Born in '74

This is a longer list of 30 people who (God willing) will all celebrate their 50th birthdays in 2024.

Walter Jones, four-time consensus All-Pro offensive tackle, Jan. 19 in Aliceville, Ala.

Magglio Ordonez, American League batting champion, Jan. 28 in Caracas, Venezuela.

Steve Nash, two-time NBA Most Valuable Player, Feb. 7 in Johannesburg.

Yevgeny Kafelnikov, French Open and Australian Open winner, Feb. 18 in Sochi, U.S.S.R.

Bobby Abreu, two-time N.L. selection for the All-Star Game, March 11 in Aragua, Venezuela.

Michael Peca, two-time Selke Trophy winner, March 26 in Toronto.

Danny Way, skateboarding record holder for air and distance, April 15 in Portland, Ore.

Jennifer Rizzotti, AP women's basketball Player of the Year, May 15 in White Plains, N.Y.

Danny Wuerffel, Heisman Trophy winner, May 27 in Fort Walton Beach, Fla.

Hideki Matsui, Central League home run leader, June 12 in Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan.

Derek Jeter, New York Yankees career hits leader, June 26 in Pequannock, N.J.

Jose Roberto da Silva Jr. (Ze Roberto), FIFA World Cup All-Star, July 6 in Sao Paulo.

Maurice Greene, two-time Olympic sprinting gold medalist, July 23 in Kansas City, Kan.

Jonathan Ogden, four-time consensus All-Pro offensive tackle, July 31 in Washington, D.C.

Krisztine Egerszegi, five-time Olympic swimming gold medalist, Aug. 16 in Budapest, Hungary.

Jason Taylor, three-time consensus All-Pro linebacker, Sept. 1 in Pittsburgh.

Ben Wallace, two-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year, Sept. 10 in Whitehall, Ala.

Hicham El Guerrouj, two-time Olympic running gold medalist, Sept. 14 in Berkane, Morocco.

Rasheed Wallace, four-time selection for the NBA All-Star Game, Sept. 17 in Philadelphia.

Sol Campbell, FIFA World Cup All-Star, Sept. 18 in London.

Rich Franklin, UFC middleweight champion, Oct. 5 in Cincinnati.

Shannon MacMillan, member of the U.S. women's soccer team, Oct. 7 in Syosset, N.Y.

Dale Earnhardt Jr., third-generation NASCAR driver, Oct. 10 in Concord, N.C.

Chris Pronger, Hart Trophy and Norris Trophy winner, Oct. 10 in Dryden, Ontario, Canada.

Paul Kariya, three-time all-NHL left winger, Oct. 16 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

R.A. Dickey, Cy Young Award winner in the National League, Oct. 29 in Nashville, Tenn.

Michael Vaughan, captain of his country's cricket team, Oct. 29 in Eccles, England.

Paul Scholes, scorer of 107 EPL goals for Manchester United, Nov. 16 in Salford, England.

Saku Koivu, three-time Olympian for his country's ice hockey team, Nov. 23 in Turku, Finland.

Karrie Webb, winner of seven major LPGA Tour events, Dec. 21 in Ayr, Australia.

Sports74 Gold: Miscellaneous

For the most part, this section is about North American sports. An international section is scheduled for July 26, the day the Olympic Games begin. May the new year be as happy it can be, considering what sort of year it's going to be.

Evel Knievel makes three appearances on Wide World of Sports. He successfully jumps eleven Mack trucks, then thirteen Mack trucks, but crashes trying to jump over the Snake River Canyon.

Speaking of Wide World of Sports, that program wins the Emmy in its category for '73-74 and will win in the Edited Program division of sports for '74-75.

Kyle Rote Jr. of the NASL's Dallas Tornado wins the second annual Superstars multi-sport competition on ABC television. This is the first year the obstacle course is used.

Jim McKay wins his fourth Emmy for Outstanding Host or Commentator, while Keith Jackson wins his third of five National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association awards for sportscaster of the year.

More than a quarter of a billion dollars is spent on televising sports, but ratings are down.

In college money matters, the NCAA will report that four-fifths of its schools lose money on sports in 1974.

Earl Anthony earns many bowling honors for the first time: winner at the PBA National Championship, winner at the Firestone Tournament of Champions, money leader, PBA Bowler of the Year, and BWA Bowler of the Year. One of the events he wins is the California version of the Home Box Office Open.

Larry Laub wins bowling's U.S. Open, and Paul Colwell wins the American Bowling Congress Masters tournament. Pat Costello wins the women's U.S. Open with two strikes in the last frame and the Professional Women's Bowlers Association championship with a tenth-frame turkey. The winner of the WIBC (Women's International Bowling Congress) Queens tourney is Judy Soutar.

LATE ADDITION, 1-3-24, 6:01 p.m.: Jim Godman sets a record for ABC tournaments with a score of 2,184 for all events. His averages will be: 223.98 in 27 events 1974-76, 219.44 in 36 events 1974-77, and 218.33 in 45 events 1973-77.

Bobby Fischer, eight-time U.S. chess champion (1958-1966), continues his reign as world champion that started in 1972. Fischer briefly gives up the championship in June due to a difference of opinion in how his title defense match should go. In November, he plays against Anatoly Karpov to remain champion. In '75, Karpov will be awarded the title on account of Fischer not showing up. However, Fischer makes chess popular enough for a book called How to Beat Bobby Fischer, published in 1974.

