US-99 was based on the the Siskiyou Trail, an ancient network of Native American Indian footpaths connecting the Pacific Northwest with California’s Central Valley.
Nemacolin’s Trail, named after a leader of the Delaware Native American tribe, was an ancient path that connected the headwaters of the Potomac River to the headwaters of the Monongahela River. The trail, which traversed some of the most rugged parts of the Allegheny Mountains via the Cumberland Narrows Mountain pass, eventually became an important trade and military road used by the European settlers.
Allegheny Airlines was a regional U.S. airline, based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, which operated passenger service from 1949 (initially as “All American Airways”) until 1979.
After the deregulation of the U.S. airline industry in 1978, Allegheny rebranded itself as USAir, in order to shed its image as a regional carrier.
All of the major pro sports teams in Pittsburgh, Pa. have black and yellow as their colors, taken from the city’s coat of arms: the Pirates (baseball), Steelers (football) and Penguins (hockey). Pittsburgh does not have a pro basketball team.
Comment only. Not in play. Great trivia, thanks EH! I never connected that all 3 teams are black and yellow.
Here is Pittsburgh’s coat of arms.
And here is its civil flag.
According to the movie The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh had a professional NBA team named the Pythons. In it Julius Erving starred a Moses Guthrie and the Pythons were losers. The team then acquired players with the same sign as Guthrie - Pisces. Of course the rag-tag band of fish go on to be successful.
Not in play: Julius Erving actually is a pisces.
6’10” NBA center Moses Malone won his only NBA Championship in 1983 with the Philadelphia 76ers in a sweep over the Los Angeles Lakers. He is one of four members of that 76ers team that is in the Hall of Fame, along with Maurice Cheeks, Bobby Jones, and Julius Erving. Malone was acquired by the 76ers just before that season started from the Houston Rockets. Malone was the Finals MVP, and he also was the League MVP that season.
Julius Erving, known by his moniker ‘Dr. J’, played basketball for the University of Massachusetts. He played two seasons for UMass, and then became eligible to play professional basketball in the ABA under that league’s ‘hardship rule’. He won 2 ABA championships with the Virginia Squires and New York Nets. After the ABA/NBA merger (and a messy contract dispute), Erving became a member of the 76ers and played for that team for the remainder of his career.
Standup comedian Gary Gulman grew up in Peabody, Massachusetts. According to his memoir Misfit, he was a typical nerdy, awkward Jewish kid, but found a measure of self-confidence and acceptance among his peers by playing basketball and then football. He became so good at football in high school that he was actively recruited by several New England schools, eventually accepting an athletic scholarship at Boston College.
In 1961, Boston College Eagles had a live, female golden eagle to be their new mascot. Her name was Margo, after their team colors, maroon and gold.
The Pottsville Maroons were a professional gridiron football team in the 1920s, playing in the city of Pottsville, in east-central Pennsylvania.
The Maroons played in the NFL from 1925 through 1928; in 1925, they had the best record in the league, but were deprived of the title (and temporarily suspended from the league) for defying the NFL’s commissioner and playing an exhibition game in Philadelphia (which was considered the territory of another NFL team, the Frankford Yellow Jackets).
The oldest operating brewing company in the US is headquartered in Pottsville PA. Yuengling was established there in 1829.
Weihenstephan brewery, located in Freising, Germany, near Munich, advertises itself as “The World’s Oldest Brewery” although this is not historically tenable. It was possibly established in the year 768, although this has not been validated.
The D.G. Yuengling & Son brewery was established in 1829, twenty-six years after Ohio gained statehood (1803) and four years before Oberlin College was founded (1833).
Of the 50 states in the Union, Ohio’s state flag is the only one that is not rectangular.
The vexillographic term for the Ohio state flag is a ‘burgee’, with the ‘g’ being pronounced as a ‘j’ (BUR-jee).
-“BB”-
The national flag of Nepal is the world’s only non-rectangular flag which is used as both the state flag and civil flag of a sovereign country. The flag is a simplified combination of two single pennons (or pennants), known as a double-pennon.
In 6 hours, the Minnesota state flag will be the newest state flag to change.
One of the state of Minnesota’s nicknames is “The Land of 10,000 Lakes,” a reference to the large number of lakes in the state, particularly in its northern half. However, Minnesota actually has more than 10,000 lakes: the state has 14,380 bodies of fresh water which cover 10 acres or more.
“Mendota" in the Dakota language means “meeting of the waters”. The Mendota Bridge over the Minnesota River between Fort Snelling and Mendota Heights is the final bridge over the Minnesota River before the Minnesota flows into the Mississippi River.
The Mississippi River basin draws water from 29 states and two Canadian provinces (Alberta and Saskatchewan).