Following the murder of University of Miami defensive end Bryan Pata last night and in light of all the recent fights in both college (including that ugly brawl between the U and Florida International) and in the pros (remember Albert Haynesworth stomping on Andre Gurode's head ?) it's time for a good football story - enter Tom Dempsey...
Tom, now 59 and wife Carlene were victims of Hurricane Katrina but are back home again in New Orleans. "The hurricane flooded me out of a lot of memorabilia, but it can't flood out the memories", Dempsey said recently. Tom is national sales director of a company called Intelesys, a consumer relations company dealing with car companies all over the United States. On this date in 1970 Dempsey, born without any toes on his kicking foot, didn't need any. All he did that day was set a record for the longest field goal in NFL history...
Dempsey describes the kick: "When I lined up to kick my record-setting 63-yard field goal, we had the ball in the closed-in area of Tulane Stadium. The winds sometimes would swirl and push balls wide to the left or right. I got a good snap and good hold and I knew I had hit it well enough to go the distance, though, the question of whether the ball would stay straight was in the back of my mind". Like an arrow Tom Dempsey. Like an arrow. When you look at the video of the kick you see the official looking up to make sure the ball cleared the crossbar. It did by the length of a toenail...
For another look at that historic kick, click on: http://www.cdol.com/saints/dempsey.html On October 25th, 1998 Jason Elam of the Denver Broncos also kicked a 63-yard field goal but that was in the rarefied air of Denver's Mile High Stadium...
Ten Timeline Memories...
- [Election Day results: 1960] Massachusetts Senator John F. Kennedy defeats VP Richard Nixon for the presidency (the 'Age of Camelot' begins)...1966] Edward W. Brooke of Massachusetts becomes the 1st black to be elected to the U.S. Senate by popular vote (and last night the 1st black governor was elected in MA)...1966] Ronald Reagan is elected governor of California...1988] VP George H. W. Bush wins the presidential election over Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis...1994] Republicans gain control of the House for the 1st time in 40 years and win a majority in the Senate (yesterday's elections just reversed that)...2000] A statewide recount of presidential election ballots begins in Florida and after conceding the election, VP Al Gore retracts his concession to await results...
- [1895] Wilhelm Roentgen while experimenting with electricity discovers the scientific principle involved and takes the 1st X-ray pictures (but not before using hair spray on his hair for the press coverage)...
- [1933] The CWA (Civil Works Administration) is created by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The organization is designed to create jobs for more than 4 million unemployed people in the U.S...
- [1964] Judy Garland and 18-year old daughter Liza Minnelli perform together at the London Palladium...
- [1966] The Orioles' Frank Robinson wins the AL MVP award and becomes the 1st player in baseball history to win the award (he did it with Cincinnati in 1961) in both leagues...
- [1968] Jean Terrell (sister of heavyweight champ Ernie Terrell) replaces Diana Ross in the Supremes. Jean sang lead on "Up The Ladder To The Roof", "Stoned Love" and "Floy Joy"...
- [1979] "The Iran Crisis: America Held Hostage" premieres on ABC-TV. While the show was planned to be temporary, it evolves into "Nightline" in March, 1980...
- [1995] Michael Jackson and Sony Corp. of America combine forces to create the world's third-largest music publishing with more than 100,000 titles...
- [2000] Waco special counsel John C. Danforth releases his final report absolving the government of wrongdoing in the 1993 siege at the Branch Davidian compound...
- [2004] Thousands of U.S. troops attack the toughest strongholds of Sunni insurgents in Fallujah, Iraq in an effort to end guerilla control of the city...
"Happy Trails": 2006] Johnny Sain ("Spahn and Sain and pray for rain") who died yesterday. Sain who suffered a stroke in 2002, had been in poor health. The former pitcher was 89...
Premiered on this date: 1991] "The Carol Burnett Show" (this resurrected version of her original show only runs for one season) on CBS-TV...
Debuted on this date: 1965] "Days of Our Lives" debuts on NBC-TV (it's still running)...
"D-I-V-O-R-C-E": 1968] Cynthia Powell Lennon is granted a divorce from John Lennon (after being married 6 years)...
[To ensure accuracy of dates and content, multiple reference sources are used in the timeline]...
Commentary...
Ed Pyle (who I worked with in Tampa) now living in Los Angeles after a stellar career as news director at a couple of LA stations sends this e-mail on the Kinky Friedman candidacy for governor of Texas: "If Lester Maddox, (former FLA gov.) Claude Kirk, Ronald Reagan and Jesse Ventura among others can serve as governors, why not Kinky ? I'd pick him over all those others! In fact, he'd be my choice over the governor of my state!". That's from Ed Pyle, formerly of Los Angeles and now living in the witness protection program. (P.S. Kinky got 10% of the vote)..
In addition to the Democrats cleaning the Republican's clock yesterday, a few sports figures were in political races with the following results: Lynn Swann lost his bid to become governor of Pennsylvania, former NFL quarterback Heath Shuler won a seat in the House and track great Jim Ryun lost his House seat...
"Happy Birthday...happy birthday":
Jack (son of Ozzie) Osbourne (21), Tara Reid (31), Parker Posey (38), Courtney Thorne-Smith (39), Rickie Lee Jones (52), Alfre Woodard (53), Mary Hart (56), Bonnie Raitt (57), Morley Safer (75), Patti Page (79), June Havoc (90) and Norman Lloyd (92)...
Timeline Countdown: 53 days until 2007, 60 days until the NFL playoffs and 88 days until Super Bowl XLI in Miami...
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