In 1963, running back Ernie Davis died of Leukemia.
In 2023, 60 years later, Jim Brown died.
In 1912, Allan Travers gave up 26 hits and 24 runs in a game. The reason he had to endure a beat down goes back to what happened 3 day prior.
In 2004, Randy Johnson pitched a perfect game against the Atlanta Braves.
In 1997, Tiger Woods ‘C” game was good enough to win his fifth golf tournament in 16 starts.
And in 2013, Nicolas Colsaerts ball wound up in an unusual place.
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hey I’m golf broadcaster Matt Adams the updated and expanded second edition of my book the golf round I’ll never forget golf’s biggest stars recall their finest moments is now available readers can expect to march with arie’s army at the 1960 US Open relive Jack Nicholas’s remarkable 1986 Masters win and be amazed by the tiger slam the golf round I’ll never forget golf’s biggest stars we call their finest moments pick it up we find books sold including Barnes & noble.com and amazon.com this day in sports history hey and welcome to another edition of this day in sports history it’s May 18th and on this day in different years we said goodbye to two football greats whose lives ran parallel but unfortunately never intersected on the football field in 1963 running back Ernie Davis lost his battle with leukemia after a 10-month fight Davis was the 1961 Heisman Trophy winner at Syracuse becoming the first black player to ever receive that award he was also a two-time All-American Davis led the orange men to a perfect 11-0 record a win against Texas and the Cotton Bowl and the 1959 National Championship in that Cotton Bowl win Davis ran for a couple of touchdowns and through for one during his time at Syracuse Davis erased a lot of the records that his predecessor Jim Brown had said Davis wore the number 44 the same as brown he finished his collegiate career with 20386 yards 295 more than brown he was the top pick in the 1962 NFL Draft by the Washington Redskins but was traded to the Cleveland Browns shortly after the Browns also had Jim Brown the two Syracuse Legends were going to be in the same backfield in the pros but at a camp prior to the annual College allstar game doctors detected leukemia he set out the 1962 season by October of that year though doctors told him he was in remission and he was allowed to start training again but that didn’t last very long his health started to deteriorate and then on May 15th Davis was admitted to a Cleveland hospital he died on the 18th in 1963 never having played a down in the NFL he was 23 years old now it seems like brown and Davis despite their age difference were intertwined both were stars at Syracuse both set records as running backs both wore number 44 and both were for a time Cleveland Browns add to that that Jim Brown died on this day in 2023 exactly 60 years after Davis and that seems almost Eerie Brown who was one of the most outspoken and influential social justice Warriors had a a great respect for the softspoken Davis saying he just had a way of touching people emotionally anybody who ever knew Ernie Davis loved him Brown played nine seasons in the NFL rushing for more than 12,000 yards and 109 touchdowns in his career he led the league in rushing eight out of the nine years that he played he was the league MVP in four seasons including his rookie year of 1957 he is without a doubt the greatest Cleveland Browns player of all time and was the player who set the standard for running backs in the league for decades he was inducted into the National Football Hall of Fame in 1971 in his first year of Eligibility interesting fact Brown is the only person to be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame the Collegiate Football Hall of Fame and the lacrosse Hall of Fame but of course his legacy goes beyond football or Athletics he was involved in his community pushing for civil rights and Justice and the 19 1960s in 1988 he created the air Ian foundation for social change the program was designed to help disadvantaged kids to develop life skills reach and strive for academic success and improve the quality of their lives he had a voice even without athletic success but the success that he had as an athlete elevated his platform and gave his voice more weight Jim Brown was 87 when he died a year ago today on this day in 1912 pitcher Alan Travers gave up a Major League record 26 hits and 24 runs in a game he walked seven and struck out one in eight Innings of work as the pitcher for the Detroit Tigers and a game against the Philadelphia Athletics so this all sounds kind of weird right why does a manager leave a pitcher in to get continuously shellack well there is a story and it goes back to one of the stories I did on the May 15th Edition of this dish if you’ll remember or if you want to go back and relisten to it I’ll wait but back on the 15th Tai Cobb went into the stands after a fan who was insulting him B Johnson handed down a 10-game suspension after the game to which Detroit Tiger players said they would sit out until Cobb was reinstated well this is the game when the regulars started their sit out but owner Frank naven still had to field a team or pay a $5,000 fine to the league so Navan hired a group of semi-pros at $25 a piece to fill in and offered up an extra $25 for somebody to volunteer to pitch Travers did and he endured the 24-2 beat down this was the only game that Travers pitched in the majors but his name is in the official registry B Johnson was not happy with naven or the Tigers regulars he threatened permanent suspension of players who refused to play after Cobb encouraged the players to go back they did Travers decided that maybe baseball was not for him and the priesthood sounded better he enrolled in seminary a short time later from that I’ll go to the opposite end of the spectrum on this day in 2004 Arizona Diamond Back Randy Johnson pitched a perfect game against Atlanta this Braves team had some Talent Chipper Jones Andrew Jones Julio Franco but Johnson was simply overpowering he threw a total of 117 pitches struck out 13 went to three balls on only one batter Andrew Jones came the closest to breaking it up with a fifth inning liner but that was caught and Johnson continued his perfect night for a two- nothing win it was the 17th perfect game ever thrown and at 40 years old Johnson is also the oldest to ever throw one in 1997 Tiger Woods won again he was playing at the Byron Nelson Classic this was his first tournament after winning the Masters and he bagged the win by Two Shots over Lee Rinker after the win tiger said it was great to be able to win with only his seame that was a bit of a shock to the rest of the guys on tour as tiger continued to assault the record book this was his fifth win in just his 16th PGA tour start that set a mark for quickest to five wins topping Horton Smith’s five wins in 27 tournaments and let’s send today’s with a humorous golf story back in 2013 Nicholas karts was playing the Volvo World match play championship in Bulgaria on the 10th hole Kart’s t-shot strayed a bit into a water hazard not like kpl but more of a a trickle into the shallows well a fan or I suppose in this case a non-fan of karts picked up his ball and then he deposited it in a nearby toilet as in the bowl karts was given relief outside of the L hit it within a few feet and he tapped in for a par despite a penalty stroke to have the hole but he couldn’t pull his game all the way out of the crapper losing two and one to Graham McDow who was the eventual winner of the event and time now for today’s non-sports did you know the best Lego builders in the world can strive to be certified professionals but it’s not easy as of 2021 there were only 21 certified professional Lego builders in the world that’s all for today I’ll be back tomorrow with more this day in sports history this has been an original Thrive sweet production hey there sports history fan this is Arie Chapman aka the football history dude and I hope that you enjoyed this recent episode presented by the sports history Network and we’re able to learn some good oldfashioned sports history knowledge nuggets I started the sports history Network back in 2020 with the mission to help podcasters find a community of like-minded sports history nerds as well as helping aspiring podcaster to start their own shows we have a little bit over 30 shows on the network right now covering all sorts of sports history but as far as 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