Winston is the first commercial sponsor of a beach volleyball tournament, paying $1,500 to back an event in San Diego.

Peter Gulgin catches a three-pound rock bass in Ontario's York River on Aug. 1. The record catch for that type of fish will be tied in 1998.

Other fishing records, set in 1974 but broken in the nineties: a 12 pound 9 ounce pink salmon, caught by Steven A. Lee on Aug. 17 in Alaska's Morse & Kenai rivers, and a 128 pound 1 ounce Atlantic sailfish caught by Harm Steyn on March 27 in Luanda, Angola.

Tommy Martin, with a total of 33 pounds and 7 ounces, wins the BASS Masters Classic.

In angling, Steve Rajeff of San Francisco dominates at the North American and world casting championships.

In rodeo, Tommy Ferguson of Miami, Okla., begins a six-year string of All-Around Champion Cowboy titles. In particular, he does well in steer wrestling and calf roping.

Eleven-year-old Curt Yarborough of Elk Grove, Calif., wins the All-American Soap Box Derby; Bret Yarborough had done so the year before, when he was 11.

The Women's Sports Foundation is established.

In power boat racing (a sport found in the 1975 AP Sports Almanac as "unlimited hydroplane racing"), George Henley drives Pay 'N Pak to the APBA Gold Cup, and he will do so again in '75.

Also in boating, Art Norris, a young vice president of the Detroit Red Wings, wins the national offshore inboard with Slap Shot.

In yachting, Scaramouche -- owned by Chuck Kirsch of Sturgis, Mich. -- is the winner of the race from Newport to Bermuda.

Johns Hopkins University wins its first of many NCAA lacrosse championships.

In box lacrosse, the NLL's Philadelphia Wings are the champs of the indoor game. Paul Suggate of the Maryland Arrows scores 115 goals and makes 124 assists in the regular season.

The Wisconsin Badgers win the Intercollegiate Rowing Association Varsity Eights for the second of three times in a row. They cover 2,000 meters in 6 minutes and 33 seconds.

The USC Trojans, with national stars John Naber and Steve Furniss on the team, snap Indiana's six-year streak as NCAA swimming champions.

The Oklahoma Sooners are the collegiate wrestling champions, with Michigan as runners-up.

Larry Kokos, 14, is the boys' champion at the national marbles tournament, while Susan Regan, 13, is the girls' champion. Each Pittsburgher defeats an opponent from Cumberland, Md., in the final. Larry wins a best-of-five overall series against Susan.

Best in show at the Westminster Kennel Club dog show is Ch. Gretchenhof Columbia River, Dr. Richard P. Smith's German short-haired pointer.

In the second running of the Iditarod sled dog race, the winner is Carl Huntington, who travels 1,049 miles in barely over 20 days 15 hours. No one else reaches the goal within three weeks of starting the race.

Finishing second at the World & National junior boys' horseshoe pitching tournament is one Walter Ray Williams of Eureka, Calif. The Modified IV winner at the World Series of Snowmobiling is a Canadian named Jacques Villeneuve.

In archery, Douglas J. Brouthers of Sharonville, Ohio, wins the national amateur championship and then the world championship, the latter competition being held in Zagreb, Yugoslavia.

The Raybestos Brakettes of Stratford, Conn., dominate the national women's fast-pitch softball tournament and win it for the fourth consecutive time.

Danny Seemiller of Pittsburgh defeats three of Japan's best table tennis players in one day at Grand Rapids, Mich., a feat likened to Carl Hubbell's 1934 All-Star Game performance.

Fred Lewis of Cleveland is the U.S. Open winner in both four-wall and three-wall handball, having also won four-wall in 1972, while Steve Sandler of Brooklyn becomes a seven-time AAU one-wall champion.

In hunting, the Fish and Wildlife Service proposes bans on lead shotgun ammo. The government agency says too many waterfowl are killed by eating pellets, but hunters say steel isn't as effective and is in fact bad for barrels.

Twenty-seven million fishermen pay $128 million for state licenses.

Tim Horton, longtime defenseman in the NHL, dies Feb. 21.

John Henry Lewis, former light-heavyweight boxing champion, dies April 14.

Dizzy Dean, Hall of Fame pitcher, dies July 17.

Don McCafferty, then-active Detroit Lions head coach, dies July 28.

James J. Braddock, former heavyweight boxing champion, dies Nov. 29.

English rugby fans and members of the Bury St. Edmunds Rugby Club are among those killed on a March 3 flight from Paris to London that crashes right after takeoff. With 346 deaths, it is for three years the crash with the most deaths ever.

On New Year's Day, there'll be a big list of 1974 births. The next full installment goes from Dr. J to a couple of T's – technical fouls, that is. The NBA and ABA will be brought together Jan. 19.

Step Into Christmas

 At about the 2:15 mark, he creates a little publicity for a soccer team.

Merry Christmas, reader(s). Expect a hodgepodge of sports Friday and something special Sunday or Monday. Also expect Showaddywaddy a year from now, maybe.

Sports74 Gold: Hockey

In the aftermath of a recent event, this section does not get the introduction that had been planned. The point of it was that there's more to hockey in the 1970s than the roughness for which that time in the game's history is remembered.

The Philadelphia Flyers win the Stanley Cup in six games against the Boston Bruins. Coach Fred Shero wins the very first Jack Adams Award for his part in bringing this NHL team to the top. Led by team captain Bobby Clarke, the Flyers are the first of the six expansion teams of '67 to win the Cup; eventually, four more of them will.

