July 1

On this football day episode a stadium opens, big sponsors celebrate and so do some Hall of Fame players!  We provide you these wonderous stories filled of football nostalgia. This daily football history segment features the Great events, Franchise formation anniversaries as well as the birthdays of notable Hall of Fame players, coaches or anyone else in our great game and many more  Legendary stories of the Gridiron.

The picture in the banner above is from the US Library of Congress' collection and was contributed by Gus A. Fretter circa 1931 and is titled " Cleveland Stadium, April 6, 1931 ."

• July 1, 1916 - Coca Cola markets its current formula to the public along with its distinct contoured bottle. Coke has been a long time sponsor of football at all levels.
• July 1, 1931 - Cleveland Municipal Stadium officially opened on this day. The first event though did not happen until a couple of days later and it wasn't an Indians game either according to the site BallParksofBaseball.com. According to an article in the Coshocton Tribune in Coshocton, Ohio on July 10, 1931 the Indians did not even have a lease with the new stadium, called Lakefront Stadium then, when it opened though negotiations were in progress. The Indians played their first home game at Municipal Stadium on July 3, 1932. Lakefront Stadium was used as a venue for professional football too. Wikipedia says that prior to the arrival of the Browns, the stadium was briefly the home field for two other NFL teams, the Cleveland Indians in 1931, and the Cleveland Rams from 1936 to 1937 and again from 1939 to 1941. The football Indians played two home games in their 1931 season, a 6-0 win over the Brooklyn Dodgers and a 14-0 loss to the Chicago Cardinals. The Rams were founded in 1936 as members of the second American Football League and joined the NFL in 1937. They played home games at the stadium their first two seasons, before moving to the smaller Shaw Stadium in 1938. The Browns called it home in 1946 in their inaugural season in the AAFC. The stadium was the home of the Indians and the Browns until it closed in 1993. According to an article by the UP in the Akron Beacon on July 1, 1931 the first event that the old stadium saw was the Heavy Weight Boxing tilt betwen Max Schemling and Young Stribling.
• July 1, 1941 - The Bulova Watch Company became the first to purchase TV advertising when it paid a sum of $9 to air a first ever network commercial. According to the Sporting News.com the average cost of a Super Bowl Commercial in February 2020 was about $5.6 Million per every 30 second spot.

• July 1, 1922 - Giles County, Tennessee - Don Whitmire who was with the University of Alabama in 1941 and 1942 as then Navy’s tackle from 1943 to 1944 arrived into this life. The NFF’s bio on Don says he made one All America  for the NEA in 1942, was consensus All-America 1943, and unanimous All-America 1944. Rip Miller, Navy’s line coach, recruited him for the Midshipmen after spotting his picture in Street and Smith Football Magazine in 1943.    Don Whitmire was honored with induction into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1956 after the National Football Foundation tabulated their votes. Right after this event his hometown of Decatur, Alabama held a parade, with 9,000 spectators lining the road to cheer the accomplishments of this gridiron legend. At his Hall of Fame induction, he said, "Football taught me the virtue of team play and enhanced my leadership qualities. These traits have been most valuable in my Navy career. Football taught me to take hard knocks and come up fighting." This youngman went to even greater heights after football. Whitmire was a rear admiral in the U.S. Navy and directed the evacuation of Saigon at the end of the Vietnam War in 1975. It was the biggest evacuation in world history, with 82,000 men, women and children escaping to freedom. 
• July 1, 1953 - Denison, Texas - Mike Haynes the great defensive back from Arizona State from 1972 to 1975 was born. This Pro Football Hall of Fame cornerback played for the New England Patriots and the Oakland Raiders. Mr. Haynes was a 9 time Pro Bowl selection including earning First Team All-Pro honors twice in his 14 seasons in the League. He groomed his aggressive playing style while he attended Arizona State University where he earned a spot in the College Football Hall of Fame in 2001 per the National Football Foundation website.  As a Pro he won the Defensive Rookie of the Year honors in 1976 and eventually earned a Super Bowl ring while with the Raiders.  
• July 1, 1979 - Gainesville, Florida - Adrian Peterson the fine Georgia Southern running back of 1998 to 2001 was born. The National Football Foundation says Adrian is one of the most decorated players in college football history. Adrian Peterson of George Southern remains the all-time leading rusher in Division I (FBS and FCS) history with 6,559 yards. In 1998, Peterson set the NCAA record for most-rushing yards by a freshman with 1,932, and he finished his career as Division I’s all-time leader in rushing touchdowns, a record that lasted until 2015. The College Football Hall of Fame proudly placed a display in honor of Adrian Peterson into their legendary museum in 2017. Adrian was picked in the sixth round of the 2002 NFL Draft by the Chicago Bears. Peterson then played for the franchise from 2002-09 and participated in Super Bowl XLI with the team.

Special thanks for information from the Pro Football Reference.