December 25, 1851: James J. Thomson is born in Annan, Dumfries, Scotland. A halfback, he was one of the founding players for Glasgow soccer team Queen's Park, who stood as the Scotland national team in the 1st international soccer game, against England, at the West of Scotland Cricket Ground at Hamilton Crescent, in the Partick section of the west side of Glasgow. The game ended in a 0-0 draw. Thomson lived until 1915.
December 25, 1856: James Francis Galvin is born in St. Louis. The Hall of Fame pitcher was nicknamed "Pud" because he was said to have "reduced hitters to pudding." No word on whether it was figgy pudding.
He won 365 games -- a total topped by only 4 pitchers ever -- for the Buffalo Bisons (who went out of business in 1885) and the Pittsburgh team that would be renamed the Pirates before he retired, in a career that lasted from 1875 to 1892. That career curiously stopped right before the distance from home plate to the pitcher's mound was extended from 50 feet to the now-traditional 60 feet, 6 inches, thus making it harder on pitchers.
A 2006 National Public Radio article refers to Galvin as "the first baseball player to be widely known for using a performance enhancer." The Washington Post reported that Galvin used the Brown-Séquard elixir, which contained monkey testosterone, before a game in 1889. However, no one then seemed bothered by his use of the elixir, and the Post practically endorsed it after the game, saying that Galvin's performance was "the best proof yet furnished of the value of the discovery."
He was poor, and couldn't afford to take care of himself, and died in 1902. He was only 45 years old. I can't find a reference to the cause of his death, so I can neither confirm nor deny that the steroid he took had anything to do with it.
December 25, 1864: Thomas W. Cahill -- I can find no record of what the W stands for -- is born in Manhattan, and grows up in St. Louis. He loved baseball and track, but when a soccer team from Toronto visited St. Louis, he got hooked on the sport.
On April 5, 1913, at the Astor House hotel in New York, Tom Cahill founded the United States Football Association, which later became and remains the United States Soccer Federation (USSF), the governing body of American soccer. He served as its 1st Executive Secretary, until 1921, when he left to merge 2 regional leagues into the American Soccer League. The Great Depression killed it in 1931, and he died in 1951, forgotten.
He would later be elected to the National Soccer Hall of Fame, and should be remembered as the father of American soccer.
December 25, 1871: Reading Football Club is founded in Reading, Berkshire, England. They played at Elm Park from 1896 to 1999, and since then at the 24,161-seat Madejski Stadium.
"The Royals" have not been particularly successful. They have won England's 4th division once, its 3rd division 3 times, and its 2nd division twice, but their best 1st division finish has been 8th place in 2007. Their best finish in the FA Cup has been the Semifinals, in 1927 and 2015, although they've gotten to at least the Quarterfinals 6 times, including 4 times since 2010. Their best finish in the League Cup is the Quarterfinals in 1996 and 1998.
They won the Football league Third Division South Cup in 1938, the London War Cup in 1941, and the Full Members Cup in 1988. This was a competition created after English clubs were banned from European play after the Heysel Stadium disaster of 1985, to give them some extra competition. It lasted a little longer than the ban did, until 1992.
December 25, 1875: "Young Tom Morris," an early golf legend, and the son of an early golf legend known as Old Tom Morris, dies in his native St. Andrews, Fife, Scotland. He is only 24. He had recently played a match in terrible weather, and probably caught pneumonia.
Although it would be a Scotsman, Alexander Fleming, who discovered penicillin, it would be decades before it could have saved Young Tom, who had also recently lost his wife and child in childbirth, and, between his grief and his illness, may have lost the will to live.
Old Tom Morris, born in 1821, lived on until 1908. St. Andrews, home of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club, and the site of 27 British Opens (but never, as yet, a Ryder Cup), is still "the Home of Golf," partly because of the legacy of the Tom Morrises.
December 25, 1877: Henry Judah Trihey is born in Berlin (now Kitchener), Ontario. A center, Harry Trihey won the Stanley Cup with the Montreal Shamrocks in 1899 and 1900. Regarded as the best forward of his era, he was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame, and died in 1942.
December 25, 1886: According to club legend, a meeting of workers of the Dial Square Shop of the Royal Arsenal in Woolwich, Kent (now part of Southeast London) is held at the nearby Royal Oak pub. The men involved had played football under the name Dial Square 2 weeks earlier, on December 11, defeating Eastern Wanderers 6-0 at Millwall's ground on the Isle of Dogs.
Now, the legend says, they formalize themselves, calling themselves Royal Arsenal Football Club. They will play their home games at the Manor Ground in nearby Plumstead.
We now know, thanks to research by the Arsenal History Society, that this story is not true. They uncovered a publication dated January 2, 1887, with an advertisement seeking matches under the Dial Square F.C. name, meaning that the change of name to Royal Arsenal had not yet occurred. But on January 8, just 6 days later, they used the Royal Arsenal name in a 6-1 win over Erith at Plumstead Common, not far from the Royal Arsenal itself.
They would turn professional in 1893, necessitating a name change, since a professional sports team was not permitted to have "royal" in its name. So they renamed themselves for their locality: Woolwich Arsenal. In 1913, they moved across the River Thames to the Highbury section of North London, and became simply Arsenal Football Club.
When they play at home right before Christmas, their fans are known to sing, "Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way! Santa is an Arsenal fan, and at Highbury today!" This is despite the fact that, in 2006, they moved from the old Arsenal Stadium, nicknamed Highbury, and into the Emirates Stadium. When their last game before Christmas is on the road, the fans sing, "Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way! Oh what fun it is to see The Arsenal win away!"
December 25, 1889, 130 years ago: Royal Arsenal play on Christmas Day for the 1st time, at the Manor Ground. They defeat Preston Hornets 5-0.
December 25, 1890: In Lancashire, England, soccer hooliganism, if not "invented," is first exposed to a wide audience. Blackburn Rovers play a home match at Ewood Park against nearby team Darwen. Rovers are scheduled to play West Midlands club Wolverhampton Wanderers the following day, Boxing Day, and so they field a weakened team. This infuriates the Blackburn fans, particularly as ticket prices had been increased for the game.
When the Darwen team appears, the fans urge them to leave the pitch, which they do, later re-emerging with their second eleven. Eventually, Blackburn and Darwen fans invade the pitch, pulling up the goal posts and threatening to wreck the press box. The police intervene, and finally manage to control the situation.
December 25, 1891: Royal Arsenal come from a 3-0 deficit to draw 3-3 with Sheffield United, at Bramall Lane in Sheffield, Yorkshire.
December 25, 1893: The newly-professional, newly-in-the-Football-League, newly-renamed Woolwich Arsenal host Burslem Port Vale, later just "Port Vale." Today, they are the only 2 teams in the 92-team Football League who are not named after a specific locality. Arsenal win, 4-1.
December 25, 1894, 125 years ago: In a manner of speaking, the 1st holiday-season college bowl game is played on this day. Certainly, it was the 1st game between teams from 2 different parts of the country. And it was the 2 men most responsible for the development of American football who set it up and opposed each other in it.
Walter Camp had been one of the 1st great college football players, at Yale University in the late 1870s. In 1888, he became Yale's head coach, and one of his players on that great team was Amos Alonzo Stagg. Between them, they invented pretty much every feature that turned American football from a game resembling soccer and rugby to the game that became so popular in the 20th Century.
Both men went West to start college football programs, Stagg at the University of Chicago, Camp at the newly-founded Stanford University in the San Francisco Bay Area. They played at the Haight Street Grounds in San Francisco. Chicago beat Stanford 24-4.
The Haight Street Grounds stood from 1887 to 1895. It was actually not at Haight Street, but at the southeastern corner of Stanyan and Waller Streets, in the Haight-Ashbury district that would become the seat of the Hippie movement in the 1960s, at the southeastern corner of Golden Gate Park, about a block from where Kezar Stadium would later be built.
Also on this day, Woolwich Arsenal again host Burslem Port Vale, and win 7-0. Patrick O'Brien scores 3 goals -- not yet known as a "hat trick" in either ice hockey or association football.
December 25, 1895: Woolwich Arsenal again host Burslem Port Vale, and win 2-1.
December 25, 1896: Woolwich Arsenal host Lincoln City, and win 6-2.
December 25, 1897: Arsenal lose on Christmas for the 1st time. It is against Tottenham Hotspur, then in Middlesex -- the Tottenham area wouldn't be brought into London, North or otherwise, until the municipal boundaries were redrawn in 1963, effective 1965. Until Arsenal moved to North London in 1913, they considered "Spurs" to be just another opponent. This time, though, Spurs win, 3-2 at the Manor Ground.
December 25, 1899: Woolwich Arsenal travel to Lincoln City, and lose 5-0.
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December 25, 1900: Woolwich Arsenal host East London club West Ham United, and win 1-0.
Also on this day, Albert J. Trace is born in Chicago. A musician who played minor-league baseball, he wrote songs with his brother Ben Trace, including "You Call Everybody Darlin'" and "If I Knew You Were Comin' I'd've Baked a Cake." He died in 1993.
December 25, 1901: Woolwich Arsenal host Lancashire club Blackpool. The game ends in a 0-0 draw.
December 25, 1902: Woolwich Arsenal travel to Staffordshire, and lose 2-1 to Burton United.
December 25, 1903: Woolwich Arsenal host Yorkshire club Bradford City, and win 4-1. At the conclusion of the 1903-04 season, Arsenal will be promoted to the Football League Division One for the 1st time.
December 25, 1905: Woolwich Arsenal host the defending Football League Champions, North-East club Newcastle United, and win 4-3.
December 25, 1906: Woolwich Arsenal host the defending Champions of the Scottish Football League, Celtic of Glasgow, and lose 2-0 in front of 15,000 fans, a big crowd for that era.
December 25, 1907: Woolwich Arsenal again host Newcastle United, again the defending Champions, and play to a 2-2 draw.
Also on this day, John R. Rosenblatt (I can find no record of what the R stands for) is born in Omaha, Nebraska. Good enough in baseball to win a scholarship to the University of Iowa, he had to drop out to support his family. He went on to play semipro ball in Omaha for 20 years, played in a 1927 exhibition game with Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig, and, in another, batted against Satchel Paige.
In 1948, Omaha elected him City Commissioner, and he got a stadium built. The College World Series would be held at his stadium, named for him in 1964, from 1950 until 2010, when a replacement was built. In 1954 and again in 1957, he was elected Mayor. Although Jewish, he was called "the supreme gentleman" by the city's Archbishop, Gerald T. Bergan. He lived until 1979.
December 25, 1908: Woolwich Arsenal visit Leicester Fosse, the club now known as Leicester City, and draw 1-1. In those days, it was a common practice for teams to play each other at one's ground on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, and then travel to the other's ground to play again on December 26, Boxing Day. This was the 1st time that Arsenal did it, and they won the rematch in Plumstead, 2-1.
Also on this Day, William Benjamin Chapman is born in Nashville. A left fielder, he debuted for the Yankees in 1930, helped them win the World Series in 1932, played in the 1st 4 All-Star Games from 1933 to 1936, and led the American League in stolen bases in 1931, '32, '33 and '37.
By the last of those years, he was with the Washington Senators, as the dark side of his personality had surfaced. When the Nazis took over Germany in 1933, he took it as a sign that it was okay to yell anti-Semitic slurs and throw fascist salutes at Jewish fans, of which there were plenty in New York City, and, then, particularly in The Bronx. That season, sliding into 2nd base, he intentionally spiked Senators 2nd baseman Buddy Myer -- of Jewish descent but not raised in the faith. Myer fought back, and it grew into a 20-minute brawl, and both men were suspended for 5 games and fined $100.
It wasn't just bigotry that was wrong with him: In 1935, his 1st wife, Mary Elizabeth, filed for divorce, claiming what we would now call domestic abuse. In 1936, his hitting declining and Joe DiMaggio having arrived, Chapman was traded to Washington -- Myer's team. If there were any further incidents between them, they were not publicized. Ironically, one of the players the Yankees got in the trade was Jake Powell, who also turned out to be a nasty bigot.
Chapman managed in the minor leagues in 1942, but punched an umpire, and was suspended for the entire 1943 season. In 1944, with World War II having taken so many players, the 35-year-old Chapman was signed by the Brooklyn Dodgers -- which would retroactively become another irony. They traded him to the Philadelphia Phillies in 1945, and they named him their manager, and he continued to play until 1946, finishing with a lifetime batting average of .302.
But in 1947, when the Phillies went to Brooklyn to play the Dodgers, Chapman launched a fusillade of racial epithets at the Dodgers' new signing, Jackie Robinson. At the time, the press wouldn't get specific, only saying that it was bad enough that even the Southerners on the Dodgers rallied around Jackie.
The 1950 film The Jackie Robinson Story, with Jackie playing himself, showed a sanitized version of events. But the 2013 film 42 shows Alan Tudyk playing Chapman, and may well have set a record for the most utterances of "the N-word" by a white actor in movie history. (Tudyk's career has not suffered for this.)
Commissioner Happy Chandler warned the Phillies that there had better not be any incidents during the Dodgers' upcoming roadtrip to Philadelphia. It was suggested that a photograph be taken of Chapman and Robinson shaking hands. Chapman refused, so they posed together holding a bat. There were no further incidents.
Chapman was fired in the middle of the 1948 season -- not for the kind of person he was, but for losing. Only once more did he wear a major league uniform, as a coach with the Cincinnati Reds in 1952. Interviewed by Ray Robinson (a journalist working on a biography of Chapman's long-ago teammate, Lou Gehrig) in 1993, shortly before his death, he expressed regret over his actions, and pointed out that his son was coaching an integrated high school football team in Alabama: "Look, I'm real proud I've raised my son different. And he gets along well with them. They like him. That's a nice thing, don't you think?"
Also on this day, Joe Gregg Moore is born in Gause, Texas, outside Houston. A left fielder,"Jo-Jo" Moore played for the New York Giants from 1930 to 1941, helping them win 3 National League Pennants and the 1933 World Series. He was a 6-time All-Star, and retired with a lifetime batting average of .298. He lived until 2001.
December 25, 1909, 110 years ago: Woolwich Arsenal, by now in a financial meltdown that will see them just barely saved from going out of business in the Spring, against host Newcastle United, finishing up what is still the most productive decade in their history, and lose 3-0.