The Flyers' penalty minute total is by far the most in the NHL: 1,756. Bob Kelly, who scored a goal every 16 games or so in that first Cup-winning season, is credited with winning 14 of his 15 fights. Dave Schultz gets nine minutes for a single incident during a semifinal game when he beat up Brad Park of the home New York Rangers.

Schultz leads the NHL in penalty minutes with a record 348. He'll break that record by accumulating 472 minutes next season.

In the WHA, the Houston Aeros sweep the Chicago Cougars in the Avco Cup final. One of the men driving them to this victory is Gordie Howe, who joined the Aeros along with sons Mark Howe and Marty Howe at the beginning of the season. Gordie, 46 years old by the end of the season, wins the MVP award, adding 31 goals and 69 assists to his huge career totals. Mark is the Rookie of the Year.

The Flyers' Bernie Parent wins the Conn Smythe Trophy as MVP of the playoffs and is one of two goalies to win the Vezina Trophy this year. His record of 47 wins is one that may never be equaled, his mark of 12 shutouts is one reached only six times before in a season of 70 games or longer, and his 1.89 goals-against average is a league best.

With 68 goals and 77 assists, the Bruins' Phil Esposito wins the Art Ross Trophy for the fifth time in a row and the sixth time overall. This is the fifth of six times in a row that he leads the league in goals. The 68-goal mark will remain the second-highest for an NHL season (second to his own personal best) until Mike Bossy does one better in '78-79 and many others eclipse it thereafter.

Phil also wins the Hart Trophy (league MVP as voted by the writers) and the Lester B. Pearson Trophy (MVP as voted by the players). He now has 466 goals and 577 assists for his career.

Tony Esposito, goalie for the Chicago Black Hawks (and Phil's younger brother), gets 10 shutouts and a 2.03 GAA, both runners-up to Parent's marks but far better than the third-best. His performance earns him a share of the Vezina Trophy as the Black Hawks and Flyers each allow exactly 164 goals in 78 games. Incidentally, Chicago is the team Boston beats in the semifinals.

Bobby Orr of the Bruins wins the Norris Trophy (best defenseman) for the seventh of eight times. He leads the league in assists with 90.

The Calder Trophy for best rookie goes to Denis Potvin of the New York Islanders, who has 54 points and 175 penalty minutes.

Another great who makes his Islanders debut this season is Al Arbour, head coach for this season and 12 more to follow.

The first team All-Stars are Parent, Orr, Phil Esposito, Park, Buffalo Sabres left wing Rick Martin, and Bruins right wing Ken Hodge.

The Lady Byng Trophy for gentlemanly play goes for a second time to Bruins captain Johnny Bucyk, who gets only eight penalty minutes in 76 games. This is his second season wearing the C for Boston, the first being 1966-67.

Martin achieves four of the league's 66 hat tricks, all in wins for his Sabres.

In 13 penalty shot situations, five players score, but the only one of those five whose team goes on to win is Juha Widing, whose Los Angeles Kings defeat the Atlanta Flames.

Gerry Cheevers of the Cleveland Crusaders has a WHA-leading four shutouts. He had a league-best five the previous season.

At the NHL All-Star Game in Chicago, the West Division wins 6-4. Garry Unger of the St. Louis Blues is the MVP. Frank Mahovlich plays in his fifteenth consecutive All-Star Game, and it will be his last before he joins the WHA.

The WHA All-Star Game is held in St. Paul, Minnesota. The East wins 8-4, and the MVP is Mike Walton of the local Minnesota Fighting Saints. Walton leads the league in scoring for the season with 57 goals and 60 assists, which means he earns the W.D. "Bill" Hunter Trophy. His goals total also paces the WHA.

Sabres defenseman Tim Horton, who had helped the Toronto Maple Leafs to four Stanley Cup championships in the sixties, dies in a single-car crash Feb. 21 at the age of 44. The car in question was his signing bonus for joining Buffalo prior to the season, and the drive there from Toronto after a game against the Leafs the night before -- a 4-2 Sabres loss in which he was among the three stars -- is cut short in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada. His funeral on the 25th attracts a huge crowd, aided by the fact that no NHL games are scheduled that day.

Montreal Canadiens captain Henri Richard reaches 1,000 points Dec. 10, 1973, in a game against the Sabres.

After an All-NHL First Team, GAA-leading, Vezina-winning, Stanley Cup-winning '72-73, Canadiens goalie Ken Dryden does not play this season. Because he feels his team is being too tight, he is working as a law clerk in Toronto for a weekly salary of $134 Canadian.

Dryden also provides color commentary for local coverage of the WHA's Toronto Toros, who have just moved from Ottawa. They draw 4,291 fans a game to Varsity Arena.

In late November 1973, the struggling New York Golden Blades become the Jersey Knights, going from Madison Square Garden to the much smaller Cherry Hill Arena. One of the team's players, Andre Lacroix, a former Flyer now playing on the other side of the Delaware River, leads the WHA in assists with 111.

Among the 1974 Hockey Hall of Fame inductees is Dickie Moore, one of the stars of the '50s Canadiens. Also among them is Soviet coach Anatoly Tarasov, the first Soviet in the Hall.

This is Borje Salming's first season in the NHL. This Swedish defenseman, who is making his debut with the Maple Leafs, will establish that a European can indeed make it in this league. Also entering the NHL are future Hall of Famers Bob Gainey, Lanny McDonald, and Denis Potvin.

