July 23, 1943 - Our Newspapers.com Football History Headline of the Day is from famous sportswriter Grantland Rice in an article found in the 7/23/43 edition of the Harrisburgh Telegraph in Pennsylvania.
Army Inductees Still Barred From Playing College Football
The article by Rice points points out that during this war time era that the Army and Navy placed specialized training schools at college campuses throughout the country to cover the large body of service people that needed training for the war effort. The two branches looked at football of these trainees in totally different points of view. The Naval Command saw the gridiron as a training regimen for its future sailors that gave them excellent workouts for physical conditioning as well as provide tactical planning excercises. The Army beleived that the colleges, with West Point excluded should abandon playing foorball and focus on their studies and training. Grantland Rice put in his two cents worth saying that he felt Navy colleges had a much higher morale in place for their students than their Army counter parts did, one reason was the game of football.
Waller steps down
July 24, 1975 - Ron Waller the 42 year old head coach of the World Football League's Philadelphia Bell resigns his position stating personal reasons according to an article in the Bloomington, Illinois Pantagraph on July 24, 1975. Bell offensive line coach Joe Gardi took over as the interim coach. There were reports ciruclating that former Green Bay standout Willie Wood was in strong consideration to take over the post as a permanent replacement.
Our Newspapers.com Football History Headline of the Day comes from the July 25, 1976 edition of the Pacific Daily News with their post of:
Steelers romp past all-stars 24-0; Shortened game angers fans
Yes this one tells of the July 24, 1976 final Chicago College All-Star game that was played as 52,895 fans saw the World Champion Pittsburgh Steelers blank the college players 24-0. A torrential rain storn hit Soldier Field with 1:22 remaining in the third period and officials decided to call the exhibition contest at that point. This caught the ire of the crowd that was hungry for football and they stormed the field and tore down the goal posts. Pittsburgh kicker Roy Gerela booted three field goals while star running back Franco Harris and upstart Tommy Reamon punched in third quarter TDs for the Champs before the rain. This game ended the tradition of the NFL champions playing a Rookie all-Star team for fear by teams of getting a player injured.
Seattle losing roof
July 23, 1994 - It is determined by safety engineering authorities that all of the Seattle Kingdome's 40,000 ceiling tiles needed to be replaced. Apparently during repairs on the outside of the dome contractors had trouble removing the old roof material using a dry sand blasting method so they tried using a pressure washer to remove the coating. Water apparently seaped into the inside where the 26 pound ceiling tiles were and 4 of these crashed into the empty stands prior to a Seattle Mariners game while the team was warming up. With the cost of replalcment being too large to justify plans for a new stadium went into action.
The Kingdome was the home of the Seahawks, the NBA's SuperSonics, MLB's Seattle Mariners and the now defunct North American Soccer League's Seattle Sounders. It serviced these teams from 1976 through the 1998. In 1999 the Dome was purposely imploded as a new stadium was being built, Centurylink Stadium, for the Seahawks and their fans, the "12th Man" to enjoy autumn Sunday afternoons in.
Minister of Defense Returns
July 23, 2000 - The great Reggie White ended his retirement and returned to the NFL to play with the Carolina Panthers. The defensive lineman added 5.5 sacks a forced fumble and 16 tackles to his career resume that season according to the NFL.com. White ended his career with 198 sacks officially in 2nd place, 2 QB take downs behind Bruce Smith's 200 sacks.
