This Day in History

 Dec 2, 1975:
Archie Griffin wins second consecutive Heisman Trophy



On December 2, 1975, Ohio State University running back Archie Griffin becomes the first player in history to win the Heisman Trophy two years in a row. Following in the footsteps of his three older brothers, all football stars, the young Griffin trained hard to get in shape and lose the nickname "Tank" given to him by his childhood football coaches. He had an impressive high school career, rushing for 1,737 yards and scoring 29 touchdowns during his senior year at Columbus Eastmoor High School in Columbus, Ohio. At OSU, Coach Woody Hayes hesitated before putting Griffin in the starting lineup, but relented after he put in a tremendous 239-yard performance off the bench in a come-from-behind victory over North Carolina during his freshman season.

From that point on, Griffin started every game for the Buckeyes. During each of his four years at OSU, the team won or shared the Big Ten title and went to the Rose Bowl. In 1974, Griffin became only the fifth player to win the Heisman, the coveted trophy given each year to the most outstanding player in college football, as a junior. He won in a landslide that year, receiving more than four times the number of first place votes as the runner-up, Anthony Davis of Southern California, and winning all five regions (East, South, Midwest, Southwest and Far West).

During his senior season, far from slumping, Griffin extended his stretch of 100-plus-yard games to 31 (during which the Buckeyes went 29-1-1) and amassed an NCAA record-breaking 5,177 career rushing yards. He triumphed in Heisman voting by a slightly smaller margin, taking four out of the five regions (Chuck Muncie of California took the Far West). His uniform number (45) was the first one ever retired by Ohio State.

After his graduation in March 1976, Griffin went number 21 in the NFL draft and joined the Cincinnati Bengals. He played pro football for seven years, running a total of 691 times for 2,808 yards before his only serious injury, a torn stomach muscle, ended his career. Griffin returned to his alma mater in 1984, becoming associate athletic director and later president of the OSU Alumni Association.

This Day in History

   
   
   
       
   
       
   
 Dec 1, 1779:
Washington establishes winter quarters at Morristown
   
       

General George Washington's army settles into a second season at Morristown, New Jersey, on this day in 1779. Washington's personal circumstances improved dramatically as he moved into the Ford Mansion and was able to conduct his military business in the style of a proper 18th-century gentleman. However, the worst winter of the 1700s coupled with the collapse of the colonial economy ensured misery for Washington's underfed, poorly clothed and unpaid troops as they struggled for the next two months to construct their 1,000-plus "log-house city" from 600 acres of New Jersey woodland.

Life was similarly bleak for the war-weary civilian population. With an economy weakened by war, household income declined 40 percent. Farmers faced raids from the British and their Indian allies. Merchants lost foreign trade. Even a great victory, such as the capture of British General John Burgoyne's army in October 1777, led to 7,800 more mouths to feed. As in 1776, the troops were eager to go home and many did. Although enlistment papers showed 16,000 men in Washington's ranks, only 3,600 men stood ready to accept his commands. Even those remaining were unable to sustain combat since they lacked sufficient horses to move their artillery. With their currency rendered worthless, the army relied upon requisitions from farmers to supply themselves. Military-civilian relations strained under demands on farmers and shopkeepers to sell at a loss and because of the now-professional army's disdain for civilians. Without paper money, Congress could not pay the army. Without fair pay, farmers stopped planting. By spring, the Continental Army stood at risk of dissolution.

The British army faced a similar crisis. Civilians at home no longer shared British King George III's determination to keep the colonies within the empire. They too suffered from lost trade and increased debt endemic to war. To fill the royal army, the crown had to tolerate Catholics, which engendered religious violence. The war of attrition was quickly becoming one of contrition for both sides.

The History of the Depot Restaurant in Cold Spring, NY

George Washington drank from the village's namesake spring.