Charles Finley, owner of baseball's Oakland A's, no longer owns the NHL's California Golden Seals after the season, when the league buys the Seals back.

Alex Delvecchio (24 years in the NHL), Dean Prentice (22), and Gump Worsley (21) all retire. Gordie Howe's record of 25 seasons in the NHL is safe, and his 26th will be '79-80.

In the American Hockey League, the Hershey Bears, a Pittsburgh Penguins affiliate, are the champions. Twenty-year-old Rick Middleton of the runner-up Providence Reds (a Rangers farm club) is named the AHL's rookie of the year. In eight years' time, he will score 51 goals for the Bruins. The MVP of the AHL is 38-year-old Art Stratton of the Rochester Americans, a former NHL player.

In the Central Hockey League, the Dallas Black Hawks (a Chicago affiliate) are the champions. The Central League MVP is 25-year-old Chico Resch of the Fort Worth Wings. The Islanders call the netminder up during the season. The CHL rookie of the year, 28-year-old Claire Alexander of the Oklahoma City Blazers, has played his first full season of pro hockey after being a senior amateur for six years, and in '74-75, he will make his NHL debut with the Blazers' parent club, the Maple Leafs.

Herb Brooks wins his first NCAA title as Minnesota coach. Brad Shelstad, the Gophers' goalie, is Most Outstanding Player of the tournament.

The Soviet Union wins its thirteenth IIHF championship. This is the Soviets' second of three in a row immediately following Czechoslovakia snapping the Russians' long streak in '72. Vladislav Tretyak is named best goaltender of the tournament for the first of four times, and this season he also wins his first of five MVP awards for the top Soviet league.

In junior hockey, the Regina Pats of the WCHL win the Memorial Cup by defeating the Quebec Remparts (QMJHL) 7-4. The other participants are the OHA's St. Catharines Black Hawks.

Future Hall of Famers in the Western Canada Hockey League: Bernie Federko is starting a three-year run with the Saskatoon Blades, and Doug Wilson is making his juniors debut for the Winnipeg Clubs.

Thirteen-year-old Wayne Gretzky is already recognized as the next big thing in hockey, and he's getting some media coverage, including an appearance on CBC radio's This Country in the Morning March 25. He says he doesn't see himself making a million dollars someday.

As we draw closer to the golden jubilee, expect a sporting jamboree. Chess, bowling, lacrosse, fishing, and motorcycle jumps are some of the topics in the next entry, to be posted Dec. 29.

Less Than 1,001 Jersey Nights

The following contains a mix of first-hand and second-hand speculation.

Depending on the source, either November or December marks the 50th anniversary of what some may consider the first big-time hockey team in the state of New Jersey. They didn't play there for long.

In the fall of 1973, the New York Golden Blades, who had once hoped to play in the Nassau Coliseum before the Islanders blocked their hopes of doing so, were still enduring a sub-optimal run at Madison Square Garden. The team suffered from mismanagement to the point that, for the second time, the World Hockey Association took over its New York franchise.

Going by the figure of 24 games as the Golden Blades, this team became the Jersey Knights for its Dec. 5 road game against the Houston Aeros, then started playing at the arena in Cherry Hill, in the part of the Garden State near Philadelphia, the next day. The first of 26 home games was a 3-2 win over the Cleveland Crusaders.

Andre Lacroix, brought in over the summer of '73, was a star for the Blades and Knights, leading the league in assists for the season and being placed between Bobby Hull and Gordie Howe on the all-WHA starting line at the end of it all. Future Hall of Famer Harry Howell, in his early forties, was a player-coach.

The Knights finished last in the East with a record of 32-42-4, and unlike the fifth-place Quebec Nordiques, they didn't even come close to making the playoffs.

Their 4-2 loss to the Crusaders on the last day of March turned out to be the last game in New Jersey, and the team once valued as the one that would establish a foothold for the WHA in New York relocated to San Diego. The Mariners won their first four home games in October 1974.

Full post on hockey coming next Friday.

Sports74 Gold: NFL 1973

[EDIT 11/30/2023: Introducing the "football" label]

[EDIT 1/3/2024: Small adjustments to the first entry, plus a late addition]

Fifty years ago, the playoffs went into January at a time of 14-game seasons and only one wild card. These days, the champion team isn't decided until a month later.

The Miami Dolphins defend their title by beating the Minnesota Vikings 24-7 at Super Bowl VIII. Larry Csonka runs for 145 yards on 33 carries and scores both Miami touchdowns. As was the case last time, the Dolphins never lose the lead, and the other team's only score is in the fourth quarter.

With a record-setting 2,003 rushing yards (including 250 in the first game of the season Sept. 16), O.J. Simpson of the Buffalo Bills is the consensus MVP of the NFL. Simpson's mark is 140 yards better than Jim Brown's 1963 record, and each man was playing in a 14-game season. The record will last until 1984, by which time there will be 16 games in a season.

LATE ADDITION 1-3-24, 6:19-20 p.m.: Alan Page, the Vikings' All-Pro tackle, is named best defensive player in a Newspaper Enterprise Association poll. He won that award and the AP's version in 1971, but for '73, the AP instead chooses Dolphins safety Dick Anderson.

The AP Offensive Rookie of the Year and the league's Rookie of the Year as selected by Pro Football Weekly is the Vikings' Chuck Foreman, who goes 801 yards on 182 carries and gets 362 yards on 37 receptions.