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December 25, 1911: Not that most people then rooting for Woolwich Arsenal cared about who the opponent was, but the Gunners lose 5-0 to Tottenham at White Hart Lane, in front of a huge crowd for the time, 47,000. The next day, the clubs meet again at the Manor Ground, and Arsenal win 3-1.
Also on this day, the 4,000-seat Patrick Arena opens in Victoria, the capital of the Province of British Columbia, with the 1st artificial ice surface in Western Canada. It is built by brothers Frank and Lester Patrick, who owned, ran and played for the Victoria Senators of the Pacific Coast Hockey Association. The team would later be known as the Victoria Aristocrats and the Victoria Cougars.
In 1925, by then members of the Western Canada Hockey League, they beat the NHL Champion Montreal Canadiens, and won the Stanley Cup. They remain the last non-NHL team, and the last team from British Columbia, to win the Cup.
Frank sold his share of the team to Lester, and led the Vancouver Millionaires to the 1915 Stanley Cup, still the only one won by a Vancouver team. In 1926, Lester became the general manager and head coach of the expansion New York Rangers. Neither was involved with the arena bearing their family name anymore.
On November 11, 1929, it burned down -- usually considered to be arson. It would take until 1949 for a new Victoria Memorial Arena to be built (not on the same site) and professional hockey in Victoria to be restored. In 2005, "The Barn on Blanshard" was replaced on the same site by a new arena, the 7,000-seat Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre. It is home to the Victoria Royals of the Western Hockey League.
December 25, 1912: Arsenal host Nottingham club Notts County, and draw 0-0. The 1912-13 season will be the worst in Arsenal's history, the only time they will ever be relegated to the 2nd division. Team owner Henry Norris, a real estate tycoon and a Member of Parliament, decided that the location in Southeast London, then having poor transportation links, was a problem.
So he bought land in Islington, in North London, and built a new stadium, officially named the Arsenal Stadium, but nicknamed Highbury after the neighborhood. It was much easier to reach for clubs both inside and outside London. Alas, it would begin life outside the top flight.
In 1987, the Docklands Light Railway began service, including to the area that was once home to Arsenal. That didn't help the team. But in 1913, the Highbury area included a stop on the London Underdround's Piccadilly Line.
In 1932, Arsenal manager Herbert Chapman convinced the company then running the Underground (what we would call a subway system) to rename the station closest to the stadium "Arsenal." The old tiles reading "GILLESPIE ROAD" can still be seen on the wall of the station, and motormen who are fans of arch-rival Tottenham Hotspur will, inevitably, use the train's public-address system to identify the station as "Gillespie Road" instead of Arsenal.
To this day, Arsenal are the only London-area team to have a stop named for them. With Tottenham having built a new stadium, there is a proposal to rename the White Hart Lane national railway station "Tottenham Hotspur," but it has not been acted upon.
December 25, 1913: Woolwich Arsenal travel to Yorkshire and beat Bradford Park Avenue (not to be confused with Bradford City) 3-2. At the conclusion of the season, Norris, noting that the club no longer plays in Woolwich, drops the locality from the name, and it becomes simply "Arsenal Football Club." Many fans will continue to call the club what they've been calling it: "The Arsenal." Many still do refer to it as such, writing and typing, Capital T, Capital A.
December 25, 1914: Upon hearing German soldiers sing Christmas carols in their trench on the Western Front of what was then called The Great War (later World War I), the British soldiers start to do so in theirs. Soon, the men on both sides come out of their trenches, and stop treating each other as enemies for a few hours, exchanging food, drinks, and trinkets. It becomes known as the Christmas Truce.
Legend has it that there was even a soccer game. Sorry, forgot to "speak English" there: A football match. It's not clear which side produced the ball, but according to most accounts that discuss the match, the Germans beat the English, 3-2.
This is the 1st time that Englishmen would be defeated by Germans at their national game. There have been many more. But, as England manager Alf Ramsey pointed out before the 1966 World Cup Final, twice in the 20th Century, the English (well, the British, and their allies) would beat the Germans at their national game (war), and on their soil no less.
Military historian Andrew Robertshaw (a technical advisor for the film version of the World War I story War Horse) says such a truce would have been unthinkable a year later: "This was before the poisoned gas, before aerial bombardment. By the end of 1915, both sides were far too bitter for this to happen again."
In 1997, Garth Brooks and Joe Henry wrote a song titled "Belleau Wood" for Brooks' album Sevens. It describes a Christmas truce between American and German soldiers at Belleau Wood in 1917. But this is fiction, as the battle of Belleau Wood took place in June 1918, in Aisne, Picardy, France.
The Football League did not suspend operations until the conclusion of the 1914-15 season. On Christmas, Arsenal began a home-and-home series, defeating Leicester Fosse away 4-1 on the 25th, and 6-0 at home on the 26th.
December 25, 1915: With rosters depleted by the war, Arsenal travel to Upton Park in East London for what is, essentially, a reserve match, and lose 8-2 to West Ham United.
December 25, 1916: Arsenal travel to the Park Royal Ground in West London, then the stadium of Queens Park Rangers. They beat QPR 3-2.
December 25, 1917: Arsenal travel to Craven Cottage in West London, home of Fulham, and play to a 1-1 draw.
December 25, 1918: The war finally over, but the League deciding not to re-establish play until the following season (September 1919), Arsenal travel to East London, and lose 3-2 to Clapton Orient, the club now known as Leyton Orient.
It's a big day for Arsenal for another reason, as Bertram Mee (no middle name) is born in Bulwell, Nottinghamshire. A winger, he played for Mansfield Town and Southampton, but his playing career was cut short by injury.
This had also been the case for Arsenal players Tom Whittaker and Billy Milne, and Bertie Mee followed the path that each of those men took, taking what he'd learned in treating his injury and putting it to work as a physiotherapist, becoming Arsenal's, and in 1966 becoming Arsenal's manager. But before going to Arsenal, World War II intervened, and he entered the Royal Army Medical Corps.
He rose to the rank of Sergeant, but after succeeding Milne as physiotherapist in 1960 and being named manager in 1966, he remained a Sergeant through and through. He instilled discipline in an Arsenal side that was nearly relegated in 1966, a team that was not only terrible, but was perhaps the least interesting in London, what with Tottenham and West Ham having won major trophies in the decade, and Chelsea, Fulham and Queens Park Rangers all having gotten favorable notices in the media for their play.
In 1966-67, he handled the personnel management and the discipline, while assistant manager Dave Sexton trained the offense. After that season, Sexton was named manager at Chelsea, but former star right back Don Howe, another whose career ended too soon by injury, was named assistant manager, and he straightened out the defense. Arsenal reached the Final of the League Cup in 1968 and 1969, won the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup in 1970, and then, with a few adjustments due to injury that turned out to be very fortuitous, won both the Football League and the FA Cup -- "The Double" -- in 1971.
In 1972, with Howe having left for the manager's job at West Bromwich Albion, Arsenal finished 5th in a tight 5-team race, and lost the FA Cup Final. In 1973, they finished a close 2nd and lost the FA Cup Semifinal. Unfortunately, Mee saw every challenge to his authority, even minor ones, as betrayal, and acted the Sergeant too often. And he started a tradition followed by Terry Neill in 1980, George Graham in 1991, and Arsène Wenger in 2005: Breaking up a great Arsenal team too soon. Both of these problems manifested themselves in his sale of Captain Frank McLintock after the 1973 season.
Arsenal fell apart, and nearly got relegated in the 1975 and 1976 seasons, barely staying up both times. Mee was finally let go. He later served as Graham Taylor's assistant at Watford, and lived until 2001. He won 241 games as Arsenal manager, a record that stood until surpassed by Wenger in 2006.
December 25, 1919, 100 years ago: Arsenal, back in League play and promoted back to Division One, travel to Derbyshire, and lose 3-2 to Derby County. The next day, the teams meet at Highbury, and Arsenal win 1-0.
Also on this day, Cliftonhill Stadium opens in Coatbridge, North Lanarkshire, Scotland. It is the home of Albion Rovers Football Club. They have won Scottish soccer's 2nd division in 1934, its 3rd in 1989, and its 4th in 2015. But they have rarely been in the 1st division, under any name. They have never won the Scottish Cup, but in that 1st season, 1919-20, they got to the Final. They have won 8 Lanarkshire Cups, but the last was in 1987.
Today, it is known as The Reigart Stadium for sponsorship purposes, and only the 1,572-seat Airdrie Stand remains open. Currently, Rovers are in the Scottish League Two, Scotland's 4th division. In the 1997-98 and 1998-99 seasons, Hamilton Academical F.C. groundshared at Cliftonhill, while their Douglas Park was rebuilt.
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December 25, 1920: Arsenal go to Goodison Park in Liverpool, and beat Everton 4-2.
December 25, 1921: Melvin Anthony Maceau is born in Milwaukee. A center, he played for the Cleveland Browns, and helped them win the All-America Football Conference in 1946, 1947 and 1948, the last of these an undefeated season. He was cut before the 1949 season, when the Browns again won the AAFC title, before joining the NFL. Mel Maceau died in 1981.
December 25, 1922: Arsenal go to Burnden Park in Bolton, Lancashire, and lose to Bolton Wanderers 4-1.
Also on this day, Julius Neal Watlington is born in Yanceyville, North Carolina. A catcher, he arrived in professional baseball in 1941, then went off to World War II, and was wounded and received a Purple Heart. He appeared in 21 major league games, all with the Philadelphia Athletics in 1953, and remained at the Triple-A level until retiring after the 1958 season. He is still alive, 1 of 10 surviving players for that team before its 1954-55 move to Kansas City.
Also on this day, Stephen Wojciechowski (no middle name) is born in Fort William, Ontario, now part of Thunder Bay. A right wing, playing under the name of Steve Wochy, he played 49 games for the Detroit Red Wings in the 1944-45 season, and 5 in 1946-47. He continued playing professional hockey until 1955, helping the Cleveland Barons win the Calder Cup, the Championship of the American Hockey League, in 1951 and '53.
At 97, he may be the oldest living former NHL player, and the last to have played in the NHL during World War II.
Also on this day, Félix Loustau (no middle name) is born in Avellaneda, in the state of Buenos Aires, Argentina. A left wing, he starred on the Buenos Aires soccer team River Plate. With Juan Carlos Muñoz, José Manuel Moreno, Adolfo Pedernera and Ángel Amadeo Labruna, he formed a 5-man forward line known as La Máquina, "the Machine." They won Argentine league titles in 1941, 1942, 1945 and 1947.
Loustau also helped Argentina win the Copa América, South America's continental championship for national teams, in 1945, 1946 and 1947. He died in 2003. Muñoz was the last survivor of La Máquina, living until 2009.
December 25, 1923: James Gamble Nippert dies from blood poisoning, the result of an injury he suffered a month earlier playing football at the University of Cincinnati, in a win over arch-rival Miami University of Ohio. The son of a judge, and of an heir to the Procter & Gamble fortune, he had survived serving in World War I, only to face this fate. He was only 23 years old.
UC's stadium, built the following year, is named for him. His brother Louis Nippert would later own the Cincinnati Reds.
December 25, 1924: Arsenal go to St. Andrews Stadium in Birmingham, and lose to Birmingham City 2-1.
December 25, 1925: Arsenal host Notts County at Highbury, and win 3-0.
Also on this day, Ned Franklin Garver is born in Ney, Ohio, outside Toledo. In 1951, he went 20-12 pitching for the St. Louis Browns, the team that became the Baltimore Orioles 3 years later. This was quite a feat, considering that the Browns went 52-102 that year. Garver was the starting pitcher for the American League in that year's All-Star Game in Detroit.
Pitching in the major leagues from 1948 to 1961, with mostly bad teams, Garver finished with a career record of 129-157. But he must have had some talent, above and beyond his remarkable 1951 season, because the great Ted Williams said, "He could throw anything up there and get me out." He died on February 26, 2017, age 91.
Also on this day, Samuel Patterson Smyth Pollock is born in Montreal. Hired by the Montreal Canadiens' front office in 1959, he was general manager from 1963 to 1978, helping to build 12 Stanley Cup winners. He is in the Hockey Hall of Fame, and died in 2007.
December 25, 1926: Richard Wesley Manville is born in Des Moines, Iowa. A man brilliant enough to earn degrees from both Harvard and Yale, Dick Manville was also a major league pitcher -- briefly. He pitched 1 game, 2 innings, for the Boston Braves in 1950; and 11 games for the Chicago Cubs in 1952. He died this past February 13, at age 93.
December 25, 1927: Jacob Nelson Fox is born in St. Thomas, Pennsylvania. Nellie Fox, a diminutive but crafty 2nd baseman, had his Number 2 retired by the Chicago White Sox, whom he led to an American League Pennant in 1959, resulting in his being named the AL's Most Valuable Player. Yankee pitching legend Whitey Ford called him the toughest out he ever faced, and author, radio show host and White Sox fan Jean Shepherd called him his favorite player of all time.
Along with his contemporaries Phil Rizzuto, Gil Hodges and Richie Ashburn, and the younger Ron Santo, Fox was one of those guys that everyone hoped would one day get into the Baseball Hall of Fame, but wondered why it was taking so long. Rizzuto lived long enough to make it, in 1994. So did Ashburn, in 1995. Fox didn't, dying of skin cancer in 1975 and getting elected in 1997. Santo didn't, either, dying in 2010 and being elected in 2012. Hodges died in 1972, and his supporters are still waiting.
Also on this day, Leo Roman Kubiak is born in Toledo, Ohio. He played professional baseball, but didn't make the major leagues. He did make them in basketball, playing for the Waterloo Hawks of Iowa from 1948 to 1950. He is one of the last surviving players from the founding days of the NBA.
December 25, 1928: Arsenal play their 1st Christmas Day match under manager Herbert Chapman. They lose 5-2, away to Blackburn Rovers.
December 25, 1929, 90 years ago: Arsenal, on the way to their 1st major trophy (the 1930 FA Cup), travel to Fratton Park, and beat Hampshire team Portsmouth 1-0 on a goal by their diminutive but prolific inside left Alex James.
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December 25, 1930: Arsenal travel to Manchester, and beat Manchester City at Maine Road, 4-1. Goals by Joe Hulme, David Jack, Jack Lambert (no relation to the later Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker of the same name), and a penalty by Cliff Bastin. This is the start of a 3-game stretch where Arsenal score 14 goals, on the way to their 1st League title in April 1931.
