|
1931
| Louis Armstrong sponsors a New Orleans semipro team
called Louis Armstrong's Secret
Nine.
|
| 1934
| Dancer Bill (Bojangles) Robinson is best man at the wedding
of Pittsburgh Crawfords pitcher Satchel Paige. During Paige's days with the
Kansas City Monarchs, from 1940 to '47, Robinson occasionally tap-dances on the
team's dugout during
games.
|
| 1954
| The Treniers release Say Hey (The Willie Mays Song),
featuring a cameo voice-over by the Hall of Fame outfielder. The single isn't a
hit; it never makes the Billboard R&B
chart.
|
| 1963
| Five months before becoming heavyweight champion, Cassius
Clay releases an album, I Am the
Greatest.
|
| 1963
| Celtics K.C. Jones and Tom Sanders release their
duet, The Basketball Twist, as a
single.
|
| 1969
| A few months after their victory over the Baltimore Colts in
Super Bowl III, four members of the New York Jets dub themselves the Four Jets
and fumble a country and western tune on The Ed Sullivan Show. Later that year
the L.A. Rams' Fearsome Foursome, including Deacon Jones, sing on
TV.
|
| 1972
| Attempting to produce a sound "like Wembley Stadium
full of football supporters," British glam rocker Gary Glitter records Rock
and Roll Part II (Hey!), which will become the most ubiquitous -- and
annoying -- anthem in U.S. sports
history.
|
| 1970
| After winning the heavyweight championship, Joe Frazier hits
the road with a Memphis-style soul revue dubbed Smokin' Joe and the
Knockouts.
|
| 1974
| Oakland A's owner Charlie Finley promotes 11-year-old batboy
Stanley Burrell to honorary vice president of the Oakland A's. Sixteen years
later, Burrell records the top-selling rap album of all time, Please Hammer
Don't Hurt 'Em, under the name M.C.
Hammer.
|
| 1975
| Tennis great Jimmy Connors stiffly lip-synchs his part of a
duet with Paul Anka on the ABC-TV series Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell.
In '82 Connors also does backup vocals on Lionel Richie's song Tell
Me.
|
| 1975
| In his song Hurricane, Bob Dylan proclaims the innocence of
former middleweight boxer Ruben Carter, convicted of a triple murder in New
Jersey in the '60s. Carter gets a new trial, but he is again found guilty. His
conviction was overturned in
'85.
|
| 1977
| Reggae star Bob Marley injures his toe playing soccer in
Paris. Jamaican lore holds that this injury led to the cancer that killed
him.
|
| 1978
| NBA center Bill Walton spends his off-season with the Grateful Dead
on their Egyptian concert tour.
|
| 1978
| Richard Petty, Cale Yarborough and
Bobby Allison do vocals for album NASCAR Goes
Country.
|
| 1979
| The Pittsburgh Pirates, motivated by Willie Stargell and
their team theme song, Sister Sledge's We Are Family, win the World
Series.
|
| 1979
| The Chicago White Sox are forced to forfeit the second game
of a double-header after record-smashing fans get carried away during the Disco
Demolition Night
promotion.
|
| 1984
| Kurtis Blow releases the song Basketball, one of rap's
earliest references to
hoops.
|
| 1985
| The Chicago Bears' novelty rap, Super Bowl Shuffle, gets a
Grammy nomination for best R&B vocal performance by a duo or
group.
|
| 1985
| Country musician Mike Reid, a former Cincinnati Bengals
All-Pro defensive lineman, is named ASCAP's Songwriter of the
Year.
|
| 1986
| 49ers Joe Montana and Dwight Clark back up Huey Lewis and the
News on Hip to Be Square
single.
|
| 1990
| The Seattle grunge band Mookie Blaylock changes its name to
Pearl
Jam.
|
| 1990
| The Cure's Robert Smith requires promoters of European
festivals to schedule his performances so they don't conflict with World Cup
matches.
|
| 1991
| While pitching in a game at the Orioles' fantasy camp in
Sarasota, Fla., Joan Jett gets Joe Durham, who had a brief stint with the
Baltimore Orioles in the '50s, to pop
up.
|
| 1992
| Rap group Fu Schnickens invites NBA star Shaquille
O'Neal to perform with it on The Arsenio Hall Show. He briefly joins the band as
rapper
Shaq-Fu.