The UPI Coach of the Year for the NFC is Chuck Knox, who brings the Los Angeles Rams from 6-7-1 to 12-2 in his first year with the team. For the AFC, it's John Ralston of the Denver Broncos, a second-year coach who brings his team from 5-9 to 7-5-2.

Roger Staubach of the Dallas Cowboys is the leader in quarterback rating for the year of its introduction with 94.6. The Vikings' Fran Tarkenton is second with 93.2. Roman Gabriel of the Philadelphia Eagles -- who leads the NFL with 3,219 passing yards and ties with Staubach for the passing touchdowns lead -- is fifth with 86.3.

Oakland Raiders quarterback Ken Stabler has an .862 completion percentage in a game against the Baltimore Colts, breaking the single-game record .857 Sammy Baugh set in '45.

Staubach's .626 completion percentage for the season is, and will be, his personal best.

The receptions leader is Harold Carmichael of the Eagles with 67 for 1,116 yards.

Offensive guards launching Hall of Fame careers this year: John Hannah of the New England Patriots and Joe DeLamielleure of the Bills. Wide receivers doing the same: Cliff Branch of the Raiders and Drew Pearson of the Cowboys.

Johnny Unitas, quarterback for the San Diego Chargers this season only, wraps up his great career. His 471 passing yards give him a total of 40,239. Unitas' final completion is a seven-yard pass, his only one of a game against the Kansas City Chiefs.

Meanwhile on the Chargers, new quarterback and future Hall of Famer Dan Fouts makes his debut.

New York Jets quarterback Joe Namath misses eight games, seven in a row due to a separated shoulder. In the 1974 offseason, a commercial for Beautymist Panty Hose with him modeling said wares is broadcast on television.

Ray Guy of the Raiders punts 3,127 yards in 69 attempts to begin his career as the century's best punter.

Don Maynard, a former Jets receiver now with the St. Louis Cardinals and playing his final season, makes an 18-yard reception Sept. 16 at Veterans Stadium. This is the 663rd catch for him, and his total is brought to 11,834 yards. Both are records at this point. He makes no receptions in his only other game.

Paul Warfield of the Dolphins scores four touchdowns in the final game of the regular season Dec. 15. He gets six passes for 103 yards at home against the Detroit Lions. His 11 TDs this season are among 29 receptions.

John Brodie finishes his career with 31,548 passing yards and 214 passing touchdowns. For now, he can be considered the second-best quarterback the San Francisco 49ers have ever had, with Y.A. Tittle being the first.

Fred Dryer forces two safeties for the Rams in a game against the Green Bay Packers Oct. 21.

Besides Unitas and Maynard, other retiring players who will make it to the Hall of Fame one day are Bob Brown, Dick Butkus, Gene Hickerson, and Leroy Kelly. This is also Weeb Ewbank's last year coaching.

Extensive renovations of Yankee Stadium begin, and progress on the new stadium in New Jersey hasn't gotten far past the groundbreaking, so the New York Giants play part of this season and all of the next at the Yale Bowl. Their final game in the Bronx is a 23-23 tie with the Eagles Sept. 23, and their first New Haven home game of the regular season is a 16-14 loss to the Packers Oct. 7.

Rich Stadium, home of the Bills, opens Aug. 17 to a crowd of 80,020. The Bills lose the preseason game to the Washington Redskins 37-21 at this new stadium just outside of Buffalo.

George Burman, Redskin center, claims a third of his team is on amphetamines.

At the Pro Bowl in Kansas City, Mo., Garo Yepremian of the Dolphins kicks five field goals for all of the AFC's 15 points. The NFC scores the game's only touchdown, but the blue conference comes up two points short.

This is the first season in which first-down markers have rubber caps at the bottom instead of metal points. Some call this the Bubba Smith Rule after the Colts defensive end who was injured by getting caught in the chains at a 1972 preseason game in Tampa and missed the subsequent season because of it.

Pete Gent's North Dallas Forty is published. The novel is a fictionalized, autobiographical account of being an NFL player.

Starting this 1973 season, there are no blackouts for games that sell out 72 hours before kickoff. Although there are 63 percent more no-shows in '73 than in '72, it reportedly isn't as bad for the NFL as Commissioner Pete Rozelle will continue to say it is.

Two days after a post-season owners' meeting in Florida Feb. 25 in which Rozelle announces a four-year deal worth $60 million a year with the networks, the commissioner gets a ten-year extension on his contract and is given power to arbitrate.

For Super Bowl VIII, the least expensive ticket at Rice Stadium is $15. It will set someone back at least $20 to be at Tulane Stadium for Super Bowl IX.

Stevens Wright, whose wife works for NFL Properties, designs a new logo for the Bills, one whose stripe is what some see as a potent suggestion of the bison's movement. The team will begin to use it in 1974.

Hockey entry, including some minor-league material, coming Dec. 8

Dedicated to the memory of Steven H. Miles, 1960-2023; "I'm gonna be like you, Dad"

Sports74 Gold: College Football '73

[EDIT 11/30/2023: Introducing the "football" label]

[EDIT 12/31/2023: Changing title]

[EDIT 2/9/2024: Changing title again]

Every three weeks, I will post a newly expanded version of the retrospective from 2013-14. This is the first in an 18-part series, featuring not just the greatest hits, but the greatest misses. What follows is a generous sampling of the season that ended with the bowl games of 1973 and '74.

