Clik here to view.
Scores On This Historic Day: December 23, 1947, Bell Labs Invents the Transistor
The 1st working transistor. Yes, it has been preserved.December 23, 1947: Bell Telephone Laboratories, or Bell Labs for short, announces the invention of the transistor at its headquarters at Murray...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Scores On This Historic Day: December 23, 1972, The Immaculate Reception
December 23, 1972: The Pittsburgh Steelers play their 1st Playoff game, in their 40th season. And for most of the game, it wasn't looking good.They began play in 1933, with Art Rooney having founded...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Scores On This Historic Day: December 23, 1975, The Reserve Clause Is Killed
Peter SeitzDecember 23, 1975: The reserve clause is struck down, changing baseball forever.The clause -- nothing Christmassy about this -- began in 1879, when the National League instituted it,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Scores On This Historic Day: December 23, 1982, Chaminade Upsets Virginia
December 23, 1982: The biggest upset in the history of college basketball occurs.In the 1981-82 season, the University of Virginia went 30-4, and finished the regular season ranked Number 3 in the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Scores On This Historic Day: December 23, 1995, Snowballs at the Meadowlands
December 23, 1995: The New York Giants close their season in ignominious fashion -- and the result is far from the worst of it.They were playing the San Diego Chargers, at Giants Stadium in the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
How to Be a Devils Fan In Buffalo -- 2012-22 Edition
This coming Wednesday night, December 29, the New Jersey Devils head to Western New York to take on the Buffalo Sabres.Before You Go. Buffalo is located on the Niagara River, between Lakes Erie and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Tales of Christmas Past -- Real Ones
This will be the last year that I do this series. It's gotten to be too much.December 25, in the 753rd year since the founding of the city of Rome – or so Dionysius Exiguus, working in AD 525, would...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Tales of Christmas Past -- Fictional Ones
There's early in history, and then there's early in history. Both Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and its companion series Xena: Warrior Princess had Christmas episodes, despite taking place centuries...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Tales of Christmas Past -- Music
These songs debuted in the years in question, but very few did so on a Christmas Day. When that has been the case, I have said so.December 25, 1719: "Joy to the World" debuts. Isaac Watts wrote the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Tales of Christmas Past -- Sports
Note the red jersey with Number 25, for December 25December 25, 1850: Fraley Westcote Rogers is born in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn. His older brothers Al and Mort Rogers were both what passed...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Scores On This Historic Day: December 25, 1954, The Death of Johnny Ace
December 25, 1954: Johnny Ace dies, because somebody shouldn't have had access to a gun: Himself.John Marshall Alexander Jr. was born on June 9, 1929 in Memphis. In 1951, Ike Turner, already a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
December 25, 1971: The NFL's Longest Game
December 25, 1971, 50 years ago: For the 1st time, the NFL plays a game on Christmas Day. It turned out to be the longest game in the league's history.The Kansas City Chiefs played the Miami Dolphins...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Scores On This Historic Day: December 25, 1984, Bernard King Decks the Halls
December 25, 1984: For about a year now, the best basketball player in the world has not been Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, or Magic Johnson, or Larry Bird, or Julius Erving, and certainly not newly-minted NBA...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Scores On This Historic Day: December 27, 1927: Show Boat Premieres
Photo from the original 1927-28 productionDecember 27, 1927:Show Boat premieres at the Ziegfeld Theatre in New York. It changes American musical theater forever.Jerome Kern wrote the music. Oscar...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Scores On This Historic Day: December 27, 2005, Rutgers Plays Its 1st Real...
December 27, 2005: For the 1st time, the football team at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, plays in a real postseason "bowl game."It wasn't actually the first one. In 1978, frustrated over...
View ArticleClik here to view.
How to Be a New York Football Fan In Chicago -- 2022 Edition
For the moment, 2 of the NFL's 4 oldest franchises, also 2 of its 3 most successful, are in bad spots. The New York Giants have appeared in 19 NFL Championship Games, 5 of them under the Super Bowl...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Scores On This Historic Day: December 28, 2006, Rutgers Wins a Bowl Game for...
Ray Rice, holding the cowboy hat that servedas the game's MVP trophyDecember 28, 2006: For the 1st time, the football team at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, wins a postseason "bowl game."...
View ArticleClik here to view.
How to Be a Devils Fan In Washington -- 2022 Edition
Next Sunday afternoon, the New Jersey Devils visit the Washington Capitals. The Caps won the Stanley Cup in 2018, and look capable of doing it again. Before You Go. D.C. can get really hot in Summer,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
John Madden, 1936-2021
John Madden was a big man who looms large in the history of the National Football League.John Earl Madden was born on April 10, 1936, in Austin, Minnesota, near the Iowa State Line. This is Big Ten...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Scores On This Historic Day: December 29, 1964, The T.A.M.I. Show
December 29, 1964:The T.A.M.I. Show is released in movie theaters. It was filmed at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium on October 28 and 29, 1964.The Auditorium opened in 1958, and from 1961 to 1967...
View Article