans the 1st, and to this day the only, "third party" to elect a President.

Thanks to a split in the Democratic Party, and the Whig Party (to which Lincoln once belonged) totally dissolving, he wins with 39 percent of the vote, the lowest percentage of any winner in the election's history.

But the former Congressman from Illinois did win a majority of the Electoral Votes: 180. Vice President John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky won 72, Senator John Bell of Tennessee won 39, and Senator Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois -- who had beaten Lincoln for that office just 2 years earlier -- won 12. Douglas finished 2nd in the popular vote, with 29 percent. Breckinridge had 18, and Bell 12.

In spite of the fact that Lincoln said, at the time, that he didn't want to abolish slavery entirely, only stop it from spreading to new States and Territories, the Southern States began to secede the next month. Outgoing President James Buchanan, a moral coward who thought the Constitution didn't allow him to do anything to stop it, did nothing to stop it. The American Civil War began on April 12, 1861. It would take Lincoln 4 years to win it.

You've heard the saying, "Suppose they gave a war, and nobody came?" Well, in February 1861,

Douglas held a peace conference at Willard's Hotel in Washington, and nobody came. Despite their disagreements on several issues, including slavery, once the war began, Douglas took a train tour of the Midwest, rallying support for the Union cause. But he was stricken with typhoid fever, and died on June 3. He was only 48 years old, 4 years younger than Lincoln was.

Breckinridge was appointed to the U.S. Senate, but enlisted in the Confederate Army, and was expelled from the Senate. He was a terrible General, but President Jefferson Davis appointed him Secretary of War in February 1865. He urged Davis to surrender, but was refused. He escaped after the fall of Richmond, and lived abroad for 3 years, until Lincoln's successor Andrew Johnson extended amnesty to all former Confederates. Breckinridge died in 1875, at 54: He was 12 years younger than Lincoln, but died 2 years younger.

Bell was the only one who outlived Lincoln both in calendar years and in actual years. He supported the Union until the war began, then switched sides. He lived until 1869, age 73.

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November 6, 1861, 160 years ago: James Naismith (no middle name) is born in Almonte (now part of Mississippi Mills), Ontario, outside the Canadian capital of Ottawa. He graduated from Montreal's McGill University, where he lettered in lacrosse, gymnastics, soccer, rugby, and the Canadian version of gridiron football. He was hired as McGill's athletic director in 1890, but just a year later, he was hired by the YMCA International Training School in Springfield, Massachusetts, what is now Springfield, College.

He was asked to invent a game that could be played indoors in the Winter, when baseball and football couldn't be played. He knew he should start with a ball, but a large, soft one, like a soccer ball, not a small, hard one like a baseball, which would be dangerous in the confined space of a gymnasium. He noted that most of the rough action took place around the goal: The goal in soccer, hockey or lacrosse, the end zone in football or rugby, or home plate in baseball. So he thought he could reduce the danger by raising the goal.

He asked the custodian to get him a box, because he had invented boxball. The custodian could only find a peach basket. So Dr. Naismith had invented basketball instead. The date was December 21, 1891.

Through the influence of the YMCA's worldwide organization, the word was spread. Naismith became the head coach at the University of Kansas, which became one of the great college basketball programs. He died in 1939, at the age of 78, at their Lawrence campus. Within the last 4 years of his life, he had seen the debut of sold-out doubleheaders involving national powers at Madison Square Garden, the debut of basketball as an official medal sport at the Olympic Games, and the foundation of the NIT and NCAA Tournament.

November 6, 1865: The last "grand match" of the baseball season takes place at the Capitoline Grounds in Brooklyn, before 15‚000. The Atlantics lead all the way to defeat fellow Brooklynites the Eckfords, 27-24‚ and claim the 1865 championship with a record of 17-0.

Henry Chadwick, America's 1st real sportswriter: "Is there another sport attractive enough to draw such attendance under such circumstances? In the summer it is not surprising as the weather is pleasant... but on a cold November day‚ in the busiest time of the year‚ it must be indeed an attractive sport to collect such an assemblage that is present on this occasion." 

Named for a famed hill in Rome, the Capitoline Grounds, a 5,000-seat wooden stadium opened in 1864, was meant to rival and surpass the Union Grounds. The Atlantics made it their home, and, like the Union Grounds, it became a skating rink in the winter.

But it was demolished in 1880. It was on a plot of land bounded by what's now Halsey Street, Marcy Street, Putnam Avenue and Nostrand Avenue, in Bedford-Stuyvesant. To visit, take the A or C train to Nostrand Avenue. While this neighborhood, notorious for crime not that long ago, should be safe during the day, definitely do not visit at night. 

November 6, 1869: What is generally recognized as the 1st college football game is played. Rutgers College plays the College of New Jersey, on Rutgers' campus in New Brunswick.

The game is essentially a very large soccer game, with a round leather ball, and 25 men on a side. The Rutgers men, finding the color inexpensive to obtain, wrap scarlet red cloth around their heads like turbans, so that they can tell each other apart on the field. Thus did they invent school colors and, in a way, the football helmet.

The men of Old Queens must have had less trouble telling team from team than did the men of Old Nassau, as Rutgers won, 6-4 -- that's 6 goals to 4, or 42-28 under today's scoring system.

The next week, the CNJ men returned the favor in Princeton, and won, 8-0. There was supposed to be a 3rd game, but the college presidents got together and decided that too much emphasis was being placed on athletics, and forbade it.

The field where "the first football game" was played is now the parking lot for Rutgers' College Avenue Gym. Rutgers played at College Field until 1891, then opened Neilson Field across the street, playing there until 1938, when Rutgers Stadium opened across the River in Piscataway. The Alexander Library, the school's main library, was built on the site of Neilson Field in 1953. Rutgers Stadium was replaced on the same site by what's now named SHI Stadium in 1994, while they played their 1993 home games, and many others from 1976 to 2009, at Giants Stadium.

George Large of Rutgers was the last surviving player from this game, living until August 15, 1939, age 88. The native of Readington, Hunterdon County played on the Rutgers side, and in 1888 served as President of the State Senate, making him the Acting Governor on a few occasions.

In 1874, Harvard University would accept a challenge from McGill University in Montreal, and discover on their arrival that by "football," McGill meant "rugby," not "soccer." Adjustments were made, Harvard liked the results, and convinced the other "football"-playing schools to join them in this adaptation of "football." In 1906, the forward pass was legalized and hashmarks prevented dangerous scrimmages close to the sideline. "Football" as America knows it now was on its way.

In 1896, the College of New Jersey changed its name to Princeton University, while a nearby school would later be founded as Trenton State College, and change its name to The College of New Jersey. Rutgers College would become, and remains, the centerpiece of the larger system of Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey.

Princeton's nickname, the Tigers, would inspire 2 professional team names: Baseball's Detroit Tigers and the Canadian Rugby Union's Hamilton Tigers, now the Canadian Football League's Hamilton Tiger-Cats.

Rutgers was known as "The Queensmen" until 1925, when they became the Chanticleers, after a fighting rooster. The school's literary magazine was already called The Chanticleer. But this carried the connotation of "chicken" -- and, as the University of South Carolina has found out with their similarly-named Gamecocks, they can be called "Cocks." In 1955, head coach Harvey Harman recommended the change to the Scarlet Knights, and such they have been ever since.

Rutgers and Princeton did not always play once a year, sometimes missing years, sometimes playing twice a year. But Rutgers did not beat Princeton again until 1938, the dedication game for the original Rutgers Stadium in Piscataway. breaking a 33-game losing streak over 69 years. Princeton still dominated until Rutgers won 4 straight from 1958 to 1961, the latter an undefeated season. Then, Princeton won another 6 straight.

Then Rutgers began to make what it called a commitment to big-time football. From 1968 onward, they went 9-3-1 against Princeton, which included winning the last 5 games by scores of 17-0, 10-6, 24-0, 38-14 and 44-13. This further included the 1st appearance by either school on national television, the 100th Anniversary Game at Rutgers Stadium on September 27, 1969, a 29-0 Rutgers win; and Rutgers' 1976 undefeated season.

Princeton decided that they couldn't remain in the Ivy League and also compete on the same level as Rutgers and the other schools that had formed the Big East Conference for all sports but football, and eventually would for football as well. (Most of those are now in the Atlantic Coast Conference, but Rutgers is in the Big Ten, and West Virginia is in the Big 12.) So Princeton called off the series, still holding an enormous 53-17-1 edge. The rivalry does continue in other sports.

Rutgers continues to bill itself as "The Birthplace of College Football," or simply "The Birthplace." You know the joke: Rutgers invented football in 1869, and they haven't done a damn thing since. It's not quite true, but it's bad enough. For example: On November 6, 2021, at home, Rutgers lost to Wisconsin 52-3.

November 6, 1888: Benjamin Harrison is elected the 23rd President of the United States. The former U.S. Senator from Indiana, and grandson of 9th President William Henry Harrison, wins 233 Electoral Votes, defeating incumbent President Grover Cleveland, who had 168.

But Cleveland won the popular vote, 48.6 percent to 47.8. Matthew Quay, Republican boss of Pennsylvania, practically came out and admitted that he had the State's 30 Electoral Votes stolen for Harrison. If true (and it probably is), then the vote should have been 203-198 in Harrison's favor. Meaning that, if 1 more State was "stolen," then Cleveland should have been re-elected.

Indeed, 4 years later, after a hard Presidency with recession and labor strife, Harrison lost his bid for re-election, and Cleveland became the only former President ever to regain the office.

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November 6, 1900: President William McKinley is re-elected. As in 1896, he defeats Nebraska Congressman William Jennings Bryan, 51.6 percent of the popular vote to 45.5, and 292 Electoral votes to 156.

Garret Hobart, McKinley's 1st Vice President, had died in office in 1899, so he needed a new one. He chose Governor Theodore Roosevelt of New York, because his svengali, Ohio Republican boss Mark Hanna, though TR was making too much noise as Governor, thinking he'd be silenced as Vice President. He told McKinley he had to live, to keep "that damned cowboy" out of the White House.

On September 6, 1901, at the Pan-American Exposition, a World's Fair in Buffalo, McKinley was shot. He died 8 days later, and TR was President of the United States. In 1904, Hanna died, and TR won a term of his own.

November 6, 1927: Martin Nicholas Pavelich is born in Sault Sainte Marie, Ontario. A left wing, he played for the Detroit Red Wings, and was assigned as a "shadow," to shut down opposing teams' best attackers, particularly Maurice "The Rocket" Richard of the Montreal Canadiens.

He won 4 Stanley Cups with the Wings, and is the last surviving player from the 1950 Cup team, 1 of 4 surviving players from 1952, 1 of 4 from 1954, and 1 of 5 from 1955.

He appears not to be related to Mark Pavelich, a native of Eveleth, Minnesota who won the Olympic Gold Medal with the 1980 U.S. hockey team, and later played for the Rangers and Minnesota North Stars, and was an original 1991-92 San Jose Shark.

November 6, 1928: Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover is elected President, with a whopping 58 percent of the vote, and 444 Electoral Votes. The Democrats had nominated Governor Alfred E. Smith of New York, the 1st Catholic ever nominated by a major party. He won just 40.8 percent, a figure exceeded by all but 2 Democratic nominees since (George McGovern in 1972 and Walter Mondale in 1984), and took just 8 States, worth 87 Electoral Votes.

In his nationally-syndicated newspaper column, humorist Will Rogers wrote that Smith's supporters "are going to be shocked at how much of the country lives west of the Hudson River." He was right, as Smith was too New Yorky for the rest of the country, including most of New York State.

Indeed, New York was not 1 of the 8 States he won. He won the 2 most Catholic States in the nation, Massachusetts and Rhode Island; and 6 "Solid South" States that, at the time, would never go for a Republican, still thought of as "the Party of Lincoln": South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas and Louisiana. Smith didn't even get the entire South: Hoover won Virginia, North Carolina, Florida, Kentucky, Tennessee, Oklahoma and Texas.

Had Smith been a Protestant, from a small town rather than the biggest city, with a pleasant voice instead of a N'Yawk accent, in favor of keeping Prohibition rather than repealing it, and not connected to the corrupt Tammany Hall political machine that dominated New York State and especially New York City, he still would have lost, as Hoover rode the Republican prosperity of the Roaring Twenties.

Despite the Hoover landslide, Franklin D. Roosevelt, former Assistant Secretary of the Navy, 1920 Democratic nominee for Vice President, and cousin of the late former President Theodore Roosevelt, is narrowly elected to succeed Smith as Governor. Someone asked Smith if FDR, one of his biggest backers, was going to be a rival that would prevent him from getting the Democratic nomination again in 1932. Smith, noting that Roosevelt had been dealing with the effects of polio since 1921, said, "No, he will be dead within a year."

Within a year of the 1928 election, the stock market had crashed, and, barring a major scandal, the Democratic nominee was going to win in 1932. Smith tried for that nomination. He lost it. To FDR. FDR became President. Smith became one of his fiercest critics. And, in the end, in spite of FDR's health difficulties, Smith died 6 months before he did.

Also on this day, William Donald Wilson is born in Central City, Nebraska. A center fielder, Bill Wilson started with the Chicago White Sox, and was with the Philadelphia Athletics when they moved, hitting the 1st home run in Kansas City Athletics history on April 12, 1955. But that was to be his last season in the major leagues. He, Bobby Shantz and Bill Harrington are the last 3 living former Philadelphia Athletics.

November 6, 1929: With the field at the Cycledrome -- a 10,000-seat bicycle racing track with a football field almost fully squeezed into it -- so waterlogged that the referees will not permit play, the Providence Steam Roller, defending NFL Champions, move their scheduled game with the Chicago Cardinals to their former home, Kinsley Park. This 6,000-seat stadium has floodlights, and so, this becomes the 1st night game in NFL history.

The Cardinals win, 16-0, but the gate receipts from the sellout crowd count the same. And, with the stock market having crashed a few days ago, the Steam Roller need all the help they can get. As it turns out, it's not enough: The team gets through the 1930 and '31 NFL seasons, drops out, holds on in another league through 1933, and folds, a victim of the Great Depression. Kinsley Park was torn down in 1933, and no trace of it remains.

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November 6, 1946, 75 years ago: Edward John DeBartolo Jr. is born in Youngstown, Ohio. He and his father Edward Sr. developed the Edward J. DeBartolo Group, which, under Eddie's leadership, became the Simon Property Group. It built in 1972, and still maintains, the Brunswick Square Mall in my native East Brunswick, New Jersey.

Also in New Jersey, it runs the Menlo Park Mall in Edison, Newport Centre in Jersey City, The Mills at Jersey Gardens in Elizabeth, the Ocean County Mall in Toms River, the Quaker Bridge Mall in Lawrence, Jersey Shore Premium Outlets in Tinton Falls, and Jackson Premium Outlets near Great Adventure. On Long Island, it runs Roosevelt Field in Garden City, and the Walt Whitman Mall in Huntington. In the Hudson Valley, it runs The Westchester in White Plains, The Shops at Nanuet, and Woodbury Common Premium Outlets.

But the DeBartolos are better known for their sports teams. Edward Sr. owned the NHL's Pittsburgh Penguins, and let his daughter Denise DeBartolo York run them, winning their 1st 2 Stanley Cups. Eddie owned the San Francisco 49ers, seeing them win 5 Super Bowls. A 1998 controversy led him to sell the team to his sister, her husband John York, and their son Jed York. (NFL rules prevent a majority owner of a team in another sport from being majority owner of an NFL team, so she had to sell the Penguins to become the 49ers' operational owner.)

Despite the troubles he got into, "Mr. D" is still one of the few NFL owners who was truly beloved by his players, and was recently elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He is the only living current or former NFL team owner in the Hall. He is also a member of the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame.

Also on this day, Sally Margaret Field is born in the Los Angeles suburb of Pasadena, California. We like her. We really, really like her.

November 6, 1947: Meet the Press debuts on NBC. It is still on the air after 74 years, making it the longest-running program in television history, anywhere in the world.

Oddly for its era, the 1st moderator was a woman, Martha Rountree. She was succeeded in 1953 by Ned Brooks, who held the post until 1965, Lawrence Spivak until 1975, Bill Monroe (not the country singer) until 1984, Marvin Kalb until 1987, Chris Wallace until 1989, Garrick Utley until 1991, and then its longest-running host, Tim Russert, until his death in 2008. He was succeeded by David Gregory, and then Chuck Todd was named host in 2014.

Herbert Hoover appeared on the show as an old man in 1955. Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman and Dwight D. Eisenhower never did. But every President since John F. Kennedy has, although as the incumbent President, only Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama have. So far, Donald Trump has not, and I suspect it will stay that way, although he made 5 appearances before taking office, including in 1999, before he began to worm his way into politics.

Athletes do not usually appear on the show, often mocked as Meet the Depressed and Press the Meat.
But Russert, a Buffalo native, loved to interview them. During Autumn, he would conclude the show's usual tagline with a reference to his hometown team: "If it's Sunday, it's Meet the Press. Go Bills."

Russert liked to challenge Democrats and Republicans alike, and, with a graphic or a clip ready to go, made, "Senator, let me show you... " the 5 scariest words in Washington. Today, Todd shows an obvious favoritism toward conservatives, which has earned him the nickname "Chuck Toad."

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November 6, 1951, 70 years ago: Louise Williams (no middle name) is born in Scranton, Pennsylvania. The actress, known professionally as Liberty Williams, got her start as Debbie Morgenstern, Rhoda's sister, on a 1973 episode of The Mary Tyler Moore Show. She was a regular on the short-lived series Bustin' Loose, 13 Queens Boulevard and Baby Makes Five. She appeared in 2 different episodes of Three's Company, in 2 different roles, 3 years apart.

She is best known as the voice of Jayna, the Wonder Twin who could take the form of any animal, on the Super Friends cartoons. Although she has had no acting credits since 1990, she is still alive.

November 6, 1956: President Dwight D. Eisenhower is re-elected. Despite concerns over his health (he'd had a heart attack in September 1955, and had been hospitalized again in June, possibly for another heart attack that the White House didn't want to talk about), the fitness for office of Vice President Richard Nixon, and how "Ike" had handled the recent crises in Hungary and Egypt, he wins 57 percent of the popular vote, and 457 Electoral Votes.

Former Governor Adlai E. Stevenson of Illinois fares no better in the rematch than he did in 1952, winning just 42 percent, and 73 Electoral Votes. Stevenson won only 7 States: North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas and Missouri. In the other 41 States, he comes close only in Tennessee.

November 6, 1981, 40 years ago: Larry Holmes defends the Heavyweight Championship of the World at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh, against Renaldo Snipes. Snipes knocks Holmes down in the 7th round, but Holmes gets up at the count of 4, and knocks Snipes out in the 11th.

Snipes was 22-0 going into the fight, with his last 2 fights being wins over former WBA Light Heavyweight Champion Eddie Mustafa Muhammad and eventual WBA Heavyweight Champion Gerrie Coetzee.

But from here on out, he went just 17-8-1, fighting 3 future partial Heavyweight Champions, beating Trevor Berbick (WBC), but losing to Tim Witherspoon (WBC and WBA, though not at the same time, and who would, in 1983, come closer to beating Holmes) and Greg Page (WBA). He was supposed to fight Mike Tyson in 1990, but broke his hand, and it never happened. He was replaced as Tyson's opponent by James "Buster" Douglas, and the rest is history.

Snipes is now 65, and a charity fundraiser. He says, "I had a good career. I made good friends. I keep in contact with my friends, and I'm healthy." That's more than a lot of ex-boxers can say.

November 6, 1983: This is the date on which the sci-fi/fantasy series Stranger Things begins, with an attack from the dimension known as "The Upside Down" on the lab in Hawkins, Indiana that opened a portal to it.

November 6, 1991, 30 years ago: Arsenal host Benfica at Highbury in North London, in the 2nd leg of the 2nd round of what turns out to be the last European Cup tournament under that name. The following season, 1992-93, it was rebranded as the UEFA Champions League. Since the Heysel Ban kept defending Football League Champions Arsenal from playing in the 1989-90 edition, this was only their 2nd time in it, following a run to the Quarterfinal in 1971-72.