Also on this day, Emanoul Aghassian is born in Salma, in the Persian Empire, present-day Iran. He represented Iran as a boxer in the Olympics of 1948 in London and 1952 in Helsinki, Finland. After the 1952 Games, he and his brother Samuel moved to Chicago. Emanoul changed his name to the more American-sounding Mike Agassi. He later took a job at the Tropicana Hotel in Las Vegas, where he raised his children, including his son Andre Agassi.
Andre not only won "the career Grand Slam," winning 4 Australian Opens, 2 U.S. Opens, and Wimbledon and the French Open once each, but, in Atlanta in 1996, won what had eluded his father: An Olympic Gold Medal. Mike is still alive, age 88.
December 25, 1931: Arsenal travel to Yorkshire, and lose to Sheffield United 4-1 at Bramall Lane. They go on to a dubious near-Double, finishing 2nd in the League and losing the FA Cup Final.
Also on this day, Charles Grice Driesell is born in Norfolk, Virginia. Although naturally lefthanded, he was nicknamed for country singer William "Lefty" Frizzell, a star in his youth. He played basketball at Duke University before that became a big deal, then became a coach, starting at his alma mater in Norfolk, Granby High School.
In 1960, he got his 1st college job, at Davidson College in Davidson, North Carolina, getting them to what we would now call the NCAA Sweet Sixteen in 1966 and the Elite Eight in 1968. That got the attention of the University of Maryland, and they hired him in 1969.
On July 12, 1973, Lefty Driesell and 2 friends were surf fishing in Bethany Beach, Delaware, when they saw a fire at a resort building. They rushed to shore, and Driesell broke down a door and rescued at least 10 children. It would be another half an hour before the firemen arrived. He said he wasn't a hero: "It was just lucky that we were fishing right in front of the houses."
He built a pretty good coaching record in College Park, too. He reached the Sweet Sixteen 5 times, and the Elite Eight in 1973 and 1975. He won them Atlantic Coast Conference Championships in the regular season in 1975 and 1980, and in the Tournament in 1984, led by a powerful sophomore forward named Len Bias. Other star players of his included Tom McMillen, Len Elmore, John Lucas, Albert King and Buck Williams.
In 1986, Bias had a chance to be taken as the Number 1 pick in the NBA Draft. He wasn't: Brad Daugherty of North Carolina was, by the Cleveland Cavaliers. But the Boston Celtics had traded up for the Number 2 pick, and chose Bias. When asked about him, Driesell said, "Leonard's only vice is ice cream." This turned out not to be the case. It was also revealed, after Bias' cocaine-induced death, that he'd used up his eligibility. The scandal forced Driesell to resign.
He returned to the coaching ranks in 1988, with James Madison University of Harrisonburg, Virginia. He led them to 5 Conference Championships. He closed his career at Georgia State University, and led them to 4 Conference Championships. In so doing, he became the 1st coach to win more than 100 games at 4 different NCAA Division I schools. His final record, from 1960 to 2003, was 786-394. He is still alive, and was just elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame.
December 25, 1933: Having won the League the season before, Arsenal travel to Yorkshire, and beat Leeds United 1-0 at Elland Road. Bastin scores. Despite Chapman's death 2 weeks after Chritmas, they win the League again under interim manager Joe Shaw.
Also on this day, Benjamin Basil Heatley is born in Kenilworth, Warwickshire, England. On June 13, 1964, Basil Heatley won the Polytechnic Marathon in London, running it in 2 hours, 13 minutes, 55 seconds to break the world record for the marathon. But he would only win a Silver Medal in the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo, as the man whose record he broke, 1960 Olympic Gold Medalist Abebe Bikila of Ethiopia, reclaimed the Gold and the record. Heatley this past August 3, at age 85.
December 25, 1934: Now managed by George Allison, Arsenal defeat Lancashire club Preston North End 5-3, at Highbury. Hulme scores 2, Bastin 1, Ray Bowden 1, and they also get the benefit of an own goal by Preston. The next day, Preston get revenge, 2-1 at their home ground of Deepdale. Arsenal go on to make it 3 straight League titles.
In the 1st season of the Football League, 1888-89, Preston went unbeaten, winning 18 games, drawing 4 and losing none. They also won the FA Cup, making the 1st "Double." An unbeaten League season would not happen again until Arsenal in 2003-04: As broadcaster Alan Parry said, "They were, quite literally, unbeatable: Played 38, won 24, drawn 12, lost exactly none!"
Also on this day, Santa Anita Park opens in Los Angeles. Still the West Coast's premier thoroughbred horse racing track, it annually hosts the Santa Anita Derby, one of the warmup races for the Triple Crown. It has also hosted the Breeders' Cup more times than any other track, 10: 1986, 1993, 2003, 2008, 2009, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2016 and 2019.
December 25, 1935: Liverpool win at Highbury, 2-1. Arsenal go on to win the 1936 FA Cup.
December 25, 1936: Arsenal host Preston, and win 4-1, on goals by Jackie Milne, Alf Kirchen, and 2 by Ted Drake.
December 25, 1938: Jack Edwin Hamilton is born in Burlington, Iowa. He went 32-40 in 8 seasons as a major league pitcher, including for the Mets in 1966 and 1967. However, the Mets traded him to the California Angels, and on August 18, 1967, he hit Tony Conigliaro of the Boston Red Sox in the head, ruining his career.
It was not intentional: He had no reputation for hitting batters, hit only 1 other batter during the course of the season, and someone had thrown a smoke bomb onto the field a few minutes earlier, and the smoke hadn't fully cleared, making it harder to see the ball during a night game.
Hamilton never recovered from the stigma of having hit Tony C, and retired after 2 more seasons. He later ran restaurants in his native Iowa, and in Branson, Missouri, where he died in 2018, at age 79.
Also on this day, Joseph Jean-Noel Yves Picard in Montréal, Québec. A defenseman, he won the Stanley Cup with the 1965 Montreal Canadiens, and reached the Stanley Cup Finals 3 more times, with the 1968, 1969 and 1970 St. Louis Blues.
He is best remembered for his unsuccessful attempt to trip Bobby Orr of the Boston Bruins up in overtime of Game 4 of the 1970 Finals, allowing Orr to score the Cup-winning goal, and putting Picard into perhaps the most famous photograph in the history of hockey.
Noel Picard was a member of 2 1st-year NHL expansion teams, the 1967-68 Blues and the 1972-73 Atlanta Flames. He later became a broadcaster for the Blues, and ran a restaurant in the suburbs of St. Louis. He died in 2017.
December 25, 1939, 80 years ago: With World War II underway, the Football League has again suspended operations, and won't start again until the 1946-47 season (although the Football Association will play a full FA Cup tournament in 1945-46). Arsenal host East London team Clapton Orient, and win 3-0. Kirchen, Jack Crayston and Reg Lewis score the goals. Clapton Orient is now known as Leyton Orient, nicknamed just "Orient," or "The O's."
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December 25, 1940: South Side Park burns down in Chicago. As far as anyone knows, the fire is not purposely set. It was the 1st home of the American League's Chicago White Sox (1901 to 1910), and of the Negro Leagues' Chicago American Giants (1910 to 1940). The American Giants won 7 Pennants while playing there, the White Sox 2.
Also on this day, under the wartime conditions of depleted rosters, Tommy Lawton plays for Everton against Liverpool at Anfield in the morning. Liverpool win, 3-1. Then he is asked to play as a guest player for Merseyside club Tranmere Rovers at nearby Cheshire club Crewe Alexandra in the afternoon. As he recalled, "The Tranmere people came into the dressing room, and asked if anyone wanted to play, as they were two men short. I said, 'Go on, I'll help you out.' And I did."
I can't find a record of the result of the Tranmere-Crewe match, but Tranmere beat Liverpool 3-2 just 3 days later, and Crewe went on to finish 36th and last in the war-forced setup of the Northern Regional Championship in the 1940-41 season, winning only 2 games, drawing 3 and losing 19. Tranmere finished 27th, suggesting that Tranmere likely won the game. Liverpool 16th, and Everton, winners of the last prewar League title, 5th. Preston North End won.
On Christmas Day 1940, Lawton played a full 90 minutes in the afternoon, after having already done so in the morning. Given the heavy leather balls and ragged pitches (especially in Winter) of the era, this may qualify as a Christmas miracle.
Just 4 days after Christmas, the Luftwaffe bombed the Rolls-Royce factory in Crewe, which had been making Spitfire planes for the Royal Air Force.
Also on this day, Arsenal lose 4-2 away to West Ham United. They finished 4th in the Southern Regional, the Hammers 2nd, and Crystal Palace of Southeast London won.
Also on this day, Jonathan Edwards (no middle name) is born in St. Louis. In 1977, John Edwards became the lead singer of the soul group The Spinners. A stroke forced him to retire in 2000. Nevertheless, he is still alive.
December 25, 1945: With World War II over and victory belonging to the Allies, Arsenal travel to Wales, and lose 2-1 to Newport County at Rodney Parade in Newport.
Also on this day, Kenneth Michael Stabler is born in Foley, Alabama. "The Snake" was backup quarterback to Joe Namath at the University of Alabama in their 1964 National Championship season, then led them to another title in 1965. He guided the Oakland Raiders to victory in Super Bowl XI in 1977.
He once said, "There's nothing wrong with reading a playbook by the light of a jukebox." The writer Jack London, also a noted party animal in Oakland, once wrote, "I would rather be ashes than dust. I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than be stifled by dry rot. I would rather be a superb meteor than a sleepy, permanent planet." Someone once read those words to Stabler, and asked him what he thought they meant. Stabler paused a moment, then said, "Throw deep." He may have been reckless, but he was smart.
Somehow, in spite of all his carousing, Ken Stabler lived until 2015 -- but not long enough to be elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, which elected him in a sympathy vote right after his death.
December 25, 1946: The Buffalo Bisons of the National Basketball League announce that they're moving to the "Tri-Cities" of Rock Island and Moline, Illinois, and Davenport, Iowa, and becoming the Tri-Cities Blackhawks. Later, Bettendorf, Iowa will be added to the region's traditional name, making it the "Quad Cities."
The Blackhawks -- like the Chicago hockey team, named for the famous early 19th Century Native chief of the region -- play in Moline for 5 years, but in 1951, they moved again, becoming the Milwaukee Hawks. In 1955, they became the St. Louis Hawks, reaching 4 NBA Finals including winning the 1958 NBA Championship. In 1968, despite having won a Division title, they moved again, becoming the Atlanta Hawks. Given their attendance problems lately, they may have to move again.
Also on this day, Arsenal host Portsmouth, and win 2-1 on goals by Jimmy Logie and Ronnie Rooke. Rooke was 35, old for a forward and very old for a good one. But in 1947-48, the season in which he turned 36, he scored 33 goals to help Arsenal win the League.
That total remains the most any Arsenal player has scored in a post-World War II season, and only 2 Arsenal players since have scored 30 in a League season: Thierry Henry in 2003-04 and Robin van Persie in 2011-12. Rookie did not live to see either achievement, dying in 1985.
Also on this day, Lawrence Richard Csonka is born in Stow, Ohio, outside Akron. One of many star running backs at Syracuse University, he rushed for 8,081 yards and 64 touchdowns for the Miami Dolphins. He was a 3-time All-Pro, helped the Dolphins to an undefeated season in 1972, capped by Super Bowl VII, and was the MVP of Super Bowl VIII.
He left the Dolphins to play in the World Football League, but that didn't work out. He came to the New York Giants, but that didn't work out, either, culminating in the 1978 play known as "The Miracle of the Meadowlands." He came back to the Dolphins for 1 more season and retired. He has been elected to the College and Pro Football Halls of Fame. The Dolphins retired his Number 39. He is still alive.
Also on this day, Gene William Lamont is born in Rockford, Illinois. A catcher, he reached the postseason with the 1972 Detroit Tigers, but was never more than a backup. He is now best remembered as a coach, frequently working under Jim Leyland.
He reached the postseason as a coach with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1990 and '91, as manager of the Chicago White Sox in 1993 (and was named American League Manager of the Year), the Houston Astros in 2004, and the Tigers in 2006, '09, '11, '12, '13 and '14. He has also managed the Pirates, and now works in the Kansas City Royals' front office.
Also on this day, John Boyle (no middle name) is born in Motherwell, Scotland. A midfielder, he reached the 1967 FA Cup Final with West London team Chelsea, but lost; and was injured for their 1970 FA Cup Final win. But he got a winner's medal for their 1971 win in the European Cup Winners' Cup.
He later came to America, and both played for and managed the Tampa Bay Rowdies, winning the NASL Championship as a player in 1975, Tampa Bay's 1st title in any sport. He is still alive.
December 25, 1948: Arsenal host East Midlands team Derby County, and the teams play to a 3-3 draw.
Also on this day, Joel Natalino Santana is born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, his middle name coming from his birth on Christmas (Natal in Portuguese). A centreback, he starred for hometown team Vasco da Gama, winning the national league (Campeonato Brasileiro) in 1974.
He moved around a lot as a manager, leading Al Wasl to the league title in the United Arab Emirates in 1982, 1983 and 1985. He returned home and won Brazilian State Championships for Vasco in 1992 and 1993, Bahia in 1994, for Rio team Fluminense (or "Flu") in 1995, for Flu's arch-rivals Flamengo (or "Fla") in 1996, for Rio team Botafogo in 1997, for Bahia again in 1999, Vitória in 2003, Fla again in 2008, and Botafogo again in 2010.
But his biggest achievement was leading Vasco to the league title in 2000, making him one of the few managers in any country to win a league title for the same team as a player and a manager. He now manages an amateur team in the Los Angeles suburbs.
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This remains the last game that Arsenal have played on a Christmas Day. By the 1970s, England's Football Association would stop allowing Football League games to be played on Christmas Day. To this day, however, they are still played on the day after, a.k.a. Boxing Day, usually neighboring rivals to save on travel costs.
December 25, 1957: Christopher Kamara (no middle name) is born in Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire, England. A midfielder, Chris Kamara helped Wiltshire team Swindon Town win England's 4th division in 1986, and get them promoted from the 3rd to the 2nd division the next year.
In 1990, he went back to Yorkshire, and helped Leeds United win the 2nd division and get promoted to the 1st. However, they sold him to Bedfordshire team Luton Town in 1991-92, and when Leeds won the League that year, Kamara didn't get a winner's medal.
He managed Yorkshire team Bradford City, and got them promoted from the 3rd to the 2nd division in 1996. He has since gone into the broadcasting side of soccer.
