A great day for the Irish...
The most remarkable consecutive game winning streak in sports history ended on this date in 1974 as the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame stopped the Bruins of UCLA in their bid for an 89th straight win. Playing at home, Notre Dame overcame an 11-point deficit in the last 3 and a half minutes to win 71-70. Dwight Clay hit a jumper with 29 seconds remaining and the Irish held on for the victory...
Notre Dame came into the game as the #2 team in the country and would replace UCLA at the top, the first time the Bruins weren't #1 since the 1968 NCAA championship tournament...
The victory would come 20 days after Notre Dame's football team ended their season at #1 with an exciting Sugar Bowl win over Alabama...
Some highlights of that remarkable 88-day winning streak follow in my commentary...
More January 19 Memories...
1883) Thomas Edison's 1st village electric lighting system using overhead wires began operation in Roselle, NJ...
1898) Brown beats Harvard 6-0 in the 1st intercollegiate hockey game...
1907) The 1st film reviews appear in Variety Magazine (to which I say "Boffo", "Kudos" and "Socko")...
1937) Howard Hughes sets a transcontinental air record, flying from Los Angeles to New York City in 7 hours, 28 minutes and 25 seconds...
1949) The President's salary is increased from $75,000 to $100,000 with an additional $50,000 expense allowance for each year in office (Congress is outraged and demands a raise for themselves)...
1952) The NFL buys the New York Yankees franchise from Ted Collins, then awards the franchise to a group in Dallas on January 24th. The Dallas Texans will move to Kansas City to become the Chiefs (Are you following all this ? There will be a quiz)...
1953) A whopping 68% of all TV sets are tuned to CBS-TV as Lucy Ricardo gives birth to a baby boy on "I Love Lucy"...
1955) President Eisenhower allows a filmed news conference to be used on television and in movie newsreels for the 1st time...
1955) "The Millionaire" premieres on CBS-TV (the never seen John Beresford Tipton starts "instructing" Michael Anthony (Marvin Miller) to dispense the checks)...
1955) "Scrabble" debuts as a board game...
1957) Ernie Kovacs does a half-hour local TV show in Philadelphia without saying a single word of dialogue...
1957) Johnny Cash makes his 1st network TV appearance on CBS-TV's "Jackie Gleason Show"...
1957) Pat Boone sings at Ike's presidential inauguration ball...
1961) The 1st episode of the "Dick Van Dyke Show" is filmed...
1967) Lesley Gore appears on "Batman" as Pussycat, the Catwoman's sidekick...
1971) The Beatles' "Helter Skelter" is played at Charles Manson's murder trial ("helter skelter" was written on a crime scene mirror)...
1972) Sandy Koufax, Yogi Berra and Early Wynn are elected to Baseball's Hall of Fame...
1976) Promoter Bill Sargent offers the Beatles $30 million to reunite but the group turns down the offer...
1977) Charlie Daniels and Marshall Tucker play at Jimmy Carter's inauguration (Aretha Franklin sings "God Bless America")...
1979) Former Attorney General John Mitchell is released on parole after serving 19 months in federal prison for Watergate-related crimes...
1981) Frank Sinatra, Donny & Marie Osmond and Dean Martin perform at President Reagan's inaugural ball...
1988) "48 Hours" premieres on CBS-TV (the news show is still on)...
1989) President Reagan pardons George Steinbrenner for his illegal contributions to Richard Nixon's presidential campaign...
1993) IBM announces a loss of $4.97 billion for 1992, the largest single-year loss in U.S. corporate history...
1993) Fleetwood Mac reunites to perform "Don't Stop" at Bill Clinton's inauguration...
1993) Tom Waits is allowed to keep $2.5 million awarded to him after he sued Frito-Lay for using a sound alike in a 1988 commercial (a lot of money for chips)...
1998) The legendary Carl Perkins dies at 65 from complications caused by several strokes...
2000) Robert F. Kennedy nephew Michael Skakel surrenders to Greenwich, CT police to face charges in the 1975 death of a 15-year old girl (he was convicted of the crime and is now serving time)...
2002) The Patriots make their last game at Schaefer Stadium a winning one as they defeat Oakland in OT 16-13 on an Adam Vinatieri field goal (the game is played in a snowstorm and the infamous "tuck rule" is used to protect QB Tom Brady) in an AFC divisional playoff game...
2004) John Kerry wins Iowa's Democratic presidential caucus and Howard Dean who finishes 3rd delivers his famous fist-pumping, over the top speech that will bury him as a serious candidate...
To ensure accuracy, miltiple reference sources were used in the timeline...
Happy Birthday To...
1923) Jean Stapleton...
1926) Fritz Weaver...
1931) Tippi Hedren...
1931) Robert MacNeil...
1939) Phil Everly...
1944) Shelley Fabares...
1946) Dolly Parton...
1952) America's Dewey Bunnell...
1953) Desi Arnaz Jr...
Commentary...
Highlights of UCLA's 88-game winning streak in 1974:
- It was the first loss for the Bruins in 3 years...
- It was Bill Walton's 1st varsity loss as a player...
- It was only the 6th loss for Bruins coach John Wooden in 8 years...
- Notre Dame coach Digger Phelps was in his 3rd year as Irish coach after leaving Fordham...
- One week later UCLA would beat Notre Dame and return to #1 in the polls...
One of the greatest coaches in college basketball history, John Wooden, the "Wizard of Westwood" is still with us at 96...
Today is the 19th day of 2006 with 345 days remaining in the year but only 60 days until Spring and better yet, only 28 days remaining until pitchers and catchers...