Two weeks earlier, Arsenal had gone to Lisbon, Portugal, and held Benfica, that country's most storied sports team, to a 1-1 draw (with Kevin Campbell scoring) in front of 120,000 people in their Estádio da Luz. In order to have a playing facility that met modern safety standards (no standing terraces, with dangerous overcrowding), that stadium was demolished and rebuilt on the same site in 2003, and its current capacity is 64,642. The English translation of the name, "Stadium of Light," was applied to North-East club Sunderland's new stadium built in 1997. The new Benfica stadium's design would eventually inspire the design of Arsenal's new Emirates Stadium, which opened in 2006.

With the tie level, and with an away goal, and this being a Benfica squad far beneath their European Cup winners of 1961 and 1962, Arsenal fans were confident of victory and advancement. But after a 1-1 halftime score (2-2 on aggregate, 1-1 on away goals), Arsenal's defense leaked twice, and Benfica won 3-1, to advance 4-2.

This was one of the most humiliating defeats in Arsenal's history, in literally the biggest game that George Graham ever managed. (Any European Cup/Champions League match is bigger than a European Cup Winners' Cup Final.) Ironically, the only Arsenal goal on this night was scored by Colin Pates, taking the Number 4 place in midfield vacated by Graham's foolish sale of Michael Thomas (to Liverpool, of all teams to send the 1989 title-clinching goalscorer to) the preceding off-season.

Fans who came of age in the Graham years (1986-95) loved to compare his record in European play with that of Arsène Wenger (1996-2018), who consistently kept the team in the Champions League, reaching the Final in 2006 and the Semifinal in 2009, but never won a European trophy, while Graham won the Cup Winners' Cup in 1994 -- a tournament so insignificant that UEFA folded it into the UEFA Cup (now the Europa League) in 1999.

But this game had everything they loved to hate about Wenger: An Arsenal side weakened due to selling off one of the team's best players, a poor defense, "shit tactics," and a spectacular failure in European competition, which could be called a loss to "farmers."

Just 9 weeks later came the 3rd Round of the FA Cup, a trip to North Wales that became known as "The Wrexham Disaster." That game, a loss to a team then in Division Four, has often been cited as Graham's most disgraceful defeat. Yes, it was bad. But it wasn't as bad as blowing a 2nd-leg home tie in a European Cup knockout round.

Graham was lucky that this happened before the Internet Age, before the dawn of social media, and before the starting of Arsenal Fan TV.

November 6, 1999: Conseco Fieldhouse opens in Indianapolis, replacing the Market Square Arena. The Indiana Pacers beat the Boston Celtics, 115-108, and go on to win the NBA Eastern Conference title for the 1st time. But they will lose the NBA Finals to the Los Angeles Lakers.

The building was renamed Bankers Life Fieldhouse in 2011, and Gainbridge Fieldhouse this year.

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November 6, 2001, 20 years ago: Major League Baseball votes to contract its number of teams, something that hasn't happened in 102 years. The vote to contract from 30 teams to 28 is 28-2. It is not revealed who the 2 teams to vote against it were, but the rumor is that it's the 2 teams most often mentioned as the ones to be dropped: The Minnesota Twins and the Montreal Expos.

The 30-team setup remains in place, pending a new collective bargaining agreement, as the old one runs out in the 2002 season. But the CBA that is approved keeps all 30 teams. MLB ends up getting rid of the Expos anyway: After the 2004 season, they are moved, to become the Washington Nationals.

But the Twins make the most of their reprieve: They win the American League Central Division the next 3 seasons, and in 6 of the next 9, concluding in 2010, their 1st season in Target Field, after moving out of the oft-mocked Metrodome.

Today, both franchises are as strong as ever, at least business-wise, and MLB has again begun to consider expansion, from 30 teams to 32.

November 6, 2002: The West Wing airs the episode "Election Night." President Jed Bartlet (Martin Sheen) is re-elected, but shows signs that his multiple sclerosis will be an issue in his 2nd term. Also, Deputy White House Communications Director Sam Seaborn (Rob Lowe) discovers that he will have to keep a promise he made to the widow of the Democrat running for Congress in his home district in Southern California.

This episode debuts Joshua Malina as Will Bailey, and Danica McKellar as his half-sister and campaign assistant Elsie Snuffin.

This episode should not be confused with the episode "Election Day," which resolves the storyline from this next entry:

November 6, 2005: The West Wing airs the episode "The Debate." It is a live episode, and the only episode of the show that is broadcast on videotape instead of film. Running to replace Bartlet are Republican Senator Arnold Vinick of California (M*A*S*H's Alan Alda) and Democratic Congressman Matthew Santos of Texas (L.A. Law's Jimmy Smits).

This occurs only 3 years after the episode showing Bartlet's re-election, because in the 2003-04 TV season, the show jumped from the middle of Year 5 of his Administration to the middle of Year 6, due to the fact that the actors' contracts all ran out after the show's 7th season.

Jerry Remy, 1952-2021

In New York, Phil Rizzuto was a beloved player who became even more beloved as a broadcaster. In Philadelphia, it was Richie Ashburn. In Cleveland, Herb Score. In Cincinnati, Joe Nuxhall. In Chicago, Ron Santo. In Houston, Larry Dierker. In San Francisco, Mike Krukow.

In Boston, it's Jerry Remy.

Gerald Peter Remy was born on November 8, 1952 in the Boston suburb of Fall River, Massachusetts.  He grew up in nearby Somerset. He was drafted by the Washington Senators in 1970, but didn't sign. So he was eligible to be drafted again in 1971, and the California Angels selected him, and he did sign.

He made his major league debut on April 7, 1975, singling off Steve Busby, but was picked off. Still, the Angels beat the Royals, 3-2 at Anaheim Stadium. He played 2nd base for the Angels through the 1977 season, then was traded to his hometown Boston Red Sox for pitcher Don Aase.

The Red Sox needed a 2nd baseman to replace the light-hitting Denny Doyle. Remy fit the bill, as he got on base more, and was a better fielder. He and his double-play partner, shortstop Rick Burleson, were big reasons why the Red Sox led the American League Eastern Division most of the season. During the June 1978 games between the Red Sox and the arch-rival Yankees, it seemed as though he was always on base, and the Yankees hit grounder after grounder right at him. I got sick of him.

But the Sox collapsed, and the Yankees surged. A Playoff was needed to decide the American League Eastern Division title. In the 9th inning, with the Yankees leading 5-4, Remy hit the ball that Lou Piniella couldn't see, but managed to hold him to a single. Remy would have been the winning run had Carl Yastrzemski been able to get him and tying run Burleson home, but the Yankees hung on to win.

Remy never appeared in the postseason -- or, if you count the Bucky Dent Game, he never appeared in it again. Although he could still hit when healthy, injuries took over, and he was released after the 1985 season. With Marty Barrett at 2nd base in 1986, the Red Sox won the Pennant, and came as close as any team ever has to winning the World Series without actually winning it. Remy finished his career with a .275 batting average, 7 home runs, 329 RBIs and 208 stolen bases.

In 1988, "RemDawg" became a Red Sox broadcaster, and became more popular than ever, helping to call the games of 4 World Championship teams *. He also owned RemDawg's, a concession stand on Yawkey Way across from Fenway Park; and Jerry Remy's Sports Bar & Grill, on Boylston Street behind Fenway. The Red Sox elected him to their team Hall of Fame. In 2007, fans voted him the honorary president of "Red Sox Nation."

But in 2008, he began dealing with cancer. His fight had its ups and downs, and, for a while, it looked like he might beat it. He beat it until he no longer could, and died this past Saturday, October 30, 2021, just short of what would have been his 69th birthday.

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November 1, 1816: James Monroe, then Secretary of State, is elected the 5th President of the United States. The nominee of the Democratic-Republican Party, forerunner of today's Democratic Party, defeats Rufus King, then a Senator from New York, and the nominee of the Federalist Party, 183 Electoral Votes to 34, taking every State but Massachusetts (22 EVs right there), Connecticut and Delaware.

Popular votes were not counted in every State, so it's not clear how many votes Monroe and King got. Still, this was the last gasp of the Federalist Party.

November 1, 1820: Monroe is re-elected, almost without opposition. The Federalists did not nominate a candidate for President. This was in spite of the Panic of 1819 having hurt the country's economy.

Monroe got 228 Electoral Votes -- all but 1. William Plumer, an Elector from New Hampshire who had served that State as Senator and Governor, cast his vote for Monroe's Secretary of State, John Quincy Adams. George Washington thus remained, and still does remain, the only man to be elected President by a unanimous Electoral Vote.

Contrary to legend, that was not Plumer's intent. Rather, he publicly admitted that he preferred Adams as President to Monroe. Four years later, with Monroe respecting the 2-term tradition established by Washington, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, Plumer got his wish.

The Democratic-Republicans would face opposition, but not under the Federalist banner. By 1832, the dominant party was renamed the Democratic Party, and the Whig Party had replaced the Federalists as the pro-business party in America. By 1860, they'd be out as such, and the Republican Party would be in.

November 1, 1844: James Knox Polk is elected the 11th President of the United States. The Democrat, who had served as Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives and then as Governor of Tennessee, defeated Senator Henry Clay of Kentucky, who thus became the 1st man to go 0-for-3 in Presidential elections. Others have done so, but Clay is the only man to be nominated 3 times and lose all 3.

The popular vote was actually very close, since Clay, a leading figure in American politics for over 30 years, was better-known nationally than Polk: Polk won 49.5 percent of the popular vote, making him the 1st plurality President since the popular vote began being recorded from every State then in the Union (starting in 1828); while Clay won 48.1 percent. The Electoral Vote was less close, as Polk won 170-105.

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November 1, 1870: The Mutuals of New York visit the Chicago White Stockings at Dexter Park in Chicago before 6,000 people. With Chicago leading 7-5 after 8 innings, the Mutuals score 8 runs in the top of the 9th, to make it 13-7.

In the bottom of the 9th, Chicago adopts a waiting game, and the Mutuals' pitcher, Dutch-born Reinder Albertus "Rynie" Wolters, loads the bases on walks‚ and complains that the umpire is not calling strikes. A few hits and passed balls make the score 13-12 in favor of the Mutes when McAfee‚ the next batter for the Whites‚ lets a dozen balls go by without swinging. Wolters throws up his hands and walks off. The ump reverts the score to the 8th inning and the White Stockings win‚ 7-5.

Chicago has now defeated the Mutes twice since they took the Championship away from the Atlantics. The controversial ending of the game makes the Mutual club unwilling to give up the Championship.

The New York Clipper, the closest thing America had to a sports-only publication in those days, says‚ "In 1867 the Union club happened to defeat the Atlantics two games out of three of the regular series them played between them - only one series being played between clubs at that time. By this victory a precedent was established giving the championship title only to the club that defeated the existing champions two games while they were the champions. Of course this is an absurd rule but it has prevailed ever since."

November 1, 1871, 150 years ago: Stephen Crane (no middle name) is born in Newark, New Jersey. He published his 1st novel in 1893, Maggie: A Girl of the Streets. Its themes of poverty, including alcoholism and prostitution, made it incredibly controversial for its time. In 1895, despite having no military experience -- indeed, he was born 6 years after the end of the war depicted in it, the American Civil War -- he published The Red Badge of Courage, and made himself a legend of American letters.

He was soon hired as a foreign correspondent for William Randolph Hearst's New York Journal, covering the Greco-Turkish War of 1897, the Spanish-American War of 1898, and the Boer War. But he developed tuberculosis, and died from it in 1900, only 28 years old.  

November 1, 1874: The National Association season ends today, with the Boston Red Stockings being declared the Champions with a record of 43-17. Boston actually had a record of 52-18, but the Committee running the league throws out the games played by the Baltimore Canaries (not "Orioles"), because they did not complete their schedule. The Mutuals finish 2nd.

November 1, 1880: Henry Grantland Rice is born in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. After playing baseball at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, he moved into journalism. There had already been some well-known men named Henry Rice, so Grantland Rice used his middle name from then onward. His friends would call him "Granny."

He became the leading sports voice in the South, at Nashville's The Tennessean, before going to the

New York Tribune, which syndicated him nationally. In 1924, he covered the Army-Notre Dame game at the Polo Grounds in New York, and gave Notre Dame's backfield its nickname: The Four Horsemen. He also helped popularize Red Grange nationally, although, contrary to popular belief, he did not come up with Grange's nickname, the Galloping Ghost. Perhaps because of these connections, when Walter Camp died in 1925, the NCAA asked Rice to take over Camp's selections of college football's All-America team.

If the 1920s truly were "The Golden Age of Sports," Rice's writings were a big reason why, promoting Grange and Knute Rockne's Notre Dame in football, Babe Ruth in baseball, Jack Dempsey in boxing, Bill Tilden in tennis and Bobby Jones in golf. He helped to popularize golf among the masses, through his championing of Jones and, starting in 1934, Jones' tournament in Augusta, Georgia, The Masters.

Rice died in 1954, at which point it was easy to remember his most famous writing, though everyone forgets its source, a 1908 poem titled Alumnus Football:

For when the One Great Scorer comes
to mark against your name
He writes, not that you won or lost
but how you played the Game.

In 1966, a few years after the Baseball Hall of Fame established its J.G. Taylor Spink Award, tantamount to election for sportswriters, it gave the award to Rice.

November 1, 1884: The Gaelic Athletic Association is founded at Hayes's Hotel in Thurles, County Tipperary, in what's now the Republic of Ireland. The GAA governs the traditional Irish sports such as hurling and Gaelic football -- but not Irish soccer, which is governed by the Football Association of Ireland (FAI). The Northern Ireland equivalent is the Irish Football Association (IFA).

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November 1, 1901, 120 years ago: The Colored Industrial and Agricultural School is founded in Ruston, Louisiana. Like many of what will become America's "historically black colleges and universities" (HCBUs), it is founded near an all-white school, in this case Louisiana Tech.

By the time Eddie Robinson becomes its head football coach in 1941, it is known as the Louisiana Negro and Normal Institute. (In those days, colleges for teaching teachers were known as "normal schools.") In 1946, a white sawmill owner, Judson H. Grambling, donated some land on which the school could build. As a result, the school was renamed Grambling State University, and a new town, Grambling, was created.

Robinson would coach at Grambling from 1941 until 1997, when it became clear that Alzheimer's disease had begun to affect his judgement, and he died in 2007. He became the winningest coach in the history of NCAA Division I football (although Division I-AA, now called the Football Championship Subdivision of FCS), with 408 wins against 165 losses and 15 ties. He won 17 titles in the Southwest Athletic Conference (SWAC) from 1960 to 1994, and 9 "black college national championships": 1955, 1967, 1972, 1974, 1975, 1977, 1980, 1983 and 1992.

Four of his players would be elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame: Willie Davis, Buck Buchanan, Willie Brown and Charlie Joiner. Arguably, his 1st great player also should be, Paul "Tank" Younger. He also coached Doug Williams, who became the 1st black quarterback to win a Super Bowl, and ultimately succeeded him as Grambling head coach.

His success made Grambling (the "State" is usually not referred to) perhaps America's most familiar HBCU. Its band is also renowned, and was invited to perform at Super Bowl I in 1967. The Northern Louisiana school's rivalry with formerly all-black Southern University in Baton Rouge is played every Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend at the Superdome in New Orleans, known as the Bayou Classic -- and the halftime "Battle of the Bands" is considered more important by many alumni than the actual game.

November 1, 1925: After 3 defeats, plus 5 games against non-NFL teams, the expansion New York Giants finally win a game against another NFL team, defeating the 3-time defending Champion Cleveland Bulldogs, 19-0 at the Polo Grounds.

However, the win is not as impressive as it may seem, because the champs had fallen apart due to a dispute over the rights to pro football in the Cleveland area. And only 18,000 fans came out. Still, for the Giants, a win is a win.

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November 1, 1931, 90 years ago: Henry Ford (no middle name) is born, no, not in Detroit, but outside Pittsburgh in Homestead, Pennsylvania. A quarterback and defensive back at the University of Pittsburgh, he was the 1st black quarterback at a college that wasn't what we would now call a historically black college or university (HBCU).

Naturally nicknamed "Model T," Henry was drafted by the Cleveland Browns, and was a rookie on their 1955 NFL Championship team. He is 1 of 8 surviving players from that team. He played with his hometown Pittsburgh Steelers in 1956 and 1957. But a Steeler official -- probably not team owner Art Rooney -- told him that, as a black player, he couldn't date a white woman. He quit the team, and married the white woman he was dating. They're still together.

He played semi-pro ball in Arizona for 2 years, then moved back to Pittsburgh and worked in the Acme grocery store chain. In 1977, he moved to Palo Alto, California, and made a fortune on Coca-Cola's vending operations in the the San Francisco Bay Area.

November 1, 1932: Alger Joseph Arbour is born in Sudbury, Ontario. A defenseman, he won the Stanley Cup with 3 different teams: The 1954 Detroit Red Wings, the 1961 Chicago Blackhawks and the 1962 and '64 (but not '63) Toronto Maple Leafs. He also reached the Stanley Cup Finals with the 1968, '69 and '70 St. Louis Blues.

But it's as a coach that he's remembered, taking the New York Islanders from expansion team (though not as their very first head coach) to 4 straight Stanley Cups in 1980, '81, '82 and '83. His 1,500 games and 740 games won are each 2nd all-time in NHL history behind Scotty Bowman, his coach in St. Louis. He's in the Hockey Hall of Fame, and the Islanders hang a banner at the Barclays Center with "1500," his wins standing in for his "retired number." He died in 2015.

November 1, 1946, 75 years ago: The right foot of Cleveland owner Bill Veeck is amputated‚ a result of a war injury in the South Pacific 2 years before. At this point, Veeck has already had a tremendous impact on promotion in a half season of ownership. A minor but typical change is the regular posting of NL scores on the Cleveland scoreboard‚ a departure from the long-standing practice of both Leagues, whose teams would only post the scores from around their own League.

Veeck doesn't let the amputation slow him down. He walks around on a prosthesis, and frequently stubs out his cigarette on it. He even says, "I'm not disabled. I'm crippled." In other words, his ability was reduced, but not eliminated. And, as long as his brain worked (however strangely at times), he had plenty of ability.

Also on this day, Richard Lee Baney is born in the Los Angeles suburb of Fullerton, California. Dick Baney pitched for the Seattle Pilots in 1969, and was mentioned a few times in Jim Bouton's book Ball Four. He also pitched for the Cincinnati Reds in 1973 and '74. He now invests in and manages real estate.

Also on this day, James Earl Kennedy is born in Tulsa, Oklahoma. A middle infielder, he played 12 games in the major leagues, all for the St. Louis Cardinals in 1970, batting .125. His younger brother Junior Kennedy was a 2nd baseman in the majors from 1974 to 1983. Both are still alive.

Also on this day, William Anton Lesuk is born in Mosse Jaw, Saskatchewan. A left wing, he played 8 seasons in the NHL and 4 more in the WHA. He played 3 games for the Boston Bruins in the 1969-70 regular season, and 2 more in the Playoffs, allowing him to get his name on the Stanley Cup.

He eventually went from penthouse to outhouse, as an original 1974-75 Washington Capital, the worst team of the NHL's modern era. But he also played for the Winnipeg Jets' WHA Champions of 1976, 1978, and 1979. He is still alive.

Also on this day, Richard Roman Grech is born in Bordeaux, France, and grows up in Leicester, England. He was the bass guitarist for a progressive rock group called Family when, in 1969, he was invited to join a new "supergroup" called Blind Faith, with the other members all being far better known: Lead guitarist Eric Clapton and drummer Ginger Baker from Cream, and keyboardist Steve Winwood from Traffic. The group recorded 1 album, toured behind it, and split up upon the comparative failure of both.

In the 1970s, Grech would record with Winwood in a revived Traffic, and with Baker in Ginger Baker's Air Force. In 1974, he formed another supergroup, KGB. He was the G, while singer Ray Kennedy was the K, and guitarist Mike Bloomfield of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band was the B. This group also had drummer Carmine Appice of Vanilla Fudge and Chicago session keyboardist Barry Goldberg.