Also on this day, Hanford Dixon (no middle name) is born in Mobile, Alabama. The All-Pro cornerback for the Cleveland Browns would bark like a dog at his teammates to get them psyched up, and fans in the bleachers at Cleveland Municipal Stadium would start barking along with him. Soon, he started calling that section the Dawg Pound, and they would respond by wearing dog masks and throwing dog biscuits.
December 25, 1959, 60 years ago: Robert Washington Jones is born in Demopolis, Alabama. A linebacker, Robbie Jones was a member of the University of Alabama team that won the 1979 National Championship, and was special teams captain of the Giants when they won Super Bowl XXI.
December 25, 1964: Gary McAllister (no middle name) is born in Motherwell, Scotland. A midfielder, he helped hometown soccer club Motherwell gain promotion to Scotland's 1st division in 1985, was bought by English club Leicester City, helped Leeds United win England's Football League in 1992, played for Coventry City, and then was a member of the 2001 Liverpool team that won a "cup treble": The FA Cup, the League Cup and the UEFA Cup (the tournament now known as the UEFA Europa League).
He later managed Coventry, Leeds and Birmingham club Aston Villa, and is now a club ambassador for Liverpool.
December 25, 1966: Wendy Gebauer is born in Washington, D.C., and grows up in the nearby suburb of Reston, Virginia. A forward in the University of North Carolina's women's soccer dynasty, she was a member of the U.S. team that won the 1st-ever Women's World Cup in 1991.
December 25, 1968: James Thomas Dowd is born in Point Pleasant, New Jersey. Growing up in neighboring Brick, Jim Dowd was the 1st New Jerseyan to play for the Devils, and remains the only New Jerseyan to have his name on the Stanley Cup, having scored a late winner in Game 2 of the 1995 Finals against the Detroit Red Wings. He now coaches a youth hockey team in Red Bank, New Jersey.
Also, Corey Edward Widmer is born outside Washington in Alexandria, Virginia. A linebacker, he played for the Giants from 1992 to 1999.
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December 25, 1971: The longest game in NFL history is played. The Miami Dolphins beat the Kansas City Chiefs, 24-21, when Garo Yepremian kicks a field goal with 7 minutes and 20 seconds to go in the 2nd overtime of an AFC Divisional Playoff. It was also the Chiefs' last game at Kansas City Municipal Stadium, before moving to Arrowhead Stadium in September 1972.
Also on this day, Terry Vaughn (no middle name) is born in Sumter, South Carolina. A star receiver at the University of Arizona, he was not drafted by an NFL team, but became the 1st receiver in the Canadian Football League to catch 1,000 passes in a career.
He won the CFL Championship, the Grey Cup, with both Alberta teams, the 1998 Calgary Stampeders and the 2003 Edmonton Eskimos. He was named to the Canadian Football Hall of Fame and TSN's (The Sports Network, Canada's version of ESPN) 50 Greatest CFL Players.
December 25, 1973: Bullet Joe Simpson dies at age 80 in the Miami suburb of Coral Gables, Florida. A defenseman, he starred for the Edmonton Eskimos of the West Coast Hockey League, winning that league's title in 1922, and advancing to the Stanley Cup Finals, where they lost to the team now known as the Toronto Maple Leafs. He later starred for the NewYork Americans, and is in the Hockey Hall of Fame.
Also on this day, Robert James Elliott is born in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, in the North-East of England. A left back, Robbie Elliott starred for his hometown team, Newcastle United, and also played the 2006-07 season for their arch-rivals, Sunderland. Since 2009, he has worked with the United States Under-20 national team.
December 25, 1975: Two very different Boston legends are born. Hideki Okajima is a Japanese-born pitcher for the Red Sox, who helped them win the 2007 World Series.
And Rob Mariano is born in Canton, Massachusetts. "Boston Rob" continually wore a Red Sox cap while appearing on the CBS series Survivor, and ended up marrying his season's winner, Amber Brkich. Together, they went on to compete on another CBS series, The Amazing Race. They now live in Pensacola, Florida, and have 3 children, all girls.
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December 25, 1981: Willy Taveras -- apparently, his entire full name -- is born in Tenares, Dominican Republic. A center fielder, he reached the postseason with the 2004 and '05 Houston Astros, and the 2007 Colorado Rockies, playing in the 2005 and '07 World Series. In 2008, with the Rockies, he led the National League in stolen bases.
But he was one of these players who simply didn't get on base often enough to make his speed a useful weapon. Although he has kept his career going by playing in the Mexican and Dominican leagues, but hasn't appeared in Major League Baseball since 2010, with the Washington Nationals.
December 25, 1982: The 1st Aloha Bowl is played at Aloha Stadium in Honolulu, Hawaii. The University of Washington, then ranked Number 9 in the nation, defeats the University of Maryland, then Number 16, 21-20.
Honolulu had previously hosted the Poi Bowl from 1936 to 1939, and the Pineapple Bowl from 1940 to 1952, but those games were held on New Year's Day. The Aloha Bowl would be held on Christmas Day, and would feature a man in a Santa Claus suit parachuting onto the field to present the referee with the game ball. In 1991, the ABC sitcom Coach would feature a 2-part episode about the show's fictional Minnesota State University playing in the Pineapple Bowl on Christmas Day.
In 1998, 1999 and 2000, Aloha Stadium hosted a doubleheader, with the Aloha Bowl preceded by the Oahu Bowl. But that game quickly folded. The last Aloha Bowl was played in 2000. It was a commercial failure: Of the 19 games played, only the 1989 edition was a sellout of the 50,000-seat Aloha Stadium.
Having quickly gone from hosting 2 bowl games in 2000 to none in 2001, Hawaii tried again. The Hawaii Bowl was established in 2002, and was played on Christmas Day that year and the next, but has usually been played on Christmas Eve since. This year, it will be played on Christmas Eve, between Brigham Young University and an opponent to be determined.
Also on this day, Shawn Cornelius Andrews is born in Camden, Arkansas. A guard, he starred at the University of Arkansas, made 2 Pro Bowls with the Philadelphia Eagles, and played in Super Bowl XXXIX. He is a member of the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame and the Eagles' 75th Anniversary Team. He played with the Giants in 2010, but a back injury soon ended his career.
His brother Stacy Andrews was an Eagle teammate in 2009, and closed his career helping the Giants win Super Bowl XLVI.
December 25, 1984: Jack Balmer dies in Liverpool at age 68. A forward, he helped Liverpool F.C. win the Football League title in 1947.
Also on this day, Alastair Nathan Cook is born in Gloucester, England. I don't know what makes a cricket player great, but Cook holds the records for most caps (appearances) and most caps as Captain for the England national team. He was named International Cricket Council Player of the Year in 2011. He is 5th on the all-time list for most runs in Test cricket, with 12,472. (Sachin Tendulkar of India holds the record, with 15,921.)
He currently plays for Essex County Cricket. That's Essex County in England, not in New Jersey. England does have a city named Newark, but, unlike in New Jersey, it isn't in the County of Essex, but in the County of Nottinghamshire. However, he retired from international cricket before the 2019 Cricket World Cup, and was not a member of the England team that won it.
Also on this day, Limas Lee Sweed Jr. is born outside Houston in Brenham, Texas. A receiver, he was with the University of Texas when it won the 2005 National Championship, and the Pittsburgh Steelers when they won Super Bowl XLIII. He last played in 2012, with the CFL's Saskatchewan Roughriders.
December 25, 1987: Demaryius Antwon Thomas is born in Montrose, Georgia. A receiver, he was with the Denver Broncos when they won Super Bowl 50. Now with the Jets, the 5-time Pro Bowler has caught 722 passes for 9,735 yards and 62 touchdowns.
December 25, 1988: Eric Ambrose Gordon Jr. is born in Indianapolis. Named Indiana's "Mr. Basketball" in 2007, the guard played just 1 season at Indiana University before declared for the NBA Draft. It took a while to become a big pro player, including 3 years with the Los Angeles Clippers and 5 years with the New Orleans Pelicans, but in 2017, with the Houston Rockets, he was named NBA Sixth Man of the Year.
December 25, 1989, 30 years ago: Yankee legend manager Billy Martin is killed in a drunken-driving crash near his home in Johnson City, New York, outside Binghamton. He was 61.
Also on this day, Walter Ris dies in Mission Viejo, California, just short of his 66th birthday. A swimmer, the Chicago native won 2 Gold Medals for the U.S. at the 1948 Olympics in London. He is a member of the International Swimming Hall of Fame.
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December 25, 1990: Garrett Nicholas Cooper is born in Auburn, Alabama, where his father was teaching at Auburn University. His father later got a teaching job in Los Angeles, and that's where Garrett grew up, although he returned to Auburn to play baseball. He made his major league debut in 2017, as a 1st baseman for the Yankees, but has since been traded to the Miami Marlins.
December 25, 1991: Frank Finnigan dies of a heart attack in his hometown of Shawville, Quebec, a suburb of Canada's national capital, Ottawa, Ontario. He was 90 years old, and had lived long enough to see his efforts to get his former hockey team, the Ottawa Senators, restored to the NHL for the 1992 expansion, but not long enough to see them take the ice.
A right wing, he played the original Senators from 1923 to 1934, including being an integral part of their 1927 Stanley Cup win. Due to the Great Depression, the Senators did not play in the 1931-32 season, and the Toronto Maple Leafs were allowed to sign him, enabling him to win that season's Stanley Cup with the Leafs. He was the Senators' Captain upon their return. In the 1933-34 season, he played in the Ace Bailey Benefit Game in Toronto.
But after that season, they moved to St. Louis, already known for good support of a minor-league team. Finnigan scored the final goal in the history of the old Senators. The St. Louis Eagles were terrible in 1934-35 and folded, selling him back to the Leafs, for whom he played until 1937. He served in the Royal Canadian Air Force in World War II and managed hotels.
Finnigan was the last surviving Senator from the Stanley Cup winners of 1927 -- still the last Cup won by an Ottawa team -- and participated in the "Bring Back The Senators" campaign. On October 8, 1992, before their 1st regular-season home game, at the Ottawa Civic Centre, his Number 8 was raised to the rafters, and his son Frank Finnigan Jr. was invited to drop the ceremonial puck before the 1st home game.
His brother Eddie Finnigan also played in the NHL, including for the St. Louis Eagles after they were no longer the Senators, but was mostly a career minor-leaguer. His daughter Joan Finnigan was a noted Canadian writer, including writing a book about the Senators' re-establishment, and several books about the Ottawa Valley.
December 25, 1992: Arin Gilliland (no middle name) is born in Lexington, Kentucky. Now using her married name of Arin Wright, she plays left back for the Chicago Red Stars of the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL). She is currently expecting her 1st child, and will likely miss the 1st half of the 2020 season on maternity leave.
Also on this day, Tanner Scott Rainey is born outside New Orleans in Folsom, Louisiana. He debuted with the Cincinnati Reds in 2018, making 8 appearances for them. He was a member of the Washington Nationals this past season, making 52 regular-season appearances, and entering 4 games of the World Series, which the Nats won.
December 25, 1997: Bill Hewitt dies in Port Perry, Ontario at age 68. The grandson of sportswriter W.A. Hewitt and the son of sportscaster Foster Hewitt, he was a longtime TV voice of the Toronto Maple Leafs. As far as I know, the Hewitts are the only family with 3 generations in any sport's Hall of Fame.
December 25, 2001: The film Ali premieres, starring Will Smith as Muhammad Ali, depicting his life from the 1st time he wins the Heavyweight Championship of the World, in 1964 against Sonny Liston in Miami Beach, to the 2nd time he wins it, in 1974 against George Foreman in Zaire, and all the magic and all the madness in between.
In the 1946-47 season, he made 10 appearances for the club, which won the Football League title, but that was 1 game short of qualifying for a winner's medal under the rules of the time. He played for Liverpool in the 1950 FA Cup Final, but they lost to Arsenal. He broke his leg late in the next season, missing the entire 1951-52 season, and retired a year later, just 31.
He then managed in the minor leagues, and was promoted to bench coach by the Braves in 1991, a part of 5 World Series with them, winning in 1995. His hometown of Grove, Oklahoma named its baseball field for him while he as still alive and well enough to enjoy it. "Beauchamp" is French for "beautiful field."
The villain is played by Mark Strong, previously in the film version of Fever Pitch, Nick Hornby's memoir about being a fan of Arsenal. There is an inside joke: Among the villain's business holdings is the Woolwich Arsenal, the place where the team was founded in 1886. The film depicts Tower Bridge still under construction. It opened in 1894.
December 25, 1901: Woolwich Arsenal host Lancashire club Blackpool. The game ends in a 0-0 draw.
December 25, 1902: Woolwich Arsenal travel to Staffordshire, and lose 2-1 to Burton United.
December 25, 1903: Woolwich Arsenal host Yorkshire club Bradford City, and win 4-1. At the conclusion of the 1903-04 season, Arsenal will be promoted to the Football League Division One for the 1st time.
December 25, 1905: Woolwich Arsenal host the defending Football League Champions, North-East club Newcastle United, and win 4-3.
December 25, 1906: Woolwich Arsenal host the defending Champions of the Scottish Football League, Celtic of Glasgow, and lose 2-0 in front of 15,000 fans, a big crowd for that era.
December 25, 1907: Woolwich Arsenal again host Newcastle United, again the defending Champions, and play to a 2-2 draw.
Also on this day, John R. Rosenblatt (I can find no record of what the R stands for) is born in Omaha, Nebraska. Good enough in baseball to win a scholarship to the University of Iowa, he had to drop out to support his family. He went on to play semipro ball in Omaha for 20 years, played in a 1927 exhibition game with Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig, and, in another, batted against Satchel Paige.
In 1948, Omaha elected him City Commissioner, and he got a stadium built. The College World Series would be held at his stadium, named for him in 1964, from 1950 until 2010, when a replacement was built. In 1954 and again in 1957, he was elected Mayor. Although Jewish, he was called "the supreme gentleman" by the city's Archbishop, Gerald T. Bergan. He lived until 1979.
December 25, 1908: Woolwich Arsenal visit Leicester Fosse, the club now known as Leicester City, and draw 1-1. In those days, it was a common practice for teams to play each other at one's ground on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, and then travel to the other's ground to play again on December 26, Boxing Day. This was the 1st time that Arsenal did it, and they won the rematch in Plumstead, 2-1.
