Barry Sanders historic 2,053 yard rushing season in 1997 included a huge performance on Thanksgiving Day against the Chicago Bears. Sanders ran through the Bears Defense for 167 yards on 19 carries with three TD’s in a 55-20 Detroit win. Always thought it kinda sucked that the Lions were on TV every Thanksgiving, but at least we all got to watch Barry’s brilliance each year. Happy Turkey Day Dudes!!
November 22nd, 1987 - Chicago, IL- During the Sunday Evening News recap of a Chicago Bears 30-10 victory over the Detroit Lions, an un-identified person dressed in a Max Headroom mask, hi-jacked the WGN Channel 9 broadcast for almost 30 seconds. Sportscaster Dan Rohn seemed quite confused but waved off the wacky interruption as a computer glitch.
Approximately two hours later during an episode of ‘Dr. Who?’ on Chicago Channel 11 (WTTW) the mysterious masked Max was back. This time there was audio to go along with the disorienting frenetic visuals. Channel 11 engineers weren’t able to stop the feed for 1 minute & 28 seconds. During the masked bandit’s rant, for reasons unknown, he also called out local Sports Voice Chuck "The Swirsk" Swirsky as some kind of ‘Frickin Liberal.’ This is quite the odd mashup of Sports/Pop culture with True Crime. I suggest you guys check out the clips on YouTube, as well as the @unresolvedpod episode on this bizarre act of anarchy. Any other Blaze/True Crime fans out there??
Spoiler Alert!!
No one has ever been charged with the crime, nor has anyone taken responsibility. The statute of limitations has expired in this case. To be continuted………
Since 1961 there have only been 12 occurrences of a ‘Battery’ (Catcher & Pitcher) hitting back-to-back home runs. Montreal Expos Catcher Sal Buerta & Pitcher Bryn Smith hit back to back shots off Cubs reliever Ray Fontenot back on August 14th, 1985. It wouldn’t happen again until a couple of Cardinals did it in 1994.
I’ve got a FREE Issue of Blaze for the first person who messages over the Cardinals Battery who went back to back.
After kicking a 22 yard field goal with :54 seconds left in the 4th quarter to send the game into Overtime, St. Louis Cardinals kicker Neil O’donoghue would go on to miss 3 field goals in the extra period, to secure a 20-20 tie with NFC East foe, The New York Football Giants. This happens to be the only tie game in Monday Night Football history;
Ken Hubbs became the 1st Rookie to win a Gold Glove back in 1962. Sadly Ken would pass away at just 22 years old in February of 1964 as the small plane he piloted crashed in snowstorm near Provo,Utah.
An ** can go next to Boston Red Sox’s third baseman Frank Malzone, who arguably was first Rookie to win the award back in the inaugural year of the Gold Glove, 1957. See, Frank had already qualified as a rookie in 1956 by old standards, but using today’s eligibility guidelines, Malzone’s would have been considered a rookie in 1957.
Another fun fact is that Malzone, would win the 3B Gold Glove honor for the first three seasons of the awards existence, (‘57-’60) before a Baltimore Oriole named Brooks Robinson would emerge on the scene and take the award for the next sixteen seasons.
📅 On November 8th,1989, Chicago Cubs OF Jerome Walton was named the National League Rookie of the Year. He was the 1st Cubbie to win the award in 27 seasons.
Any Blaze fans out there who can tell the crowd that previous ROY winner from 1962?
Bonus points if you can also name the runner up in 1989.
(Hint) He happened to be Jerome's teammate. 🔥
Flashing it way back this Friday to November 8th, 1970 when New Orleans Saints Kicker Tom Dempsey kicked an NFL record 63 yard field goal. Tom was born without toes on his right foot, so he was forced to wear a modified square looking kicking shoe. The boot at the end of regulation gave the Saints a 19-17 victory over the Detroit Lions. A few dudes were able to match this feat over the years, but it wouldn’t be surpassed until 2013 when Matt Prater hit a 64 yarder. Happy Friday!!
On November 5th, 1992 Dominique Wilkins poured in 30 points in an Opening Night 106-94 loss to the New York Knicks. For his efforts ‘The Human Highlight Reel’ became the 17th player in NBA History to reach the 20,000 point plateau. He would finish his playing days with 26,668 career points. Happy Friday Everybody!!
