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Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about baseball and whether they are true or false. Click here to view an archive of the baseball urban legends featured so far.

BASEBALL LEGEND: Ray Chapman was the first player killed during a baseball game.

From a Cleveland area news site:

Ray Chapman was the first and only Major League player to die as a result of a baseball game itself.

I won’t pick on this particular site because it is a commonly held belief, so why knock one site more than another?

In any event, yes, Ray Chapman of the Cleveland Indians sadly DID die in a baseball game in 1920, when he was struck in the skull by a pitch by noted spitballer, Carl Mays of the New York Yankees.

At the time, pitchers often tried to dirty the ball up so much that you could barely see it, and on that sunny day in August of 1920, the sun was shining in so that Chapman pretty much didn’t see the ball coming at all. As reports of the day would later say, Chapman did not even MOVE as the pitch came sailing towards his head.

It landed on his skull with such a loud crack that Mays presumed it had hit his bat, so as the ball bounced back to Mays, he picked it up and tried to make the out at first base. Then he, and everyone else, realized what had actually happened – Chapman had crumpled to the floor, unconscious.

Chapman was rushed to a hospital where he would die around 4:00 AM the next morning.

The Indians wore black armbands all season long in honor of their fallen teammate, and they actually went on to win the World Series that year. Chapman’s replacement at shortstop, Joe Sewell, actually went on to make it to the Baseball Hall of Fame. The Indians gave Chapman a plaque that fell into disrepair over the years until fairly recently when it was restored and hung up at the Indians’ Progressive Field.

In any event, many folks refer to Chapman as the first and only player to ever die from injuries suffered during a baseball game.

Is that true?
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Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about football and whether they are true or false. Click here to view an archive of the football urban legends featured so far.

FOOTBALL URBAN LEGEND: NBC sent an employee running on to the field to delay the 1958 National Football League Championship because they had lost the TV signal.

The 1958 Championship pitted the Baltimore Colts against the New York Giants in Yankee Stadium for a game that has since been dubbed “the Greatest Game Ever Played.” It was the first, and remains the ONLY, NFL title game (including all Super Bowls) to ever end in overtime. In fact, it was the first NFL game period to ever end in overtime. It came about at a time when the American public were primed to become invested in professional football, and the game served as a sign that they were now “all in.” Gone were the years of poorly attended games – the league would never average less than 40,000 a game again and within three years public demand caused the league to expand from 12-game seasons to 14-game seasons.

Perhaps even more important was how pro football was adopted by the media. Sports Illustrated had barely given any coverage to the league, but soon began covering them regularly. Soon, incoming commissioner Pete Rozelle would began to control the media angle of the sport and help to build a multi-media sporting empire. He founded NFL Films and began to work out national television contracts to replace smaller, local TV deals. Eventually, these plans would lead to shows like Monday Night Football and today an entire network devoted to the NFL. It all started that night, when a record 45 million people watched the Colts defeat the Giants.

So as important as the game was to the future success of the NFL, it was also very important to the network, NBC (National Broadcasting Company), who was televising the game. As stated, the NFL was clearly poised to become a ratings bonanza and NBC wanted to capitalize on that themselves. They were so invested in the coverage of the game that, when they lost their TV signal late in the game, NBC took very drastic measures to make sure that their viewers would not miss the ending of the game. Drastic measures that included actually causing an on the field delay in the middle of what turned out to be the game-winning drive!
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Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about football and whether they are true or false. Click here to view an archive of the football urban legends featured so far.

FOOTBALL URBAN LEGEND: Ole Miss changed the speed limit around campus in honor of former Ole Miss great Archie Manning.

College football stars often take on almost mythic proportions in the minds of the fans and students of their universities, with particularly beloved players still drawing crowds for speaking engagements decades after they last suited up for their alma mater. Archie Manning of the University of Mississippi is perhaps the prototypical example of an athlete who is practically worshiped at his old school.

Manning starred in all three seasons he played for Ole Miss, setting numerous records and winning countless awards (although never the Heisman Trophy).

He is a member of the College Football Hall of Fame.

Ole Miss, though, gave him an even more unique honor…
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Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about basketball and whether they are true or false. Click here to view an archive of the basketball urban legends featured so far.

BASKETBALL URBAN LEGEND: Red Holzman got his start in professional basketball due to the fact that he was Jewish.