Also on this Day, William Benjamin Chapman is born in Nashville. A left fielder, he debuted for the Yankees in 1930, helped them win the World Series in 1932, played in the 1st 4 All-Star Games from 1933 to 1936, and led the American League in stolen bases in 1931, '32, '33 and '37.
By the last of those years, he was with the Washington Senators, as the dark side of his personality had surfaced. When the Nazis took over Germany in 1933, he took it as a sign that it was okay to yell anti-Semitic slurs and throw fascist salutes at Jewish fans, of which there were plenty in New York City, and, then, particularly in The Bronx. That season, sliding into 2nd base, he intentionally spiked Senators 2nd baseman Buddy Myer -- of Jewish descent but not raised in the faith. Myer fought back, and it grew into a 20-minute brawl, and both men were suspended for 5 games and fined $100.
It wasn't just bigotry that was wrong with him: In 1935, his 1st wife, Mary Elizabeth, filed for divorce, claiming what we would now call domestic abuse. In 1936, his hitting declining and Joe DiMaggio having arrived, Chapman was traded to Washington -- Myer's team. If there were any further incidents between them, they were not publicized. Ironically, one of the players the Yankees got in the trade was Jake Powell, who also turned out to be a nasty bigot.
Chapman managed in the minor leagues in 1942, but punched an umpire, and was suspended for the entire 1943 season. In 1944, with World War II having taken so many players, the 35-year-old Chapman was signed by the Brooklyn Dodgers -- which would retroactively become another irony. They traded him to the Philadelphia Phillies in 1945, and they named him their manager, and he continued to play until 1946, finishing with a lifetime batting average of .302.
But in 1947, when the Phillies went to Brooklyn to play the Dodgers, Chapman launched a fusillade of racial epithets at the Dodgers' new signing, Jackie Robinson. At the time, the press wouldn't get specific, only saying that it was bad enough that even the Southerners on the Dodgers rallied around Jackie.
The 1950 film The Jackie Robinson Story, with Jackie playing himself, showed a sanitized version of events. But the 2013 film 42 shows Alan Tudyk playing Chapman, and may well have set a record for the most utterances of "the N-word" by a white actor in movie history. (Tudyk's career has not suffered for this.)
Commissioner Happy Chandler warned the Phillies that there had better not be any incidents during the Dodgers' upcoming roadtrip to Philadelphia. It was suggested that a photograph be taken of Chapman and Robinson shaking hands. Chapman refused, so they posed together holding a bat. There were no further incidents.
Chapman was fired in the middle of the 1948 season -- not for the kind of person he was, but for losing. Only once more did he wear a major league uniform, as a coach with the Cincinnati Reds in 1952. Interviewed by Ray Robinson (a journalist working on a biography of Chapman's long-ago teammate, Lou Gehrig) in 1993, shortly before his death, he expressed regret over his actions, and pointed out that his son was coaching an integrated high school football team in Alabama: "Look, I'm real proud I've raised my son different. And he gets along well with them. They like him. That's a nice thing, don't you think?"
Also on this day, Joe Gregg Moore is born in Gause, Texas, outside Houston. A left fielder,"Jo-Jo" Moore played for the New York Giants from 1930 to 1941, helping them win 3 National League Pennants and the 1933 World Series. He was a 6-time All-Star, and retired with a lifetime batting average of .298. He lived until 2001.
December 25, 1909, 110 years ago: Woolwich Arsenal, by now in a financial meltdown that will see them just barely saved from going out of business in the Spring, against host Newcastle United, finishing up what is still the most productive decade in their history, and lose 3-0.
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December 25, 1911: Not that most people then rooting for Woolwich Arsenal cared about who the opponent was, but the Gunners lose 5-0 to Tottenham at White Hart Lane, in front of a huge crowd for the time, 47,000. The next day, the clubs meet again at the Manor Ground, and Arsenal win 3-1.
Also on this day, the 4,000-seat Patrick Arena opens in Victoria, the capital of the Province of British Columbia, with the 1st artificial ice surface in Western Canada. It is built by brothers Frank and Lester Patrick, who owned, ran and played for the Victoria Senators of the Pacific Coast Hockey Association. The team would later be known as the Victoria Aristocrats and the Victoria Cougars.
In 1925, by then members of the Western Canada Hockey League, they beat the NHL Champion Montreal Canadiens, and won the Stanley Cup. They remain the last non-NHL team, and the last team from British Columbia, to win the Cup.
Frank sold his share of the team to Lester, and led the Vancouver Millionaires to the 1915 Stanley Cup, still the only one won by a Vancouver team. In 1926, Lester became the general manager and head coach of the expansion New York Rangers. Neither was involved with the arena bearing their family name anymore.
On November 11, 1929, it burned down -- usually considered to be arson. It would take until 1949 for a new Victoria Memorial Arena to be built (not on the same site) and professional hockey in Victoria to be restored. In 2005, "The Barn on Blanshard" was replaced on the same site by a new arena, the 7,000-seat Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre. It is home to the Victoria Royals of the Western Hockey League.
December 25, 1912: Arsenal host Nottingham club Notts County, and draw 0-0. The 1912-13 season will be the worst in Arsenal's history, the only time they will ever be relegated to the 2nd division. Team owner Henry Norris, a real estate tycoon and a Member of Parliament, decided that the location in Southeast London, then having poor transportation links, was a problem.
So he bought land in Islington, in North London, and built a new stadium, officially named the Arsenal Stadium, but nicknamed Highbury after the neighborhood. It was much easier to reach for clubs both inside and outside London. Alas, it would begin life outside the top flight.
In 1987, the Docklands Light Railway began service, including to the area that was once home to Arsenal. That didn't help the team. But in 1913, the Highbury area included a stop on the London Underdround's Piccadilly Line.
In 1932, Arsenal manager Herbert Chapman convinced the company then running the Underground (what we would call a subway system) to rename the station closest to the stadium "Arsenal." The old tiles reading "GILLESPIE ROAD" can still be seen on the wall of the station, and motormen who are fans of arch-rival Tottenham Hotspur will, inevitably, use the train's public-address system to identify the station as "Gillespie Road" instead of Arsenal.
To this day, Arsenal are the only London-area team to have a stop named for them. With Tottenham having built a new stadium, there is a proposal to rename the White Hart Lane national railway station "Tottenham Hotspur," but it has not been acted upon.
December 25, 1913: Woolwich Arsenal travel to Yorkshire and beat Bradford Park Avenue (not to be confused with Bradford City) 3-2. At the conclusion of the season, Norris, noting that the club no longer plays in Woolwich, drops the locality from the name, and it becomes simply "Arsenal Football Club." Many fans will continue to call the club what they've been calling it: "The Arsenal." Many still do refer to it as such, writing and typing, Capital T, Capital A.
December 25, 1914: Upon hearing German soldiers sing Christmas carols in their trench on the Western Front of what was then called The Great War (later World War I), the British soldiers start to do so in theirs. Soon, the men on both sides come out of their trenches, and stop treating each other as enemies for a few hours, exchanging food, drinks, and trinkets. It becomes known as the Christmas Truce.
Legend has it that there was even a soccer game. Sorry, forgot to "speak English" there: A football match. It's not clear which side produced the ball, but according to most accounts that discuss the match, the Germans beat the English, 3-2.
This is the 1st time that Englishmen would be defeated by Germans at their national game. There have been many more. But, as England manager Alf Ramsey pointed out before the 1966 World Cup Final, twice in the 20th Century, the English (well, the British, and their allies) would beat the Germans at their national game (war), and on their soil no less.
Military historian Andrew Robertshaw (a technical advisor for the film version of the World War I story War Horse) says such a truce would have been unthinkable a year later: "This was before the poisoned gas, before aerial bombardment. By the end of 1915, both sides were far too bitter for this to happen again."
In 1997, Garth Brooks and Joe Henry wrote a song titled "Belleau Wood" for Brooks' album Sevens. It describes a Christmas truce between American and German soldiers at Belleau Wood in 1917. But this is fiction, as the battle of Belleau Wood took place in June 1918, in Aisne, Picardy, France.
The Football League did not suspend operations until the conclusion of the 1914-15 season. On Christmas, Arsenal began a home-and-home series, defeating Leicester Fosse away 4-1 on the 25th, and 6-0 at home on the 26th.
December 25, 1915: With rosters depleted by the war, Arsenal travel to Upton Park in East London for what is, essentially, a reserve match, and lose 8-2 to West Ham United.
December 25, 1916: Arsenal travel to the Park Royal Ground in West London, then the stadium of Queens Park Rangers. They beat QPR 3-2.
December 25, 1917: Arsenal travel to Craven Cottage in West London, home of Fulham, and play to a 1-1 draw.
December 25, 1918: The war finally over, but the League deciding not to re-establish play until the following season (September 1919), Arsenal travel to East London, and lose 3-2 to Clapton Orient, the club now known as Leyton Orient.
It's a big day for Arsenal for another reason, as Bertram Mee (no middle name) is born in Bulwell, Nottinghamshire. A winger, he played for Mansfield Town and Southampton, but his playing career was cut short by injury.
This had also been the case for Arsenal players Tom Whittaker and Billy Milne, and Bertie Mee followed the path that each of those men took, taking what he'd learned in treating his injury and putting it to work as a physiotherapist, becoming Arsenal's, and in 1966 becoming Arsenal's manager. But before going to Arsenal, World War II intervened, and he entered the Royal Army Medical Corps.
He rose to the rank of Sergeant, but after succeeding Milne as physiotherapist in 1960 and being named manager in 1966, he remained a Sergeant through and through. He instilled discipline in an Arsenal side that was nearly relegated in 1966, a team that was not only terrible, but was perhaps the least interesting in London, what with Tottenham and West Ham having won major trophies in the decade, and Chelsea, Fulham and Queens Park Rangers all having gotten favorable notices in the media for their play.
In 1966-67, he handled the personnel management and the discipline, while assistant manager Dave Sexton trained the offense. After that season, Sexton was named manager at Chelsea, but former star right back Don Howe, another whose career ended too soon by injury, was named assistant manager, and he straightened out the defense. Arsenal reached the Final of the League Cup in 1968 and 1969, won the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup in 1970, and then, with a few adjustments due to injury that turned out to be very fortuitous, won both the Football League and the FA Cup -- "The Double" -- in 1971.
In 1972, with Howe having left for the manager's job at West Bromwich Albion, Arsenal finished 5th in a tight 5-team race, and lost the FA Cup Final. In 1973, they finished a close 2nd and lost the FA Cup Semifinal. Unfortunately, Mee saw every challenge to his authority, even minor ones, as betrayal, and acted the Sergeant too often. And he started a tradition followed by Terry Neill in 1980, George Graham in 1991, and Arsène Wenger in 2005: Breaking up a great Arsenal team too soon. Both of these problems manifested themselves in his sale of Captain Frank McLintock after the 1973 season.
Arsenal fell apart, and nearly got relegated in the 1975 and 1976 seasons, barely staying up both times. Mee was finally let go. He later served as Graham Taylor's assistant at Watford, and lived until 2001. He won 241 games as Arsenal manager, a record that stood until surpassed by Wenger in 2006.
December 25, 1919, 100 years ago: Arsenal, back in League play and promoted back to Division One, travel to Derbyshire, and lose 3-2 to Derby County. The next day, the teams meet at Highbury, and Arsenal win 1-0.
Also on this day, Cliftonhill Stadium opens in Coatbridge, North Lanarkshire, Scotland. It is the home of Albion Rovers Football Club. They have won Scottish soccer's 2nd division in 1934, its 3rd in 1989, and its 4th in 2015. But they have rarely been in the 1st division, under any name. They have never won the Scottish Cup, but in that 1st season, 1919-20, they got to the Final. They have won 8 Lanarkshire Cups, but the last was in 1987.
Today, it is known as The Reigart Stadium for sponsorship purposes, and only the 1,572-seat Airdrie Stand remains open. Currently, Rovers are in the Scottish League Two, Scotland's 4th division. In the 1997-98 and 1998-99 seasons, Hamilton Academical F.C. groundshared at Cliftonhill, while their Douglas Park was rebuilt.
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December 25, 1920: Arsenal go to Goodison Park in Liverpool, and beat Everton 4-2.
December 25, 1921: Melvin Anthony Maceau is born in Milwaukee. A center, he played for the Cleveland Browns, and helped them win the All-America Football Conference in 1946, 1947 and 1948, the last of these an undefeated season. He was cut before the 1949 season, when the Browns again won the AAFC title, before joining the NFL. Mel Maceau died in 1981.
December 25, 1922: Arsenal go to Burnden Park in Bolton, Lancashire, and lose to Bolton Wanderers 4-1.
Also on this day, Julius Neal Watlington is born in Yanceyville, North Carolina. A catcher, he arrived in professional baseball in 1941, then went off to World War II, and was wounded and received a Purple Heart. He appeared in 21 major league games, all with the Philadelphia Athletics in 1953, and remained at the Triple-A level until retiring after the 1958 season. He is still alive, 1 of 10 surviving players for that team before its 1954-55 move to Kansas City.
Also on this day, Stephen Wojciechowski (no middle name) is born in Fort William, Ontario, now part of Thunder Bay. A right wing, playing under the name of Steve Wochy, he played 49 games for the Detroit Red Wings in the 1944-45 season, and 5 in 1946-47. He continued playing professional hockey until 1955, helping the Cleveland Barons win the Calder Cup, the Championship of the American Hockey League, in 1951 and '53.
At 97, he may be the oldest living former NHL player, and the last to have played in the NHL during World War II.
Also on this day, Félix Loustau (no middle name) is born in Avellaneda, in the state of Buenos Aires, Argentina. A left wing, he starred on the Buenos Aires soccer team River Plate. With Juan Carlos Muñoz, José Manuel Moreno, Adolfo Pedernera and Ángel Amadeo Labruna, he formed a 5-man forward line known as La Máquina, "the Machine." They won Argentine league titles in 1941, 1942, 1945 and 1947.
Loustau also helped Argentina win the Copa América, South America's continental championship for national teams, in 1945, 1946 and 1947. He died in 2003. Muñoz was the last survivor of La Máquina, living until 2009.
December 25, 1923: James Gamble Nippert dies from blood poisoning, the result of an injury he suffered a month earlier playing football at the University of Cincinnati, in a win over arch-rival Miami University of Ohio. The son of a judge, and of an heir to the Procter & Gamble fortune, he had survived serving in World War I, only to face this fate. He was only 23 years old.
UC's stadium, built the following year, is named for him. His brother Louis Nippert would later own the Cincinnati Reds.
