Pete Maravich, the most prolific scorer in college basketball history, collapses
during a pickup basketball game and dies at the age of 40. CBS fires football
analyst Jimmy "The Greek" Snyder for making remarks viewed as racist.
Night baseball finally comes to Wrigley Field. Sprinter Ben Johnson tests positive
for steroids after setting a world record at the Seoul Olympics.
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January 5, 1988
'Pistol Pete' Maravich dies playing basketball
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Former Louisiana State and New Orleans Jazz star Pete Maravich is playing in a pickup
basketball game in Pasadena, California, when he suddenly collapses and dies. He is just 40.
Famous for his droopy socks and floppy hair, Maravich averaged 44.2 points a game at LSU,
leading the nation in scoring three times, then played 10 years in the National Basketball Association, where he was the top scorer in 1977.
1.8M QuickTime Movie - 31 sec.
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January 16, 1988
Jimmy 'The Greek' Snyder canned for 'racist' remarks
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Jimmy "The Greek" Snyder is fired after 12 years as a CBS football analyst for
remarks he makes to a Washington, D.C, television reporter about the physical abilities
of black and white athletes. Among other things, Snyder, 70, says the black athlete
is "bred to be the better athlete because, this goes all the way to the Civil War when
... the slave owner would breed his big woman so that he would have a big black kid."
Snyder later apologizes for the comments but his career as a broadcaster is over.
1.1M QuickTime Movie - 23 sec.
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August 8, 1988
Wrigley Field finally gets lights
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After 72 seasons without lights, Chicago's Wrigley Field finally hosts its first night game. The Chicago Cubs' Rick Sutcliffe makes the first pitch and Phil Bradley of the Philadelphia Phillies hits the first home run under the lights, but the game is rained out in the fourth inning. The next night, the Cubs beat the New York Mets 6-4 in the first complete night game in "The Friendly Confines."
1.6M QuickTime Movie - 29 sec.
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September 27, 1988
Ben Johnson stripped of Olympic gold for steroid use
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After winning the 100 meters at the Summer Olympics in Seoul with a world-record
time of 9.79 seconds, Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson tests positive for steroid use
and is stripped of his gold medal. When he admits using steroids as early as
1981, his 1987 world record is also revoked and hežs suspended for life. That
suspension is lifted in 1991, but Johnson tests positive again two years later and
gets another life suspension.
1.3M QuickTime Movie - 25 sec.
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