A Brief History On August 26, 1972, the XX Olympiad, Summer Games portion, opened in Munich, West Germany. Historic for many reasons, this edition of the Olympics featured the first ever named mascot of an Olympic Games, a Dachshund named “Waldi.” Digging Deeper In 1932, a Scottish Terrier born in the Olympic Village in Los Angeles became an unofficial mascot, and in 1968, Mexico City gave us a Red Jaguar, although again, unofficially. Many mascots have been depictions of fauna endemic to the country or area the Olympics were being held at, and of course the Dachshund is a dog…
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A Brief History On August 17, 1978, Ben Abruzzo, Maxie Anderson, and Larry Newman made ballooning history by becoming the first to pilot a manned balloon across the Atlantic Ocean, flying from Maine to France in the Double Eagle II, a Helium balloon. Today, we take a look at a few momentous balloon flights. Digging Deeper On November 21, 1783, the first ever manned balloon flight took place in France, when Francois Pilatrê de Rozier and Francois Laurent took flight in a hot air balloon made by the Montgolfier brothers. In 1785, Jean-Pierre Blanchard and American John Jeffries made history…
A Brief History On August 9, 2012, Shannon Eastin became the first woman to referee an NFL football game. Like many professional football officials, she started out as a referee in high school and then college football games. Digging Deeper Eastin got her big break when the NFL and the referee union had contract troubles and the regular refs were locked out in 2012. Some sports writers and the NFL Referees Association objected to her employment by the NFL, especially since she had participated in the World Series of Poker, and pro sports are highly sensitive to anyone with ties…
A Brief History On July 31, 2012, Ukrainian gymnast, Larisa Latynina, was passed as the most prolific Olympic Medal winner, when American swimmer Michael Phelps won his 19th Olympic medal. Digging Deeper Larisa dominated Olympic gymnastics from 1956 to 1964, winning 9 Olympic Gold medals and a total of 18 Olympic medals. No gymnast, male or female, has surpassed her total of Gold medals, and her total medal record lasted for nearly 5 decades before broken by Phelps. A remarkable athlete, Phelps won a total of 28 Olympic medals from the 2000 Summer Olympics, in which the 15 year old…
A Brief History On July 24, 1980, a quartet of Australian swimmers took the Olympic Gold Medal in the Men’s Swimming 4 by 100-meter medley relay race, the only time an American team failed to win this particular event. Digging Deeper While the US has dominated this particular event, the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, USSR, was plagued by politics and the US along with 65 other countries boycotted the games due to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Australians, certainly among the greatest swimming nations, produced the “Quietly Confident Quartet,” a self-named crew consisting of Mark Kerry, Peter Evans, Mark…