KGB went nowhere and in 1977, Grech quit music and became a carpet salesman back in Leicester. His drug use caught up with him, and he died in 1990.

*

November 1, 1951, 70 years ago: Shanghai Greenland Shenhua Football Club is founded in Shanghai, China's "second city." Known as Shenua -- literally "The Flower of Shanghai" -- they won China's national league in 1961, 1962, 1995 and 2003, but were stripped of the 2003 title after it was found that they'd engaged in match-fixing. They've also won the Chinese FA Cup in 1956, 1991, 1998, 2017 and 2019.

Understandably, the rivalry big enough to be called "The China Derby" is between the biggest teams in each of the country's 2 largest cities: Shanghai Shenhua and Beijing Guoan. They also play the Shanghai Derby with Shanghai SIPG. Among their recent players have been Didier Drogba, the Ivorian forward formerly of West London's Chelsea, known for his diving; and Stephan El Shaarawy, the Italian forward of Egyptian descent who previously starred for AC Milan and AS Roma.

Also on this day, Karl-Heinz Granitza is born in Lünen, Germany. A striker, he starred in his homeland for Hertha Berlin. Then he came to America, and helped the Chicago Sting win the North American Soccer League title in 1981 and 1984 (the League's last season).

He continued to pay for Chicago teams in the Major Indoor Soccer League. When he returned to Berlin, he opened an American-themed sports bar named for a prominent Chicago thoroughfare: State Street. He is a member of America's National Soccer Hall of Fame.

*

November 1, 1961, 60 years ago: Anne Theresa Donovan is born in Ridgewood, Bergen County, New Jersey. A graduate of Paramus Catholic High School, she led Norfolk's Old Dominion University to the AIAW title, the closest thing women's college basketball then had to a National Championship, in 1980. But she had to go abroad to play pro ball, and played in Japan and Italy.

She went into coaching, and was head coach at East Carolina and back home at Seton Hall. In the WNBA, she coached the Indiana Fever, the Charlotte Sting, the Seattle Storm, the New York Liberty and the Connecticut Sun.

She played for the U.S. teams that won the Olympic Gold Medal in 1984 in Los Angeles and 1988 in Seoul, Korea; and coached them to the Gold Medal in 2004 in Athens, Greece and 2008 in Beijing, China. She died of heart failure in 2018, at age 56.

Also on this day, Derek Ervin Smith is born in Hogansville, Georgia. A guard, he was a member of the University of Louisville's National Championship team of 1980, he was named the Metro Conference's Player of the Year the next season.

He played 9 seasons in the NBA, and later served as an assistant coach with the Washington Bullets. He still held that post on August 9, 1996, when, aboard the cruise ship MS Dreamward, he suffered a heart attack and died at age 35. The ship had been rented by Abe Pollin for season ticketholders of the Bullets and the NHL's Washington Capitals, both of which he owned. Smith and Bullets layer Tim Legler were holding a basketball clinic aboard the ship when Smith was stricken.

His son Nolan Smith was just 8 years old. He went to Duke, and reached the Final Four with them in 2010. He later played 2 seasons for the Portland Trail Blazers, led Cedevita Junior to the 2014 Croatian league title, and now works in Duke's athletic department.

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November 1, 1970: The 1st regular-season game between the Giants and the Jets is played. Despite having the home-field advantage in front of 63,903 fans at Shea Stadium, and being less than 2 years removed from their Super Bowl win, the Jets are defeated by the Giants, 22-10.

It was the 4th game of a 6-game winning streak for the Giants, who finished 9-5. The Jets, on the other hand, looked nothing like a recent champion, as this was the 5th game of a 6-game losing streak, and they finished 4-10.

November 1, 1971, 50 years ago: Cold Spring Harbor, the 1st album by 22-year-old Billy Joel, is released on Family Productions Records. It includes the songs "She's Got a Way" and "Everybody Loves You Now," both now thought of as among Billy's best. But the record is made at the wrong speed, and the songs don't sound right. Billy gets out of his contract, signs with Columbia Records, releases Piano Man 2 years later, and the rest is history.

Also on this day, the Toronto Sun is founded, a tabloid in both format and style, and a conservative counterpoint to the liberal broadsheet Toronto Star. Among its sports reporters have been George Gross, Jim Hunt and Ted Reeve.

November 1, 1975: The Summit opens on the west side of Houston, with a concert raising money for local hospitals, headlined by singer Andy Williams.

It was the home of the NBA's Houston Rockets from 1975 to 2003, the World Hockey Association's Houston Aeros from 1975 to 1978, a minor-league version of the Aeros from 1994 to 2003, and the Houston Comets of the WNBA from 1997 to 2003. The Rockets won NBA titles there in 1994 nd '95, while the Comets won the WNBA's 1st 4 titles, from 1997 to 2000. The Toyota Center opened in 2003, and the Rockets and Comets moved in. The Comets folded after the 2008 season, joining the Aeros in oblivion.

In 1998, the City of Houston sold the arena's naming rights, and it became the Compaq Center. In 2005, it was bought by Lakewood Church, for use as its Central Campus. In 2017, Hurricane Harvey hit Houston, and the megachurch's boss, the fabulously wealthy "prosperity gospel" Pastor Joel Osteen, refused to open the arena to refugees, due to severe flooding. The media proved this to be a lie: That section of Houston was not flooded. Busted, Osteen opened the building.

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November 1, 1981, 40 years ago: Evan Bradley Mathis is born in Birmingham, Alabama. A guard, he played 12 seasons in the NFL, made the 2013 and 2014 Pro Bowls, and was a member of the Denver Broncos when they won Super Bowl 50. He is now a professional poker player.

Also on this day, the island nation of Antigua and Barbuda is granted independence by Britain. They remain members of the British Commonwealth.

November 1, 1984: The Los Angeles Clippers play their 1st home game after moving up the California coast from San Diego, at the Los Angeles Sports Arena. They had played 2 away games first. Oddly enough, their 1st game under the Los Angeles name was away to the Utah Jazz, the team they beat in their last game in San Diego.

The Clips beat the Knicks, 107-105. Last season's breakout Knicks star, Bernard King, scores 25, but some players who had won NBA Championships elsewhere lead the Clips to victory: 1971 Milwaukee Buck Junior Bridgeman, 1980 and '82 Laker Norm Nixon, and, overcoming a never-ending foot injury, 1977 Portland Trail Blazer, San Diego native and UCLA star Bill Walton.

For several years, this opener stood as the highlight of Los Angeles Clipper basketball, as, much like the Nets behind the Knicks in the New York Tri-State Area, they have been stuck behind the Lakers, partly due to the older team being so well-established, successful and popular, and partly due to their own perennial losing, due to then-team owner Donald Sterling caring only about schmoozing his pals at the games rather than winning.

November 1, 1988: Masahiro Tanaka is born in Itami, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan. After starring in his homeland for the Sendai-based Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles, he signed with the Yankees in 2014, and became an All-Star in his rookie season.

He has helped the Yankees reach the Playoffs in 4 of the last 5 seasons, and, until Gerrit Cole was signed as his teammate, was the closest thing to a real ace that New York baseball currently has. (And I don't want to hear about any of the Mets' starting pitchers. They would get slaughtered in the American League.) He was 99-36 in Japan, and is 78-46 for the Yankees.

*

November 1, 1994: ADX Florence opens, the federal “supermax” prison in Florence, Colorado. It is the new Alcatraz: Home for the worst of the worst, and no one has ever escaped from it.

Notable current residents include, in chronological order of their crimes: Theodore Kaczynski, the "Unabomber"; Ramzi Yousef, convicted in the 1st World Trade Center bombing in 1993; Terry Nichols, the surviving Oklahoma City bomber; Eric Rudolph, the bomber of abortion clinics and the 1996 Olympic Park in Atlanta; Zacarias Moussaoui, "the 20th Hijacker" on 9/11; Richard Reid, the "Shoe Bomber"; Robert Hansen, the FBI Agent convicted of spying for Russia; Umar Abdulmutallab, the 2009 "Underwear Bomber"; Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the surviving brother from the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing; and Joaquin Guzman, the Mexican drug lord known as "El Chapo."

November 1, 1996, 25 years ago: The Philadelphia 76ers play their 1st game at their new arena, then named the CoreStates Center, losing 111-103 to the Milwaukee Bucks. The arena is now known as the Wells Fargo Center, and the 76ers have reached the NBA Finals only once since moving in, in 2001.

Also on this day, Fox Sports Net makes its debut.

November 1, 1997: The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum opens in its new home in Kansas City‚ Missouri. It had been occupying a temporary site there for 4 years.

November 1, 1999: Chicago Bears legend Walter Payton dies of a rare liver disease in the Chicago suburb of South Barrington, Illinois. The NFL's former all-time leading rusher, and one of the real good guys of sports history, was only 45. As part of their 100th Season celebrations, the Bears named him 1st on their list of their 100 Greatest Players.

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November 1, 2001, 20 years ago: Game 5 of the World Series at Yankee Stadium. Steve Finley and Rod Barajas hit solo home runs for the Arizona Diamondbacks in the 5th inning, and those remain the only runs of the game going into the bottom of the 9th.

In the top of the 8th, with the rumor going around that Paul O'Neill will retire after the Series (which turned out to be true), and, knowing that, win or lose, this was his last game at Yankee Stadium, Yankee Fans start chanting his name. It was a rare moment when Yankee Fans decided that there was something more important than winning: In this case, saying, "Thank you" to a team legend.

In an amazing case of history repeating itself‚ the Yankees again come from 2 runs down with 2 outs in the 9th inning, to win 3-2 in 12 innings. Byung-Hyun Kim is again victimized‚ this time by Scott Brosius' 2-run HR in the 9th. Alfonso Soriano's single wins it in the 12th. Steve Finley and Rod Barajas homer in the 5th for Arizona's runs.

In 97 previous years of World Series play, only twice had teams come from 2 or more runs down in the bottom of the 9th to win a game. The Yankees had now done it on back-to-back nights -- albeit in different months (October 31 & November 1).

Also on this day, the Memphis Grizzlies play their 1st game, after 6 seasons in Vancouver. But they get torched by 34 points from Jerry Stackhouse, and lose 90-80 to the Detroit Pistons, at the arena then named the Great American Pyramid.

November 1, 2009: Game 4 of the World Series at Citizens Bank Park. Yankee manager Joe Girardi starts CC Sabathia, the ALCS MVP but the loser of this Series' Game 1, on 3 days' rest. It seems to work, as the Yankees lead the Philadelphia Phillies 4-2 going into the bottom of the 7th.

One of the Phils' runs shouldn't have counted, because Ryan Howard didn't touch the plate. This could have been an epic controversy. And it might have been, because Chase Utley hits a home run off CC in the 7th, and Pedro Feliz hits one off Joba Chamberlain in the 8th to tie it.

But in the 9th, Johnny Damon fouls off pitch after pitch from Brad Lidge before singling with 2 outs. Mark Teixeira was up, and the Phils go into their lefthanders' switch. This is an echo of the shift used by the Cardinals on Ted Williams of the Red Sox in the 1946 World Series. But Damon realizes that, if he steals 2nd, he could steal 3rd, too, because no one would be covering. He goes for it, bringing up memories of another factor of the '46 Series, Enos Slaughter's "Mad Dash" that won Game 7 for the Cardinals.

Unnerved, Lidge accidentally hits Teix, and Alex Rodriguez gets the biggest hit of his career (and it remained so), a double to score Damon. Jorge Posada singles home Teix and A-Rod, and Mariano Rivera shuts the Phils down it the bottom of the 9th, securing a 7-4 Yankee victory, stunning the defending World Champions in their own raucous, not strangely silent, house. The Yanks can wrap it up tomorrow night.

*

November 1, 2010: The Giants win their 1st World Series since moving to San Francisco. Edgar Renteria, who drove in the winning run for the Florida Marlins against the Cleveland Indians in the 11th inning during Game 7 of the 1997 Fall Classic, joins Yankees legends Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio and Yogi Berra as only the 4th player in baseball history to collect two World Series-winning hits. (He had also made the last out for the St. Louis Cardinals as the Boston Red Sox won the 2004 World Series *.)

The Series MVP's 3-run homer off Cliff Lee in the 7th inning leads to San Francisco's 3-1 victory over the Rangers, and brings an end to 56 seasons of what some Giants fans had been, in recent days, describing as "torture." (Clearly, they'd never been truly tortured.)

November 1, 2013: The Brooklyn Nets play their home opener at the Barclays Center, and retire the Number 5 of Jason Kidd. Although he was then their head coach, and remains the only player to lead the team to the NBA Finals (in New Jersey in 2002 and 2003), Kidd never played for the Brooklyn edition of the team. They beat the defending Eastern Conference Champion Miami Heat of LeBron James and Dwyane Wade, 101-100.

November 1, 2015: Game 5 of the World Series at Citi Field. Curtis Granderson hits a home run in the bottom of the 1st inning, giving the Mets a 1-0 lead over the Kansas City Royals. The Mets make it 2-0 in the 6th, and Matt Harvey holds that lead into the top of the 9th.

But the Mets pull off a unique feat: They blow leads in every single game of a World Series. (Including in Game 3, which they came back to win anyway.) Only the Mets, right?

Harvey convinces manager Terry Collins to leave him in, and he walks the leadoff hitter, Lorenzo Cain. Eric Hosmer doubles Cain home, and Collins now pulls Harvey for Jeurys Familia. A groundout gets Hosmer to 3rd, and a fielding blunder by the Mets (surprise, surprise) results in the tying run coming home. Familia's 8 blown saves in a single postseason ties the record set by Robb Nen of the 2002 San Francisco Giants -- who, unlike Familia, does have a World Series ring, with the 1997 Florida Marlins.

The game goes to the 12th inning. Royals catcher Salvador Pérez singles off Addison Reed. Royals manager Ned Yost sends Jarrod Dyson in to pinch-run for him. Christian Colón singles him home, and then the unrelated Bartolo Colón is brought in, and he melts down. It remains the worst extra-inning performance in the 116-year history of the World Series. The Royals win the game 7-2, and win their 2nd World Series, their 1st in 30 years.

The Royals proved what the Yankees had proven in the regular season, what Chase Utley proved in the NL Division Series, and what nobody else, not the other Dodgers, nor the Chicago Cubs in the NLCS, seemed willing to prove: Stand up to the Mets, and they will fold. This pattern held in 2016, as the Mets reached the NL Wild Card game, but losing it.

In the 1995 Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "Past Tense, Part II," partly set in the year 2024, Captain Benjamin Sisko, a baseball fan despite living in the 24th Century, gave his opinion that the greatest baseball team of all time was the 2015 London Kings, pointing out that it was the rookie season of Japanese-American shortstop Harmon "Buck" Bokai. This suggests that the Kings won the 2015 World Series. Another person in the scene says the greatest team ever was the 1999 Yankees.

The scene came closer to getting it right than anyone could have expected: The Yankees did go on to win the World Series in 1999, going 11-1 in the postseason, following their 114-48 regular season and 11-2 postseason of the year before; and the 2015 World Series was won by a team with a regal name. 

Other Trek episodes had the Yankees beating the London Kings in the World Series in 2032, and losing to them in 2042, after which -- possibly due to World War III being fought in the show's stimeline -- baseball had so badly dropped in popularity that it was stopped, a major problem I have with Star Trek.

However, despite the Yankees' real-life 2 regular-season games with the Boston Red Sox in London in 2019, I seriously doubt that MLB will put a team in London by 2032, or even 2042. But at least the sport should remain popular well beyond then.  

November 1, 2019: The movie Blade Runner, which came out in 1982, takes place in November 2019. In real life at that time, things weren't that bad, certainly not compared to what happened in the real-life 2020 -- but not for a lack of trying by Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell. 

Happy 60th Birthday, Fernando Valenzuela!

November 1, 1960, 60 years ago: Fernando Valenzuela Anguamea is born in Navojoa, Sonora, Mexico. In 1981, the chunky, screwballing lefthander for the Los Angeles Dodgers was the hottest thing in baseball, He won his 1st 8 starts, with 5 shutouts and an ERA of 0.50. He was only 20 years old.

On May 15, 1981, I was traveling with my family to a weekend vacation in Williamsburg, Virginia. We stopped off at a rest area on the New Jersey Turnpike, and I saw the new Sports Illustrated. Fernando was on the cover, with the headline, "UNREAL!" No, the cover didn't jinx him: He was 7-0 at that point, and won his next start, before falling to 8-1. That night, in a totally unrelated development, Len Barker of the Cleveland Indians pitched the 1st major league perfect game of my lifetime.

"Fernandomania" made the Dodgers what they remain to this day: Mexico's favorite team, despite the San Diego Padres playing a short drive from the border. The mania was tamed somewhat by the midseason strike, as he went just 5-7 after his amazing start. But he pitched a complete-game win over the Yankees in Game 3 of the World Series. The Dodgers won in Game 6; had it gone to Game 7, he would have started it.

He had his only 20-win season in 1986, and struck out a record-tying 5 straight batters in that season's All-Star Game: Don Mattingly, Cal Ripken, Jesse Barfield, Lou Whitaker, and the opposing pitcher, Teddy Higuera. Higuera, 3 years older, was frequently compared to Fernando: He was also a chunky Mexican lefthander who threw the screwball. He would go 94-64 in his career. Both men pitched 3 scoreless innings in that game, which the American League won, 3-2.

Fernando missed most of the 1988 season due to injury, but still got a 2nd World Series ring. He was released in 1991, and bounced around, signing with the Padres.

In 1996, the Padres played 3 games in Monterrey, the 1st regular-season games ever played in Mexico. Fernando started the opener against the Mets, and benefited from a 15-0 lead. The Mets came back, and he left to a standing ovation. The Padres hung on to win, 15-10.

He should have retired after the season, having gone 13-8 with an ERA of 3.62, helping the Padres reach the Playoffs for the 1st time in 12 years. Instead, he hung on for 1 more year, going 2-12. His career record finished at 173-153.

A member of the Hispanic Heritage Baseball Museum Hall of Fame and the Caribbean Baseball Hall of Fame, the Dodgers have not officially retired his Number 34 -- aside from Jim Gilliam, they don't do that unless the man in question is elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame -- but they've kept it out of circulation.

He is now a broadcaster for the Dodgers' Spanish network, bringing up memories of his struggles to learn English. It was said in 1981 that, "The two best lefthanded pitchers don't speak English: Fernando Valenzuela and Steve Carlton." (Referencing Carlton's refusal to talk to the media.) Manager Tommy Lasorda said the only English words he knows are "beer," "food" and "light beer." On The Tonight Show, Johnny Carson said, "Fernando Valenzuela learned another English word today: 'Million.'"

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November 1, 1604: The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice is first staged, at Whitehall Palace, then the main residence of the monarchs of England. This is established by a contemporary account that attributes authorship to "Shaxberd." In other words, William Shakespeare, a.k.a. The Bard of Avon.

This play is unusual for a few reasons. We have, for all intents and purposes, confirmation that Shakespeare wrote it. Many historians have questioned whether Shakespeare, both an actor and a theater owner at the time, wrote any of his plays, and some have publicly wondered if he existed at all. We also have a definitive date for its 1st staging, which is rare for his plays.

Finally, we have a main character -- who, like Macbeth, starts out as a heroic figure, but certainly doesn't end up as one -- who is not a white man, but is married to a white woman, Desdemona. Othello's rival, Iago, is right up there with King Richard III as Shakespeare's greatest out-and-out, curtain-to-curtain, villain. (Even King Claudius, the villain of Hamlet, shows some remorse.) The character of Othello was usually played in blackface, or sometimes with makeup and clothing making him look like an Arab.

But in the 20th Century, it became standard practice to cast a black actor. It is the best known role of Paul Robeson, who first played the role on Broadway in 1943, and, after the blacklisting of Communists a few years later, made ends meet by playing the role in London and on the European continent. Other black actors noted for playing Othello have been William Marshall, James Earl Jones and Chiewetel Ejiofor.

