October 8

Here is what happened in football history on October 8:The first time broadcast of football over the airwaves: the Steelers and Browns played their first game against each other and many legends are remembered on anniversaries of special events and their birthdays!

• Ocotber 8, 1921 - 1st college football game was aired on AM radio for the game between West Virginia University and Pittsburgh University broadcast on Pittsburgh radio station KDKA-AM.  Pittsburgh's Forbes Field was the vendue for this historic game as local sponsors paid for advertisements to fund the broadcast. According to a report on Wikipedia events that led up to this first broadcast were: "In 1911, more than 1,000 people gathered in downtown Lawrence, Kansas to watch a mechanical reproduction of the 1911 Kansas vs. Missouri football game while it was being played. A Western Union telegraph wire was set up direct from Columbia, Missouri. A group of people then would announce the results of the previous play and used a large model of a football playing field to show the results. Those in attendance cheered as though they were watching the game live, including the school's legendary Rock Chalk, Jayhawk cheer."
• October 8, 1950 - the rivalry had its very meeting as the Cleveland Browns and the Pittsburgh Steelers met on the gridiron. The Browns got the better of their new rivals on that day with a 30-17 victory to start the series.
• Ocotber 8, 1972 - Philadelphia Eagles great Harold Carmichael starts his torrid streak of 127 consecutive games with a reception. Despite the advent of the streak the Eagles fell to the New Orleans Saints 21-3 at the Superdome.
• October 8, 1994 - Boston College knocked off Notre Dame in the 6th edition of the series between the two schools deemed the "Holy War" 30-11 in Chestnut Hill.
• Ocotber 8, 1995 - The great Dan Marino surpasses legendary signal caller Fran Tarkenton's NFL record career 3,686 completions record. Miami fell to the Indianapolis Colts in a heartbreaker 24-27 in the game that day. Marino finished his career with 4,967 career completions.

October 8, 1909 - Bill Hewitt has gone down in history known as the NFL player that wouldn’t wear a helmet per the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s website bio on the player. The two-way end almost got away without wearing one too except that in his ninth and final season in the NFL, playing for the 1943 Phil-Pitt Steagles, the League established a rule that wearing the protective head piece was mandatory for players. He was an iron man that averaged approximately 50 minutes on the field in each game of his career. Bill Hewitt was part of one of the most famous plays in NFL history, as he often received the famous jump-pass from Bronko Nagurski when he was with the Bears. Bill was the first player to ever become All-NFL with two different teams. Hewitt achieved the recognition with the Chicago Bears and with the Philadelphia Eagles. The Pro Football Hall of Fame enshrined him in 1971.

October 8, 1911 - Cotton Warburton the Southern California quarterback. Cotton was a speedster and earned All-American honors while guiding the Trojans as their signal caller for a 27 game winning streak, uncontested by any other USC QB until 1980. Cotton Washburn was voted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1975. His fame didn’t end on the football field though as Cotton became involved in helping to make Hollywood movies for both Metro-Goldwyn Mayer Studios as well as the Walt Disney Company. One of his most famous productions was the Disney movie Mary Poppins where he did most of the editing of the film according to Wikipedia.com. 

October 8, 1956 - Johnnie Johnson the former safety from the University of Texas. According to his bio page on texassports.com, Johnnie was a Consensus All-American in the 1978 and 1979 football seasons. In 1979 he was selected as the top defensive back in the nation by the Downtown Athletic Club. Beside anchoring the defensive backfield with 13 college career interceptions for the Longhorns he also was a great punt returner as he had a career total of 1,004 return yards. The National Football Foundation selected Johnnie Johnson into their College Football Hall of Fame in 2007. Johnson was picked in first round of the 1980 NFL Draft by the Los Angeles Rams and played 11 NFL seasons for the team. The stellar athlete was voted as the 1980 NFL Rookie of the Year and he also earned several NFL All-Pro honors during his pro career.