November 18, 1978: The Jonestown Massacre takes place. When I was a kid, there were 3 stories that really freaked me out: The Son of Sam case, the Three Mile Island nuclear plant meltdown, and the Jonestown story.
James Warren Jones was born on May 13, 1931 in Crete, Indiana, a small town just west of the State Line with Ohio, thus about halfway between the capitals of Indianapolis and Columbus. He became a Pentecostal minister, and founded what would become the Peoples Temple (note the lack of an apostrophe, a sign that it was for all peoples) in Indianapolis in 1955.
At a time and in a place when it was dangerous to do so -- Indiana was one of the few Northern States where the Ku Klux Klan made serious inroads -- the Rev. Jim Jones reached out to black people and supported civil rights causes.
In 1965, he moved his organization to San Francisco, and became involved with charities and political groups there. He preached what he called "Apostolic Socialism," probably safer to do in traditionally leftist San Francisco than in any other American city.
He helped to get George Moscone elected Mayor in 1975, and also built alliances with City Supervisor Harvey Milk (America's 1st openly gay elected public official), Assemblyman Willie Brown (later to be Major himself), and even Governor Jerry Brown. He even met First Lady Rosalynn Carter, who spoke well of him.
He began to look to establish a colony elsewhere, and found it in the South American nation of Guyana. He brought many of his followers down with him to "Jonestown" -- some willingly, some by coercion. He said he was building a "socialist paradise." But by the Autumn of 1978, reports had reached America that there were human rights abuses in Jonestown, including some San Franciscans saying their family members were being held there against their will.
Leo Ryan, a Congressman whose District included many of the families, went to Guyana to investigate. He took some people who wanted to leave back to his plane. But before they could board, they were ambushed by gunmen. Ryan and 4 others were shot to death.
Jones knew that he couldn't get away with killing a Congressman. The game was up. And so, like so many cult leaders before him and after him, he decided that it was time to tell his followers that the end times had arrived. He served his followers Flavor Aid laced with cyanide. Some drank it willingly. Some did not. When it was over, 918 people, 304 of them children, were dead. Jones was 47 years old.
(It is from this story that the expression "drank the Kool-Aid," meaning "believed the ridiculous lie," came about, but it wasn't Kool-Aid, it was Flavor Aid.)
Jones was 47, and the story shocked the world. The story hit San Francisco particularly hard. As if that city hadn't been through enough over the years.
Things would get worse for San Francisco. The next week, there would be a double assassination, the assassin would come close to getting away with it, a deadly disease would devastate the city, and an earthquake that many feared would be "The Big One" would hit, all within the next 11 years.
Within a few months, there was a feature film, Guyana: Cult of the Damned, a fictionalized account, with Stuart Whitman as "Reverend James Johnson." In 1980, CBS aired the TV-movie The Guyana Tragedy, The Story of Jim Jones, starring Powers Boothe. Apparently, Leonardo DiCaprio is now in talks with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to star in a new film about Jones.
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November 18, 1978 was a Saturday. These key games were played in college football that day:
* Number 1 Penn State were not scheduled. The following week, they beat their arch-rivals, the University of Pittsburgh, then ranked Number 15. Since, at the time, the Nittany Lions were not in any league, and were thus not tied to any bowl game, this pretty much guaranteed a de facto National Championship Game against whoever ended up Number 2 in the country.
* Number 3 Alabama also did not play that week. The week before, they beat Number 10 Louisiana State. Two weeks after, they beat Auburn to clinch the Southeastern Conference Championship. They rose to Number 2, and that set up a Number 1 vs. Number 2 showdown with Penn State in the Sugar Bowl. Alabama won, 14-7, and won the National Championship.
* Number 2 Nebraska was upset by Missouri, 35-31 at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln, Nebraska.
* Number 4 Oklahoma beat Oklahoma State, 62-7 at Memorial Stadium in Norman, Oklahoma. A week earlier, Oklahoma had been Number 1, but lost to Nebraska, 17-14. That gave Nebraska the Big Eight Conference Championship, and the Big 8's automatic bid to the Orange Bowl. But Nebraska's loss to Missouri led to the Orange Bowl committee setting up the 1st ever bowl game rematch. Oklahoma won it, 31-24.
* Number 5 USC beat UCLA, 17-10 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. That got USC the Pacific-Ten Conference title.
* Number 7 Michigan beat Number 15 Purdue, 24-6 at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The Wolverines went on to beat Ohio State the next week. But they had lost to Michigan State earlier in the season. Due to violations before this season, Michigan State was on probation, therefore, while they shared the Big Ten Conference title with Michigan, they were ineligible for the league's Rose Bowl bid. So Michigan got it. But USC beat them in the Rose Bowl, on an alleged "phantom touchdown," as Charles White appeared to have fumbled as he crossed the goal line.