In 1816, Gioachino Rossini turned it into an opera, Otello. In 1997, Patrick Stewart staged it, and racially inverted it, playing a white Othello with an otherwise all-black cast. In 1998, director Tim Blake Nelson turned it into a modern movie about high school basketball players, O, with Mekhi Phifer as Odin James (this was written before LeBron James became famous), Julia Stiles as Desi Brable (the Desdemona role), and Josh Hartnett as Hugo Goulding (Iago).

November 1, 1611: The Tempest is performed for the first time. It is considered, chronologically, the last of Shakespeare's great plays. A "tempest" is a storm. Someone making a big deal out of nothing is said to have made "a tempest in a teapot."

In the 20th Century, this play was turned into the poem "The Sea and the Mirror" by W.H. Auden in 1944, the pioneering science fiction film Forbidden Planet in 1956, the Star Trek episode "Requiem for Methuselah" in 1969, the Paul Mazursky film Tempest in 1982 (moved to a Greek island in a modern setting), and the 1998 TV-movie The Tempest, starred Peter Fonda as a Civil War-era plantation owner who learned voodoo from his slaves.

It is believed by many that Shakespeare also had a hand in writing the King James Bible, which appeared earlier the same year. The fact that King James I (known in Scotland as King James VI) commissioned a Bible is understandable, given the times, just 6 years after Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder Plot, because he needed to show both Protestants (of which he was one, but not all Protestants believed it) and Catholics that he wasn't going to discriminate against either.

In hindsight, though, it's a little bit funny. Right-wing bigots love to quote the King James Version (KJV) and its language against homosexuality. But King James himself was gay. As James himself, who also made a public statement against the use of tobacco, would not have said, "Put that in your pipe and smoke it!"

November 1, 1762: Spencer Perceval is born in Mayfair, in what is now West London. He was first elected to Britain's Parliament in 1796, and in 1809 became Prime Minister. In 1810, he got a bill through that referenced the porphyria-induced insanity of King George III, appointing the King's son as Prince Regent. He would serve as such for 10 years, until his father finally died, and became King George IV.

On May 11, 1812, Percival was shot to death in the lobby of the House of Commons. He was 49, and remains the only Prime Minister of Great Britain ever to be assassinated. He was survived by a wife and 12 children. He was succeeded by Robert Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool. Not quite 42 years old, he remains the youngest Prime Minister in British history.

The assassin was John Bellingham, a merchant said he had been unjustly imprisoned in Russia, and had been refused compensation by the British government. He was immediately arrested, and was tried, convicted and hanged within 7 days.

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November 1, 1800, 220 years ago: The Executive Mansion opens in Washington, D.C. President John Adams moves in, even though he will have to move out by the following March 4. No word on whether "The Atlas of Independence" invited any of the other "original Philadelphia 76ers."

When it became known as the White House is uncertain, but it was already called that before the British burned it during the War of 1812, so the myth that it got the name from the white paint hiding the burns on the outer wall is untrue. But the tradition of inviting newly-crowned World Champions to visit began with Richard Nixon, who was, in addition to being a crook, a sports nut.

November 1, 1816: James Monroe, then Secretary of State, is elected the 5th President of the United States. The nominee of the Democratic-Republican Party, forerunner of today's Democratic Party, defeats Rufus King, then a Senator from New York, and the nominee of the Federalist Party, 183 Electoral Votes to 34, taking every State but Massachusetts (22 EVs right there), Connecticut and Delaware.

Popular votes were not counted in every State, so it's not clear how many votes Monroe and King got. Still, this was the last gasp of the Federalist Party.

November 1, 1820, 100 years ago: Monroe is re-elected, almost without opposition. The Federalists did not nominate a candidate for President. This was in spite of the Panic of 1819 having hurt the country's economy.

Monroe got 228 Electoral Votes -- all but 1. William Plumer, an Elector from New Hampshire who had served that State as Senator and Governor, cast his vote for Monroe's Secretary of State, John Quincy Adams. George Washington thus remained, and still does remain, the only man to be elected President by a unanimous Electoral Vote.

Contrary to legend, that was not Plumer's intent. Rather, he publicly admitted that he preferred Adams as President to Monroe. Four years later, with Monroe respecting the 2-term tradition established by Washington, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, Plumer got his wish.

The Democratic-Republicans would face opposition, but not under the Federalist banner. By 1832, the dominant party was renamed the Democratic Party, and the Whig Party had replaced the Federalists as the pro-business party in America. By 1860, they'd be out as such, and the Republican Party would be in.

November 1, 1844: James Knox Polk is elected the 11th President of the United States. The Democrat, who had served as Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives and then as Governor of Tennessee, defeated Senator Henry Clay of Kentucky, who thus became the 1st man to go 0-for-3 in Presidential elections. Others have done so, but Clay is the only man to be nominated 3 times and lose all 3.

The popular vote was actually very close, since Clay, a leading figure in American politics for over 30 years, was better-known nationally than Polk: Polk won 49.5 percent of the popular vote, making him the 1st plurality President since the popular vote began being recorded from every State then in the Union (starting in 1828); while Clay won 48.1 percent. The Electoral Vote was less close, as Polk won 170-105.

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November 1, 1859: John Alexander McPhee is born in Massena, New York, on the St. Lawrence River, and thus the Canadian border. I can find no reference to how he got his nickname, but "Bid" McPhee was the last man to play 2nd base in the major leagues without a glove -- and the best 2nd baseman of the 19th Century.

When the Cincinnati Red Stockings were founded in the American Association in 1882 -- and, contrary to what the team, which renamed itself the Reds when they joined the National League in 1890, would have you believe, they are not a continuation of the 1st professional baseball team of 1869-70 -- he was a charter member, and helped them win the AA Pennant. It was the only Pennant he won, as he played for them through 1899.

He led the AA in home runs in 1886 -- with 8. It was a different game. He stole 568 bases in his career. He died in 1943, and was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2000 -- 101 years after his last game. Only Deacon White (123 years, 1890-2013) and Negro Leaguer Frank Grant (103 years, 1903-2006) had to wait longer. The Reds elected him to their team Hall of Fame.

November 1, 1860, 160 years ago: Boise Penrose (no middle name) is born in Philadelphia. Having served Pennsylvania in both houses of the State legislature, he was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1896, 1902, 1908, 1914 and 1920, dying in office on December 31, 1921. 

November 1, 1870, 150 years ago: The Mutuals of New York visit the Chicago White Stockings at Dexter Park in Chicago before 6,000 people. With Chicago leading 7-5 after 8 innings, the Mutuals score 8 runs in the top of the 9th, to make it 13-7.

In the bottom of the 9th, Chicago adopts a waiting game, and the Mutuals' pitcher, Dutch-born Reinder Albertus "Rynie" Wolters, loads the bases on walks‚ and complains that the umpire is not calling strikes. A few hits and passed balls make the score 13-12 in favor of the Mutes when McAfee‚ the next batter for the Whites‚ lets a dozen balls go by without swinging. Wolters throws up his hands and walks off. The ump reverts the score to the 8th inning and the White Stockings win‚ 7-5.

Chicago has now defeated the Mutes twice since they took the Championship away from the Atlantics. The controversial ending of the game makes the Mutual club unwilling to give up the Championship.

The New York Clipper, the closest thing America had to a sports-only publication in those days, says‚ "In 1867 the Union club happened to defeat the Atlantics two games out of three of the regular series them played between them - only one series being played between clubs at that time. By this victory a precedent was established giving the championship title only to the club that defeated the existing champions two games while they were the champions. Of course this is an absurd rule but it has prevailed ever since."

November 1, 1871: Stephen Crane (no middle name) is born in Newark, New Jersey. He published his 1st novel in 1893, Maggie: A Girl of the Streets. Its themes of poverty, including alcoholism and prostitution, made it incredibly controversial for its time. In 1895, despite having no military experience -- indeed, he was born 6 years after the end of the war depicted in it, the American Civil War -- he published The Red Badge of Courage, and made himself a legend of American letters.

He was soon hired as a foreign correspondent for William Randolph Hearst's New York Journal, covering the Greco-Turkish War of 1897, the Spanish-American War of 1898, and the Boer War. But he developed tuberculosis, and died from it in 1900, only 28 years old.  

November 1, 1874: The National Association season ends today, with the Boston Red Stockings being declared the Champions with a record of 43-17. Boston actually had a record of 52-18, but the Committee running the league throws out the games played by the Baltimore Canaries (not "Orioles"), because they did not complete their schedule. The Mutuals finish 2nd.

November 1, 1880, 140 years ago: Henry Grantland Rice is born in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. After playing baseball at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, he moved into journalism. There had already been some well-known men named Henry Rice, so Grantland Rice used his middle name from then onward. His friends would call him "Granny."

He became the leading sports voice in the South, at Nashville's The Tennessean, before going to the

New York Tribune, which syndicated him nationally. In 1924, he covered the Army-Notre Dame game at the Polo Grounds in New York, and gave Notre Dame's backfield its nickname: The Four Horsemen. He also helped popularize Red Grange nationally, although, contrary to popular belief, he did not come up with Grange's nickname, the Galloping Ghost. Perhaps because of these connections, when Walter Camp died in 1925, the NCAA asked Rice to take over Camp's selections of college football's All-America team.

If the 1920s truly were "The Golden Age of Sports," Rice's writings were a big reason why, promoting Grange and Knute Rockne's Notre Dame in football, Babe Ruth in baseball, Jack Dempsey in boxing, Bill Tilden in tennis and Bobby Jones in golf. He helped to popularize golf among the masses, through his championing of Jones and, starting in 1934, Jones' tournament in Augusta, Georgia, The Masters.

Rice died in 1954, at which point it was easy to remember his most famous writing, though everyone forgets its source, a 1908 poem titled Alumnus Football:

For when the One Great Scorer comes
to mark against your name
He writes, not that you won or lost
but how you played the Game.

In 1966, a few years after the Baseball Hall of Fame established its J.G. Taylor Spink Award, tantamount to election for sportswriters, it gave the award to Rice.

November 1, 1884: The Gaelic Athletic Association is founded at Hayes's Hotel in Thurles, County Tipperary, in what's now the Republic of Ireland. The GAA governs the traditional Irish sports such as hurling and Gaelic football -- but not Irish soccer, which is governed by the Football Association of Ireland (FAI). The Northern Ireland equivalent is the Irish Football Association (IFA).

November 1, 1890, 130 years ago: THE... Ohio State University plays its 1st football game. They play the College of Wooster at Recreation Park, the minor-league ballpark in Columbus, Ohio, and lose 64-0. Ohio State recovered, and has become one of the top college football programs, while Wooster, located in Wooster, Ohio, is an NCAA Division III school.

November 1, 1893: Alexander Thomson Burr is born in Chicago. Usually listed as "Alex Burr" in baseball reference sources, but known as "Tom Burr" to his friends, he became a star pitcher in prep school, and was signed by the Yankees.

But Tom Burr appeared in exactly 1 major league game, on April 21, 1914, at the Polo Grounds, and not as a pitcher. He played center field for the New York Yankees -- not yet an exalted position. He only played in the field, in the 10th inning, had no fielding chances, and never came to bat -- a true "Moonlight Graham." The Yankees went on to beat the Washington Senators 3-2. 

He was soon released, and never reached the majors again. He played 7 games for the Jersey City Skeeters of the International League. He went back to college, but when the U.S. got into World War I in April 1917, he enlisted in the U.S. Army without getting his degree, and became a pilot.

On October 12, 1918, just 1 month before the Armistice ended the war, Tom Burr was killed in action in a plane crash, in Cazaux, France. It was an accident: Rather than being shot down, another U.S. pilot crashed into him -- what became known as "friendly fire." His plane caught fire, and crashed into a lake. It took 12 days to find his body. He wasn't quite 25 years old. He was 1 of 8 major league players killed in "The War to End All Wars." 

For all their history, and for all their attention to it, the Yankees make no mention at Yankee Stadium of the one and only player from their ranks to have died in military service. This becomes all the more glaring when you remember how much longtime team owner George Steinbrenner pandered to patriotism and to our armed forces, down to the Monument to the 9/11 victims and rescuers in Yankee Stadium's Monument Park.

Where did The Boss go to college? Williams, also the alma mater of Tom Burr. You'd think he would have seen some kind of memorial there, and remembered it.

November 1, 1894: Former Providence Grays pitcher Charlie Sweeney is convicted of manslaughter in San Francisco, after killing a man in a bar fight.

Just 10 years earlier, he had been the toast of the baseball world, becoming the 1st pitcher to strike out 19 batters in a major league game. But the fame went to his head: He began drinking, staying out late, and feuding with the Grays' other starting pitcher (only 2 were necessary in those days), Charles "Old Hoss" Radbourn. He was finally released after choosing to spend the morning with his girlfriend in Woonsocket rather than report to the Providence ballpark, the Messer Street Grounds, for a scheduled start.

No other National League team would take him, and he got picked up by the St. Louis Maroons, who dominated the Union Association so much that the league folded after a year. Sweeney overworked himself, and was never as good on the mound again. In an 1886 game, he gave up 7 home runs, still a major league single-game record. He threw his last major league pitch in 1887, only 24 years old.

He served 8 years in prison before being released, when it was obvious that he was dying, from tuberculosis. He returned to his hometown of San Francisco, and died there in 1902, just 38.

Also on this day, Czar Alexander III of Russia dies of a kidney disorder at the Livadia Palace in the Crimea, where the Yalta Conference would be held in 1945. He was only 49, and despite being known as "Alexander the Peacemaker," since no wars were fought under his 13-year reign, he took his title, "Emperor and Autocrat of All the Russias" very seriously, as civil liberties were severely curtailed.

His son becomes Czar Nicholas II -- the last Czar (or Tsar), as it turns out. We will never know what would have happened had Alexander still been alive for the failed revolution of 1905, or for the successful ones of 1917 -- at which point he would have been 72 years old, hardly an impossibility had he not been struck down. World War I might have ended very differently.

November 1, 1897: Juventus Football Club (meaning "youth") is founded in Turin, Italy. Their original kit is donated by an English club, Notts County of Nottingham, and that's why they still wear black and white stripes today. (Sometimes, Newcastle United, who also wear the colors, are said to be the donor club, but Juve's records show that it was Notts County.)

Known as La Signora Vecchia (The Old Lady), they are the country's most successful, most-loved, and most-hared sports team. Most successful, because, since 1923 they have been owned and funded by Italy's richest and most familiar corporation, Fiat Automobiles.

Most-loved, because, like Ford in the U.S., Fiat actively sought to bring workers from the South of the country to the North of it in search of good work at good wages, thus making them a nationwide team. To put it another way: Juve are the country's team, but Torino are the city's team.

Most-hated, because the club has been so successful. Indeed, most of the country believes Juve have spent decades cheating. Many a time, a team has thought they'd won the Italian league, Serie A, only to discover, in the last couple of weeks of the season, odd officials' calls against them, and Juve's opponents laying down.

As a result, the Bianconeri (Black & Whites) are also known as I Ladri: "The Thieves." Indeed, there is a saying: Amo il calcio, quindi odio Il Juve: "I love football, therefore I hate Juventus." Talk about "gufare": People on opposite sides of Milan (A.C. Milan and Internazionale), Rome (A.S. Roma or S.S. Lazio) or Genoa (Genoa or Sampdoria) will put aside their differences and "support against" Juventus.

They have won Serie A, or its predecessor, a record 38 times: 1905, 1926, 1931, 1932, 1933, 1934, 1935, 1950, 1952, 1958, 1960, 1961, 1967, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1978, 1981, 1982, 1984, 1986, 1995, 1997, 1998, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020. However, the 2005 and '06 titles were vacated because they finally got caught cheating, in what became known as the Calciopoli scandal. ("Calcio" is the Italian name for soccer.") They were stripped of their titles and relegated to Serie B, getting back up a year later.

They have won the Coppa Italia, Italy's version of the FA Cup, 13 times: 1938, 1942, 1959, 1960, 1965, 1979, 1983, 1990, 1995, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018. This means they have "done the Double" in 1960, 1995, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018. They have won the UEFA Champions League in 1985 (defeating Liverpool following the Heysel Stadium disaster in Brussels, Belgium) and 1996 (defeating defending champions Ajax Amsterdam); the UEFA Cup (now known as the UEFA Europa League) in 1977, 1990 and 1993; and the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup (now defunct) in 1984.

And yet, for most of their existence, they didn't have their own stadium. Finally, in 2011, the 41,507-seat Juventus Stadium, since renamed Allianz Stadium, opened, with a friendly against, fittingly, Notts County.

Also on this day, the Library of Congress building opens in Washington, D.C. The world's largest library, it is on First Street SE, to the east of the U.S. Capitol Building, and to the south of the Supreme Court of the United States, across East Capitol Street.

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November 1, 1901: The Colored Industrial and Agricultural School is founded in Ruston, Louisiana. Like many of what will become America's "historically black colleges and universities" (HCBUs), it is founded near an all-white school, in this case Louisiana Tech.

By the time Eddie Robinson becomes its head football coach in 1941, it is known as the Louisiana Negro and Normal Institute. (In those days, colleges for teaching teachers were known as "normal schools.") In 1946, a white sawmill owner, Judson H. Grambling, donated some land on which the school could build. As a result, the school was renamed Grambling State University, and a new town, Grambling, was created.

Robinson would coach at Grambling from 1941 until 1997, when it became clear that Alzheimer's disease had begun to affect his judgement, and he died in 2007. He became the winningest coach in the history of NCAA Division I football (although Division I-AA, now called the Football Championship Subdivision of FCS), with 408 wins against 165 losses and 15 ties. He won 17 titles in the Southwest Athletic Conference (SWAC) from 1960 to 1994, and 9 "black college national championships": 1955, 1967, 1972, 1974, 1975, 1977, 1980, 1983 and 1992.

Four of his players would be elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame: Willie Davis, Buck Buchanan, Willie Brown and Charlie Joiner. Arguably, his 1st great player also should be, Paul "Tank" Younger. He also coached Doug Williams, who became the 1st black quarterback to win a Super Bowl, and ultimately succeeded him as Grambling head coach.

His success made Grambling (the "State" is usually not referred to) perhaps America's most familiar HBCU. Its band is also renowned, and was invited to perform at Super Bowl I in 1967. The Northern Louisiana school's rivalry with formerly all-black Southern University in Baton Rouge is played every Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend at the Superdome in New Orleans, known as the Bayou Classic -- and the halftime "Battle of the Bands" is considered more important by many alumni than the actual game.

November 1, 1903: LaVern Ralph Dilweg is born in Milwaukee. Known as Lavvie Dilweg (I have to admit, it sounds dirty), he starred as a 2-way end for the football team at Washington High School in his hometown, the school whose exterior shots were used for the fictional Jefferson High on Happy Days. He stayed in Milwaukee to play for Marquette University and, in 1926, the NFL's Milwaukee Badgers.

The Badgers folded after that season, but Dilweg stayed in-State, and played 8 seasons for the Green Bay Packers. He was an 8-time All-Pro, and a 3-time NFL Champion (1929, '30 and '31). He was named to the Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame and the NFL's 1920s All-Decade Team -- but not, as yet, the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

He became a lawyer, and was elected to Congress as a Democrat in 1942, but was defeated for re-election in 1944. In 1961, President John F. Kennedy appointed him a member of the Foreign Claims Settlement Commission.

He married Eleanor Coleman, an Olympic swimmer from Milwaukee whom he'd met at Marquette. Their son Gary was a U.S. Naval Academy graduate and Marine Corps officer, who was elected to Wisconsin's State legislature -- as a Republican. A grandson, Anthony Dilweg, played quarterback at Duke and for the Packers. Lavvie Dilweg died in 1968, just 3 days after seeing the Packers win the Ice Bowl, and missing their Super Bowl II win, so he didn't quite get to see their entire revival under Vince Lombardi.

November 1, 1912: John Kiley (the only name I have for him) is born in Boston. He was the organist at the Boston Garden from 1941 to 1984, and at Fenway Park from 1953 to 1989. As the similar joke about New York's Gladys Goodding goes, Kiley is "the only man to play for the Red Sox, the Celtics and the Bruins." He died in 1993. (Gene Conley played for the Red Sox and the Celtics, but not the Bruins.)

