A Brief History On December 9, 1935, the Downtown Athletic Club of New York City (now known simply as The Downtown Club) made their choice for the most outstanding college football player, naming Jay Berwanger, halfback for the University of Chicago as the winner of the Downtown Athletic Club Award, the prize later renamed The Heisman Trophy. Digging Deeper Probably the most prestigious award in college football, the Heisman got its name from the Athletic Director of the DAC who died in 1936 and the award was renamed to honor him. Unlike most of the players so honored, Berwanger never…
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A Brief History On November 23, 1948, one of major league baseball’s greatest hitters and onetime highest paid player in the National League died penniless, and no one, not even his own son, would claim the body. Wilson played for the Giants, Cubs, Dodgers and Phillies, but his heyday was with the Cubs. Digging Deeper Lewis Robert “Hack” Wilson was born in Ellwood City, Pennsylvania in 1900, and went on to a short but remarkable baseball career where in 12 years he hit 244 home runs, 1063 RBI’s, and batted .307 for his career. In 1930 Wilson hit 56 home…
A Brief History On November 12, 1993, Denver, Colorado became the site of the first ever Ultimate Fighting Championship event, titled UFC 1, what has become the premier promotion of mixed martial arts fighting. Starting what would become a regular routine, the event was broadcast live on Pay-Per-View, had a live audience, and was later released on video. Digging Deeper This initial UFC event was an 8 man tournament, with eventual winner Royce Gracie of Brazil taking the top ($50,000) prize. The other big name fighter to go on to great things was Ken Shamrock, known as “The World’s Most…
A Brief History On November 2, 2004, the great grand nephew of artist Vincent van Gogh, Theo van Gogh, age 47, was brutally murdered by an Islamic terrorist while cycling in Amsterdam. Van Gogh was a movie maker, screen writer and television producer, and had completed a short film called Submission, a movie about the subjugation of women in Islamic countries. Needless to say, the routine death threats followed against Van Gogh and his Somali collaborator, causing his partner, Aayan Hirsi Ali to blow off the threat, saying, “Nobody kills the village idiot” (meaning herself). Digging Deeper Moroccan-Dutch idiot, Mohammed…
A Brief History On October 28, 1956, Elvis Aron Presley (yes, only one “a” in Aron) made medical history by being inoculated with a Polio vaccine shot on national television, demonstrating to a dubious country that getting such a vaccine was safe. Digging Deeper This gesture by the most famous Rock and Roller of all time was instrumental in raising the number of American children inoculated against Polio from .6% to a whopping 80+% in only 6 months. The Polio family of disease had been devastating American (and world wide) children, including 4 term US President Franklin Roosevelt. Researchers had…