William “Red” Holzman was one of the most successful coaches in the history of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He coached the New York Knickerbockers to their only two NBA championships in 1970 and 1973. He was the head coach of the Knicks from 1967-1982 (with a short break in the late 1970s when Willis Reed took over as coach) and retired with 613 victories. That was the same number the Knicks used when they retired his number in 1990 (as coaches don’t have numbers). The Knicks retiring his number came five years after he was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame. Even to this day, over ten years since Holzman passed away in 1998, his legacy impacts the NBA with his former pupil, Los Angeles Lakers head coach Phil Jackson, continuing Holzman’s tradition of winning. Days before setting the new record for most titles won by an NBA coach, Jackson spoke of Holzman to the New York Daily News, “He is the reason why I am a coach.”

While Holzman is a legend in the NBA, he actually got his start in professional basketball in the National Basketball League (NBL), one of two precursors to the NBA (the other being the Basketball Association of America (BAA)) that merged together to form the NBA in 1949. And what’s amazing is that he got his start in the NBL due to one simple fact – he was Jewish!
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This is the latest in a series of examinations of legends related to boxing and whether they are true or false.

BOXING URBAN LEGEND: The term “the real McCoy” derived from a famous 19th Century boxer called Kid McCoy.

The world of sports is rife with colloquialisms, many of which eventually work their way into our everyday lives. When something is easily achieved, it is a “slam dunk.” If you stick up for someone, you “go to bat” for them. When negotiating, you often tell the other side that “the ball is in their court now.” Adapting sports terminology to everyday usage is so common now that often phrases that have nothing to do with sports are given alleged origins related to sports, particularly when the real origin of the phrase is murky. This brings us to the phrase “the real McCoy.”

Kid McCoy was born as Norman Selby in Indiana in 1867 (he later took the name Charles McCoy). By the end of the 19th Century, Kid McCoy was one of the most renowned boxers in the world. Just five foot eleven and one hundred and sixty pounds, McCoy is still regarded as one of the greatest light heavyweights in the history of the sport of boxing. His punching style included his famed “corkscrew punch” that involved pivoting his hand nearly 180 degrees right before impact. Presumably this unusual style helped McCoy catch opponents unawares. His surprising punching style and his deceptively slight build has led to a number of legends about McCoy that allegedly serve as the basis for the genesis of the phrase “the real McCoy.”

One of the legends involves McCoy being at a bar when a much bigger man began picking on him. Others in the bar warned the man that he was messing with famed boxer Kid McCoy. He laughed them off, figuring that this small guy in front of him couldn’t be McCoy. So he challenged the smaller man to a fight. McCoy promptly knocked him out, leading the man to exclaim, “Oh my God, that was the real McCoy”.

Another version of the story is that McCoy, who was well known for feigning weakness during matches to trick his opponents into being overconfident, was doing just that during a match one day. He was acting like he was languishing until his opponent got close to finish him off, at which point McCoy surprised him with a barrage of punches. This led to the announcer of the match to exclaim, “Which is the real McCoy?!?”

Finally, yet another version of the story is also the most simple. Since McCoy’s build was so reasonably sized, people who were not obviously athletes could attempt to pose as McCoy, especially during the late 19th Century and early 20th Century when there was not as many readily available photographs to show otherwise. Therefore, when McCoy would visit a new city for a match he would have to let people know that he was, indeed, the real McCoy.

Are any of these stories the real origin of the term “the real McCoy?”

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Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about football and whether they are true or false. Click here to view an archive of the football urban legends featured so far.

FOOTBALL URBAN LEGEND: Sun Devil Stadium had an extreme makeover when Pope John Paul II came to visit during the 1980s.

Since 1946, Arizona State’s football team has been known as the Sun Devils.

The Sun Devil logo and mascot (known as “Sparky”) was designed by former Walt Disney artist, Bert Anthony.

Built in 1958, Sun Devil Stadium has been home to Arizona State football for over five decades. It also was the home of the Arizona Cardinals until 2005.

It has been host to a number of famous concerts and events, including the 1996 NFL Super Bowl.

However, one of its most amusing/historic events was when Pope John Paul II visited Arizona in 1987.

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Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about basketball and whether they are true or false. Click here to view an archive of the basketball urban legends featured so far.

BASKETBALL URBAN LEGEND: The Knicks participated in a special lottery where they nearly drafted Bob Cousy!

Fans of the National Basketball Association (NBA) are quite familiar with the story of the first NBA draft lottery, which was also one of the greatest days in New York Knicks history. On Mother’s Day, 1985 (May 12th), the commissioner of the NBA, David Stern, pulled out an envelope that had the New York Knicks’ name in it that signified that the Knicks had won the #1 pick in the 1985 NBA Draft (a pick that everyone knew would be Patrick Ewing). Thirty years later, the Knicks had much worse luck, when they were the only team in the 2015 NBA Lottery that moved down in the draft (falling from #2 to #4, with the Los Angeles Lakers moving up from #4 to #2).