Cornelius Vanderbilt's Railroad

Born to poor parents in Long Island, New York, in 1794, Cornelius Vanderbilt built a transportation empire that made him one of America's railroad barons and left him the country's wealthiest man at the time of his death. It is estimated that he died with a fortune that would equate to $26 billion dollars today. Vanderbilt began with a small ferry service, which he turned into a successful steamship business by the mid 1800s. In 1860, he turned his attention to railroad travel and purchased the Long Island, New York, Harlem and Hudson River Railroads in quick succession. The Hudson River line added the Cold Spring depot in 1893, serving both passengers and freight companies, and remained a train depot until 1954.
The Restaurant

After spending 18 years as a car dealership, the Cold Spring Depot Restaurant opened in 1972 and has been a restaurant ever since. The interior features a cozy setting with a roaring fireplace and bookcases lining the walls. The menu offers standard American fare with an emphasis on steaks and burgers. The restaurant also serves a wine list that offers domestic and imported wines, and serves a selection of frozen drinks and beers on tap. The restaurant contains a plaque commemorating George Washington's trip to the cold spring.
The Ghost

According to legend, on Wednesday nights, the main dining room has one extra guest, who did not make a reservation. In 1898, a local woman learned that her husband planned to kill her. The unfortunate lady rushed to the train depot to catch the 10:15 train to Poughkeepsie, but was apprehended by her husband, who stabbed her on a bench in the waiting room two minutes before the train's arrival. Today, the former waiting room serves as the restaurant's main dining room and locals claim that at 10:13 on Wednesday nights, a cold draft wafts through the section of the room where she was killed.
History of Cold Spring

Founded in 1730 by Thomas Davenport, Cold Spring originally served as a trading post on the Hudson River. In 1818, the West Point Foundry opened and began producing weaponry for the United States Army. In 1846, the village was officially incorporated and the Civil War years brought great growth to the area as the West Point Foundry produced munitions for the Union Army. After the war, the area became a favorite retreat of some of America's wealthiest families, who built elaborate mansions in the region, including the estates of the Butterfield and Morris families on Morris Avenue. The foundry closed in 1911, but by 1973, the village was declared a Federal Historic District and tourism has been the main industry ever since.
 

This Day in History

 Nov 28, 1994:
Jeffrey Dahmer murdered in prison



Serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, serving 15 consecutive life sentences for the brutal murders of 15 men, is beaten to death by a fellow inmate while performing cleaning duty in a bathroom at the Columbia Correctional Institute gymnasium in Portage, Wisconsin.

During a 13-year period, Dahmer, who lived primarily in the Midwest, murdered at least 17 men. Most of these men were young, gay African Americans who Dahmer lured back to his home, promising to pay them money to pose nude for photographs. Dahmer would then drug and strangle them to death, generally mutilating, and occasionally cannibalizing, their bodies. Dahmer was finally arrested on July 22, 1991, and entered a plea of guilty but insane in 15 of the 17 murders he confessed to committing. In February 1992, the jury found him sane in each murder, and he was sentenced to 15 consecutive life sentences.

Two years later, Dahmer was killed at the age of 34 by fellow inmate Christopher Scarver, who also fatally beat the third man on their work detail, inmate Jesse Anderson. Scarver's motive in killing the two men is not entirely clear; however, in his subsequent criminal trial he maintained that God told him to kill Dahmer and the other inmate. Scarver, already serving a life term for murder, was sentenced to additional life terms and transferred to a federal prison.

This Day in History

 Nov 27, 1965:
Gordie Howe scores his 600th goal

On November 27, 1965, Detroit Red Wing Gordie Howe scores his 600th goal in a game against the Montreal Canadiens. He was the first (and the last, until Wayne Gretzky) NHL player to score 600 times in his career. He’d broken the previous record--544 goals, set by the legendary Canadien Maurice "Rocket" Richard--in November 1963. That game’s referee told reporters that "Gordie Howe can do more things better than anyone else. That’s just all there is to it."

November 27 was a lucky day for Howe: On that day in 1960, in a game against the Toronto Maple Leafs, he’d become the first NHL player to earn 1,000 points. (He’d broken Richard’s 946-point record earlier that year.) Exactly five years later, he scored his 600th goal: a gentle flip shot past Canadiens keeper Gump Worsley at the Montreal Forum. Even with Howe’s goal, the home team had the game well in hand--they eventually won 3-2--so the fans could afford to be generous about Howe’s accomplishment. They cheered politely and sent newspapers, programs and other scraps of paper fluttering into the air and onto the ice.

In Howe’s 32-year career, he played 2,421 games, scored 1,071 goals (including goals he scored in the post-season and with teams that belonged to the World Hockey Association instead of the NHL) and racked up 2,589 points. (He also earned 2,418 penalty minutes in his career, a tribute to his legendary aggression. His teammates called him "Mr. Elbows"; Sports Illustrated said he was "calculatingly and primitively savage…a punishing artist with a hockey stick, slashing, spearing, tripping and high-sticking his way to a comparative degree of solitude on the ice.") Until Gretzky came along, Howe held the NHL records for goals--810 in the regular season--and points--1,850. He was the league MVP six times.

