(Remembering Curt Gowdy who passed away yesterday at 86, in my commentary)
From Great Neck to glory...
Against all odds, 16-year old Sarah Hughes, a student at Great Neck North High School, shocked the sports world by winning the women's figure skating gold medal at the Winter Olympics on this night (2002) in Salt Lake City...
The high school junior who went from fourth in the short program two nights ago to first place after the free skate, would pass Michele Kwan, who would win the bronze medal behind Russian Irina Slutskaya who picked up silver...
Sarah who would go right back to school following the Olympics had this to say, "There was no pressure on me to win. I skated for pure enjoyment. That's how I wanted my Olympic moment to be". Sarah who has curtailed her skating career attends Yale University but will be in the audience with her family when sister Emily Hughes, a 17-year old junior at Great Neck North does her short program at the Turino Winter Olympics tonight. Can lightening strike twice ? All of Great Neck and the New York metropolitan area will be hoping it does...
More February 21 Memories...
1858) The 1st electric burglar alarm is installed in Boston, MA...
1878) The 1st telephone directories are distributed by the District Telephone Company of New Haven, CT...
1925) The 1st issue of "The New Yorker" is published...
1931) ("Plop, plop, fizz fizz, oh what a relief it is") Alka Seltzer is introduced...
1947) Edwin Land demonstrates the Polaroid Land Camera to the Optical Society of America in New York City (it's the 1st camera to take, develop and print a black and white photo in 60 seconds. The camera would go on sale the following year)...
| 1965) Malcolm X is assassinated at the Audubon Ballroom in Manhattan at the age of 39 (3 Black Muslims were charged and jailed for the murder)... 1965) "This Diamond Ring" by Gary Lewis and the Playboys is #1... 1970) The Jackson 5 make their "American Bandstand" TV debut... 1972) President Richard M. Nixon begins his historic visit to China... 1975) The Average White Band is anything but, they're #1 with "Pick Up the Pieces"... 1975) Former Attorney General John N. Mitchell and former White House aides H.R. Haldeman and John D. Ehrlichman are sentenced to 2 1/2 to 8 years in prison for their roles in the Watergate cover-up... 1982) Disc jockey Murray "The K" Kaufman, a victim of cancer at 60... 1988) TV evangelist Jimmy Swaggart tearfully confesses to his congregation in Baton Rouge, LA, that he was guilty of an "unspecified sin" and temporarily leaves the pulpit (reports that he had taken up with a prostitute are later confirmed by him)... 1992) Kristi Yamaguchi completes a yearlong leap from runner-up U.S. national champion in 1991 to win a gold medal at the Winter Olympics in Albertville, France (she's the 1st American since Dorothy Hamill (1976) to win the women's Olympic figure skating title)... 1995) Chicago stockbroker Steve Fossett becomes the 1st person to fly solo across the Pacific Ocean in a balloon (landing in Canada)... 2000) David Letterman returns to his Late Night show about 5 weeks after having emergency quintuple heart bypass surgery... 2001) Steely Dan, U2, Eminem and Faith Hill each win 3 Grammy Awards in Los Angeles... 2002) The State Department declares Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl dead, a month after he'd been abducted by Islamic extremists in Pakistan... To ensure accuracy, multiple reference sources were used in the timeline... Happy Birthday To... 1935) Rue ("The Golden Girls") McClanahan... 1943) Record executive David Geffen... 1946) Tyne Daly... 1946) Tricia Nixon Cox... 1953) "CSI's" William Petersen... 1955) Kelsey Grammer... 1979) Jennifer Love Hewitt... 1986) Charlotte Church... Commentary... I met Curt Gowdy when he did sports on the 1st morning show under the new music format at WRKO in 1967. Curt joined morning man Al Gates and newsman Palmer Payne to form a 3-man full service morning team. Curt and then-GM Perry S. Ury were neighbors in Wellesley Hills, a posh suburban town west of Boston. Curt was so good at his craft that he adlibbed everything except the scores. He was like a walking sports encyclopedia with a great memory and near-total recall which he would often use. At the time, Curt, in addition to doing the morning show for us also did baseball and football for NBC-TV. Curt gave us a great presence and incomparable credibility in the world of sports. Whenever I would run into Curt following his stay at WRKO, he was always friendly and willing to spend some time with me whether he was about to catch a flight or just checking into a hotel for his network assignments. Curt never considered himself a star, he was the same "Cowboy" from Wyoming that came east to do Yankee games in 1949 and stayed to spend 16 seasons doing play-by-play for the Red Sox. What followed that was what makes Curt Gowdy legendary... Curt would win 13 Emmy Awards and was first to win a Peabody Award, a prestigious honor in broadcasting. He broadcast 16 World Series, 9 Super Bowls, 8 Olympics, 12 Rose Bowls and 24 NCAA Final Fours. For 2 decades he hosted "The American Sportsman" on ABC-TV. Curt is the only person in 3 different Halls of Fame (Baseball, Basketball and Football), residing in the broadcasting wing. In 1963 Curt purchased the first of what eventually would be 7 radio stations, WCCM in Haverhill, MA... Curt Gowdy leaves his wife Jerre, sons Trevor and Curt, Jr., daughter Cheryl Ann and 5 grandchildren. A funeral is scheduled for Saturday at Trinity Church in Boston. Contributions in honor of Curt can be made to Curt Gowdy State Park in Wyoming: 1351 Hynds Lodge Road, Cheyenne, WY, 82009. They can also be made to the Jimmy Fund at www.jimmyfund.org Happy trails Cowboy. It was my pleasure knowing you. RIP... Today is the 52nd day of 2006 with 313 days left in the year, 27 days until Spring, 39 days until opening day... |