After completing his two year Naval Commitment, 24 year old rookie David Robinson made his debut for the San Antonio Spurs on this day in 1989. The 1987 # 1 overall pick wouldn’t disappoint during a Spurs 106-98 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers. ‘The Admiral’ led San Antonio with 32 points, while corralling 17 rebounds. It was just the 1st game in a phenomenal Rookie of The Year season for David. One in which he would average 24 points, 12 rebounds, & 4 blocks while helping the Spurs make a 35 win improvement over the previous season.
Thirty years ago today the Golden State Warriors out ran the Denver Nuggets in the largest scoring regulation game in NBA History, earning a 162-158 win . Chris Mullin led all scorers with 38, while is ‘Run TMC’ teammates Tim Hardaway & Mitch Richmond dropped in 32 & 29 respectively. Orlando Woolridge led the Nuggets with 37 , with our guy Walter Davis delivering a smooth 33 off the bench. Twelve players in the game scored in double figures. The 320 points combined is 4th most in an NBA Game in history, but the most in regulation. We’ll have more insight on those Wacky 1990-91 Denver Nuggets in a future Blaze Issue.
Who has the most blocked shots in a single NBA Game? Thats our dude Elmore Smith, who on October 28th 1973 blocked 17 shots against the Portland Trailblazers! Elmore led the league that season with 4.9 blocks per game. Did you know that blocked shots weren’t an official statistical category until the ‘73-’74 season?
Webster was another childhood favorite growing up. I can remember writing a # 84 on the inside collar of my Dolphins jacket that I got for X-Mas back in 1989. That happened to be his best year too as he hauled in 65 passes for 1236 yards with 6 TD’s including a 97 yard bomb from Bernie..
I have such clear memories of sitting in Mrs. Wiltse’s 3rd grade class back in 1990 with Jerry Rice clippings placed in the front cover of my new Trapper Keeper while she drilled us on those multiplication tables. Happy Birthday FLASH 80 !!
On October 7th, 1984 Walter Payton passes the great Jim Brown to become the NFL’s All-Time Rushing Yards Leader. Sweetness bulled his way to 154 yards on 32 carries in a Chicago 20-7 victory over the New Orleans Saints.
Interestingly, Payton’s effort on that grey day in the Windy City, helped him earn his 59th career 100 yard game, tying him with one Jim Brown. Walter would finish his career with 77 100 yard games.
Who holds the record for most 100 yard rushing games?
Happy Birthday to the ‘Iron Man’ Mr. A.C. Green !! A.C. holds the NBA record for most consecutive games played with 1,192. He played in 1,278 out of 1,281 games during his career. Those three missed games came during his 2nd season.
It was back on October 3rd, 1989 after a 1-3 start to the season that the Los Angeles Raiders named Offensive Line Coach Art Shell their new head coach, replacing the fired Mike Shannahan . With the promotion Art became the 1st African American Head Coach in modern NFL History.
September 29th, 1985 - Our man Warren Moon had quite a rough day in an early afternoon shootout against cross state rivals, the Dallas Cowboys. The Cowboys put Warren on the turf a record 12 times, and forced the future Hall of Famer to throw 4 interceptions. The Cowboys would pull out the 17-10 victory late in the fourth quarter on a Danny White Touchdown Pass to TE Fred Cornwell. It was the 2nd and final TD catch of Fred’s career.
We have another ‘On This Day’ for you guys celebrating this Friday April 17th. All the way back in 1976 every Phillies fan’s Main Man Mike Schmidt hit four home runs in quite the abnormal afternoon affair at Wrigley Field. The Phillies found themselves down 13-2 to the Cubs in the top of the 5th Inning when Mighty Mike stepped in & hit a two run homer off Cubs pitcher Rick Reuschel to ignite a Phillies Comeback. In each of his next three at-bats Mike went deep, including the go ahead two run shot off Rick’s older brother Paul in the top of the 10th inning. The Phils added another run & held on for an 18-16 victory. More from the Reuschel Boys in a future post! Have a nice weekend dudes!
September 23rd, 1992 - Goaltender Manon Rhéaume became the first woman to play in one of North America’s four major Men’s professional leagues when she tended goal for one period during an exhibition game between the expansion Tampa Bay Lightning & St. Louis Blues. She never played in the pros again, but played six seasons of minor league hockey, and won a Silver Medal in the 1998 Olympics for team Canada.
On September 22nd, 1993 Pitcher Nolan Ryan made the final appearance of his storied career. Ryan’s elbow finally called in quits in the 1st Inning of a 7-4 Rangers loss to the Seattle Mariners. The 46 year old finished his 27 year career with 5,714 strikeouts, 324 Wins, and 7 No-Hitters!
Any Baseball Nerds out there who can tell the class the last batter that Nolan faced?