November 1, 1913: The football team at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York -- usually referred to as just "Army" -- hosts a little-known Catholic school in South Bend, Indiana, at "The Plain," originally (and, once Michie Stadium was built, again) a parade ground, but, then, Army's football field.

It should have been an easy victory. After all, Army was one of the top teams in the country. Whenever they lost, including to Jim Thorpe and the Carlisle Indian School the year before, it was a big deal. And who were these guys? Who is Notre Dame?

They were a team that included a quarterback named Charles "Gus" Dorais, and a Norwegian immigrant at end, named Knute Rockne. Just 7 years earlier, the forward pass had been legalized, but hardly anybody used it. But Dorias threw to Rockne, gaining enough yards that Notre Dame beat Army 35-13. A legend was born. Nobody would ever again have to ask, "Who is Notre Dame?"

It was the only game Army lost all season. They avenged the defeat the next season, beating Notre Dame 20-7. In fact, it was the only game Army lost between November 30, 1912 and October 16, 1915.

Both Dorais and Rockne went on to play pro football, in those last few years before the founding of the NFL. Both were elected to the College Football Hall of Fame as coaches: Rockne at Notre Dame himself, and Dorais at Gonzaga and the University of Detroit (now Detroit Mercy). Rockne was killed in a plane crash in 1931. Dorais, who also coached baseball and basketball at Notre Dame, lived until 1954.

November 1, 1914: Connie Mack begins cleaning house, putting together what would, today, be called a fire sale. The Philadelphia Athletics' manager and part-owner -- effectively, also the general manager, although that term wasn't used in baseball in those days -- asks waivers on pitchers Eddie Plank, Albert "Chief" Bender and Jack Coombs -- 2 future Hall-of-Famers, and a man who would have been a perennial All-Star if there'd been an All-Star Game back then.

Colby Jack goes to the Brooklyn Dodgers. Gettysburg Eddie and the Chief escape Mack's maneuvering by jumping to the Federal League. Although all have some life left in their soupbones‚ they are near their careers' end‚ and their departure is more sentimental than serious.

Mack's excuse: Retrenchment. Despite the Pennant‚ Philadelphia fans did not come out to Shibe Park in sufficient numbers, and the club lost $50‚000. It doesn't sound like much -- even with a century's worth of inflation factored in, it's a little over $1.3 million -- but by 1914 baseball standards, it was a fortune.

This is the 1st time a great A's team is broken up to save money. Mack would do it again starting in 1932, because he had lost all of his non-baseball investments in the stock market Crash of 1929, and needed cash badly. In Oakland, Charlie Finley would do it in 1974-76, and Billy Beane in 2007 and 2011. Only on the last occasion did the A's "get away with it," competitively speaking.

November 1, 1916: Harry Harrison Frazee‚ New York theater owner and producer‚ and Hugh Ward buy the Red Sox for $675‚000 (about $16.1 million in today's money, although one report puts the figure at $750‚000, or $17.9 million) from Joseph Lannin. Bill Carrigan announces that he will retire as Red Sox manager to pursue his business interests in Lewiston‚ Maine.

Frazee was the owner of the Red Sox when they won the World Series in 1918, but then began to break up the team. Not because he needed money, because his shows were doing well, but because he was a typically tyrannical baseball team owner who didn't put up with players acting up and demanding more money -- including Babe Ruth. After the 1919 season, Ruth would make it all but impossible to keep him. He, not Frazee, is to blame for the Sox getting rid of him.

Frazee sold the Red Sox in 1923, and his health began to decline. He died of kidney disease in 1929.

November 1, 1918: The worst rapid transit accident in American history occurs at 6:42 PM, under the intersection of Malbone Street and Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn, not far from Ebbets Field. A total of 93 deaths are ascribed to the Malbone Street Wreck.

The Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company (BRT) was held liable for damages in the deaths of the passengers, but no one was convicted. Driver Edward Luciano quit his job, and went into the real estate business, disappearing from public view.

So deep was the name "Malbone Street" embedded in the minds of New Yorkers, the street's name was changed: It became Empire Boulevard. A small street named Malbone Street remains, between New York Avenue and Clove Road, 7 blocks east of the site in Crown Heights.

Today, the tunnel is part of the Franklin Avenue Shuttle, an "S" train that connects the stations at Prospect Park in Flatbush (the B and Q lines) with Franklin Avenue in Bedford-Stuyvesant (the A and C lines). In 1974, there was another accident at the site: A switching mistake led to a derailment. No one was injured, though.

In the 116-year history of the New York Subway system, there have been 141 deaths, with 93 of them coming in 1 crash. Since 1938, there have been 17; since 1973, 10; since 2007, none.

As far as I can tell, no Subway passengers were killed as a result of damage done by the terrorist attack on September 11, 2001, but it took 7 years to reopen the Cortland Street station on the 1 train. And, as far as I can tell, no Subway passengers were killed as a result of damage done when Hurricane Sandy struck on October 29, 2012, but repair work to several stations and the 14th Street tunnel under the East River is still ongoing.

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November 1, 1920, 100 years ago: Frederick James Arthur Cox is born in Reading, Berkshire, England. A right winger, Freddie Cox was one of the few players to play for both major soccer teams in North London, starting at Tottenham Hotspur, and then wising up and going to Arsenal, with whom he won the 1950 FA Cup and the 1953 Football League title.

After that title, he was sold to West Midlands club West Bromwich Albion. They just missed the League title in 1954, but won the FA Cup, although he did not play in the Final. He later managed Hampshire club Portsmouth, and died in 1973, only 52 years old.

November 1, 1922: Robert J. Mullens -- I can find no record of what the J stood for -- is born on Staten Island. A guard, Bob Mullens was New York basketball all the way, playing for Brooklyn Prep, Fordham University, and on the original 1946-47 New York Knicks, including in the 1st NBA game, on his 24th birthday. More about that later. Ironically, he would be traded later that season to the Knicks' opponents in that game, the Toronto Huskies.

After that season, he was released by the Huskies, became a bond specialist in New York, and lived until 1989.

Also on this day, the Ottoman Empire is abolished after 623 years. At its peak in 1683, it stretched from just outside Kiev in the north to Mecca in the south (though it never took most of the Arabian Peninsula from tribal leaders), from Basra in the east to Oran in the west.

But being on the losing side of World War I, and a civil war led by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, led to the establishment of the Republic of Turkey, and an end to the Empire and its Sultanate, and the exile of the last Sultan, Mehmed VI.

Mehmed lived in exile on the Italian Riviera before dying in 1926. The current pretender to the throne is a fellow descendant of Sultan Abdul Hamid II, the 89-year-old Dündar Ali Osman, a.k.a. Sultan Ali II, who, like his ancestors since 1922, has never seriously tried to reestablish the monarchy. (UPDATE: He died on January 18, 2021. He was succeeded by his half-brother Harun Osmanoğlu, a.k.a. Sultan Osman VI, 89 at the time of his accession.)

November 1, 1923: Jerome Ralph Williams is born in Spokane, Washington. A two-way back, Jerry Williams played in 3 straight NFL Championship Games for the Los Angeles Rams, winning in 1951. He later served as head coach for the University of Montana, and as an assistant with the Philadelphia Eagles as they won the NFL Championship in 1960. In this post, he invened the nickel defense, so named because it had 5 defensive backs. (A 6-man defensive backfield, having more than 5, is a dime defense.)

He became head coach of the Calgary Stampeders, and was named CFL Coach of the Year in 1967. He got them to the Grey Cup in 1968, but lost to the Ottawa Rough Riders. He was head coach of the Eagles from 1969 to 1971, then went back to Canada, and won the Grey Cup with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in 1972. His last coaching job was in charge of the Stampeders again in 1981. He retired to his ranch in Arizona, and died in 1998.

November 1, 1924: The Boston Bruins, the National Hockey League's 1st American-based franchise, are founded by department store magnate Charles Francis Adams. They have won the Stanley Cup in 1929, 1939, 1941, 1970, 1972 and 2011, and have featured such legends as Eddie Shore, Dit Clapper, Milt Schmidt, Phil Esposito, Bobby Orr, Ray Bourque and Zdeno Chara.

November 1, 1925: After 3 defeats, plus 5 games against non-NFL teams, the expansion New York Giants finally win a game against another NFL team, defeating the 3-time defending Champion Cleveland Bulldogs, 19-0 at the Polo Grounds.

However, the win is not as impressive as it may seem, because the champs had fallen apart due to a dispute over the rights to pro football in the Cleveland area. And only 18,000 fans came out. Still, for the Giants, a win is a win.

November 1, 1926: John Gagliardi (no middle name) is born in Trinidad, Colorado. He won more games as a head football coach than anyone, living or dead, regardless of level. From 1949 to 1952, he was head coach in both football and basketball at Carroll College in Helena, Montana. It is an NAIA school, so if the NCAA had more than 3 divisions, this would be Division IV.

In 1953, he as hired to coach football and hockey at St. John's University -- not the one in Queens, New York City, but the one in Collegeville, Minnesota, another NAIA school. He quit coaching hockey in 1959 to concentrate on football. Good move: He won 27 Conference Championships, 30 counting those he won at Carroll. He won his 1st in 1950, at age 24; and his last in 2009, at 73.

He won the NAIA National Chamoinship in 1963 and 1965, and, after getting promoted the NCAA Division III National Chamionship in 1976 and 2003. When he finally retired in 2012, he had a record of 489 wins, 138 losses and 11 ties. The closest challengers in Division I: Bobby Bowden at 411, Joe Paterno at 409, and Eddie Robinson at 408. He was elected to the College Football and Minnesota Sports Halls of Fame, and died in 2018.

November 1, 1927: Victor Felipe Pellot Pove is born in Arecibo, Puerto Rico. Personally, he called himself Victor Pellot. In baseball, he was called Vic Power. Based on his performance with the Triple-A Kansas City Blues in 1952 and '53, he should have been the 1st black Yankee. But he was called a "hot dog." Later, it was discovered that the real reason he wasn't called up is that he was a black man who dated white women.

The Yankees traded him to the Kansas City Athletics, and with them and the Cleveland Indians, he became a 6-time All-Star, and won the American League Gold Glove winner at 1st base the 1st 7 times it was awarded. Despite his "stage name" (which he adopted because "Pellot" sounded too close to an inconvenient piece of French-Canadian slang when he played minor-league ball in Quebec), he hit only 126 home runs, but his lifetime batting average was a decent .284.

He returned to Puerto Rico, was involved in youth baseball, and lived until 2005. The Indians have elected him to their team Hall of Fame.

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November 1, 1930, 90 years ago: Russell Paul Kemmerer is born in Pittsburgh. A pitcher, Russ Kemmerer appeared in the major leagues from 1954 to 1963, starting with the Boston Red Sox. He was an original Houston Colt .45 (Astro) in 1962. He later became a minister and a youth sports coach, and died in 2014.

November 1, 1931: Henry Ford (no middle name) is born, no, not in Detroit, but outside Pittsburgh in Homestead, Pennsylvania. A quarterback and defensive back at the University of Pittsburgh, he was the 1st black quarterback at a college that wasn't what we would now call a historically black college or university (HBCU).

Naturally nicknamed "Model T," Henry was drafted by the Cleveland Browns, and was a rookie on their 1955 NFL Championship team. He is 1 of 8 surviving players from that team. He played with his hometown Pittsburgh Steelers in 1956 and 1957. But a Steeler official -- probably not team owner Art Rooney -- told him that, as a black player, he couldn't date a white woman. He quit the team, and married the white woman he was dating. They're still together.

He played semi-pro ball in Arizona for 2 years, then moved back to Pittsburgh and worked in the Acme grocery store chain. In 1977, he moved to Palo Alto, California, and made a fortune on Coca-Cola's vending operations in the the San Francisco Bay Area.

November 1, 1932: Alger Joseph Arbour is born in Sudbury, Ontario. A defenseman, he won the Stanley Cup with 3 different teams: The 1954 Detroit Red Wings, the 1961 Chicago Blackhawks and the 1962 and '64 (but not '63) Toronto Maple Leafs. He also reached the Stanley Cup Finals with the 1968, '69 and '70 St. Louis Blues.

But it's as a coach that he's remembered, taking the New York Islanders from expansion team (though not as their very first head coach) to 4 straight Stanley Cups in 1980, '81, '82 and '83. His 1,500 games and 740 games won are each 2nd all-time in NHL history behind Scotty Bowman, his coach in St. Louis. He's in the Hockey Hall of Fame, and the Islanders hang a banner at the Barclays Center with "1500," his wins standing in for his "retired number." He died in 2015.

Also on this day, David S. Moore (I can't find a record of what the S stands for) is born in Lexington, Kentucky. Davey Moore defeated Hogan "Kid" Bassey in Los Angeles on March 3, 1959 to become Featherweight Champion of the World.

He was supposed to defend the title Cuban boxer Ultiminio "Sugar" Ramos in the 1st fight ever to be held at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, but weather delayed it, and for other reasons, it kept getting postponed until March 21, 1963. The fight was held on national television, and Ramos knocked Moore down in the 10th round. Somehow, he got up, but the referee had to stop the fight in the 11th. In his dressing room, he lost consciousness, and died 4 days later. He was only 29, and his record was 59-7-1.

The world was shocked. This was only a year after the death of Welterweight Champion Benny "the Kid" Paret at the hands of once-and-again champ Emile Griffith. No less a personality than Pope John XXIII publicly called boxing "barbaric."

Both Bob Dylan and Phil Ochs wrote and recorded songs about the events surrounding Moore's death, blaming the boxing establishment more than Sugar Ramos, who ended up holding the title until September 26, 1964, and lived until last year, age 75. Live boxing on American TV was stopped for many years, and it tended to be shown only on tape delay, on shows like ABC Wide World of Sports.

This Davey Moore should not be confused with a later boxer of the same name, a Bronx native who won the Light Middleweight Championship, but also died young, in 1988.

Also on this day, James Edward Pyburn is born outside Birmingham in Fairfield, Alabama, and grows up there at the same time as Willie Mays. Jim Pyburn wasn't much of a baseball player, a utility player for the Baltimore Orioles from 1955 to 1957, but they had to keep him on the roster for at least 2 years, under the "bonus baby" rule then in effect.

But he did make a mark in football. As an offensive end (today, we would call the position "tight end"), he set an Auburn record for receiving yards in a season (long since broken). He was drafted by the Washington Redskins, but never played pro footballl.

Instead, he became a coach, serving as Vince Dooley's defensive coordinator at the University of Georgia from 1964 to 1979. He was elected to the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame, and died in 2011.

November 1, 1934: Howard Wayne Goss is born outside Oklahoma City in Wewoka, Oklahoma. An outfielder, Howie Goss played 89 games for the 1962 Pittsburgh Pirates, and 133 games for the 1963 Houston Colt .45s (forerunner of the Astros). But he was just a .216 hitter in the major leagues, and never appeared again after that. He died in 1996.

November 1, 1936: Edward Colman (no middle name) is born in Salford, Greater Manchester, England. A winger, Eddie Coleman was one of manager Matt Busby's "Busby Babes," helping Manchester United win the League in 1956 and 1957. However, he was killed in the Munich Air Disaster on February 6, 1958. At 21, he was the youngest person to die in the crash.

Also on this day, Johnny W. Cox is born in Neon Kentucky. (He was born "Johnny," not "John," and I can find no record of what the W stood for.) A guard, he was one of the "Fiddlin' Five" that helped Ketucky win the 1958 National Champoinship. The school retired his Number 24.

He played for the Cleveland Pipers in the American Basketball League, the 1st sports team owned by George Steinbrenner, but only 1 season in the NBA, 1962-63, for the Cleveland Zephyrs. That team became the Baltimore Bullets the next season, and is now the Washington Wiards. He is still alive, and a member of the Kentucky Sports Hall of Fame.

November 1, 1938: In a rare "match race" between champion horses, Seabiscuit, the leading handicap-winner of the last 2 years, defeats the heavily-favored War Admiral, the 1937 Triple Crown winner, at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, home of the Preakness Stakes. It is probably the most famous match race in North American history.

Also on this day, Charlie Weeghman dies of a stroke in Chicago. The fast-food pioneer who owned the Chicago Whales of the Federal League, and then the Chicago Cubs from 1916 to 1918, and built Weeghman Park, which became Wrigley Field and still stands and hosted the World Series this week, was 64.

Also on this day, Gerald Adrian Ouellette is born in Grand Falls, New Brunswick. A career minor leaguer, limited by the 6-team structure of that era's NHL, he played 35 games, all as a right wing with the Boston Bruins in the 1960-61 season.

In 1970, their last year before being replaced by the NHL's Buffalo Sabres, Gerry Ouellette captained the Buffalo Bisons to the title in the American Hockey League. The next season, he captained the Omaha Knight to the title in the Central Hockey League.  He is still alive, and a member of the New Brunswick Sports Hall of Fame.

November 1, 1939: Bill Oliver (the only name I have for him) is born in Epes, Alabama. He is one of  the few figures to be admired on both sides of the "Iron Bowl" rivalry. A defensive back, he was a member of the University of Alabama's 1961 national Championship team.

Desite the NFL, the AFL and the CFL all being available to him, he never played pro ball. He went into coaching at the high school level, and in 1966 was hired as an assistant coach at Auburn University. Bear Bryant took him back to Tuscaloosa for his coaching staff in 1971, making him a part of the team that won National Championships in 1973, 1978 and 1979.

From 1980 to 1983, he was the head coach at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, which, until 1969, was separate from the UT system and known as the University of Chattanooga. This means he was their head coach at the time when, on the 1989-98 ABC sitcom Coach, Hayden Fox would have been in charge there. "Brother Bill" Oliver did all right there, going 29-14-1.

He then served as the defensive coordinator for the USFL's Memphis Showboats, coaching Reggie White, then moved on to the staff at Clemson, before returning to Alabama under Gene Stallings, building a defense that won the 1992 National Championship. In 1996, he went back to Auburn, and was their head coach for the last 5 games of the 1998 season, going 2-3. 

He then retired from coaching. He is still alive, and a member of the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame.

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November 1, 1940, 80 years ago: Hugh W. Sloan Jr. -- I can find no record of what the W stands for -- is born in Princeton, Mercer County, New Jersey. He graduated from Princeton University, served in the U.S. Navy, worked as a fundraiser for the Republican Party, and worked in the White House for President Richard Nixon, handling the Administration's mail.

He joined Nixon's 1972 re-election campaign, and became treasurer of the Committee for the Re-Election of the President (CRP -- or, as Nixon's critics called it, "CREEP"). But he resigned when he found out about the "Plumbers" (their job was to prevent "leaks" to the media), and became a source for Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein.

For years, he was one of the chief suspects of being Woodward's famed source "Deep Throat." That turned out to be former FBI Deputy Director Mark Felt, who specifically told them that Sloan did nothing wrong -- which seemed to be a rarity in the Nixon Administration. In their book, All the President's Men, Woodward and Bernstein said that Sloan was one of the few honest men they interviewed.

Since 1985, Sloan has been a director of Manulife Financial Corporation. In the 1976 film version of All the President's Men, he was played by Stephen Collins, later to be the star of 7th Heaven -- and, later still, a registered sex offender, making him perhaps the only person to play someone involved in Watergate who was less ethical than the man he was playing (who was, at most, tangentially involved).

Also on this day, Barry Allen Sadler is born in Carlsbad, New Mexico. He enlisted in the U.S. Air Force. Having completed his service as a radar technician, he switched to the U.S. Army, and was certified for both Airborne and Special Forces -- known for their headgear as the Green Berets -- and serving as a medic with them. He was wounded in Vietnam, and rose to the rank of Staff Sergeant.

While in recovery, he wrote and recorded "The Ballad of the Green Berets." He sang it on The Ed Sullivan Show on January 30, 1966, and it hit Number 1 on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 chart on March 2, staying at the top for 5 weeks, and becoming the biggest-selling single of the year. Young Americans were looking for rebels, but adults, still with most of the buying power in the country, outspent them by siding with this patriotic song.

He wasn't quite a one-hit wonder, but that would be the peak of both his music career and his personal life. Discharged in March 1967, he never adjusted to civilian life, making a few acting appearances (especially in TV Westerns), writing historical fiction with a Christian theme, and engaging in violent outbursts, one of which killed a man in 1978. He pled down to voluntary manslaughter, and served just 28 days in jail.