Notre Dame defeats Alabama 24-23 in the Sugar Bowl. The AP declares the 11-0 Fighting Irish champions, but the coaches' poll sticks with the 11-1 Crimson Tide.

Penn State defeats LSU 16-9 in the Orange Bowl. Nittany Lions halfback John Cappelletti wins the Heisman Trophy as well as its less prestigious parallel, the Maxwell Award. The consensus All-American running back has 1,522 yards on 286 rushes and 17 rushing touchdowns.

Ohio State wins the Rose Bowl 42-21 against USC. The Buckeyes actually tie for the Big Ten championship with archrival Michigan, but a 6-4 vote among the conference schools' athletic directors determines Ohio State will play in Pasadena. Wolverines coach Bo Schembechler says "petty jealousies were involved."

Buckeyes offensive tackle John Hicks wins the Outland Trophy for best interior lineman and the Lombardi Award for best overall lineman. Hicks is also the runner-up for the Heisman Trophy.

Alabama's Bear Bryant is named Coach of the Year by the American Football Coaches Association. The FWAA gives Johnny Majors of Pittsburgh that honor, as the Panthers improved from 1-10 in '72 to 6-5-1, including a Fiesta Bowl loss to Arizona State, in '73.

Tom Osborne coaches Nebraska for the first of what will prove to be 25 years (finishing the initial campaign with a 19-3 Cotton Bowl win against Texas). The Cornhuskers go 9-2-1, as they had the year before, having slipped from going undefeated in '70 and '71.

Barry Switzer begins his 17 years as Oklahoma head coach. Steve Davis begins a three-season, 32-1-1 run as Sooners QB.

This is the first season as Pitt head coach for Majors and the first of four years on the Panthers for running back Tony Dorsett, both of whom will help the team win a national title in 1976.

The consensus All-American quarterback is Dave Jaynes of Kansas with 196 completions for 2,349 yards and 14 touchdowns. His marks in the Big 8 (172 completions, 2,131 yards, 13 touchdowns) are tops in the conference.

The passing leader and total offense leader is Jesse Freitas of San Diego State (Pacific Coast Athletic Association, 9-1-1) with 227 completions in 11 games. He throws for 2,293 yards and 21 touchdowns, and his total offense is 2,901 yards.

Mark Kellar of independent, 6-5 Northern Illinois is the leading rusher in the University Division with 1,719 yards in 11 games. In second and third place for that stat are Dorsett (1,670) and Cappelletti (1,591).

Jay Miller of 5-6 Western Athletic Conference member Brigham Young University gets 22 catches in a game Nov. 3 against New Mexico. This is a record that will stand until 1994. Miller is the receptions leader for the season with 100 in 11 games. He has 1,181 yards and 8 TDs.

During the Texas-Texas A&M game Nov. 22, Aggies center Ricky Seeker isn't on the field when he's needed with seconds to go before halftime. Seeker expected the team to try a field goal and use a different center for that, but he was wrong. Texas leads 21-7 at halftime and wins 42-13.

Florida State goes 0-11, with its players having been subjected to "The Room" prior to spring practice. Head coach Larry Jones would have players do drills and fight as they bent to avoid chicken wire just four feet above the floor. Twenty-eight players quit the team, and at the end of it all, FSU is on probation and Jones is no longer the head coach.

This is the University of Kentucky's first year at Commonwealth Stadium.

In the College Division (as opposed to the University Division), the first-ever Division II champions are the Bulldogs of Louisiana Tech. The first-ever Division III champions are the Tigers of Wittenberg University.

In the Senior Bowl, a postseason all-star game, Lynn Swann of USC (Pac-8 leader with 37 receptions) catches the winning touchdown pass for the North. The Pittsburgh Steelers will pick the consensus All-American in the first round of the '74 draft.

From passer rating to pantyhose commercials, the NFL in 1973 is coming Nov. 17.

Coming to Your Town

In three weeks begins an expanded version of this sports retrospective, full of winners and losers, milestones and useless stats, spectacular worldwide events and obscure championships.

Sports74 is about to go gold.

Here's a compilation to start your quest for musical accompaniment, nine timeless rock tracks that just happen to have been some of the hit records of the year on which we're focused. It's not in stores or from K-Tel, only on this unlisted playlist.

Preliminary Schedule

10/27/23   Coll. Football '73

11/17/23   NFL '73

12/08/23   Hockey '73-74

12/29/23   Miscellaneous

01/19/24   Pro Basket. '73-74

02/09/24   Coll. Basket. '73-74

03/01/24   American League

03/22/24   National League

04/12/24   Baseball Misc.

05/03/24   Track, Horses, Autos

05/24/24   Golf, Tennis, Boxing

06/14/24   Soccer

07/05/24   WFL and CFL

07/26/24   International

08/16/24   Coll. Football '74

09/06/24   NFL '74

09/27/24   Hockey '74-75

10/18/24   Basketball '74-75

11/08/24   Bibliography

EDIT 11:41 p.m.: Made to better fit a mobile phone screen.

FIBA World Championship

 With FIBA's Basketball World Cup beginning today, here's a look back at how it was in 1974.

Puerto Rico hosted 13 other teams from across the globe. Of these teams that gathered in three Puerto Rican cities, eight advanced to the final round. All teams that won medals finished 6-1, points scored divided by points allowed breaking ties (or so USA Basketball says).

