A Brief History On November 15, 1914, the pre-National Football League professional football world was saddened by the death of a seasoned pro, Center Harry Turner of the Canton Professionals (now there is a catchy name) of the Ohio League. Turner was playing in a game against Akron Indians when he suffered a broken back, completely severing his spinal cord. Digging Deeper When Turner died soon afterwards in the hospital, he became the first fatality caused by injury playing in a professional football game. Appropriately, Turner was from Canton, Ohio, the birthplace of pro football. A real home town guy,…
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A Brief History On November 6, 1995, owner of the Cleveland Browns, Art Modell, made an announcement that broke the heart of Cleveland football fans, that he was moving the team to Baltimore. Ironically, the fans in Baltimore had lost their own beloved Colts after the 1983 season when they moved to Indianapolis. Digging Deeper Clevelanders should have known better than to think their Browns were sacred, since back in 1945 the NFL franchise Cleveland Rams announced a move to Los Angeles for the 1946 season. Incredibly, this came right after the Rams had won the NFL Championship in 1945! …
A Brief History On November 2, 1898, the day recognized as the “birth of cheerleading,” University of Minnesota (UM) student Johnny Campbell became the first cheerleader in history, directing fans in cheering on the Golden Gophers football team. UM proudly calls itself the “Birthplace of Cheerleading,” and apparently deserves that title. Digging Deeper During the 1800’s crowds at sporting events began to cheer on their teams, increasingly in unison. The 1890’s saw the first use of the word “cheerleader” referring to fans in the stands that would start cheers. Not surprisingly, Minnesota saw this trend evolve with Thomas Peebles, an…
A Brief History On October 21, 1973, defensive end Fred Dryer of the Los Angeles Rams (yes, that is where they played before St. Louis, and they were the Cleveland Rams before that) became the first player in NFL history to score two safeties in one game, a remarkable feat. Digging Deeper Not because of that curious statistic, but because of his good looks and acting ability Dryer went on to become a successful Hollywood actor, notably in the title role of the television series, Hunter (1984-1991). Not only did Dryer have a stellar 13 year pro football career and star…
A Brief History On at least four separate occasions electronic book burners known as “deletionists” tried to rid Wikipedia of its coverage of the internet phenomenon known as “creepypastas”. Deletionists are a group of bullies who focus their efforts on trying to remove anything and everything they merely do not like from Wikipedia. They typically, out of ignorance, refer to articles concerning topics they are unfamiliar with as “not notable”. Digging Deeper: A Timeline 26 March 2008: Allen3 nominated the article titled “Creepypasta” for deletion from Wikipedia. After a brief discussion in which only five random user accounts voted to delete the article,…