Creative History

  The media called it the “Fight for America” and like almost every single major prize fight ever since with high stakes involved, and even higher public interest, the bout was dubbed “The Fight of the Century”--the Fight of the 19th Century that is!   Ten thousand dollars and some would say the future of what it even meant to be called an “American” were on the line that day when on February 7, 1849 at a farm in Maryland, located forty miles from Baltimore on a desolate snow covered island, what the press called “The Fight for America” and what the public referred to as “The Fight of the Century” took place in front of less than 200 spectators, mostly gamblers and former fighters themselves, because at that time boxing despite its underground popularity, and its popularity as a legitimate sport in the United Kingdom, was illegal almost everywhere in the United States of America. It was definitely not an auspicious place or time of year to hold an outdoor boxing match...

University of Virginia Halfback Julien Hill takes a handoff at the start of the second half of a game that is being touted as the southern championship of American football. It is October 30, 1897 and up to that point the much more talented University of Virginia team has been dominating its rivals from the University of Georgia on their own home turf in Atlanta. The Georgia faithful are becoming disappointed and fast losing hope.  Prior to kickoff the University of Georgia student newspaper The Red and Black had called this game, “the greatest athletic event that has ever occurred in the south.” In that same article the student newspaper also went on to say, “Every man on both teams realizes the fact that there is much at stake and each one will enter the game with a determination to win or die.” To Win or Die...little did the undergraduate journalist who penned that article realize how prescient those words would become on that Saturday afternoon in October of 1897. Hi...

                                                    It’s three days before Super Bowl III and the young, flamboyant and highly paid quarterback of the AFL champion New York Jets is leaving a Miami nightclub.  As usual, Joe Namath is surrounded by an entourage of attractive young ladies and eager sportswriters. From a few feet away a fan of the highly favored Baltimore Colts begins to heckle Broadway Joe.  Namath and his fellow Jets have been getting grief all week from both the fans and the media in Miami. “Hey Namath,” the cocky Colts fan yells, “we’re gonna kick your ass!” Joe Namath stops in his tracks.  He turns around and yells back, “The Jets are gonna win the game.  I guarantee it.” Never known to be one who keeps his mouth shut, the fact that Namath yelled back at a heckler comes as no real surprise...