December 25, 1924: Arsenal go to St. Andrews Stadium in Birmingham, and lose to Birmingham City 2-1.
December 25, 1925: Arsenal host Notts County at Highbury, and win 3-0.
Also on this day, Ned Franklin Garver is born in Ney, Ohio, outside Toledo. In 1951, he went 20-12 pitching for the St. Louis Browns, the team that became the Baltimore Orioles 3 years later. This was quite a feat, considering that the Browns went 52-102 that year. Garver was the starting pitcher for the American League in that year's All-Star Game in Detroit.
Pitching in the major leagues from 1948 to 1961, with mostly bad teams, Garver finished with a career record of 129-157. But he must have had some talent, above and beyond his remarkable 1951 season, because the great Ted Williams said, "He could throw anything up there and get me out." He died on February 26, 2017, age 91.
Also on this day, Samuel Patterson Smyth Pollock is born in Montreal. Hired by the Montreal Canadiens' front office in 1959, he was general manager from 1963 to 1978, helping to build 12 Stanley Cup winners. He is in the Hockey Hall of Fame, and died in 2007.
December 25, 1926: Richard Wesley Manville is born in Des Moines, Iowa. A man brilliant enough to earn degrees from both Harvard and Yale, Dick Manville was also a major league pitcher -- briefly. He pitched 1 game, 2 innings, for the Boston Braves in 1950; and 11 games for the Chicago Cubs in 1952. He died this past February 13, at age 93.
December 25, 1927: Jacob Nelson Fox is born in St. Thomas, Pennsylvania. Nellie Fox, a diminutive but crafty 2nd baseman, had his Number 2 retired by the Chicago White Sox, whom he led to an American League Pennant in 1959, resulting in his being named the AL's Most Valuable Player. Yankee pitching legend Whitey Ford called him the toughest out he ever faced, and author, radio show host and White Sox fan Jean Shepherd called him his favorite player of all time.
Along with his contemporaries Phil Rizzuto, Gil Hodges and Richie Ashburn, and the younger Ron Santo, Fox was one of those guys that everyone hoped would one day get into the Baseball Hall of Fame, but wondered why it was taking so long. Rizzuto lived long enough to make it, in 1994. So did Ashburn, in 1995. Fox didn't, dying of skin cancer in 1975 and getting elected in 1997. Santo didn't, either, dying in 2010 and being elected in 2012. Hodges died in 1972, and his supporters are still waiting.
Also on this day, Leo Roman Kubiak is born in Toledo, Ohio. He played professional baseball, but didn't make the major leagues. He did make them in basketball, playing for the Waterloo Hawks of Iowa from 1948 to 1950. He is one of the last surviving players from the founding days of the NBA.
December 25, 1928: Arsenal play their 1st Christmas Day match under manager Herbert Chapman. They lose 5-2, away to Blackburn Rovers.
December 25, 1929, 90 years ago: Arsenal, on the way to their 1st major trophy (the 1930 FA Cup), travel to Fratton Park, and beat Hampshire team Portsmouth 1-0 on a goal by their diminutive but prolific inside left Alex James.
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December 25, 1930: Arsenal travel to Manchester, and beat Manchester City at Maine Road, 4-1. Goals by Joe Hulme, David Jack, Jack Lambert (no relation to the later Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker of the same name), and a penalty by Cliff Bastin. This is the start of a 3-game stretch where Arsenal score 14 goals, on the way to their 1st League title in April 1931.
Also on this day, Emanoul Aghassian is born in Salma, in the Persian Empire, present-day Iran. He represented Iran as a boxer in the Olympics of 1948 in London and 1952 in Helsinki, Finland. After the 1952 Games, he and his brother Samuel moved to Chicago. Emanoul changed his name to the more American-sounding Mike Agassi. He later took a job at the Tropicana Hotel in Las Vegas, where he raised his children, including his son Andre Agassi.
Andre not only won "the career Grand Slam," winning 4 Australian Opens, 2 U.S. Opens, and Wimbledon and the French Open once each, but, in Atlanta in 1996, won what had eluded his father: An Olympic Gold Medal. Mike is still alive, age 88.
December 25, 1931: Arsenal travel to Yorkshire, and lose to Sheffield United 4-1 at Bramall Lane. They go on to a dubious near-Double, finishing 2nd in the League and losing the FA Cup Final.
Also on this day, Charles Grice Driesell is born in Norfolk, Virginia. Although naturally lefthanded, he was nicknamed for country singer William "Lefty" Frizzell, a star in his youth. He played basketball at Duke University before that became a big deal, then became a coach, starting at his alma mater in Norfolk, Granby High School.
In 1960, he got his 1st college job, at Davidson College in Davidson, North Carolina, getting them to what we would now call the NCAA Sweet Sixteen in 1966 and the Elite Eight in 1968. That got the attention of the University of Maryland, and they hired him in 1969.
On July 12, 1973, Lefty Driesell and 2 friends were surf fishing in Bethany Beach, Delaware, when they saw a fire at a resort building. They rushed to shore, and Driesell broke down a door and rescued at least 10 children. It would be another half an hour before the firemen arrived. He said he wasn't a hero: "It was just lucky that we were fishing right in front of the houses."
He built a pretty good coaching record in College Park, too. He reached the Sweet Sixteen 5 times, and the Elite Eight in 1973 and 1975. He won them Atlantic Coast Conference Championships in the regular season in 1975 and 1980, and in the Tournament in 1984, led by a powerful sophomore forward named Len Bias. Other star players of his included Tom McMillen, Len Elmore, John Lucas, Albert King and Buck Williams.
In 1986, Bias had a chance to be taken as the Number 1 pick in the NBA Draft. He wasn't: Brad Daugherty of North Carolina was, by the Cleveland Cavaliers. But the Boston Celtics had traded up for the Number 2 pick, and chose Bias. When asked about him, Driesell said, "Leonard's only vice is ice cream." This turned out not to be the case. It was also revealed, after Bias' cocaine-induced death, that he'd used up his eligibility. The scandal forced Driesell to resign.
He returned to the coaching ranks in 1988, with James Madison University of Harrisonburg, Virginia. He led them to 5 Conference Championships. He closed his career at Georgia State University, and led them to 4 Conference Championships. In so doing, he became the 1st coach to win more than 100 games at 4 different NCAA Division I schools. His final record, from 1960 to 2003, was 786-394. He is still alive, and was just elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame.
December 25, 1933: Having won the League the season before, Arsenal travel to Yorkshire, and beat Leeds United 1-0 at Elland Road. Bastin scores. Despite Chapman's death 2 weeks after Chritmas, they win the League again under interim manager Joe Shaw.
Also on this day, Benjamin Basil Heatley is born in Kenilworth, Warwickshire, England. On June 13, 1964, Basil Heatley won the Polytechnic Marathon in London, running it in 2 hours, 13 minutes, 55 seconds to break the world record for the marathon. But he would only win a Silver Medal in the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo, as the man whose record he broke, 1960 Olympic Gold Medalist Abebe Bikila of Ethiopia, reclaimed the Gold and the record. Heatley this past August 3, at age 85.
December 25, 1934: Now managed by George Allison, Arsenal defeat Lancashire club Preston North End 5-3, at Highbury. Hulme scores 2, Bastin 1, Ray Bowden 1, and they also get the benefit of an own goal by Preston. The next day, Preston get revenge, 2-1 at their home ground of Deepdale. Arsenal go on to make it 3 straight League titles.
In the 1st season of the Football League, 1888-89, Preston went unbeaten, winning 18 games, drawing 4 and losing none. They also won the FA Cup, making the 1st "Double." An unbeaten League season would not happen again until Arsenal in 2003-04: As broadcaster Alan Parry said, "They were, quite literally, unbeatable: Played 38, won 24, drawn 12, lost exactly none!"
Also on this day, Santa Anita Park opens in Los Angeles. Still the West Coast's premier thoroughbred horse racing track, it annually hosts the Santa Anita Derby, one of the warmup races for the Triple Crown. It has also hosted the Breeders' Cup more times than any other track, 10: 1986, 1993, 2003, 2008, 2009, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2016 and 2019.
It's yet another location which, due to its proximity to Hollywood, has frequently served as a filming location for its usual subject: The Marx Brothers' A Day at the Races and the original version of A Star Is Born in 1937, and The Story of Seabiscuit in 1949. Seabiscuit had famously won his last race there, the 1940 Santa Anita Handicap. The ill-fated 2012 TV series Luck was also filmed there.
It also includes statues of several horses, including Seabiscuit, John Henry and Zenyatta; and jockeys such as Johnny Longden, Bill Shoemaker and Laffit Pincay Jr.
It also includes statues of several horses, including Seabiscuit, John Henry and Zenyatta; and jockeys such as Johnny Longden, Bill Shoemaker and Laffit Pincay Jr.
December 25, 1936: Arsenal host Preston, and win 4-1, on goals by Jackie Milne, Alf Kirchen, and 2 by Ted Drake.
December 25, 1938: Jack Edwin Hamilton is born in Burlington, Iowa. He went 32-40 in 8 seasons as a major league pitcher, including for the Mets in 1966 and 1967. However, the Mets traded him to the California Angels, and on August 18, 1967, he hit Tony Conigliaro of the Boston Red Sox in the head, ruining his career.
It was not intentional: He had no reputation for hitting batters, hit only 1 other batter during the course of the season, and someone had thrown a smoke bomb onto the field a few minutes earlier, and the smoke hadn't fully cleared, making it harder to see the ball during a night game.
Hamilton never recovered from the stigma of having hit Tony C, and retired after 2 more seasons. He later ran restaurants in his native Iowa, and in Branson, Missouri, where he died in 2018, at age 79.
Also on this day, Joseph Jean-Noel Yves Picard in Montréal, Québec. A defenseman, he won the Stanley Cup with the 1965 Montreal Canadiens, and reached the Stanley Cup Finals 3 more times, with the 1968, 1969 and 1970 St. Louis Blues.
He is best remembered for his unsuccessful attempt to trip Bobby Orr of the Boston Bruins up in overtime of Game 4 of the 1970 Finals, allowing Orr to score the Cup-winning goal, and putting Picard into perhaps the most famous photograph in the history of hockey.
Noel Picard was a member of 2 1st-year NHL expansion teams, the 1967-68 Blues and the 1972-73 Atlanta Flames. He later became a broadcaster for the Blues, and ran a restaurant in the suburbs of St. Louis. He died in 2017.
December 25, 1939, 80 years ago: With World War II underway, the Football League has again suspended operations, and won't start again until the 1946-47 season (although the Football Association will play a full FA Cup tournament in 1945-46). Arsenal host East London team Clapton Orient, and win 3-0. Kirchen, Jack Crayston and Reg Lewis score the goals. Clapton Orient is now known as Leyton Orient, nicknamed just "Orient," or "The O's."
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December 25, 1940: South Side Park burns down in Chicago. As far as anyone knows, the fire is not purposely set. It was the 1st home of the American League's Chicago White Sox (1901 to 1910), and of the Negro Leagues' Chicago American Giants (1910 to 1940). The American Giants won 7 Pennants while playing there, the White Sox 2.
Also on this day, under the wartime conditions of depleted rosters, Tommy Lawton plays for Everton against Liverpool at Anfield in the morning. Liverpool win, 3-1. Then he is asked to play as a guest player for Merseyside club Tranmere Rovers at nearby Cheshire club Crewe Alexandra in the afternoon. As he recalled, "The Tranmere people came into the dressing room, and asked if anyone wanted to play, as they were two men short. I said, 'Go on, I'll help you out.' And I did."
I can't find a record of the result of the Tranmere-Crewe match, but Tranmere beat Liverpool 3-2 just 3 days later, and Crewe went on to finish 36th and last in the war-forced setup of the Northern Regional Championship in the 1940-41 season, winning only 2 games, drawing 3 and losing 19. Tranmere finished 27th, suggesting that Tranmere likely won the game. Liverpool 16th, and Everton, winners of the last prewar League title, 5th. Preston North End won.
On Christmas Day 1940, Lawton played a full 90 minutes in the afternoon, after having already done so in the morning. Given the heavy leather balls and ragged pitches (especially in Winter) of the era, this may qualify as a Christmas miracle.
Just 4 days after Christmas, the Luftwaffe bombed the Rolls-Royce factory in Crewe, which had been making Spitfire planes for the Royal Air Force.
Also on this day, Arsenal lose 4-2 away to West Ham United. They finished 4th in the Southern Regional, the Hammers 2nd, and Crystal Palace of Southeast London won.
December 25, 1941: Arsenal host Fulham and win 2-0, on goals by Kirchen and Lewis. Although both men's best years happened during The War (always Capital T, Capital W), Lewis would score twice to win Arsenal the 1950 FA Cup Final.
Also on this day, David Wayne Parks is born outside Dallas in Muenster, Texas. He starred as an end at Texas Tech, and was the 1st pick in the 1964 NFL Draft, the 1st receiver so honored, by the San Francisco 49ers. In 1965, he led the NFL in receptions, receiving yards and receiving touchdowns, the "receiving triple crown."
He played pro ball until 1974, making 3 Pro Bowls, catching 360 passes for 5,619 yards and 44 touchdowns. He is in the College Football and Texas Sports Halls of Fame. He went on to work in law enforcement, and invented a garden tool, the Speedy Weedy. He died on August 7, 2019.
Also on this day, Noël Le Graët is born in Bourbriac, Côtes-d'Armor, France. Since 2011, he has been President of the French Football Federation (FFF), the governing body of French soccer. Under his leadership, France has advanced to the Final of Euro 2016, losing to Portugal, and won the 2018 World Cup, beating Croatia in the Final.
December 25, 1942: Arsenal travel to Stamford Bridge in West London, and lose 5-2 to Chelsea.
Also on this day, Françoise Dürr is born in Algiers, in what was then French Algeria. She was one of the top women's tennis players of the late 1960s and early 1970s, particularly in doubles. In singles, she won the 1967 French Open. She is still alive.
December 25, 1943: Arsenal travel to The Den in South London, and beat Millwall 5-1. Lewis scores twice. Goals are also scored by Drake, Denis Compton and Bobby Flavell.
The brothers Leslie and Denis Compton were accomplished athletes, both of whom played soccer for Arsenal (Les was better at that sport) and cricket for Middlesex County Cricket Club (Denis was better at that one).
