A Brief History On August 3, 1936, James Cleveland “Jesse” Owens won the 100-meter dash at the Berlin Olympics and blazed into the record books. Owens went on to everlasting fame by winning 4 Gold Medals in those summer games, proving to Hitler and Nazi Germany that Aryans were not the “master race.” But what about the guy that came in second in that historic race? That man was Ralph Metcalfe. Digging Deeper Born in Atlanta in 1910 and raised in Chicago, Metcalfe, once co-holder of the world record for the 100-meter dash, was no slacker himself, winning silver medals…
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A Brief History On August 3, 1921, the Commissioner of Baseball, Judge Kennesaw Mountain Landis, reaffirmed the ban from baseball of the 8 players involved in the “Black Sox” scandal, even though they had just been acquitted in criminal court. Accused of throwing the 1919 World Series, the group included the immortal Shoeless Joe Jackson, one of the game’s most popular players. The world of sports has since been beset by scandals over the years. Here we list 10 of the most famous and most interesting cases. Which cases would you include in this list? Do we need a sequel? (Hint:…
A Brief History Today, on July 13th, 2014, the 20th FIFA World Cup soccer championship game will be taking place between Germany and Argentina. Digging Deeper This international tournament for soccer, known as football to most of the world, takes place once every four years and is governed by the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) who also chooses the host. The current host is Brazil. Although soccer is relatively unpopular in the United States, in Europe and South America the World Cup is the equivalent of American football’s Super Bowl, baseball’s World Series and basketball’s NBA Championship finals combined.…
A Brief History On June 30, 1994, Tonya Harding was banned for life from participating in figure skating events. She is currently competing on season twenty-six of Dancing with the Stars, titled Dancing with the Stars: Athletes. The season premiered on April 30, 2018 on the ABC network. The four-week season, the shortest ever, features a cast of current and former athletes. Digging Deeper Shortly before the 1994 national figure skating championships which were being held in Detroit, Nancy Kerrigan was hit in the knee in what would become known as the “whack heard round the world”. The attack was…
A Brief History On June 4, 1974, baseball history (not the good kind!) was made in Cleveland. Although we have run many articles about great baseball performances, the event described in this article is not one of them. Digging Deeper On a beautiful June night in Cleveland, over 25,000 fans came out to the ballpark to watch the Indians play the Texas Rangers. While there, they enjoyed 10 cent beer, a promotion that provided more of a draw than the baseball team on the field. Stadium management wisely (that is a joke… we are kidding) limited fans to only 6…