Gordie Howe retired in 1971, after his 25th season with the Red Wings, but he couldn’t stay off the ice for long: He soon joined the WHA team in Houston, where he played alongside his sons Mark and Marty. In 1977 all three Howes moved to Hartford to play for the Whalers. That team joined the NHL two years later, so Howe was able to add a few goals, points and penalty minutes to his official records before he retired for good at age 52.

This Day in History

 Nov 26, 1933:
Vigilantes in California lynch two suspected murderers



Thousands of peoples in San Jose, California, storm the jail where Thomas Thurmond and John Holmes are being held as suspects in the kidnapping and murder of Brooke Hart, the 22-year-old son of a local storeowner. The mob of angry citizens proceeded to lynch the accused men and then pose them for pictures.

On November 9, Brooke Hart was abducted by men in his own Studebaker. His family received a $40,000 ransom demand and, soon after, Hart's wallet was found on a tanker ship in a nearby bay. The investigative trail led to Holmes and Thurmond, who implicated each other in separate confessions. Both acknowledged, though, that Hart had been pistol-whipped and then thrown off the San Mateo Bridge.

After Hart's body washed ashore on November 25, a vigilante mob began to form. Newspapers reported the possibility of a lynching and local radio stations broadcast the plan. Not only did Governor James Rolph reject the National Guard's offer to send assistance, he reportedly said he would pardon those involved in the lynching.

On November 26, the angry mob converged at the jail and beat the guards, using a battering ram to break into the cells. Thurmond and Holmes were dragged out and hanged from large trees in a nearby park.

The public seemed to welcome the gruesome act of vigilante violence. After the incident, pieces of the lynching ropes were sold to the public. Though the San Jose News declined to publish pictures of the lynching, it condoned the act in an editorial. Seventeen-year-old Anthony Cataldi bragged that he had been the leader of the mob but he was not held accountable for his participation. At Stanford University, a professor asked his students to stand and applaud the lynching. Perhaps most disturbing, Governor Rolph publicly praised the mob. "The best lesson ever given the country," said Governor Rolph. "I would like to parole all kidnappers in San Quentin to the fine, patriotic citizens of San Jose."

This Day in History

 Nov 25, 1980:
Sugar Ray takes his title back



On November 25, 1980, Sugar Ray Leonard regains boxing's welterweight title when his opponent, reigning champ Roberto Duran, waves his arms and walks away from the fight in the eighth round. "No más, no más," Duran told the referee. "No more box." He'd had cramps in his stomach since the fifth, he said, and they'd gotten so bad he could barely stand up.



It was the first time a champion had given up his title voluntarily since Sonny Liston's shoulder injury forced him to quit a fight with Muhammed Ali, then Cassius Clay, in 1964. And it didn't seem like something Duran would do: He was a notoriously fierce, brutal fighter, celebrated in his native Panama for his unwillingness to show his opponents any mercy. Before the fight with Leonard, Duran had only lost one of his 73 professional bouts, to Esteban DeJesus eight years before, and he'd taken the welterweight title from Leonard in June in the fairly one-sided "Brawl in Montreal." In that match, Duran had kept a bewildered Leonard pinned against the ropes for almost the entire fight, punching him relentlessly. But Sugar Ray had been training ever since, and he was favored to win the rematch.



His training paid off: Leonard stayed on his toes and away from the edges of the ring, and by the eighth round Duran was flagging and Leonard was winning on each judge's scorecard. Two minutes and forty-four seconds into that round, after a particularly punishing series of blows, Duran had had enough. He walked away, signaled the ref and sat down in this corner. Many people though that he quit because he was tired of putting up with Leonard's clowning and taunting; some thought he'd taken a dive; and some said he simply wanted to collect his purse and go home. But Duran maintained that he was sick. After the match, his doctor reported that the fighter had eaten too much too quickly after the weigh-in, and all the food had given him a stomachache. This news didn't do much to help his image, as Leonard pointed out. "He didn't take the easy way out," Duran's adversary said. "He took the worst way out."



Right after the bout ended, the 29-year-old Duran announced that he was retiring from boxing. "I've gotten tired of the sport," he said. But in December 1989, he came back for a rematch—"Uno Más," promoters called it. Leonard won that fight, a lethargic bout all around, in 12 rounds.