Also on this day, Howard James Twilley Jr. is born in Houston. In 1965, playing wide receiver for the University of Tulsa, he was runner-up to USC running back Mike Garrett for the Heisman Trophy. He became an original 1966 Miami Dolphin, and was the only one to make it to their undefeated 1972 team that won Super Bowl VII, also winning Super Bowl VIII.
He later ran a string of Athlete's Foot sporting-goods stores, and then an investment firm, and is in the Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame. He is still alive.
December 25, 1944, 75 years ago: Arsenal travel to Griffin Park in West London, and draw 1-1 with Brentford.
Also on this day, Jair Ventura Filho is born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Known as Jairzinho and nicknamed O Furacão (The Hurricane), he starred with hometown club Botafogo and the Brazilian national soccer team, and won World Cups for his country in 1962 and 1970. He is still alive, and currently manages a Rio-based team in the lower divisions of Brazil's league system.
Also on this day, David Wayne Parks is born outside Dallas in Muenster, Texas. He starred as an end at Texas Tech, and was the 1st pick in the 1964 NFL Draft, the 1st receiver so honored, by the San Francisco 49ers. In 1965, he led the NFL in receptions, receiving yards and receiving touchdowns, the "receiving triple crown."
He played pro ball until 1974, making 3 Pro Bowls, catching 360 passes for 5,619 yards and 44 touchdowns. He is in the College Football and Texas Sports Halls of Fame. He went on to work in law enforcement, and invented a garden tool, the Speedy Weedy. He died on August 7, 2019.
Also on this day, Noël Le Graët is born in Bourbriac, Côtes-d'Armor, France. Since 2011, he has been President of the French Football Federation (FFF), the governing body of French soccer. Under his leadership, France has advanced to the Final of Euro 2016, losing to Portugal, and won the 2018 World Cup, beating Croatia in the Final.
December 25, 1942: Arsenal travel to Stamford Bridge in West London, and lose 5-2 to Chelsea.
Also on this day, Françoise Dürr is born in Algiers, in what was then French Algeria. She was one of the top women's tennis players of the late 1960s and early 1970s, particularly in doubles. In singles, she won the 1967 French Open. She is still alive.
December 25, 1943: Arsenal travel to The Den in South London, and beat Millwall 5-1. Lewis scores twice. Goals are also scored by Drake, Denis Compton and Bobby Flavell.
The brothers Leslie and Denis Compton were accomplished athletes, both of whom played soccer for Arsenal (Les was better at that sport) and cricket for Middlesex County Cricket Club (Denis was better at that one).
Also on this day, Howard James Twilley Jr. is born in Houston. In 1965, playing wide receiver for the University of Tulsa, he was runner-up to USC running back Mike Garrett for the Heisman Trophy. He became an original 1966 Miami Dolphin, and was the only one to make it to their undefeated 1972 team that won Super Bowl VII, also winning Super Bowl VIII.
He later ran a string of Athlete's Foot sporting-goods stores, and then an investment firm, and is in the Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame. He is still alive.
December 25, 1944, 75 years ago: Arsenal travel to Griffin Park in West London, and draw 1-1 with Brentford.
Also on this day, Jair Ventura Filho is born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Known as Jairzinho and nicknamed O Furacão (The Hurricane), he starred with hometown club Botafogo and the Brazilian national soccer team, and won World Cups for his country in 1962 and 1970. He is still alive, and currently manages a Rio-based team in the lower divisions of Brazil's league system.
Also on this day, Jonathan Edwards (no middle name) is born in St. Louis. In 1977, John Edwards became the lead singer of the soul group The Spinners. A stroke forced him to retire in 2000. Nevertheless, he is still alive.
December 25, 1945: With World War II over and victory belonging to the Allies, Arsenal travel to Wales, and lose 2-1 to Newport County at Rodney Parade in Newport.
Also on this day, Kenneth Michael Stabler is born in Foley, Alabama. "The Snake" was backup quarterback to Joe Namath at the University of Alabama in their 1964 National Championship season, then led them to another title in 1965. He guided the Oakland Raiders to victory in Super Bowl XI in 1977.
He once said, "There's nothing wrong with reading a playbook by the light of a jukebox." The writer Jack London, also a noted party animal in Oakland, once wrote, "I would rather be ashes than dust. I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than be stifled by dry rot. I would rather be a superb meteor than a sleepy, permanent planet." Someone once read those words to Stabler, and asked him what he thought they meant. Stabler paused a moment, then said, "Throw deep." He may have been reckless, but he was smart.
Somehow, in spite of all his carousing, Ken Stabler lived until 2015 -- but not long enough to be elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, which elected him in a sympathy vote right after his death.
December 25, 1946: The Buffalo Bisons of the National Basketball League announce that they're moving to the "Tri-Cities" of Rock Island and Moline, Illinois, and Davenport, Iowa, and becoming the Tri-Cities Blackhawks. Later, Bettendorf, Iowa will be added to the region's traditional name, making it the "Quad Cities."
The Blackhawks -- like the Chicago hockey team, named for the famous early 19th Century Native chief of the region -- play in Moline for 5 years, but in 1951, they moved again, becoming the Milwaukee Hawks. In 1955, they became the St. Louis Hawks, reaching 4 NBA Finals including winning the 1958 NBA Championship. In 1968, despite having won a Division title, they moved again, becoming the Atlanta Hawks. Given their attendance problems lately, they may have to move again.
Also on this day, Arsenal host Portsmouth, and win 2-1 on goals by Jimmy Logie and Ronnie Rooke. Rooke was 35, old for a forward and very old for a good one. But in 1947-48, the season in which he turned 36, he scored 33 goals to help Arsenal win the League.
That total remains the most any Arsenal player has scored in a post-World War II season, and only 2 Arsenal players since have scored 30 in a League season: Thierry Henry in 2003-04 and Robin van Persie in 2011-12. Rookie did not live to see either achievement, dying in 1985.
Also on this day, Lawrence Richard Csonka is born in Stow, Ohio, outside Akron. One of many star running backs at Syracuse University, he rushed for 8,081 yards and 64 touchdowns for the Miami Dolphins. He was a 3-time All-Pro, helped the Dolphins to an undefeated season in 1972, capped by Super Bowl VII, and was the MVP of Super Bowl VIII.
He left the Dolphins to play in the World Football League, but that didn't work out. He came to the New York Giants, but that didn't work out, either, culminating in the 1978 play known as "The Miracle of the Meadowlands." He came back to the Dolphins for 1 more season and retired. He has been elected to the College and Pro Football Halls of Fame. The Dolphins retired his Number 39. He is still alive.
Also on this day, Gene William Lamont is born in Rockford, Illinois. A catcher, he reached the postseason with the 1972 Detroit Tigers, but was never more than a backup. He is now best remembered as a coach, frequently working under Jim Leyland.
He reached the postseason as a coach with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1990 and '91, as manager of the Chicago White Sox in 1993 (and was named American League Manager of the Year), the Houston Astros in 2004, and the Tigers in 2006, '09, '11, '12, '13 and '14. He has also managed the Pirates, and now works in the Kansas City Royals' front office.
Also on this day, John Boyle (no middle name) is born in Motherwell, Scotland. A midfielder, he reached the 1967 FA Cup Final with West London team Chelsea, but lost; and was injured for their 1970 FA Cup Final win. But he got a winner's medal for their 1971 win in the European Cup Winners' Cup.
He later came to America, and both played for and managed the Tampa Bay Rowdies, winning the NASL Championship as a player in 1975, Tampa Bay's 1st title in any sport. He is still alive.
December 25, 1947: Arsenal, now managed by former player and physiotherapist Tom Whittaker, beat Liverpool 3-0 at Anfield, on 2 goals by Rooke and 1 by Don Roper. As I said, Arsenal go on to win the 1948 League title.
December 25, 1948: Arsenal host East Midlands team Derby County, and the teams play to a 3-3 draw.
Also on this day, Joel Natalino Santana is born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, his middle name coming from his birth on Christmas (Natal in Portuguese). A centreback, he starred for hometown team Vasco da Gama, winning the national league (Campeonato Brasileiro) in 1974.
He moved around a lot as a manager, leading Al Wasl to the league title in the United Arab Emirates in 1982, 1983 and 1985. He returned home and won Brazilian State Championships for Vasco in 1992 and 1993, Bahia in 1994, for Rio team Fluminense (or "Flu") in 1995, for Flu's arch-rivals Flamengo (or "Fla") in 1996, for Rio team Botafogo in 1997, for Bahia again in 1999, Vitória in 2003, Fla again in 2008, and Botafogo again in 2010.
But his biggest achievement was leading Vasco to the league title in 2000, making him one of the few managers in any country to win a league title for the same team as a player and a manager. He now manages an amateur team in the Los Angeles suburbs.
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December 25, 1950: Arsenal host Stoke City and their legendary midfielder, Stanley Matthews, the man known as the Wizard of Dribble. Stoke win 3-0.
Also on this day, Jesus Manuel Marcano Trillo is born in Caripito, Venezuela. A child born on December 25, and named Jesus? Not just Jesus, but Jesus Manuel -- as in short for "Emmanuel," meaning "God with us"? He's better known as Manny Trillo, the 2nd baseman of the 1980 World Champion Philadelphia Phillies.
Also on this day, Kyle Rote Jr. is born in Dallas. The son of Southern Methodist University (SMU) running back Kyle Rote, soon to become a pro star with the Giants, Kyle Jr. played the original football. He starred for the Dallas Tornadoes, becoming one of the earliest American-born soccer players to be widely known. Indeed, he was the 1st American-born, and the 1st American-trained, player to lead the North American Soccer League in scoring for a season, in 1973.
However, he only played 5 games for the national team. He also won ABC's Superstars competition 3 times in 4 years in the late 1970s. He now runs an athletes' agent service.
December 25, 1951: Arsenal host Portsmouth, and win 4-1 on goals by Lewis, Logie, Freddie Cox and Peter Goring.
December 25, 1952: Arsenal beat Bolton Wanderers 6-4 at Burnden Park. The goals are scored by Logie, Roper, Ray Daniel, Arthur Milton, and 2 by Cliff Holton. Milton, who lived until 2007, was the last survivor of the 12 men to have played for England at the senior level in both soccer and cricket. The Compton Brothers had also done so. Arsenal would win the 1953 League title, the closest race in the League's history.
December 25, 1953: Patrick "Patsy" Donovan dies at age 88. The native of Queenstown, County Cork, Ireland was one of the top baseball players of his time, the 1890s and 1910s. A right fielder, he batted .307 for his career, collecting 2,253 hits, playing mainly for the Pittsburgh Pirates and St. Louis Cardinals. He led the National League in stolen bases in 1900.
He also managed both teams, as well as the Brooklyn Dodgers and Boston Red Sox. But the only Pennant he was involved in was in his rookie year, with the Dodgers (or, as they were then known -- I swear, I am not making this up, it came from several of their players having gotten married in a single off-season -- the Bridegrooms) in 1890.
December 25, 1954: Arsenal host Chelsea at Highbury, and win 1-0 on a goal by 1940 Merseyside hero Tommy Lawton, now playing out the string at age 36.
But Chelsea will go on to win the League title for the 1st time in their 50-year history -- the only time they will do so until 2005, when corrupt Russian energy boss Roman Abramovich has taken them over. They win this 1955 title with the 1st man ever to win the League as both a non-managing player and a non-playing manager. And he's an Arsenal man: Ted Drake.
December 25, 1956: Arsenal play Chelsea to a 1-1 draw at Stamford Bridge. Whittaker had died earlier in the year, and the club had gone into a long decline that wouldn't be reversed for 10 years.
Also on this day, Jesus Manuel Marcano Trillo is born in Caripito, Venezuela. A child born on December 25, and named Jesus? Not just Jesus, but Jesus Manuel -- as in short for "Emmanuel," meaning "God with us"? He's better known as Manny Trillo, the 2nd baseman of the 1980 World Champion Philadelphia Phillies.
Also on this day, Kyle Rote Jr. is born in Dallas. The son of Southern Methodist University (SMU) running back Kyle Rote, soon to become a pro star with the Giants, Kyle Jr. played the original football. He starred for the Dallas Tornadoes, becoming one of the earliest American-born soccer players to be widely known. Indeed, he was the 1st American-born, and the 1st American-trained, player to lead the North American Soccer League in scoring for a season, in 1973.
However, he only played 5 games for the national team. He also won ABC's Superstars competition 3 times in 4 years in the late 1970s. He now runs an athletes' agent service.
December 25, 1951: Arsenal host Portsmouth, and win 4-1 on goals by Lewis, Logie, Freddie Cox and Peter Goring.
December 25, 1952: Arsenal beat Bolton Wanderers 6-4 at Burnden Park. The goals are scored by Logie, Roper, Ray Daniel, Arthur Milton, and 2 by Cliff Holton. Milton, who lived until 2007, was the last survivor of the 12 men to have played for England at the senior level in both soccer and cricket. The Compton Brothers had also done so. Arsenal would win the 1953 League title, the closest race in the League's history.
December 25, 1953: Patrick "Patsy" Donovan dies at age 88. The native of Queenstown, County Cork, Ireland was one of the top baseball players of his time, the 1890s and 1910s. A right fielder, he batted .307 for his career, collecting 2,253 hits, playing mainly for the Pittsburgh Pirates and St. Louis Cardinals. He led the National League in stolen bases in 1900.
He also managed both teams, as well as the Brooklyn Dodgers and Boston Red Sox. But the only Pennant he was involved in was in his rookie year, with the Dodgers (or, as they were then known -- I swear, I am not making this up, it came from several of their players having gotten married in a single off-season -- the Bridegrooms) in 1890.
December 25, 1954: Arsenal host Chelsea at Highbury, and win 1-0 on a goal by 1940 Merseyside hero Tommy Lawton, now playing out the string at age 36.
But Chelsea will go on to win the League title for the 1st time in their 50-year history -- the only time they will do so until 2005, when corrupt Russian energy boss Roman Abramovich has taken them over. They win this 1955 title with the 1st man ever to win the League as both a non-managing player and a non-playing manager. And he's an Arsenal man: Ted Drake.
December 25, 1956: Arsenal play Chelsea to a 1-1 draw at Stamford Bridge. Whittaker had died earlier in the year, and the club had gone into a long decline that wouldn't be reversed for 10 years.
This remains the last game that Arsenal have played on a Christmas Day. By the 1970s, England's Football Association would stop allowing Football League games to be played on Christmas Day. To this day, however, they are still played on the day after, a.k.a. Boxing Day, usually neighboring rivals to save on travel costs.