On September 7, 1988, living in Guatemala, he was shot in the head, and never fully recovered, dying on November 5, 1989, only 49 years old. He left behind a wife and 2 sons.

November 1, 1942: Brooklyn Dodger president Larry MacPhail, already a hero of World War I (how much of one depends on who's telling the story), reenters the U.S. Army, and gives up his ownership stake in the club. The Dodgers look to St. Louis for leadership. After 2 decades at Sportsman's Park,

Branch Rickey splits with Cardinals owner Sam Breadon. He will sign to become the president of the Dodgers.

As Cardinal GM, he had already changed the game, by inventing the farm system. As Dodger president, he will change the world, by signing, and sticking by, Jackie Robinson. MacPhail, upon his return, will join with Del Webb and Dan Topping, and remake the New York Yankees.

Also on this day, Marcia Karen Wallace is born in Creston, Iowa. Fittingly, one of her earliest acting roles was in a college production of a musical set in Iowa, The Music Man. She moved to New York, and her stage work made her a semiregular on The Merv Griffin Show. 

A 1972 appearance was seen by CBS president William Paley, who recommended her to Grant Tinker, who was preparing to produce The Bob Newhart Show. She was cast as Carol Kester, Dr. Bob Hartley's receptionist. She became a regular game show panelist, often appearing on Match Game with her Bob Newhart Show co-star Bill Daily.

On July 27, 1978, she and Bill were both panelists when host Gene Rayburn read this question:
"Unlucky Louise said, 'I just won the world's worst contest. First prize: A week in bed with (blank).'" Bill's answer was, "A week in bed with me. Because I wet the bed." Marcia said, "I have found, over the years, on this wonderful show, that, when you're kind of stumped, it's either 'Boobs' or 'Howard Cosell.'"

In 1989, the former New York City public schools teacher began voicing teacher Edna Krabappel on The Simpsons, and she held that role until her death from cancer in 2013.

November 1, 1943: Thomas Lee Mack is born in Cleveland. A guard, and the son of major league 2nd baseman Ray Mack (but no relation to Connie Mack), Tom Mack came from Ohio, but Ohio State's Woody Hayes let him get away to the University of Michigan, whom he helped win the 1964 Big Ten title and the 1965 Rose Bowl.

Drafted by the Los Angeles Rams, he was an 11-time Pro Bowler, although the Rams never reached the Super Bowl until the year after he retired. He was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and is still alive.

Also on this day, Theo van Duivenbode -- the surname means "pigeon messenger" -- is born in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. A left back, he played for hometown club AFC Ajax, helping them win the Eredivisie (the Dutch league) in 1966, 1967 and 1968. He then moved to their arch-rivals, Feyenoord of Rotterdam, and helped them win the European Cup in 1970 (beating Ajax to be the 1st Dutch club to do so) and the Eredivisie in 1971.

Apparently, all was forgiven by Ajax, because he is now a member of their board of supervisors.

November 1, 1944: Joseph Daniel Talbott is born in Rocky Mount, North Carolina. He led the University of North Carolina baseball team to the 1966 College World Series, and played on their freshman basketball team under Dean Smith, but gave up both to concentrate on football.

A quarterback, Danny Talbott was drafted by the San Francisco 49ers, who traded his rights to the Washington Redskins. But he was also drafted by the U.S. Army, and missed the entire 1968 season serving in the Vietnam War, and never regained his touch. He never played a down of pro ball, in any league.

UNC retired his football Number 10, and he was elected to the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame. He died this past January 19, of cancer.

November 1, 1945, 75 years ago: Branch Barrett Rickey, a.k.a. Branch Rickey III, is born in New York. Like his famous grandfather, he played baseball at Ohio Wesleyan University, and also wrestled there. He became a wrestling referee, and officiated in the Olympics.

He served in the Peace Corps in 1971, and the next year joined the Kansas City Royals organization. He later served in the Pittsburgh Pirates and Cincinnati Reds organizations. He became President of the American Association, 1 of 3 Triple-A leagues at the time, along with the International League and the Pacific Coast League. In 1997, a realignment led to the elimination of the AA and the absorption of its teams into the IL and the PCL, and Ricky was named President of the PCL, a title he still holds.

November 1, 1946: The 1st NBA game is played at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto. (Until 1949, the National Basketball Association was known as the Basketball Association of America, or the BAA.) A crowd of 7,090 -- about half of capacity -- attends, and the New York Knickerbockers beat the Toronto Huskies, 68-66.

The Huskies go out of business after just 1 season, and the NBA does not return to Toronto until 1995 with the Raptors. The Knicks are 1 of only 2 charter NBA teams still playing in their current city. The other is the Boston Celtics. These 2 teams have just started their 71st season.

Neither, however, is pro basketball's oldest franchise. The Philadelphia SPHAs were founded in 1917, as the team of the South Philadelphia Hebrew Association. They, too, were a charter BAA/NBA team, as the Philadelphia Warriors. They are still playing today, as the Golden State Warriors, in Oakland, although they are building a new arena to open near the Giants' ballpark in downtown San Francisco, with the start of the 2019-20 season as the target date.

Ossie Schectman, a former Long Island University star who scored the 1st NBA basket, died on July 30, 2013, at the age of 94. He was the last surviving player from the original 1946-47 New York Knickerbockers and, as far as I can tell, the last surviving player from the NBA's 1st season.

Also on this day, the right foot of Cleveland owner Bill Veeck is amputated‚ a result of a war injury in the South Pacific 2 years before. At this point, Veeck has already had a tremendous impact on promotion in a half season of ownership. A minor but typical change is the regular posting of NL scores on the Cleveland scoreboard‚ a departure from the long-standing practice of both Leagues, whose teams would only post the scores from around their own League.

Veeck doesn't let the amputation slow him down. He walks around on a prosthesis, and frequently stubs out his cigarette on it. He even says, "I'm not disabled. I'm crippled." In other words, his ability was reduced, but not eliminated. And, as long as his brain worked (however strangely at times), he had plenty of ability.

Also on this day, Richard Lee Baney is born in the Los Angeles suburb of Fullerton, California. Dick Baney pitched for the Seattle Pilots in 1969, and was mentioned a few times in Jim Bouton's book Ball Four. He also pitched for the Cincinnati Reds in 1973 and '74. He now invests in and manages real estate.

Also on this day, James Earl Kennedy is born in Tulsa, Oklahoma. A middle infielder, he played 12 games in the major leagues, all for the St. Louis Cardinals in 1970, batting .125. His younger brother Junior Kennedy was a 2nd baseman in the majors from 1974 to 1983. Both are still alive.

Also on this day, William Anton Lesuk is born in Mosse Jaw, Saskatchewan. A left wing, he played 8 seasons in the NHL and 4 more in the WHA. He played 3 games for the Boston Bruins in the 1969-70 regular season, and 2 more in the Playoffs, allowing him to get his name on the Stanley Cup.

He eventually went from penthouse to outhouse, as an original 1974-75 Washington Capital, the worst team of the NHL's modern era. But he also played for the Winnipeg Jets' WHA Champions of 1976, 1978, and 1979. He is still alive.

Also on this day, Richard Roman Grech is born in Bordeaux, France, and grows up in Leicester, England. He was the bass guitarist for a progressive rock group called Family when, in 1969, he was invited to join a new "supergroup" called Blind Faith, with the other members all being far better known: Lead guitarist Eric Clapton and drummer Ginger Baker from Cream, and keyboardist Steve Winwood from Traffic. The group recorded 1 album, toured behind it, and split up upon the comparative failure of both.

In the 1970s, Grech would record with Winwood in a revived Traffic, and with Baker in Ginger Baker's Air Force. In 1974, he formed another supergroup, KGB. He was the G, while singer Ray Kennedy was the K, and guitarist Mike Bloomfield of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band was the B. This group also had drummer Carmine Appice of Vanilla Fudge and Chicago session keyboardist Barry Goldberg.

KGB went nowhere and in 1977, Grech quit music and became a carpet salesman back in Leicester. His drug use caught up with him, and he died in 1990.

November 1, 1947: Theodore Paul Hendricks is born in Guatemala City, Guatemala, his mother's hometown and his father's place of employment. The family moved to the Miami suburbs, and Ted was an All-America linebacker at the University of Miami.

"The Mad Stork" won Super Bowl V with the Baltimore Colts, and Super Bowls XI, XV and XVIII with the Oakland/Los Angeles Raiders. He was an 8-time All-Pro. He is a member of the College and Pro Football Halls of Fame, and the NFL's 1970s and 1980s All-Decades and 75th Anniversary Teams. He was ranked 64th on The Sporting News' 100 Greatest Football Players in 1999, and 82nd on the NFL Network's 100 Greatest Players in 2010.

The Raiders, now in Las Vegas, don't have a team hall of fame, and the Indianapolis Colts, while carrying over their Baltimore retired numbers, don't honor their Baltimore-era players with a display. But the Baltimore Ravens have inducted "Kick 'em In the Head Ted," among other Colts stars, into their Ring of Honor.

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November 1, 1950, 70 years ago: Chuck Cooper, the 1st black player drafted by an NBA team, makes his NBA debut, the night after Earl Lloyd of the Washington Capitals became the 1st black player to appear in an NBA game. Cooper scores 9 points for the Boston Celtics, but they get clobbered by the Fort Wayne Pistons, 107-84 at the gymnasium of North Side High School in Fort Wayne, Indiana. (It would be 2 more years before the Pistons moved into a real arena, and another 5 before they moved to Detroit.)

Also on this day, President Harry Truman faces an assassination attempt. The Truman family is staying at Blair House, across Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House, while the White House is being renovated. Oscar Collazo and Griselio Torresola, Puerto Rican independence activists, approached Blair House with guns, hoping that killing Truman would help their cause.

Collazo shot D.C. police officer Donald Birdzell. He survived, and lived until 1991. Secret Service Agent Vincent Mroz heard this, came outside, and shot Collazo in the chest. He survived. Torresola shot White House Police Officer Leslie Coffelt. He then shot Officer Joseph Downs, but Downs was able to get up and secure a door into the house. He survived, and lived until 1978.

Torresola was reloading when Truman, having heard the shots, made a potentially terrible mistake, and looked outside his 2nd floor window, exposing him to the shooters. Secret Service Agents shouted at him to get away. He did.

Coffelt managed to return fire, hitting Torresola in the head and killing him instantly. But Coffelt was mortally wounded, and died 4 hours later. He was the 1st person ever to, as the Secret Service's saying goes, "take a bullet for the President."

Collazo was convicted and sentenced to death. Truman, a World War I veteran who said he wasn't scared, because had already "been shot at by professionals," commuted Collazo's sentence to life imprisonment. In 1979, President Jimmy Carter further commuted his sentence to time served, which turned out to be 29 years. He returned to Puerto Rico, continued to support its independence, and died in 1994.

Also on this day, Damon Knight’s story "To Serve Man" is published in Galaxy Science Fiction magazine. On March 2, 1962 – while Wilt Chamberlain was scoring 100 points in an NBA game – The Twilight Zone aired an episode based on it, with series creator Rod Serling adapting Knight's story. Each of the aliens is played by Richard Kiel, later known as Jaws in the James Bond films. Spoiler Alert for a 70-year-old story and a 58-year-old TV episode: It's a cookbook!

Also on this day, David L. Calhoun (I can't find a reference to what the L stands for) is born outside Chicago in Waukegan, Illinois. A forward, "Corky" Calhoun led the University of Pennsylvania to the NCAA East Regional Final (not yet known as the Elite Eight) in 1972. He played 8 seasons in the NBA, and won the 1977 NBA Championship as a reserve with the Portland Trail Blazers. He later became an oil company executive, and is still alive.

November 1, 1951: Shanghai Greenland Shenhua Football Club is founded in Shanghai, China's "second city." Known as Shenua -- literally "The Flower of Shanghai" -- they won China's national league in 1961, 1962, 1995 and 2003, but were stripped of the 2003 title after it was found that they'd engaged in match-fixing. They've also won the Chinese FA Cup in 1956, 1991, 1998, 2017 and 2019.

Understandably, the rivalry big enough to be called "The China Derby" is between the biggest teams in each of the country's 2 largest cities: Shanghai Shenhua and Beijing Guoan. They also play the Shanghai Derby with Shanghai SIPG. Among their recent players have been Didier Drogba, the Ivorian forward formerly of West London's Chelsea, known for his diving; and Stephan El Shaarawy, the Italian forward of Egyptian descent who previously starred for AC Milan and AS Roma.

Also on this day, Karl-Heinz Granitza is born in Lünen, Germany. A striker, he starred in his homeland for Hertha Berlin. Then he came to America, and helped the Chicago Sting win the North American Soccer League title in 1981 and 1984 (the League's last season).

He continued to pay for Chicago teams in the Major Indoor Soccer League. When he returned to Berlin, he opened an American-themed sports bar named for a prominent Chicago thoroughfare: State Street. He is a member of America's National Soccer Hall of Fame.

November 1, 1952: America successfully detonates the 1st hydrogen bomb, at Eniwetok Atoll in the Marshall Islands in the central Pacific Ocean. Its codename was "Mike." Yeah.

November 1, 1953: Timothy Richard Fox is born in Canton, Ohio. A safety, he and 2-time Heisman Trophy winner Archie Griffin were co-captains and All-Americans on the 1975 Ohio State football team. He played professionally for the New England Patriots, the San Diego Chargers and the Los Angeles Rams. He made the 1980 Pro Bowl with the Pats, who named them to their 1970s All-Decade Team; and reached the 1985 NFC Championship Game with the Rams.

He worked for communications company R.R. Donnelly & Sons, until his declining cognitive abilities made it impossible. Understanding that his condition is a result of head injuries in football, he has called himself "a living, breathing petri dish for CTE research."

November 1, 1956: I Love Lucy airs the episode "Lucy and the Loving Cup." Bandleader Ricky Ricardo (Desi Arnaz) is to present a trophy to Johnny Longden, who plays himself, for becoming, at the time, the winningest jockey in the history of American thoroughbred horse racing. But his wife Lucy (Lucille Ball) gets it stuck on her head. 

Stuff like that is why Ricky always told her she couldn't be in the show. But not once did he ever tell her, "Lu-zee, you got some 'splaining to do!"

November 1, 1957: The Mackinac Straits Bridge opens, finally providing a road connection between Michigan's Lower and Upper Peninsulas. (Peninsulii?) This makes it far easier for people in the UP -- "Yoopers" -- to go down to Detroit, Ann Arbor or East Lansing to see their home-State teams. Previously, it was easier for them to drive to Green Bay, Milwaukee, Madison and Minneapolis.

Also on this day, Charlie Caldwell dies in Princeton, New Jersey. He was only 56. The native of Bristol, Virginia played baseball, football and basketball at Princeton University. He pitched 3 games for the Yankees in 1925, without a decision.

He left baseball (at least as a player), and turned to coaching. He was an assistant football coach at Princeton from 1925 to 1927. He moved to Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts, and was their head football coach from 1928 to 1944, their head basketball coach from 1928 to 1939, and their head baseball coach from 1931 to 1944. In other words, from 1931 to 1939, he coached all 3 sports simultaneously.

In 1945, Princeton brought him back, to coach baseball and football, but not basketball. He left baseball entirely after the 1946 season. In 1950, he was named National Coach of the Year. In 1951, he coached Dick Kazmaier to the Heisman Trophy, and it remains the last one won by an Ivy League player.

His career record was 146-67-9 in football, 118-96 in baseball, and 78-66 in basketball -- overall, 342-229-9, a winning percentage of .597. He must have been worn out, because before the 1957 season began, he handed the reins of Princeton football over to his assistant, Dick Colman, and soon died.

Caldwell and Colman both used the single wing formation after most coaches switched to the T formation and its variants. Indeed, Colman's last season at Princeton was 1969, and he was the last Division I coach to use the single wing. Nevertheless, both Caldwell and Colman were elected to the College Football Hall of Fame.

Also on this day, Douglas Yeats (no middle name) is born in Montreal. A wrestler, Doug Yeats competed for Canada in the 1976 Olympics in his hometown. Canada boycotted the 1980 Olypics in Moscow, but he wrestled again in 1984 in Los Angeles, 1988 in Seoul, and 1992 in Barcelona. He is a member of the Quebec Sports Hall of Fame, and is still alive.

Also on this day, Lyle Pearce Lovett is born in Houston. Although he's been a country music star since 1986, he's probably best known for his 2-year marriage (1993-95) to actress Julia Roberts. But he's a man of many talents: He's good enough at equestrian competitions that he's been inducted into the Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame and received the National Reining Horse Association Hall of Fame's Lifetime Achievement Award.

November 1, 1959: Jacques Plante of the Montreal Canadiens, who'd been experimenting with a mask in practice. gets hit in the face with a puck shot by fellow future Hall-of-Famer Andy Bathgate in a game against the New York Rangers at the old Madison Square Garden.

"Jake the Snake" gets up, skates over to coach Hector "Toe" Blake, and tells him he's not going back out there without the mask. Blake, knowing how much Plante has meant to the Habs (they had won 4 straight Stanley Cups), relents. The Canadiens win, 3-1, and go on to win their 5th straight Cup.

Clint Benedict of the Montreal Maroons wore a crude leather facemask following his return from a broken nose, starting on February 20, 1930. He stopped after 5 games because the part covering his nose obscured his vision. Plante's version was better, and by the 1970s nearly every goalie wore one.

Now, goalies wear gaudily decorated helmets, and baseball catchers wear similarly-designed helmets rather than their old wire masks.

Also on this day, Jim Brown rushes for a record-tying 5 touchdowns, as the Cleveland Browns beat the Baltimore Colts 38-31 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore.

Also, the events of the film The Apartment, released on June 15, 1960, begin to take place on this day, and run through the start of the New Year. Jack Lemmon's character narrates at the film's start:

On November 1, 1959, the population of New York City was 8,042,783. If you laid all these people end to end, figuring an average height of 5 feet, 6 1/2 inches, they would reach from Times Square to the outskirts of Karachi, Pakistan.

I know facts like this because I work for an insurance company: Consolidated Life of New York. We're one of the top 5 companies in the country. Our home office has 31,259 employees, which is more than the entire population of, uh, (looks it up), Natchez, Mississippi.

I work on the 19th floor. Ordinary Policy Department, Premium Accounting Division, Section W. desk number 861. My name is C.C. Baxter: C. for Calvin, C. for Clifford. However, most people call me "Bud." I've been with Consolidated for 3 years and 10 months, and my take-home pay is $94.70 a week.

With inflation factored in, that $94.70 comes to $847.03 in today's money. Multiply that by 4 weeks, and you've got $3,388.12. Baxter says the eponymous apartment is "in the West 60s, just half a block from Central Park" and that his rent is $85 a week, or $760 in today's money. I guarantee you, you're not going to get a room, much less an apartment, at that monthly rent in Manhattan in 2020; and even $3,388.12 might not cover a month's rent on an apartment at that particular location today.

In the film, directed by Billy Wilder, C.C. "Bud" Baxter is bullied into letting his superiors -- led by Fred MacMurray, in a rare bad-guy role for him that upset many of his fans -- use his apartment for dates with their mistresses. In the case of MacMurray's J.D. Sheldrake, that includes elevator operator Fran Kubelik (Shirley MacLaine), the woman Baxter can't bring himself to tell that he loves.

While it has some funny moments, this film is quite dark, and the tactics of Sheldrake would not be put up with in the #MeToo era. Indeed, just 20 years later, in the film 9 to 5, feminism had already made this film an anachronism. Fortunately, as he did in Mister Roberts in 1955, Lemmon plays a man who, emboldened by a horrible event, stands up to his horrible boss. Unlike in Mister Roberts, where he was serving in the Navy and on board a ship, so it wasn't possible, in The Apartment, Lemmon gets the girl.

One final note, both sad and funny, which Wilder might have appreciated: The apartment would have been just a few blocks away from the Dakota Arms, famed in film as the location of Rosemary's Baby, and in real life as the home of music legends Leonard Bernstein and, by 1972, John Lennon. 