The Soviet Union featured Aleksandr Belov, the man who "scored" the "basket" that "won" the gold medal two years prior. That team's leading scorer in 1974 was a future two-time Olympian, Aleksandr Salnikov, who scored 38 points in the last game July 14. Salnikov made his first international tournament appearance that summer, but Modestas Paulauskas (a Lithuanian) was one of the five players from the 1972 Olympic team, as were Sergei Belov, Aleksandr Boloshev, and Ivan Yedeshko.

Despite a three-point loss to the United States, Yugoslavia (having defeated the Soviets by three) finished second, with a young Drazen Dalipagic making the first of four world championship appearances in his Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame career. One of his teammates was a Croatian named Zeljko Jerkov.

Wouldn't you know it, the USA was undefeated in the tournament until the Stars and Stripes faced the Hammer and Sickle on that second Sunday of July. This was a clear-cut, 11-point loss that put Team USA in third place, even though Yugoslavia's ratio of points scored to points allowed was 1.107 and the USA's was 1.182 (the Soviets led with 1.228).

Guards John Lucas of Maryland and Luther "Ticky" Burden of Utah led the team in scoring for the tournament, and they along with forward Tom Boswell of South Carolina made the all-tournament team according to USA Basketball, but Land of Basketball has it that no Americans did.

Seven U.S. players got called for four fouls or more in the game against the Soviets, including Lucas, Burden, guard Steve Grote of Michigan, and guard Quinn Buckner of Indiana (an Olympian in 1976). Boswell fouled out, as did center Joe Meriweather of Southern Illinois and forward Myron Wilkins of Northwestern Oklahoma A&M Junior College (the team's oldest player).

Rounding out the selection of 12 collegians: forward Gus Gerard of Virginia, center Rich Kelley of Stanford, guard Frank Oleynick of Seattle, forward Rick Schmidt of Illinois (playing for his school's head coach, Gene Bartow), and forward Eugene Short of Jackson State.

EDIT, 3:26 p.m.: For perspective, Team USA finished fifth in 1970 and fifth in 1978, and fourth in both '63 and '67. This was the first U.S. medal in the worlds since 1959 and only one in the '60s or '70s. The Americans medaled at every world championship held in the '50s, '80s, and '90s.

EDIT 8:51 p.m., 10/26/24: Had originally spelled Salnikov's name "Salinkov" in the first reference.

SOURCES
FIBA hub for tournament information
USA Basketball PDF on team history, with 1974 on Page 41
Land of Basketball hub for more on the tournament format, possibly

Unfortunate Events

On this day 49 years ago...

Top of the eighth at Metropolitan Stadium, June 20. Twins are in the field with two out, but White Sox have two on. Three-two count on Ron Santo. Pitch delivered. While two umpires try to determine whether Santo's swing went around, Dick Allen runs to third and Ken Henderson to second. Catcher Randy Hundley, forgetting about the full count, throws to the hot corner, which Eric Soderholm had left because in the third baseman's mind Santo had struck out as opposed to having walked. Ray Corbin, the pitcher, goes to argue with the home-plate umpire, and injures Hundley. Allen crosses the plate, but the run doesn't count; Santo struck out. The Twins win the game 3-2 but lose their catcher.

SOURCE: Nash, George, and Alan Zullo. The Sports Hall of Shame. New York: Pocket Books, 1987.

Learning More About '74

The Topps Heritage cards are out for this year, and as usual they're more or less in the style of the regular Topps cards from 49 years before. I looked at them on COMC, and some of the Baseball Flashbacks and News Flashbacks have a couple of things of which I wasn't aware regarding 1974. One of the News Flashbacks cards involves Daylight Saving Time being in place for pretty much the whole year, and another involves a low Dow Jones average.

The AP Sports Almanac for 1975 mentions a recession in its overview of the World Football League. This month, for much of which I haven't had my new laptop, I've been making time to write things down that I see in the almanac, though I hope I'm not damaging the book. In my usual haste, some of the things I've been writing for pretty much every sport are not completely legible and may have to be backed up by sources on the Internet. As of Thursday, I've gone through everything from angling and fishing to ice hockey. Jai alai is next, and maybe the name of a challenger on a 1973 episode of "To Tell the Truth" will be found there, a name that escapes me. All I know is the three who appeared on the program wore different uniforms.

It seems the Memphis Tams had a uniform scheme like that of the Oakland A's during the first Mausoleum era (the team's going through the second now), sporting seven color combinations for jersey and shorts, all except white jersey with yellow shorts and green jersey with white shorts. How do I know this? It's on bballjerseys.com. Basketball at long last has its own version of Dressed to the Nines, NHL Uniforms, and Gridiron Uniform Database. Click on the red Memphis icon, then "View Photos," then "Home and Road" or "Alternate" to see the Tams' uniforms.

Before They Were the Nuggets

The Denver Nuggets have become the second ABA team to win an NBA championship. They never won an ABA title, and neither did the five-time NBA champion San Antonio Spurs.

Meanwhile, the Indiana Pacers and Brooklyn Nets have been the champs of the ABA (five times between them) but never the NBA.

The 1973-74 season was the franchise's last as the Denver Rockets, and it ended when they lost a tiebreaker for fourth place in the West and the playoff berth that came with it.

The score of the March 29 game at the Mile High City's small Auditorium was San Diego Conquistadors 131, Denver Rockets 111.

All-Star guard Ralph Simpson failed to average 20 points per game for the only time in a four-year span. He contributed 17 to the tiebreaker game.