December 25, 1957: Christopher Kamara (no middle name) is born in Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire, England. A midfielder, Chris Kamara helped Wiltshire team Swindon Town win England's 4th division in 1986, and get them promoted from the 3rd to the 2nd division the next year.
In 1990, he went back to Yorkshire, and helped Leeds United win the 2nd division and get promoted to the 1st. However, they sold him to Bedfordshire team Luton Town in 1991-92, and when Leeds won the League that year, Kamara didn't get a winner's medal.
He managed Yorkshire team Bradford City, and got them promoted from the 3rd to the 2nd division in 1996. He has since gone into the broadcasting side of soccer.
December 25, 1958: Rickey Nelson Henley is born in Chicago. His mother, who had named him after singer Eric Hilliard "Ricky" Nelson, remarried and took him to her husband's hometown of Oakland, California, and the boy was renamed Rickey Henley Henderson. A Baseball Hall-of-Famer and by far the all-time leader in stolen bases, Rickey is a legend. Just ask him.
Also on this day, Hanford Dixon (no middle name) is born in Mobile, Alabama. The All-Pro cornerback for the Cleveland Browns would bark like a dog at his teammates to get them psyched up, and fans in the bleachers at Cleveland Municipal Stadium would start barking along with him. Soon, he started calling that section the Dawg Pound, and they would respond by wearing dog masks and throwing dog biscuits.
December 25, 1959, 60 years ago: Robert Washington Jones is born in Demopolis, Alabama. A linebacker, Robbie Jones was a member of the University of Alabama team that won the 1979 National Championship, and was special teams captain of the Giants when they won Super Bowl XXI.
He later managed Coventry, Leeds and Birmingham club Aston Villa, and is now a club ambassador for Liverpool.
December 25, 1966: Wendy Gebauer is born in Washington, D.C., and grows up in the nearby suburb of Reston, Virginia. A forward in the University of North Carolina's women's soccer dynasty, she was a member of the U.S. team that won the 1st-ever Women's World Cup in 1991.
December 25, 1968: James Thomas Dowd is born in Point Pleasant, New Jersey. Growing up in neighboring Brick, Jim Dowd was the 1st New Jerseyan to play for the Devils, and remains the only New Jerseyan to have his name on the Stanley Cup, having scored a late winner in Game 2 of the 1995 Finals against the Detroit Red Wings. He now coaches a youth hockey team in Red Bank, New Jersey.
Also, Corey Edward Widmer is born outside Washington in Alexandria, Virginia. A linebacker, he played for the Giants from 1992 to 1999.
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December 25, 1971: The longest game in NFL history is played. The Miami Dolphins beat the Kansas City Chiefs, 24-21, when Garo Yepremian kicks a field goal with 7 minutes and 20 seconds to go in the 2nd overtime of an AFC Divisional Playoff. It was also the Chiefs' last game at Kansas City Municipal Stadium, before moving to Arrowhead Stadium in September 1972.
Also on this day, Terry Vaughn (no middle name) is born in Sumter, South Carolina. A star receiver at the University of Arizona, he was not drafted by an NFL team, but became the 1st receiver in the Canadian Football League to catch 1,000 passes in a career.
He won the CFL Championship, the Grey Cup, with both Alberta teams, the 1998 Calgary Stampeders and the 2003 Edmonton Eskimos. He was named to the Canadian Football Hall of Fame and TSN's (The Sports Network, Canada's version of ESPN) 50 Greatest CFL Players.
December 25, 1973: Bullet Joe Simpson dies at age 80 in the Miami suburb of Coral Gables, Florida. A defenseman, he starred for the Edmonton Eskimos of the West Coast Hockey League, winning that league's title in 1922, and advancing to the Stanley Cup Finals, where they lost to the team now known as the Toronto Maple Leafs. He later starred for the NewYork Americans, and is in the Hockey Hall of Fame.
Also on this day, Robert James Elliott is born in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, in the North-East of England. A left back, Robbie Elliott starred for his hometown team, Newcastle United, and also played the 2006-07 season for their arch-rivals, Sunderland. Since 2009, he has worked with the United States Under-20 national team.
December 25, 1975: Two very different Boston legends are born. Hideki Okajima is a Japanese-born pitcher for the Red Sox, who helped them win the 2007 World Series.
And Rob Mariano is born in Canton, Massachusetts. "Boston Rob" continually wore a Red Sox cap while appearing on the CBS series Survivor, and ended up marrying his season's winner, Amber Brkich. Together, they went on to compete on another CBS series, The Amazing Race. They now live in Pensacola, Florida, and have 3 children, all girls.
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December 25, 1981: Willy Taveras -- apparently, his entire full name -- is born in Tenares, Dominican Republic. A center fielder, he reached the postseason with the 2004 and '05 Houston Astros, and the 2007 Colorado Rockies, playing in the 2005 and '07 World Series. In 2008, with the Rockies, he led the National League in stolen bases.
But he was one of these players who simply didn't get on base often enough to make his speed a useful weapon. Although he has kept his career going by playing in the Mexican and Dominican leagues, but hasn't appeared in Major League Baseball since 2010, with the Washington Nationals.
December 25, 1982: The 1st Aloha Bowl is played at Aloha Stadium in Honolulu, Hawaii. The University of Washington, then ranked Number 9 in the nation, defeats the University of Maryland, then Number 16, 21-20.
Honolulu had previously hosted the Poi Bowl from 1936 to 1939, and the Pineapple Bowl from 1940 to 1952, but those games were held on New Year's Day. The Aloha Bowl would be held on Christmas Day, and would feature a man in a Santa Claus suit parachuting onto the field to present the referee with the game ball. In 1991, the ABC sitcom Coach would feature a 2-part episode about the show's fictional Minnesota State University playing in the Pineapple Bowl on Christmas Day.
In 1998, 1999 and 2000, Aloha Stadium hosted a doubleheader, with the Aloha Bowl preceded by the Oahu Bowl. But that game quickly folded. The last Aloha Bowl was played in 2000. It was a commercial failure: Of the 19 games played, only the 1989 edition was a sellout of the 50,000-seat Aloha Stadium.
Having quickly gone from hosting 2 bowl games in 2000 to none in 2001, Hawaii tried again. The Hawaii Bowl was established in 2002, and was played on Christmas Day that year and the next, but has usually been played on Christmas Eve since. This year, it will be played on Christmas Eve, between Brigham Young University and an opponent to be determined.
Also on this day, Shawn Cornelius Andrews is born in Camden, Arkansas. A guard, he starred at the University of Arkansas, made 2 Pro Bowls with the Philadelphia Eagles, and played in Super Bowl XXXIX. He is a member of the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame and the Eagles' 75th Anniversary Team. He played with the Giants in 2010, but a back injury soon ended his career.
His brother Stacy Andrews was an Eagle teammate in 2009, and closed his career helping the Giants win Super Bowl XLVI.
December 25, 1984: Jack Balmer dies in Liverpool at age 68. A forward, he helped Liverpool F.C. win the Football League title in 1947.
Also on this day, Alastair Nathan Cook is born in Gloucester, England. I don't know what makes a cricket player great, but Cook holds the records for most caps (appearances) and most caps as Captain for the England national team. He was named International Cricket Council Player of the Year in 2011. He is 5th on the all-time list for most runs in Test cricket, with 12,472. (Sachin Tendulkar of India holds the record, with 15,921.)
He currently plays for Essex County Cricket. That's Essex County in England, not in New Jersey. England does have a city named Newark, but, unlike in New Jersey, it isn't in the County of Essex, but in the County of Nottinghamshire. However, he retired from international cricket before the 2019 Cricket World Cup, and was not a member of the England team that won it.
Also on this day, Limas Lee Sweed Jr. is born outside Houston in Brenham, Texas. A receiver, he was with the University of Texas when it won the 2005 National Championship, and the Pittsburgh Steelers when they won Super Bowl XLIII. He last played in 2012, with the CFL's Saskatchewan Roughriders.
December 25, 1987: Demaryius Antwon Thomas is born in Montrose, Georgia. A receiver, he was with the Denver Broncos when they won Super Bowl 50. Now with the Jets, the 5-time Pro Bowler has caught 722 passes for 9,735 yards and 62 touchdowns.
December 25, 1988: Eric Ambrose Gordon Jr. is born in Indianapolis. Named Indiana's "Mr. Basketball" in 2007, the guard played just 1 season at Indiana University before declared for the NBA Draft. It took a while to become a big pro player, including 3 years with the Los Angeles Clippers and 5 years with the New Orleans Pelicans, but in 2017, with the Houston Rockets, he was named NBA Sixth Man of the Year.
December 25, 1989, 30 years ago: Yankee legend manager Billy Martin is killed in a drunken-driving crash near his home in Johnson City, New York, outside Binghamton. He was 61.
Also on this day, Walter Ris dies in Mission Viejo, California, just short of his 66th birthday. A swimmer, the Chicago native won 2 Gold Medals for the U.S. at the 1948 Olympics in London. He is a member of the International Swimming Hall of Fame.
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December 25, 1990: Garrett Nicholas Cooper is born in Auburn, Alabama, where his father was teaching at Auburn University. His father later got a teaching job in Los Angeles, and that's where Garrett grew up, although he returned to Auburn to play baseball. He made his major league debut in 2017, as a 1st baseman for the Yankees, but has since been traded to the Miami Marlins.
December 25, 1991: Frank Finnigan dies of a heart attack in his hometown of Shawville, Quebec, a suburb of Canada's national capital, Ottawa, Ontario. He was 90 years old, and had lived long enough to see his efforts to get his former hockey team, the Ottawa Senators, restored to the NHL for the 1992 expansion, but not long enough to see them take the ice.
A right wing, he played the original Senators from 1923 to 1934, including being an integral part of their 1927 Stanley Cup win. Due to the Great Depression, the Senators did not play in the 1931-32 season, and the Toronto Maple Leafs were allowed to sign him, enabling him to win that season's Stanley Cup with the Leafs. He was the Senators' Captain upon their return. In the 1933-34 season, he played in the Ace Bailey Benefit Game in Toronto.
But after that season, they moved to St. Louis, already known for good support of a minor-league team. Finnigan scored the final goal in the history of the old Senators. The St. Louis Eagles were terrible in 1934-35 and folded, selling him back to the Leafs, for whom he played until 1937. He served in the Royal Canadian Air Force in World War II and managed hotels.
Finnigan was the last surviving Senator from the Stanley Cup winners of 1927 -- still the last Cup won by an Ottawa team -- and participated in the "Bring Back The Senators" campaign. On October 8, 1992, before their 1st regular-season home game, at the Ottawa Civic Centre, his Number 8 was raised to the rafters, and his son Frank Finnigan Jr. was invited to drop the ceremonial puck before the 1st home game.
His brother Eddie Finnigan also played in the NHL, including for the St. Louis Eagles after they were no longer the Senators, but was mostly a career minor-leaguer. His daughter Joan Finnigan was a noted Canadian writer, including writing a book about the Senators' re-establishment, and several books about the Ottawa Valley.
December 25, 1992: Arin Gilliland (no middle name) is born in Lexington, Kentucky. Now using her married name of Arin Wright, she plays left back for the Chicago Red Stars of the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL). She is currently expecting her 1st child, and will likely miss the 1st half of the 2020 season on maternity leave.
Also on this day, Tanner Scott Rainey is born outside New Orleans in Folsom, Louisiana. He debuted with the Cincinnati Reds in 2018, making 8 appearances for them. He was a member of the Washington Nationals this past season, making 52 regular-season appearances, and entering 4 games of the World Series, which the Nats won.
December 25, 1997: Bill Hewitt dies in Port Perry, Ontario at age 68. The grandson of sportswriter W.A. Hewitt and the son of sportscaster Foster Hewitt, he was a longtime TV voice of the Toronto Maple Leafs. As far as I know, the Hewitts are the only family with 3 generations in any sport's Hall of Fame.
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December 25, 2001: The film Ali premieres, starring Will Smith as Muhammad Ali, depicting his life from the 1st time he wins the Heavyweight Championship of the World, in 1964 against Sonny Liston in Miami Beach, to the 2nd time he wins it, in 1974 against George Foreman in Zaire, and all the magic and all the madness in between.
December 25, 2004: Eddie Spicer dies in Rhyl, Wales at age 82. In 1939, the centreback signed for his hometown soccer team, Liverpool F.C., at just 17 years old. But World War II was underway, and he served in Britain's Royal Marines. He didn't make his official debut for the Mersey Reds until January 30, 1946, at 23.
In the 1946-47 season, he made 10 appearances for the club, which won the Football League title, but that was 1 game short of qualifying for a winner's medal under the rules of the time. He played for Liverpool in the 1950 FA Cup Final, but they lost to Arsenal. He broke his leg late in the next season, missing the entire 1951-52 season, and retired a year later, just 31.
December 25, 2007: Jim Beauchamp dies of leukemia at age 68. An outfielder, he was named Most Valuable Player of the Texas League in 1963, but that success didn't carry over into the major leagues. He debuted with the St. Louis Cardinals in 1963, was part of the Houston Astros' youth movement in 1964 and '65, was with the Milwaukee Braves when they moved to Atlanta in 1966, was traded away by the Cincinnati Reds right before they started winning Pennants again, and finally saw the postseason with the Pennant-winning 1973 Mets.
He then managed in the minor leagues, and was promoted to bench coach by the Braves in 1991, a part of 5 World Series with them, winning in 1995. His hometown of Grove, Oklahoma named its baseball field for him while he as still alive and well enough to enjoy it. "Beauchamp" is French for "beautiful field."
December 25, 2009, 10 years ago: Sherlock Holmes premieres, Guy Ritchie's retelling of Arthur Conan Doyle's legend, with Robert Downey Jr. as a Holmes who is impossible to be around, and more of a man of action, but still brilliant. Jude Law plays Dr. John H. Watson, and Rachel McAdams plays Irene Adler.
The villain is played by Mark Strong, previously in the film version of Fever Pitch, Nick Hornby's memoir about being a fan of Arsenal. There is an inside joke: Among the villain's business holdings is the Woolwich Arsenal, the place where the team was founded in 1886. The film depicts Tower Bridge still under construction. It opened in 1894.
December 25, 2019: Dear Santa Claus: The Yankees finally look serious. So do Arsenal and Rutgers. For Christmas, I want better head coaches for the Devils and the Red Bulls. I'll leave tickets with the milk and cookies.