July 16

Here is what happened in football history for July 16: Swashbucklers steal the memories while we have a new "Acting" President on the rise in this episode as we discuss these and One of the NFL's best-ever backs, a National Champion stud quarterback, a high profile coach and a famous stadium opening it gates for the first time! We will provide you with a little bit of football nostalgia. 

This daily football history segment features the great events, franchise formation anniversaries, and the birthdays of notable Hall of Fame players, coaches, or anyone else in our great game, as well as many more legendary stories of the Gridiron.

The picture in the banner above is from the Newspapers.com July 14, 1970 edition of the Pittsburgh Press for a Dodge Auto Dealer ad.

Three Rivers Opens

July 16, 1970 - In Pittsburgh it is the Pirates who open up Three Rivers Stadium in a 3-2 loss to the Cincinnati Reds. The stadium would serve as the home to both the Pirates and the NFL's Steelers from 1970 through 2000. The Stadium was so named as it sat next to the confluence of the Ohio, Allegheny and Mohongahelia Rivers. The USFL's Pittsburgh Maulers and the University of Pittsburgh also played some home games at Three Rivers. The stadium was the venue where the first night World Series game took place in 1971 and also had the famous Immaculate Reception occur on December 23, 1972. The final game in Three Rivers Stadium took place on Dec 16, 2000 in a Steelers victory.

Here Comes the Pres!

July 16, 1980 - Ronald Reagan was nominated as the Republican Party candidate for President of the US. Reagan's connection to football is that he played for Eureka College as a lineman. More famously he portrayed the University of Notre Dame legend George Gipp in the film from 1940 titled Knute Rockne, All American. Reagan became known as the Gipper from that film going forward based on George Gipp's famous quote of, "just win one for the Gipper."

Sheveport Home Start up!

The Newspapers.com Football History Headline of the Day comes from the July 17, 1994 edition of the Town Talk in Alexandria, Louisiana with their headline of:

Toronto Edges Pirates

The article is a recount of the July 16, 1994 Canadian Football League game where the CFL's Shreveport Pirates lose their first home game 34-35 to the Toronto Argonauts. Argo's quarterback Mike Kerrigan threw two second half TD strikes that helped Toronto to the victory. The Shreveport squad jumped on top early with back to back 64 yard plays, a rushing TD by back Reggie Barnes and then a scooring pass from Terrence Jones to Wayne Walker. The Argonauts ended an 18 game road losing streak that extended back to the 1991 season with this win. The Shreveport Pirate franchise would fold in 1995 as many of the US based CFL would befall in the failed expansion of the league beyond the Canadian Southern border.

If you want to be able to be able to read through some old articles like The Town Talk, you need to check out Newspapers.com. At Newspapers.com, you can get access to over 640 million pages’ worth of news from the US, Canada, England, Scotland, Ireland and more dating back from 1798 to yesterday.  Get a free one week subscription to Newspapers.com by visiting SportsHistoryNetwork.com/newspapers. And with a paid subscription, you’ll also be helping to support the production of this and other Sports History Network shows. 

• July 16, 1889 - Roxbury, Massachusetts - Percy Wendell was a halfback from Harvard University that earned a spot in the College Football Hall of Fame in the entry class of 1972. Wendell emerged as one of the East's finest runners per the NFF's bio on him. His Harvard team finished 8-0-1 that season, keeping arch rival Yale scoreless in the final game to force a tie per the National Football Foundation. "Bullet" was the star, gaining 103 yards on 21 rushes against the Elis. In the final victory of 1910, an 18-0 decision over Dartmouth, Percy had produced both of his team's touchdowns. During the 1911 season, while Wendell continued to dominate the Crimson attack, he lead the club in scoring. He drew Walter Camp's All-America selection in each of his first two years, but injuries sidelined his abilities as Harvard's senior captain in 1912. He went on to coach football at Boston University, Williams College and LeHigh University.
• July 16, 1943 - Port Arthur, Texas - Jimmy Johnson the head coach of the national champion University of Miami Hurricanes and the Super Bowl Champion Dallas Cowboys was born. Johnson got his first head coaching stint in 1979 with the Oklahoma State football team and stayed there until the Hurricanes hired him in 1984. He was unsure if he really wanted to leave Stillwater or not especially filling the shoes of former Miami coach Howard Schnellenberger, who had won Miami's first national championship in 1983 nd then left for a job in the USFL. He brought the 4-3 defense to the Canes and an atmosphere that encouraged the players to showboat at times, By the 1986 season Miami was undefeated but was upset by number 2 Penn State in the Orange Bowl. The Hurricanes went undefeated in the regular season yet again in 1987, and won the school's second national title by defeating Oklahoma. A year or so later Jimmy was hired by the struggling Dallas Cowboys in 1989. It wasn't pretty at first but soon he started putting the pieces together on a great team. Some draft picks and a blockbuster trade that included star runner Herschel Walker and the Boys had the stamp of Jimmy Jphnson. He served five seasons with the Cowboys and guided the team to two Super Bowl championships. Johnson also coached the Miami Dolphins for four seasons and led the club to the playoffs in all but his first year on the job. He was enshrined into the Pro Football Hall of Fame Coach in the class of 2020.
• July 16, 1946 - Chicago, Illinois - Ron Yary according to the Pro Football Hall of Fame was an offensive tackle that played for Southern Cal in college and in the NFL for both the Vikings and later the Rams. Ron found himself being picked first overall in the 1968 NFL Draft by the Vikings. In his 15 NFL seasons Yary played in 7 Pro Bowls as he reached All-Pro status in 6 straight years. During Yary’s pro career, the Vikings won two NFL Central Division titles and nine NFC Central championships. Minnesota with Yary won the 1969 NFL championship and NFC titles in 1973, 1974 and 1976. This great player played in five NFL/NFC championships and Super Bowls IV, VIII, IX and XI. Mr. Yary was selected into both the College Football Hall of Fame in 1981 after his great play at USC and the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2001.
• July 16, 1951 - Olton, Texas - Jerry Sisemore was a former offensive lineman from the University of Texas that is enshrined in the College Football Hall of Fame for his outstanding play. The National Football Foundation claims Jerry was a integral starter on the 1970 Longhorn team that built an unbeaten streak to 31 games. The next year Jerry blossomed into one of the nation's best linemen as he had the first of two consecutive seasons where he was both an all-conference and Unanimous All-America selection. Mr. Sisemore after college played in the NFL for the Philadelphia Eagles for over a decade.
• July 16, 1968 - Wichita, Kansas - Barry Sanders the running back from Oklahoma State during the 1986 through 1988 seasons was born. 
• July 16, 1974 - Bradenton, Florida - Tommie Frazier was a Quarterback out of the University of Nebraska who went into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2013. Mr Frazier spearheaded the Huskers teams that won the National Championship titles in 1994 & 1995, going undefeated in both, a feat that was only done five times in college football history per the FootballFoundation.org.  As an individual Frazier was money in big games, taking home the MVP honors in the 1995 Orange and 1996 Fiesta bowls en route to the national title. Tommie was a 1995 consensus First-Team All-American and Johnny Unitas Award winner  and was the runner-up for the 1995 Heisman Trophy and a finalist for the Walter Camp and Maxwell awards. Tommie played for the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League in 1996 before trying his hand at the coaching profession both at Nebraska and Baylor.

Stay tuned for some great football memories that occurred on July 16 through out the game's long history.

For more stats on football people born on July 16th check out Pro Football Reference.

See something that happened on this date that we missed? Please let us know via email at PigskinDispatch@gmail.com.