When Lennon was killed outside the Dakota on December 8, 1980, I didn't find out until the next morning, on the way to school, and I didn't recognize his name. I knew the names Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, because they'd both been in the news earlier in the year. But I thought the kid who told me had said "Jack Lemmon." I wanted to know why somebody would want to kill the guy who played Felix Unger in the movie version of The Odd Couple.

*

November 1, 1960, 60 years ago: Karl Michael Tilleman is born in Ogden, Utah, and grows up in Calgary. A guard, he played basketball at the University of Calgary, and led the Canadian Interuniversity Athletic Union in scoring in 1983. He played on the Canadian Olympic basketball teams in 1984 and 1988.

He was drafted by the Denver Nuggets, but never played in the NBA. A Mormon, he went back to Utah to attend law school at Brigham Young University, clerked for Supreme Court Justices Warren Burger and Clarence Thomas, and has become a successful lawyer in Phoenix. He is a member of the Alberta Sports Hall of Fame.

Also on this day, Alan Harper (no middle name) is born in Liverpool, Merseyside, England. No, he's not the Jon Cryer character from Two and a Half Men, and this soccer defender does not wear uniform Number 2 1/2. He played for his boyhood club Liverpool FC, but never made it there.

So he was purchased by the other team in town, Everton, where he did make it. He helped them win the 1984 FA Cup, the 1985 European Cup Winners' Cup (he did not play in either Final, or in the 1985 FA Cup Final that Everton lost), and the 1985 and 1987 League titles. He later served as a scout for Bolton Wanderers, and back at Liverpool as the same.

November 1, 1961: Anne Theresa Donovan is born in Ridgewood, Bergen County, New Jersey. A graduate of Paramus Catholic High School, she led Norfolk's Old Dominion University to the AIAW title, the closest thing women's college basketball then had to a National Championship, in 1980. But she had to go abroad to play pro ball, and played in Japan and Italy.

She went into coaching, and was head coach at East Carolina and back home at Seton Hall. In the WNBA, she coached the Indiana Fever, the Charlotte Sting, the Seattle Storm, the New York Liberty and the Connecticut Sun.

She played for the U.S. teams that won the Olympic Gold Medal in 1984 in Los Angeles and 1988 in Seoul, Korea; and coached them to the Gold Medal in 2004 in Athens, Greece and 2008 in Beijing, China. She died of heart failure in 2018, at age 56.

Also on this day, Derek Ervin Smith is born in Hogansville, Georgia. A guard, he was a member of the University of Louisville's National Championship team of 1980, he was named the Metro Conference's Player of the Year the next season.

He played 9 seasons in the NBA, and later served as an assistant coach with the Washington Bullets. He still held that post on August 9, 1996, when, aboard the cruise ship MS Dreamward, he suffered a heart attack and died at age 35. The ship had been rented by Abe Pollin for season ticketholders of the Bullets and the NHL's Washington Capitals, both of which he owned. Smith and Bullets layer Tim Legler were holding a basketball clinic aboard the ship when Smith was stricken.

His son Nolan Smith was just 8 years old. He went to Duke, and reached the Final Four with them in 2010. He later played 2 seasons for the Portland Trail Blazers, led Cedevita Junior to the 2014 Croatian league title, and now works in Duke's athletic department.

November 1, 1962: Anthony Kiedis (no middle name) is born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and grows up in Los Angeles. In 1983, he and Michael Balzary, a.k.a. Flea, a classmate at L.A.'s Fairfax High School, formed the band The Red Hot Chili Peppers.

November 1, 1963: Terrance Patrick Gannon is born outside Chicago in Joliet, Illinois. In 1983, Terry Gannon was an Academic All-American on the North Carolina State team that won the National Championship, and was the contry's leading 3-point shooter.

He went into broadcasting, and broadcast basketball, football, figure skating, golf, tennis, beach volleyball, skiing, auto racing, motorcycle racing and cycling for ABC and ESPN. He has been called "the man who knows every game." Since 2010, he has broadcast for NBC.

Also on this day, Leslie Mark Hughes is born in Wrexham, Wales. If you fancied yourself a tough footballer (soccer player), you'd probably want to call yourself Les or Mark, rather than Leslie. Hughes chose Mark. His nickname, however, is "Sparky."

A forward, he and Norman Whiteside were proof that Manchester United were a bunch of cheating bastards before Alex Ferguson became manager, diving and dirty-tackling their way to the 1985 FA Cup. With Ferguson, he won the Cup again in 1990 and 1994, the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup in 1991, the League Cup in 1992, and the Premier League in 1993 and 1994 (doing the Double in '94).

With West London club Chelsea, he won the FA Cup in 1997, and the League Cup and the Cup Winners' Cup in 1998. With Lancashire club Blackburn Rovers, he won the League Cup in 2002.

He has been less successful as a manager, but no less dirty. He managed Wales from 1999 to 2004 (as a player-manager), then Blackburn through 2008, then Manchester City through 2009, then West London club Fulham from 2010 to 2011, then West London club Queens Park Rangers in 2012, Staffordshire club Stoke City from 2013 until 2018, and then Hampshire club Southampton briefly in 2018.

Arsène Wenger, longtime manager of North London club Arsenal, described Hughes' management style by defining his players as dirty: After an incident at Man City, Wenger said, "You ask 100 people, 99 will say it's very bad, and the 100th will be Mark Hughes."

November 1, 1964: Clifford "Doc" Carlson dies in Ligonier, Pennsylvania at age 70. He helped the University of Pittsburgh win National Championships -- retroactively awarded -- in 2 different sports. He was an All-America end on their 1917 football team, and coached their basketball team to the National Championship in 1928 and 1930, and to the NCAA Final Four in 1941. He was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame.

November 1, 1965: The SouthEastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) is founded, taking over commuter rail service in the Philadelphia area from the bankrupt Pennsylvania and Reading Railroads, and bus, subway and trolley service from local agencies.

November 1, 1966: The New Orleans Saints are founded by local sports entrepreneur Dave Dixon, to begin NFL play the next season.

November 1, 1968: Star Trek airs the episode "Day of the Dove." A malevolent energy being, which feeds off hate, forces the USS Enterprise crew and a crew from a Klingon ship to fight each other for eternity, even reviving them after they are killed in combat. It takes them a little while to figure this out, and so they put aside their differences, and literally laugh it off the ship.

The Captain of the Klingon ship is Kang, played by Michael Ansara, then married to I Dream of Jeannie actress Barbara Eden. It also introduces the 1st female Klingon character seen on the show, Kang's wife and science officer, Mara, played by Susan Howard. Ansara would later return, with what is now considered proper Klingon makeup and uniform, on the Deep Space Nine episode "Blood Oath" and the Voyager episode "Flashback."

Early in the episode, Captain Kirk tells Kang, "Go to the Devil!" That was as close as you could come to saying, "Go to Hell!" on prime-time American TV in those days. Kang says, "We have no devil, Kirk. But we know the habits of yours."

In the 1991 Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Devil's Due," Ardra (Marta DuBois in her usual form) pretends to be Fek'lhr, a Klingon character who spooks Worf (Michael Dorn). But the writers had Ardra-as-Fek'lhr claim to be "guardian of Gre'thor," making him more equivalent to Hades, ruler of the underworld in Greek mythology, known as Pluto in the Roman version. Hades was often depicted as mean and cold-hearted, but not as an ultimate evil. Therefore, the existence of Fek'lhr (at least, in script and in onscreen image) does not contradict Kang's claim that the Klingons have no devil.

November 1, 1969: The football team of East Brunswick High School, later to be my high school, beats Cedar Ridge 64-0. This game remains the highest point total, and the largest margin of victory, in E.B. football history.

Cedar Ridge, of neighboring Old Bridge, was a new school, and this was only their 5th game of varsity football. Aside from an undefeated season in 1973, they found little football success, and were reconsolidated with Madison Central as Old Bridge High School in 1994. Oddly, both E.B. (Green & White) and Cedar Ridge (Green & Gold) named their Yearbooks "The Emerald."

Today, there are Cedar Ridge High Schools in Hillsborough, North Carolina, outside Raleigh; Newark, Arkansas, about halfway between Little Rock and Memphis; and Round Rock, Texas, outside Austin.

*

November 1, 1970, 50 years ago: The 1st regular-season game between the Giants and the Jets is played. Despite having the home-field advantage in front of 63,903 fans at Shea Stadium, and being less than 2 years removed from their Super Bowl win, the Jets are defeated by the Giants, 22-10.

It was the 4th game of a 6-game winning streak for the Giants, who finished 9-5. The Jets, on the other hand, looked nothing like a recent champion, as this was the 5th game of a 6-game losing streak, and they finished 4-10.

Also on this day, the man the Jets' Winston Hill described as "the Number 1 cheap shot artist in the league," after breaking Joe Namath's cheekbone with a late hit in a 1967 game, strikes again. The Kansas City Chiefs lead the Oakland Raiders 17-14 late in the last minute of the game at Kansas City Municipal Stadium, and Chiefs quarterback Len Dawson makes a long run and gets out of bounds, seemingly sealing the win.

But Raider defensive end Ben Davidson dives into him at full speed with his helmet, a late hit that would mean 15 yards and an automatic 1st down for the Chiefs. But Chief receiver Otis Taylor sees this, and punches Davidson. The referee calls offsetting penalties, nullifying the play entirely. Now, the Chiefs have to punt, and the Raiders end up tying the game on a field goal by 43-year-old kicker and backup quarterback George Blanda.

As a result, the Raiders finish 8-4-2 and as the 1st-ever Champions of the AFC Western Division, the Chiefs 7-5-2 and out of the Playoffs entirely. (Only 1 Wild Card per Conference then.) This may be the nastiest episode in the epic rivalry between the Chiefs and the Raiders. After the season, the NFL changes its rules: A personal foul called after a play is completed will no longer affect the result of the play.

November 1, 1971: Cold Spring Harbor, the 1st album by 22-year-old Billy Joel, is released on Family Productions Records. It includes the songs "She's Got a Way" and "Everybody Loves You Now," both now thought of as among Billy's best. But the record is made at the wrong speed, and the songs don't sound right. Billy gets out of his contract, signs with Columbia Records, releases Piano Man 2 years later, and the rest is history.

Also on this day, the Toronto Sun is founded, a tabloid in both format and style, and a conservative counterpoint to the liberal broadsheet Toronto Star. Among its sports reporters have been George Gross, Jim Hunt and Ted Reeve.

November 1, 1972: Paul Dickov, no middle name, is born in Livingston, Scotland. A forward, a Scotsman of Bulgarian descent, he was a member of the Arsenal team that won the 1994 European Cup Winners' Cup, but couldn't break through with Alan Smith and Ian Wright both being world-class strikers.

He was sold to Manchester City, who had crashed all the way to England's 3rd Division, but he got them back-to-back promotions in 1999 and 2000, and then got Leicester City promoted in 2003. On the last day of the 2003-04 season, with Arsenal going for the completion of an unbeaten League season at home at Highbury, against a Leicester side already relegated, Dickov scored a shocking goal against his old club in the 26th minute, with ITV announcer Jon Champion saying, "That wasn't in the script!" Arsenal won the game anyway, 2-1.

Leicester would again be relegated, but he got them back up from the 3rd to the 2nd division in 2009, and then helped get Leeds United, which had crashed after a financial disaster in 2004 (Arsenal blew them out in 2 League matches and an FA Cup match that season) promoted to the 2nd in 2010. He became a player-manager at Manchester area club Oldham Athletic, and also managed Yorkshire club Doncaster Rovers.

November 1, 1974: Munn Ice Arena opens on the campus of Michigan State University in East Lansing. Named for Clarence "Biggie" Munn, the football coach and athletic director who had led MSU to the 1951 and 1952 National Championships (he lived to see its opening, dying a few months later), it seats 6,114 fans.

MSU lost its 1st game there, 4-3 in overtime to the defending National Champions, the University of Minnesota -- who may have been chosen for the opener because Munn himself was a Minnesota graduate. 

Munn Arena is home to college hockey's longest sellout streak: 323 games from December 19, 1985 to October 15, 2004. Having won the National Championship in 1966, playing home games at their previous rink, Demonstration Hall, the Spartans have won it while playing at Munn in 1986 and 2007.

November 1, 1975: The Summit opens on the west side of Houston, with a concert raising money for local hospitals, headlined by singer Andy Williams.

It was the home of the NBA's Houston Rockets from 1975 to 2003, the World Hockey Association's Houston Aeros from 1975 to 1978, a minor-league version of the Aeros from 1994 to 2003, and the Houston Comets of the WNBA from 1997 to 2003. The Rockets won NBA titles there in 1994 nd '95, while the Comets won the WNBA's 1st 4 titles, from 1997 to 2000. The Toyota Center opened in 2003, and the Rockets and Comets moved in. The Comets folded after the 2008 season, joining the Aeros in oblivion.

In 1998, the City of Houston sold the arena's naming rights, and it became the Compaq Center. In 2005, it was bought by Lakewood Church, for use as its Central Campus. In 2017, Hurricane Harvey hit Houston, and the megachurch's boss, the fabulously wealthy "prosperity gospel" Pastor Joel Osteen, refused to open the arena to refugees, due to severe flooding. The media proved this to be a lie: That section of Houston was not flooded. Busted, Osteen opened the building.

November 1, 1977: Steven J. Hutchinson is born in Fort Lauderdale. (I can find no record as to what the J stands for.) A guard, Steve played on the University of Michigan's 1997 National Champions (shared with Nebraska). He made 7 straight Pro Bowls, 3 with the Seattle Seahawks, 4 with the Minnesota Vikings. Now back with the Seahawks, in their front office, he was named to the Pro Football Hall of Fame and the NFL's 2000s All-Decades Team.

November 1, 1978: Bermane Stiverne (no middle name) is born in Plaine-du-Nord, Haiti, and grows up in Montreal, thus enabling him to continue to speak his native French. He won his 1st 12 professional fights, and on May 10, 2014, he knocked out Chris Arreola at USC's Galen Center in Los Angeles, to win the vacant WBC Heavyweight title.

Just 8 months later, he lost the title in a unanimous decision to Deontay Wilder in Las Vegas. In 2017, he lost a rematch with Wilder at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. He's fought only once since, a loss, and his record currently stands at 25-4-1.

November 1, 1979: Edward Bennett Williams buys the Baltimore Orioles from Jerold Hoffberger for a reported $12.3 million (about $44.1 million in today's money). NFL rules then prohibited a majority owner from being the majority owner of a team in another sport, so he sells some stock in the Washington Redskins to former Los Angeles Lakers and Kings owner Jack Kent Cooke.

In 1983, Williams became the 1st, and remains the only, owner to win championships in both football and baseball in the same calendar year. Not long thereafter, he sold the rest of his Redskins stock to Cooke.

He remained Orioles owner until his death in 1988. Orioles fans were afraid that the Washington "superlawyer" would move the team to D.C., especially after the NFL's Colts were moved out of town in 1984. But, not long before his death, he cut a deal with the State of Maryland to build the ballpark that became Oriole Park at Camden Yards.

Also on this day, in separate deals‚ the Yankees acquire outfielder Ruppert Jones from the Seattle Mariners, and catcher Rick Cerone (a Newark native) and pitcher Tom Underwood from the Toronto Blue Jays. They give up 7 players‚ including popular 1st baseman Chris Chambliss‚ highly-touted shortstop prospect Damaso Garcia‚ aging outfielder Juan Beniquez‚ and young pitchers Jim Beattie and Paul Mirabella.

This could have been a great pair of trades for the Yankees, as Cerone filled in admirably in the wake of the death of Thurman Munson, and he and Underwood were key in winning the American League Eastern Division in 1980 and the Pennant in 1981.

But Jones, named the Mariners' 1st-ever All-Star in their expansion season of 1977, and essentially acquired to replace the traded Mickey Rivers, was injured on August 25, 1980, and was never the same player. In a game at the Oakland Coliseum, he crashed into an outfield fence, making a great catch on a drive by Tony Armas of the A's. The Yankees, the team of Earle Combs, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle and Bobby Murcer, wouldn't find a great regular center fielder again until Bernie Williams.

The M's and Jays didn't even do that well in the trade. None of the players they got from the Yankees did much. Chambliss did absolutely nothing for the Jays, through no fault of his own: They traded him, just 34 days later, to the Atlanta Braves for outfielder Barry Bonnell. Once an All-Star, Bonnell was terrible in Toronto, while Chambliss helped the Braves win the NL West in 1982, and nearly did so again in 1983. Ironically, it was his tenure with the Braves, not the Yankees, that did the most to make him a major league coach: The Braves' manager at that time was Joe Torre.

Also on this day, Covelli Loyce Crisp is born in Los Angeles. His siblings nicknamed him "Coco Crisp" because of a perceived resemblance to a cereal box character. The left fielder started his career with the Cleveland Indians, and closed his career with them in 2016, nearly winning the World Series.

In between, he won the Series with the Boston Red Sox in 2007 *, and reached the postseason with the Oakland Athletics in 2012. He led the AL in stolen bases in 2011, and has a lifetime batting average of .265, 1,572 hits including 130 home runs, and 309 stolen bases. He is now a broadcaster for the A's.

Also on this day, Rachel Aba Yankey is born in Mill Hill, North London. In site of her surname, she is not a baseball player. Rather, she was one of the top British soccer players of her generation. She helped Arsenal win the Women's National Premier League 6 times and the FA Women's Cup 9 times, including both, a Double, in 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009. She also won a league title and 2 FA Cups with Fulham of West London.

In 2005, she came to America's women's soccer league on loan, to the New Jersey Wildcats, who then played at Mercer County Community College in Hamilton. (They now play at Woodbridge High School in Middlesex County.) She helped them win the title.

Internationally, she played for England in the 2007 and 2011 World Cups, and for the combined Great Britain team at the 2012 Olympics in her hometown. She has since gone into coaching.

Also on this day, Mamie Eisenhower dies at age 82, from the effects of a stroke, at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., where her husband, former President Dwight D. Eisenhower, had died 10 years earlier. They were President and First Lady from 1953 to 1961.

Later First Ladies, such as Jacqueline Kennedy, Rosalynn Carter, Nancy Reagan, Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama have had higher profiles, so that Mamie, never more than a housewife and a hostess while married to "Ike," now seems like she belongs to an era much further back than 60 years ago, when jet travel was new, TV began to go to color, and major league sports reached the West Coast. But she was very popular during her time in the White House.

*

November 1, 1981: Evan Bradley Mathis is born in Birmingham, Alabama. A guard, he played 12 seasons in the NFL, made the 2013 and 2014 Pro Bowls, and was a member of the Denver Broncos when they won Super Bowl 50. He is now a professional poker player.

Also on this day, the island nation of Antigua and Barbuda is granted independence by Britain. They remain members of the British Commonwealth.

November 1, 1982: Despite Halloween having been the day before, CBS airs the M*A*S*H episode "Trick Or Treatment." The 4077th MASH's Halloween party is interrupted by a shipment of wounded. Captain Benjamin Franklin Pierce, a.k.a. Hawkeye (Alan Alda), attaches a paper cutout of a Superman logo to his longjohns, and wears a green Army blanket as a cape. He says, "The Army owes us so many coffee breaks, we should get 1954 off."

Captain B.J. Hunnicutt (Mike Farrell) is dressed as a clown, the inside joke being that his feet are so big (How big are they?), the giant clown shoes should just fit. Colonel Sherman Potter (Harry Morgan), a fan of Western films and novels, is, naturally, a cowboy. Major Margaret Houlihan, a.k.a. Hot Lips (Loretta Swit), is dressed in a Japanese gown with a slit skirt. And when Sergeant Max Klinger (Jamie Farr) walks into the surgeons' tent, a.k.a. "The Swamp," wearing a pinstriped Zoot Suit, Hawkeye asks him how many zoots had to be killed to make it.