* Number 8 University of Houston had the week off, a week after beating Number 6 Texas in Austin. But the following week, having moved up to Number 5, they went to Lubbock and lost to Texas Tech. But their win the next week over crosstown rival Rice clinched the Southwest Conference title.
* Number 10 Notre Dame, with a quarterback named Joe Montana, beat Number 20 Georgia Tech, 38-21 at Grant Field in Atlanta. The next week, they went to Los Angeles and lost to USC. They closed the season at the Cotton Bowl, where Montana led a tremendous comeback for the Fighting Irish to win, 35-34.
* Number 12 Clemson beat Number 11 Maryland, 28-24 at Byrd Stadium in the Washington suburb of College Park, Maryland. This clinched the Atlantic Coast Conference title for Clemson, who went on to beat Ohio State in the Gator Bowl. Clemson won a game that ended in great controversy, through no fault of theirs.
* Rutgers beat Holy Cross, 31-21 at Fitton Field in Worcester, Massachusetts. But they weren't in a league, and they had only played 1 game against what would then have been considered a major college football team. It was their season opener, losing to Penn State, 20-17. So they weren't ranked.
Maybe they could have gone to a decent bowl game. But the next week, they lost at home to Colgate. A quickie game was set up for December 16 in the Meadowlands, called the Garden State Bowl, the 1st bowl game in the Scarlet Knights' history. It was a joke. And they lost it, 34-18 to Arizona State.
The football team at my high school, East Brunswick in Middlesex County, New Jersey, was not scheduled for that day, as it was the Semifinals of the State Playoffs, and we did not qualify.
There were 10 games played in the NBA:
* The New York Knicks beat the Milwaukee Bucks, 102-100 at Madison Square Garden.
* The New Jersey Nets lost to the Kansas City Kings, 114-100 at the Kemper Arena in Kansas City. (It's now named the Hy-Vee Arena.
* The Washington Bullets beat the Denver Nuggets, 119-114 at the Capital Centre in the Washington suburb of Landover, Maryland. The Bullets overcame 35 points from Nuggets star David Thompson.
* The Atlanta Hawks beat the Philadelphia 76ers, 124-116 at The Omni in Atlanta. The Sixers lost despite 32 points from Julius "Dr. J" Erving.
* The Boston Celtics beat the Cleveland Indians, 92-90 at The Coliseum in the Cleveland suburb of Richfield, Ohio.
* The Phoenix Suns beat the Detroit Pistons, 119-105 at the Silverdome in the Detroit suburb of Pontiac, Michigan.
* The Houston Rockets beat the San Antonio Spurs, 126-120 at The Summit in Houston. Rick Barry, playing out the string with the Rockets after a fine career with Golden State, scored 38 points.
* The San Diego Clippers beat the New Orleans Jazz, 114-111 at the San Diego Sports Arena. (The arena is now named the Pechanga Arena. The Clippers moved to Los Angeles in 1984. The Jazz moved to Utah the next season.) Randy Smith, an All-Star for the Clippers while they were still the Buffalo Braves, scored 36 points.
* The Golden State Warriors beat the Seattle SuperSonics, 112-104 at the Oakland Coliseum Arena.
* And the Portland Trail Blazers beat the Indiana Pacers, 123-111 at the Portland Memorial Coliseum.
There were 7 games played in the NHL:
* The New York Rangers beat the Minnesota North Stars, 7-2 at the Metropolitan Sports Center in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota. Carol Vadnais scored 2 goals for the Broadway Blueshirts.
* The New York Islanders beat the Philadelphia Flyers, 8-2 at the Nassau Coliseum. Mike Bossy and Clark Gillies each scored 2 goals.
* The Toronto Maple Leafs beat the St. Louis Blues, 3-1 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.
* The Buffalo Sabres beat the Detroit Red Wings, 3-1 at the Olympia Stadium in Detroit.
* The Colorado Rockies beat the Chicago Black Hawks, 8-3 at the McNichols Arena in Denver. Gary Croteau and Joe Contini each scored 2 goals for the New Jersey Devils-to-be.
* The Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Los Angeles Kings, 3-1 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California.
* And the Montreal Canadiens beat the Vancouver Canucks, 4-2 at the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver.
Only 1 game was played in the World Hockey Association, in its final season: The Birmingham Bulls beat the New England Whalers, 3-2 at the Springfield Civic Center in Springfield, Massachusetts. (It's now known as the MassMutual Center. The Whalers were playing there temporarily because the roof at the Hartford Civic Center collapsed earlier in the year. The Hartford Civic Center is now named the XL Center, the Whalers are now the Carolina Hurricanes, and the Bulls did not survive the NHL-WHA merger.)