|
| 1993
| Responding to boos prompted by his painfully off-key
rendition of the national anthem before a Chicago Bulls game, track star Carl
Lewis stops in mid-song and promises, "I'll make up for it." He
doesn't.
|
| 1993
| Tennis star Gabriela Sabatini sings with Jon Secada on The
Arsenio Hall
Show.
|
| 1993
| Shaquille O'Neal releases his debut CD, Shaq Diesel, which
goes
platinum.
|
| 1994
| After an argument with her boyfriend, All-Pro NFL receiver
Andre Rison, rapper Lisa (Left Eye) Lopes of TLC sets fire to his mansion in
suburban
Atlanta.
|
| 1994
| Rocker Rod Stewart pays $100,000 to have a soccer field
built next to his
home.
|
| 1994
| Greg Gumbel meets his idol, Keith Richards, before a Rolling
Stones concert in Philadelphia. Gumbel, who calls the meeting "the
highlight of my career," is dumbfounded that Richards knows who he
is.
|
| 1994
| Hootie and the Blowfish song Only Want to Be With You
includes line, "I'm such a baby because the Dolphins make me cry."
Miami quarterback Dan Marino appears in
video.
|
| 1995
| Boyz II Men perform at the San Francisco 49ers' Super Bowl
ring presentation ceremony in
Colorado.
|
| 1995
| Luther Campbell threatens to expose NCAA violations
committed by the Miami program if his friend Ryan Collins is not named the
team's starting
quarterback.
|
| 1995
| Critically acclaimed jazz bassist and NBA veteran power
forward Waymon Tisdale signs a seven-album deal with MoJazz
records.
|
| 1995
| Deion Sanders releases a rap album, Prime Time, featuring
the single It Must Be the Money. Five tracks include the words Me or Prime in
their
titles.
|
| 1995
| Cleveland Browns coach Bill Belichick accompanies Jon Bon
Jovi on his group's European tour. Traveling on the band's private jet,
Belichick says, "My wife and I sat up in the front with Jon and [his wife]
and their young kids, and watched
Barney."
|
| 1995
| Dallas Mavericks teammates Jason Kidd and Jimmy
Jackson stop speaking to each other, reportedly because of their competition for
the affections of singer Toni
Braxton.
|
| 1996
| Toni Braxton leaves her wallet in Dennis Rodman's tour bus
after an all-night party in New York
City.
|
| 1996
| British rock band Oasis offers to sponsor its favorite
English professional team, the financially strapped Manchester
City.
|
| 1996
| Blur's Damon Albarn scores a spectacular goal in a celebrity
soccer match at London's Wembley Stadium featuring two teams of pop
stars.
|
| 1996
| High schooler Kobe Bryant takes teen singer Brandy to his
senior
prom.
|
| 1996
| Shaquille O'Neal forms his own record label, TWIsM
Records.
|
| 1997
| Jake Trout and the Flounders, a band made up of golfers, Payne Stewart, Mark Lye and Peter Jacobsen (with manager Tibby
Torhorst ), is joined in the studio by Stephen Stills, Alice Cooper and Darius
Rucker for the recording of the CD I Love To Play, featuring golf-related
spoofs.
|
| 1997
| John McEnroe marries '80s rock diva Patty Smyth and begins
performing with his own group, the Johnny Smyth
Band.
|
| 1997
| Mike Tyson makes a cameo appearance in a video by rapper
Canibus.
|
| 1998
| Oakland Raiders' fullback Jon Ritchie clips and then eats
grass from Jimi Hendrix's grave near Seattle. "I wanted to internalize
Jimi," he
says.
|
| 1999
| Detroit Pistons star Grant Hill relinquishes his spot on the
U.S. Olympic qualifying team to avoid a conflict with his planned wedding to
singer
Tamia.
|
| 1999
| Country superstar Garth Brooks spends spring training with
the San Diego Padres, delighting fans by signing thousands of autographs but
finishing with a .045 batting
average.
|
| 1999
| Posh Spice and British soccer star David Beckham welcome
their first child, Brooklyn
Joseph.
|
| 1999
| At Bruce Springsteen's induction into rock's hall of fame,
Bono praises the Boss because he "never embarrassed himself. No drug busts,
no blood transfusions in Switzerland. Even more remarkable: no
golf." |