So thirty years later, the Knicks had terrible lottery luck. Well, thirty-five years BEFORE Patrick Ewing was drafted, they had more of the same. Did you know that there was a special lottery in 1950 that also involved the New York Knicks? A lottery that the Knicks where the Knicks had the first pick, just like in 1985? A lottery where the Knicks had a 2 in 3 chance of getting a Hall of Famer? A lottery that the Knicks managed to pick out the sole non-Hall of Famer in the bunch and yet came away from the day thrilled with their pick?

Well, if not, let me tell you about the 1950 Chicago Stags Dispersal Draft Lottery and how Bob Cousy was nearly a New York Knick.
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Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about baseball and whether they are true or false. Click here to view an archive of the baseball urban legends featured so far.

BASEBALL LEGEND: Ted Williams had an infamously cocky response as a rookie when told how he could learn from watching the great Jimmie Foxx hit.

As the story goes, when Ted Williams went to the Boston Red Sox training camp in the spring of 1938, either a sportswriter or Williams’ former teammate on the San Diego Padres (then a minor league team), Bobby Doerr, said to Williams, “Wait until you see Jimmie Foxx hit.” The 19-year-old Williams replied, “Wait ’til Foxx sees me hit.”

It almost perfectly encapsulates the unbridled cockiness that Ted Williams certainly DID possess. It’s so perfect that it was being quoted in Time Magazine for a piece on Williams as soon as 1946.

But did it actually happen?
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Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about football and whether they are true or false. Click here to view an archive of the football urban legends featured so far.

FOOTBALL URBAN LEGEND: Ohio State once gave up a touchdown…to its own player!

The grand legacy of Ohio State football began in 1890 (here’s a team photo)…

Frederick “Jack” Ryder was an early football innovator, bringing Oberlin College their very first football team. In 1892, Ryder was hired as the very first head coach in Ohio State history. He made the staggering total of $15 a week. Ryder served as head coach for three years before he left the team to serve in the Spanish-American War.

He returned in 1898, following a dreadful 1897 Ohio State season where the team won the grand total of ONE game – and that win was courtesy of a forfeit by Ohio Medical in a game that Ohio State was trailing at the time!

Ryder’s career ended with a record of 22-22, with 2 ties, but one of his losses in the 1898 seasons is likely the most notable game in his coaching career.
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Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about the Olympics and Olympians and whether they are true or false. Click here to view an archive of the Olympic urban legends featured so far.

OLYMPIC URBAN LEGEND:Johnny “Tarzan” Weissmuller took on a fake identity so he could represent the United States in the 1924 Olympics.

Followers of U.S. politics surely know of the controversy that surrounded President Barack Obama and his birth certificate throughout his pursuit (and attainment) of the highest elected office in the United States. “Prove you were born in America” was a common refrain from certain circles (heck, even after the President did reveal his birth certificate that has not stopped some folks who still believe he was born outside the United States). Ninety-one years ago, there was another political “birther” topic, only it was about Chicago swimmer Johnny Weissmuller. In the days leading up to the qualification tournament for the 1924 United States Olympic swimming team, Illinois Representative Henry Riggs Rathbone expressed his doubts that Weissmuller, the swimming sensation (who later went on to become a film superstar as the portrayer of Tarzan on the screen), was born in the United States. Why won’t he produce a birth certificate? Was he eligible for the U.S. Olympic team? Obviously, the U.S. Olympic swimming team allowed Weissmuller to compete, since he won five Gold Medals for the U.S. in 1924 and 1928. But was Weissmuller a U.S. citizen when he won Olympic gold?

After becoming one of the most famous swimmers in the world, Weissmuller translated his success into being a spokesperson for BVD. He then turned that into a long series of hit films playing first Tarzan, King of the Jungle (it was Weissmuller’s films that debuted the legendary “Tarzan yell”) then Jungle Jim and finally just playing himself.

When Johnny Weissmuller died, his obituary listed Winber, Pennsylvania as his birthplace and that’s the answer Weissmuller gave everyone, including his five wives, three children and even his official biographer. At the height of his fame, the town celebrated their hometown hero in 1950 with a special day for Weissmuller (schools even closed for the day) and the Rev. Father MacKowiak presented Weissmuller with his church birth records, the same records that secured him a spot in the 1924 Olympic Games. But were they actually Johnny’s records?
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