Chavez Ravine history:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBcxB...eature=related

Fischer on TV at age 15:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7JcwOJADf8

and then in 1971:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPlXC3M8hbg

It's interesting to see how much he looked like an athlete compared to a chess player.

Kerri Strug

Wiki quote:
Kerri Allyson Strug (born November 19, 1977) is a retired American gymnast from Tucson, Arizona. She was a member of the Magnificent Seven, the victorious all-around gymnastics team that represented the United States at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996, and is best remembered for performing the vault despite having seriously injured her ankle. She did a spectacular vault, landing on one foot before collapsing in pain.



There's also Nadia Comaneci's Perfect 10. The first perfect 10 ever scored in Olympic Gymnastics history.

The Black Sox scandal of 1919

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Sox_Scandal

The most interesting aspect to me is whether or not Shoeless Joe Jackson was involved.

"Eight Men Out" is a very good movie about the scandal.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Death_Match




Probably for the most part Soviet propaganda but it's a good story nonetheless.

^^^solid entry, hadn't heard of that.

There have only been three teams in NHL history to come from behind facing a 3-0 series deficit. This game clinched one of them:

weren't they down 3-0 in game 7 also? (before watching video, i remember)

Yup they were. Had to post it before we start the road back to the Finals tonight.

That was a sick game .

FWIW, what inspired me to start this thread was the recent violence at Chavez Ravine. Actually, there's always been an element of violence there. If you watch the OP, I think the land is just cursed with its bad history.

Jesse Owens and the 1936 olympics is pretty historical. So was the 1972 olympic massacre. The olympics have always been politically charged and therefore are important historically.

Meh not sure how historically significant if at all this is, but quite funny and a nice exploitation of the rules at the time:

from snopes:


The incident took place during a final group match between Barbados and Grenada for the Shell Caribbean Cup in February 1994. The Barbados team had to win the match by at least two goals in order to face Trinidad and Tobago in the finals; anything less and Grenada advanced to the next round instead. The rules in effect at the time specified that if the score were tied at the end of regulation play, the match would continue into sudden-death overtime (not a penalty kicks round, as stated above), and the first team to score during the overtime period would be considered a two-goal winner.

As detailed above, Barbados was leading 2-0 well into the second half of play, when Grenada finally managed to score a goal in the 83rd minute to make the score 2-1. Barbados realized with three minutes to play that they were unlikely to score again in the time remaining and deliberately kicked the ball into their own goal to tie the match at 2-2 and force an overtime period. Grenada then attempted to score on their own goal to prevent the match from going into overtime, but Barbados had already started defending Grenada's goal to prevent them from succeeding. The two teams then spent the remaining few minutes with Barbados defending both ends of the field as Grenada tried to put the ball into either goal, but time expired with the score still tied. Four minutes into overtime play, Barbados scored and advanced to the finals.

Crappy youtube vid that barely shows anything lol

Also, this one was a bit more historical, as it kicked off (har har) a war...(tbf tensions were already pretty high between the two nations)

from wiki:

Honduras and El Salvador met in the second North American qualifying round for the 1970 FIFA World Cup. There was fighting between fans at the first game in the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa on 8 June 1969, which Honduras won 1–0. Immediately following the match an eighteen-year old Salvadoran girl Amelia Bolaños shot herself in the heart, and was subsequently regarded as a martyr in El Salvador, with her funeral being televised and the El Salvador president and national football team walking behind her coffin.[6][7] The second game, on 15 June 1969 in the Salvadoran capital of San Salvador, which was won 3–0 by El Salvador, was followed by even greater violence.[8] A play-off match took place in Mexico City on 26 June 1969. El Salvador won 3–2 after extra time.

On the same day, 26 June 1969, El Salvador dissolved all ties with Honduras, stating that "the government of Honduras has not taken any effective measures to punish these crimes which constitute genocide, nor has it given assurances of indemnification or reparations for the damages caused to Salvadorans".[9] This led to border clashes between the two nations.

Football War

that barbados-grenada thing is excellent, nice post