July 7

In this episode we discuss how a fella named James from Carlisle won Olympic Pentathlon Gold in Stockholm, Sweden and what that did for his status in life. We will provide you with a little bit 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.

Our Newspapers.com Football History Headline of the Day comes from the Hallett Herald in Hallett, Oklahoma on July 8, 1912 when they printed a header of :

AMERICANS ARE IN LEAD

This news story is about the 1912 Stockholm Olympics and in particular a pentathalon gold medal win by a Carlisle student named James Thorpe on July 7, 1912. Yes this is before the great gridiron player was famous and James was in fact Jim Thorpe wins the Gold as he finished first in 4 of the events of the Pentathalon. The Americans were leading in the medal count after just four days after Thorpe's Gold and one by fellow American 100 meter champ R. C. Craig of the Detroit YMCA took first place in his event in the early days of the Olympiad. In 1913 Jim Thorpe was stripped of the medals due to playing baseball professionally in 1910 but in 1982 the Olympic honor was restored to the star athlete who played many years as a college and pro football player.

• July 7, 1928 - Sliced Bread is sold for the first time by the Chillcothe Baking Company in Missouri as inventor Otto Frederick Rohwedder invents a machine to evenly portion the loaves. It really has nothing to do with the game of football but now we have a reference point when someone says it is the best thing since sliced bread!
• July 7, 1936 - The RCA Company shows the first real TV program which entertained viewers with a comedy monologue, dancing,a fashion show and short documentary on trains. Where would we be without football on TV?

• July 7, 1958 - Matt Suhey was a Penn State University Running Back that played Pro ball for the Chicago Bears as their Full Back.
• July 7, 1973 - Aaron Beasley was an NFL Defensive Back that played for the Jaguars, Jets and Falcons. He played college football for the Mountaineers of West Virginia.

For more stats on football people born on July 7th 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.

The picture in the banner above is from the US Library of Congress' collection and was contributed by Bain News Servicecirca 1912 and is titled " Opening Day, Stockholm Olympic Games ."