Fellow guard Al Smith, in the middle of a five-year career in the ABA only, dished out 20 assists. He was also the league's assist leader with 619 in total and with 8.1 for each contest.

Center-forward Byron Beck, who had played at Denver University before joining the original Rockets, was entering an ebb in his career, and he was one of the two who scored 18.

The other, fellow center Dave Robisch, is determined by metrics developed much later to have had the best "offensive rating" in the entire league.

Rounding out the starting five was forward Julius Keye. Later in '74, he was traded to the Utah Stars, then to the Memphis Sounds, who waived him, and that was the end of his career.

Coming off the bench and spending the most time on the court was Steve Jones, a shooting guard who joined the team in mid-season. Less than a month after trading for Jones, the Rockets waived an All-Star at his position.

That was the controversial Warren Jabali (born Armstrong). Denver struggled in his absence, but he had apparently gone too far for the team's tastes by the time the All-Star Game was through.

Team ownership changed, head coach Alex Hannum was fired, Larry Brown replaced him, Jan van Breda Kolff was drafted, and the rechristened and re-energized Nuggets went 31-5 before the end of the year, 65-19 overall. Needless to say, the franchise became valuable enough to eventually bring into the NBA.

Bobby Hull, 1939-2023

Bobby Hull died Monday.

A player in the World Hockey Association from the circuit's start to its finish, he was the league's first MVP in its first season, scoring 51 goals and making 52 assists. In goals, he did two better in the '73-74 season.

Having been shut out from playing at the first Summit Series two years prior, and famously so, Hull was the first selection for the WHA's delegation, and he scored six goals while in Canada for the first four games. Despite his injured left knee, he was reportedly the one to beat.

"Never been so tight a game before in my life," Hull told Brodie Snyder of the Montreal Gazette after the first game in Quebec City, "not even a 7th game of a Stanley Cup final."

The Golden Jet scored two in that opening contest, and he concluded the Canadian portion with a hat trick against legendary goaltender Vladislav Tretyak in Vancouver.

"I just shot them as they came," he said. "I blasted away."

The first and fourth games were both ties, and the Canadians and Soviets traded wins in between (Canada being victorious in Toronto and the USSR taking the game in Winnipeg).

Moscow, however, was a different story.

Along with three losses in the capital, Canada managed a tie against the USSR, one that would have been a win if not for a Hull goal that was disallowed.

"It went right through Tretiak," Hull said. "I looked up and I thought I saw the light flash."

In the next game, the eighth and final tilt against the Soviets, Hull lit the red lamp a second time in Moscow, and this time it counted.

"We showed those people who said we couldn't play with the Russians that we could," he said of at least the Canadian half of the series. "We outplayed them in three of the four games in Canada, but we were not all together here, for sure."

The Golden Jet didn't spend the entirety of '74-75 as player-coach, unlike the last two seasons, but then again, the Winnipeg Jets failed to make the playoffs that time. Getting the puck in the net 77 times in 78 games is one reason he again won the Gary L. Davidson Award, which by the end of the WHA's time would be renamed the Gordie Howe Trophy after the '73-74 MVP. Only Marc Tardif of the Quebec Nordiques would join Bobby Hull in winning that prize twice.

In the NHL, Hull was also a two-time MVP, being awarded the Hart Memorial Trophy twice back-to-back starting in '64-65. He starred for the Jets in two Avco Cup championship seasons and helped the Chicago Black Hawks win the Stanley Cup in 1961, the last time in 52 years.

Stats and other data from Hockey Reference

Coming Soon: Sports74 Gold

Later this year or early next year, I intend to celebrate the golden anniversary of these events I chose to cover.

Moving into this room downstairs so my niece could have a nursery upstairs worked out pretty well in some ways; with new bookshelves, I can access the World Book Encyclopedia from 1972 and many subsequent World Book Year Books whenever I see fit!

From there, I will derive champions of boxing's lower divisions, a basic thing about the NBA's lost franchise, what the New York Cosmos's attendance was before Pele (may he rest in peace) arrived, and much more.

Not only will I draw inspiration from that source, but this afternoon I've received just the thing for this blog. I'd better use it carefully, though; it's in good condition for something from its time.

It's The Official Associated Press Sports Almanac 1975, and it's got a wide range of stuff inside!

A few tidbits from these pages (The Official Associated Press Sports Almanac 1975. New York: Dell Publishing, 1975.):

The Portuguese national team hosted and won the world roller hockey championships.

Dan Kikuchi of San Jose State was the grand champion of the college judo tournament.

Giacomo Agostini of Italy rode his Yamaha to the 350cc motorcycle racing title.

In paddle tennis, a pair of New York men won the national open doubles championship against a team from Santa Monica.

Ruling the Mexico City bullring was Curro Rivera, with 12 kills in six bullfights, but no ears or tails.

The important stuff is in there, too. Best of all, I'll see all of 1974, probably! This almanac was printed in April of 1975, unlike the Information Please books of the '90s and 2000s, which put it all to bed after the World Series.

There are also quite a few things I could derive from the Hall of Shame volumes written by Nash and Zullo, of which my collection is growing. Last year I got curious about what was in the originals, having owned the 2012 Best of Blooperstown book for years. Will there be more in these posts about Ten-cent Beer Night and the extent of the World Football League's woes?

The reader will find out sometime after I do.

EDIT 1:47 p.m. EST: Changed it from Cosmos' to Cosmos's. The word "cosmos" is not plural.