GOATS – All Americans – Game Changers etc.

Introduction

For our next series, I will be sharing with you my own psychological, historical, experiential life with the World of Sports. A while back I told you that I will be celebrating my 98th birthday later this month – May 31.  

My personal world of sports began with my older brothers, John, Geno, and Joe. They were all good athletes and they let their little brother play with them. 

There was a vacant lot across the street from our house and they had set up a softball field, and basketball court and we spent a lot of time playing and practicing there. In this era, I played baseball (I was on the kids’ All-Star team at Hegeler Park), I was co-captain of the junior high school basketball team. 

The Radio, Newspaper, Newsreel Age  

I grew up in a small town, La Salle, in North Central Illinois. Our contact with the Wide World of Sports was mainly with the radio. During the 1930s Bob Elson, WGN, Chicago, gave us the play-by-play games of the Cubs and White Sox. Geno and Joe were Cubs’ fans and cheered for third baseman, Stan Hack and John and I pulled for shortstop, Luke Appling of the White Sox. We were all Chicago Bears’ fans. We loved quarterback Sid Luckman and running back/pass defender George McAfee. 

My first memory of outside sports was the 1936 fight between Joe Louis and Max Schmeling of Germany. We didn’t have a radio at our house but one of our neighbors gave us a blow-by-blow account. Schmeling won the fight with the only knockout of Louis’s long career. In 1938, Louis knocked out Schmeling in the first round. 

Other noteworthy events of the 1930s.  At the 1936 Olympics, Jesse Owens won four gold medals, 100 yard and 220-yard sprints, the long jump, and as a member of the 440 relay. Glen Cunningham reduced the mile track record to 4:o4.4 minutes in his attempt to break the four minute mile. Bill Tilden was the outstanding male tennis player and Helen Wills Moody the leading woman player. Patty Berg was great in golf and Helen Hicks was great in both golf and tennis. Walter Hagen and Bobby Jones were leaders in golf. More about them and many others in later blogs. 

The most important radio message I got was during a sports event. At the age of 15, I was listening to a radio broadcast of the Chicago Bears – Green Bay Packers game.  The date was December 7, 1941, and the broadcast was interrupted to inform us that Japanese airplanes were bombing our Naval Air Base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. No one remembers this but the Bears beat the Packers 61 to 7.

GAAOAT: Was Jim Thorpe the Greatest American Athlete Of All Time?

Coming Attractions:

The Black and White TV Age

The TV Tape Age

The Color TV Age

The Instant Reply Age