Major Charles Emerson Winchester III (David Ogden Stiers), opposed to the plebian juvenility of the holiday, does not wear a costume. Instead, he treats a Marine Sergeant who drunkenly decided to see if he could stuff an entire pool ball in his mouth. Unfortunately for him, he succeeded. He is played by George Wendt, who had just begun playing Norm Peterson on Cheers. Andrew Clay -- the comedian not yet known as "Dice" -- also plays a Marine who becomes a patient due to a drunken prank.

The Korean War intrudes, and real patients must be attended to. The medical staff pass the time in the operating room telling ghost stories. Potter's is a little spooky. Hawkeye's, more so. Margaret's seems to be the topper. As the stories get spookier, Charles gets increasingly annoyed.

But when Father Francis Mulcahy (William Christopher) returns from the orphanage, they tell him that only 1 soldier has died, and he came in that way. They presumed this because he came in wearing a toe-tag. Hawkeye tells Mulcahy that the soldier is Catholic, and thus needs the last rites.

In the middle of his Latin recitation, Mulcahy notices that the soldier is still alive. Later, they all stand around his bed, and decide that "bringing someone back from the dead" on Halloween is a ghost story they'll never see topped.

November 1, 1983: West London soccer team Chelsea host a testimonial match for centreback Mickey Droy, their Player of the Year in 1978, at Stamford Bridge. Since he grew up in the Highbury section of North London, the opponent is the team that plays there, Arsenal.

Chelsea win, 2-1. Arsenal's goal is scored by newly acquired 21-year-old Scottish striker Charlie Nicholas, on whom a huge sum was spent, and who turned out to be one of the biggest busts in team history.

This game marks the senior debut of another centreback, Arsenal's Tony Adams. Adams goes on to be known as Mr. Arsenal, one of the most popular players in team history. He would help them win 4 League championships, 3 FA Cups, 2 League Cups, and the 1994 European Cup Winners' Cup. A statue of him now stands outside Arsenal's Emirates Stadium.

November 1, 1984: The Los Angeles Clippers play their 1st home game after moving up the California coast from San Diego, at the Los Angeles Sports Arena. They had played 2 away games first. Oddly enough, their 1st game under the Los Angeles name was away to the Utah Jazz, the team they beat in their last game in San Diego.

The Clips beat the Knicks, 107-105. Last season's breakout Knicks star, Bernard King, scores 25, but some players who had won NBA Championships elsewhere lead the Clips to victory: 1971 Milwaukee Buck Junior Bridgeman, 1980 and '82 Laker Norm Nixon, and, overcoming a never-ending foot injury, 1977 Portland Trail Blazer, San Diego native and UCLA star Bill Walton.

For several years, this opener stood as the highlight of Los Angeles Clipper basketball, as, much like the Nets behind the Knicks in the New York Tri-State Area, they have been stuck behind the Lakers, partly due to the older team being so well-established, successful and popular, and partly due to their own perennial losing, due to team owner Donald Sterling caring only about schmoozing his pals at the games rather than winning.

To make matters worse, since 1999 they have had to share the Staples Center with the Lakers, whereas they only had to share the Sports Arena with USC basketball; from 1999 onward, not only were they the worst pro basketball team in their city, they’re not even the best basketball team in their own building. Indeed, despite a recent Playoff revival, with the NHL's Kings having won 2 Stanley Cups, the Clips could arguably be said to have been the 3rd-best sports team in their own building.

Now, they're rid of the cheap racist Sterling, and they've gotten good, while the Lakers have gotten old. A year ago, it was thought that, maybe, the next title at the Staples Center would go to the Clippers. Now we know: The Lakers are again the World Champions, and the Clippers are still the Clippers. They are now negotiating to build a new arena adjacent to SoFi Stadium in Inglewood.

Also on this day, Cheers airs the episode "Sam Turns the Other Cheek." Sam Malone (Ted Danson) is confronted at the bar by the gun-wielding husband of a woman he'd fooled around with, but talks him out of shooting him. Sam takes the gun, puts it in his back pocket, and the gun goes off. He has to come up with a believable reason why he's limping and using a cane, because, as a former athlete, he doesn't want to admit that he accidentally shot himself in the ass.

November 1, 1987: Tom Parker dies in his hometown of Southampton, Hampshire, England, shortly before his 90th birthday. A right back, he starred for hometown club Southampton in the 1920s, before being purchased by Arsenal in 1926. He made 172 consecutive appearances, which is still a club record.

He captained Arsenal to the League title in 1931 and 1933, and to the FA Cup Final in 1927 (lost to Cardiff City), 1930 (beat Huddersfield Town) and 1932 (lost to Newcastle United). That 1930 FA Cup was the club's 1st major trophy, so he was the 1st Arsenal Captain to lift a major trophy. The introduction of the famous red shirt with white sleeves also made him the 1st man to captain Arsenal in that shirt.

Despite his stardom, he was only called to the England team once, for a 1925 game against France. After retiring as a player following the 1933 title, he was named manager at Norfolk side Nortwich City, getting them promoted from the 3rd to the 2nd division in 1934. He later managed Southampton, and then Norwich again, and then returned to Southampton as a scout, retiring in 1975.

Also on this day, Bruce Pernell Irvin Jr. is born in Atlanta. A defensive end, he was with the Seattle Seahawks when they won Super Bowl XLVIII. He also played with them in Super Bowl XLIX, and became the 1st player ever ejected froma Super Bowl, for punching Rob Gronkowski of the New England Patriots. He was also fined $10,000. (Ejected and fined? He should have gotten a medal.) After playing for Oakland, Atlanta and Carolina, he is now back with the Seahawks.

Also on this day, Trump: The Art of the Deal is published. It was written by Esquire magazine writer Tony Schwartz, with New York real estate mogul Donald Trump dictating to him. Donald always did want to be a dictator. When Trump ran for President in 2016, Schwartz said Trump was totally unfit for the job. Trump went on to prove him right.

November 1, 1988: Masahiro Tanaka is born in Itami, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan. After starring in his homeland for the Sendai-based Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles, he signed with the Yankees in 2014, and became an All-Star in his rookie season.

He has helped the Yankees reach the Playoffs in 4 of the last 5 seasons, and, until Gerrit Cole was signed as his teammate, was the closest thing to a real ace that New York baseball currently has. (And I don't want to hear about any of the Mets' starting pitchers. They would get slaughtered in the American League.) He was 99-36 in Japan, and is 78-46 for the Yankees.

Also on this day, PBS premieres Ken Burns' documentary Thomas Hart Benton. Prior to focusing on the Civil War and baseball, Burns told the story of the Kansas City-based painter (1889-1975), descended from one of Missouri's 1st 2 U.S. Senators, also named Thomas Hart Benton.

November 1, 1989: A dark day in New Jersey history. Walmart makes its 1st entry into the Northeast, opening a Sam's Club store in a former Two Guys store in Delran, Burlington County, a suburb of Philadelphia.

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November 1, 1992: With 2 days to go before the Presidential election, Governor Bill Clinton of Arkansas, the Democratic nominee, has a star-studded rally scheduled for the Brendan Byrne Arena in the New Jersey Meadowlands. Among the entertainers on hand is actress Glenn Close, who says, echoing her line from Fatal Attraction -- arguably, not a good film to associate with Clinton -- "I'm here because I'm not going to be ignored!"

But earlier in the day, in the parking lot at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati, before a game between the Bengals and their arch-rivals, the Cleveland Browns -- there were big signs with the teams' helmets on them, saying, "BROWNS FOR BILL," and, "BENGALS FOR BILL" -- his voice gives out. He can only speak for 21 seconds before handing the microphone over to Hillary.

He recovers in time to give a somewhat longer speech at the Meadowlands that, unfortunately, seems not to be on YouTube. He says, "I have almost lost my voice to help us find America."

He became the 1st Democrat to win New Jersey since Lyndon Johnson in 1964, and the 1st to win Ohio since Jimmy Carter in 1976. In fact, it was Ohio being called for Clinton, at 10:48 PM on November 3 (its polls close at 7:30), that put him over the victory threshold of 270 Electoral Votes.

November 1, 1994: ADX Florence opens, the federal “supermax” prison in Florence, Colorado. It is the new Alcatraz: Home for the worst of the worst, and no one has ever escaped from it.

Notable current residents include, in chronological order of their crimes: Theodore Kaczynski, the "Unabomber"; Ramzi Yousef, convicted in the 1st World Trade Center bombing in 1993; Terry Nichols, the surviving Oklahoma City bomber; Eric Rudolph, the bomber of abortion clinics and the 1996 Olympic Park in Atlanta; Zacarias Moussaoui, "the 20th Hijacker" on 9/11; Richard Reid, the "Shoe Bomber"; Robert Hansen, the FBI Agent convicted of spying for Russia; Umar Abdulmutallab, the 2009 "Underwear Bomber"; Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the surviving brother from the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing; and Joaquin Guzman, the Mexican drug lord known as "El Chapo."

November 1, 1996: The Philadelphia 76ers play their 1st game at their new arena, then named the CoreStates Center, losing 111-103 to the Milwaukee Bucks. The arena is now known as the Wells Fargo Center, and the 76ers have reached the NBA Finals only once since moving in, in 2001.

Also on this day, Fox Sports Net makes its debut.

November 1, 1997: The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum opens in its new home in Kansas City‚ Missouri. It had been occupying a temporary site there for 4 years.

November 1, 1999: Chicago Bears legend Walter Payton dies of a rare liver disease in the Chicago suburb of South Barrington, Illinois. The NFL's former all-time leading rusher, and one of the real good guys of sports history, was only 45. As part of their 100th Season celebrations, the Bears named him 1st on their list of their 100 Greatest Players.

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November 1, 2001: Game 5 of the World Series at Yankee Stadium. Steve Finley and Rod Barajas hit solo home runs for the Arizona Diamondbacks in the 5th inning, and those remain the only runs of the game going into the bottom of the 9th.

In the top of the 8th, with the rumor going around that Paul O'Neill will retire after the Series (which turned out to be true), and, knowing that, win or lose, this was his last game at Yankee Stadium, Yankee Fans start chanting his name. It was a rare moment when Yankee Fans decided that there was something more important than winning: In this case, saying, "Thank you" to a team legend.

In an amazing case of history repeating itself‚ the Yankees again come from 2 runs down with 2 outs in the 9th inning, to win 3-2 in 12 innings. Byung-Hyun Kim is again victimized‚ this time by Scott Brosius' 2-run HR in the 9th. Alfonso Soriano's single wins it in the 12th. Steve Finley and Rod Barajas homer in the 5th for Arizona's runs.

In 97 previous years of World Series play, only twice had teams come from 2 or more runs down in the bottom of the 9th to win a game. The Yankees had now done it on back-to-back nights -- albeit in different months (October 31 & November 1).

Also on this day, the Memphis Grizzlies play their 1st game, after 6 seasons in Vancouver. But they get torched by 34 points from Jerry Stackhouse, and lose 90-80 to the Detroit Pistons, at the arena then named the Great American Pyramid.

November 1, 2004: The A-League, Australia's new soccer league, is formed, to begin play in the 2005-06 season. Along with accepting previously-established teams Perth Glory (founded December 1, 1995), Newcastle Jets (founded sometime in 2000), and Adelaide United (founded September 12, 2003), the following teams are founded with it: Brisbane Roar, Central Coast Mariners, Gold Coast United, Melbourne Victory, New Zealand Knights, North Queensland Fury and Sydney Football Club.

On March 19, 2007, Wellington Phoenix would be formed, following the collapse of the Auckland-based Knights, and were admitted the following season. Melbourne Heart were founded on June 12, 2009, and were renamed Melbourne City upon their purchase by England's Manchester City Football Club in 2014. North Queensland Fury folded in 2011. Western Sydney Wanderers were founded on April 12, 2012, and took the place of Gold Coast United, who folded.

Although there are rivalries -- "derbies" in soccerspeak -- between the 2 Sydney teams and the 2 Melbourne teams, the biggest rivalry in the country remains Sydney FC vs. Melbourne Victory, the biggest teams in each of the country's 2 largest and (aside from the much smaller national capital of Canberra) most powerful cities.

The regular season title, the Premiership, has been won by Adelaide United in 2006 and 2016; Melbourne Victory in 2007, 2009 and 2015; Central Coast Mariners in 2008 and 2012; Sydney FC in 2010, 2017, 2018 and 2020; Brisbane Roar in 2011 and 2014; Western Sydney Wanderers in 2013; and Perth Glory in 2019.

The playoff title, the Championship, has been won by Sydney in 2006, 2010, 2017, 2019 and 2020; Victory in 2007, 2009, 2015 and 2018; Newcastle Jets in 2008; Brisbane Roar in 2011, 2012 and 2014; Central Coast in 2013; and Adelaide in 2016. (Meaning the "Double" has been won by Victory in 2007, '09 and '15; Sydney in 2010 and '17; Brisbane in 2011 and '14; and Adelaide in 2016.)

November 1, 2005: A bronze sculpture featuring the friendship of Pee Wee Reese and Jackie Robinson is unveiled at Brooklyn's KeySpan Park, home of the Mets' Single-A team, the Brooklyn Cyclones. (The stadium is now named MCU Park.)

The William Behrends sculpture captures the moment when the Dodger captain showed support by putting his arm around his black teammate's shoulder, hushing an unruly crowd hurling racial slurs at his teammate at Crosley Field in Cincinnati in 1947. It's been alleged that the incident never happened, and people who've supposedly remembered it have disagreed on the day on which it happened.

November 1, 2008: Ben Affleck hosts Saturday Night Live, only 3 days before the Presidential election. Senator John McCain of Arizona, the Republican nominee for President, and his wife Cindy appear in the cold opening, as themselves. They seem to have accepted that John is going to lose to Senator Barack Obama of Illinois on Tuesday.

Tina Fey once again returns to the show as the Vice Presidential nominee, Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska, and in the sketch, the McCains and "Palin" try to pay off their campaign debts by auctioning off campaign items. (I don't know if this is legal in real life.) One of the items Fey as Palin seems to be selling is "Palin 2012" bumper stickers. As it turned out, though the real Palin has not yet run for President.

November 1, 2009: Game 4 of the World Series at Citizens Bank Park. Yankee manager Joe Girardi starts CC Sabathia, the ALCS MVP but the loser of this Series' Game 1, on 3 days' rest. It seems to work, as the Yankees lead the Philadelphia Phillies 4-2 going into the bottom of the 7th.

One of the Phils' runs shouldn't have counted, because Ryan Howard didn't touch the plate. This could have been an epic controversy. And it might have been, because Chase Utley hits a home run off CC in the 7th, and Pedro Feliz hits one off Joba Chamberlain in the 8th to tie it.

But in the 9th, Johnny Damon fouls off pitch after pitch from Brad Lidge before singling with 2 outs. Mark Teixeira was up, and the Phils go into their lefthanders' switch. This is an echo of the shift used by the Cardinals on Ted Williams of the Red Sox in the 1946 World Series. But Damon realizes that, if he steals 2nd, he could steal 3rd, too, because no one would be covering. He goes for it, bringing up memories of another factor of the '46 Series, Enos Slaughter's "Mad Dash" that won Game 7 for the Cardinals.

Unnerved, Lidge accidentally hits Teix, and Alex Rodriguez gets the biggest hit of his career (and it remained so), a double to score Damon. Jorge Posada singles home Teix and A-Rod, and Mariano Rivera shuts the Phils down it the bottom of the 9th, securing a 7-4 Yankee victory, stunning the defending World Champions in their own raucous, not strangely silent, house. The Yanks can wrap it up tomorrow night.

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November 1, 2010, 10 years ago: The Giants win their 1st World Series since moving to San Francisco. Edgar Renteria, who drove in the winning run for the Florida Marlins against the Cleveland Indians in the 11th inning during Game 7 of the 1997 Fall Classic, joins Yankees legends Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio and Yogi Berra as only the 4th player in baseball history to collect two World Series-winning hits. (He had also made the last out for the St. Louis Cardinals as the Boston Red Sox won the 2004 World Series *.)

The Series MVP's 3-run homer off Cliff Lee in the 7th inning leads to San Francisco's 3-1 victory over the Rangers, and brings an end to 56 seasons of what some Giants fans had been, in recent days, describing as "torture." (Clearly, they'd never been truly tortured.)

November 1, 2013: The Brooklyn Nets play their home opener at the Barclays Center, and retire the Number 5 of Jason Kidd. Although he was then their head coach, and remains the only player to lead the team to the NBA Finals (in New Jersey in 2002 and 2003), Kidd never played for the Brooklyn edition of the team. They beat the defending Eastern Conference Champion Miami Heat of LeBron James and Dwyane Wade, 101-100.

November 1, 2014: Saturday Night Live is hosted by former castmember Chris Rock. The musical guest is Prince, who performs his songs "Plectrumelectrum," "Marz" and "Anotherlove." As it turns out, this is his final television appearance.

November 1, 2015: Game 5 of the World Series at Citi Field. Curtis Granderson hits a home run in the bottom of the 1st inning, giving the Mets a 1-0 lead over the Kansas City Royals. The Mets make it 2-0 in the 6th, and Matt Harvey holds that lead into the top of the 9th.

But the Mets pull off a unique feat: They blow leads in every single game of a World Series. (Including in Game 3, which they came back to win anyway.) Only the Mets, right?

Harvey convinces manager Terry Collins to leave him in, and he walks the leadoff hitter, Lorenzo Cain. Eric Hosmer doubles Cain home, and Collins now pulls Harvey for Jeurys Familia. A groundout gets Hosmer to 3rd, and a fielding blunder by the Mets (surprise, surprise) results in the tying run coming home. Familia's 8 blown saves in a single postseason ties the record set by Robb Nen of the 2002 San Francisco Giants -- who, unlike Familia, does have a World Series ring, with the 1997 Florida Marlins.

The game goes to the 12th inning. Royals catcher Salvador Pérez singles off Addison Reed. Royals manager Ned Yost sends Jarrod Dyson in to pinch-run for him. Christian Colón singles him home, and then the unrelated Bartolo Colón is brought in, and he melts down. It remains the worst extra-inning performance in the 116-year history of the World Series. The Royals win the game 7-2, and win their 2nd World Series, their 1st in 30 years.

The Royals proved what the Yankees had proven in the regular season, what Chase Utley proved in the NL Division Series, and what nobody else, not the other Dodgers, nor the Chicago Cubs in the NLCS, seemed willing to prove: Stand up to the Mets, and they will fold. This pattern held in 2016, as the Mets reached the NL Wild Card game, but losing it.

In the 1995 Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "Past Tense, Part II," partly set in the year 2024, Captain Benjamin Sisko, a baseball fan despite living in the 24th Century, gave his opinion that the greatest baseball team of all time was the 2015 London Kings, pointing out that it was the rookie season of Japanese-American shortstop Harmon "Buck" Bokai. This suggests that the Kings won the 2015 World Series. Another person in the scene says the greatest team ever was the 1999 Yankees.

The scene came closer to getting it right than anyone could have expected: The Yankees did go on to win the World Series in 1999, going 11-1 in the postseason, following their 114-48 regular season and 11-2 postseason of the year before; and the 2015 World Series was won by a team with a regal name. 

Other Trek episodes had the Yankees beating the London Kings in the World Series in 2032, and losing to them in 2042, after which -- possibly due to World War III being fought in the show's stimeline -- baseball had so badly dropped in popularity that it was stopped, a major problem I have with Star Trek.

However, despite the Yankees' real-life 2 regular-season games with the Boston Red Sox in London in 2019, I seriously doubt that MLB will put a team in London by 2032, or even 2042. But at least the sport should remain popular well beyond then.  

Also on this day, the Giants lose a shootout to the New Orleans Saints, 52-49 at the Superdome in New Orleans. It's the most points the Giants have ever scored and still lost, and it ties the Saints record for most points in a game.

November 1, 2016: Game 6 of the World Series. The Chicago Cubs jump out to a 7-0 lead after just 3 innings, and beat the Cleveland Indians 9-3 at Progressive Field, forcing a Game 7. The pitching of Jake Arrieta is backed by home runs from Kris Bryant, Addison Russell and Anthony Rizzo.

November 1, 2019: The movie Blade Runner, which came out in 1982, takes place in November 2019. In real life at that time, things weren't that bad, certainly not compared to what happened in the real-life 2020 -- but not for a lack of trying by Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell.