A Brief History On February 18, 2001, a nation of racing car fans was stunned when the biggest current star of NASCAR stock car racing, Dale Earnhardt, died in a high speed crash into a wall at the Daytona 500, the premier race of NASCAR. Digging Deeper Known as “The Intimidator” for his aggressive racing style, Earnhardt was born Ralph Dale Earnhardt (later Sr.) in 1951. Winner of the 1998 Daytona 500 and tied with Richard Petty with a record 7 Winston Cup Championships in 1994 (later tied in 2016). Dale Sr. also added 4 IROC Championships to his list…
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A Brief History On February 13, 1954, Franklin Delano Selvy, shooting guard/small forward for the Furman University (South Carolina) basketball team scored an NCAA Division I record 100 points in a game against Newberry College (South Carolina), a feat never matched in Division I play. Digging Deeper The 6’ 3” Selvy, known as Frank, hailed from Corbin, Kentucky and was born in 1932, presumably the reason he was so named. (Franklin Delano Roosevelt won the 1932 US Presidential election the same month Selvy was born.) In a story right out of a book of Fairy Tales, Selvy was being honored…
A Brief History On February 2, 1876, the National League of Professional Baseball Clubs was founded, replacing the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players, which had been founded in 1871 as a replacement itself for the National Association of Base Ball Players (note no mention of “professional”) which operated from 1869 to 1871. Digging Deeper Known today as Major League Baseball’s “Senior Circuit” as simply the National League, the original league had 8 teams, including Chicago White Stockings (which actually became the Cubs, not the White Sox!), the Louisville Grays, the Philadelphia Athletics (not the ones that became the…
A Brief History On January 29, 1963, the first class of inductees to the new Pro Football Hall of Fame was announced, 17 players and executives that helped make professional football a reality. Digging Deeper Located in Canton, Ohio (because this is the birthplace of what became the NFL), the Pro Football Hall of Fame is independent of the National Football League, though it maintains a close association. Originally a paltry 2 rooms, the building now has 5 rooms and over 82,000 square feet. The Hall has a gift shop, research library, and of course a theater where you can…
A Brief History On December 30, 1970, former heavyweight boxing champion Charles L. “Sonny” Liston lay dead on the bedroom floor of his Las Vegas home. There he would stay until his wife found his dead body on January 5, 1971, almost a week later. Officially, the Coroner said heart failure (your heart always fails when you die, just sayin’) and lung congestion. The body was already somewhat decomposed, making definitive analysis of cause of death difficult, and rumors started almost immediately. Digging Deeper Liston had won the heavyweight championship by beating Floyd Patterson in 1962 at the age of…