In “Magnolia”, Jason Robards and Phillip Baker Hall play colleagues (and assumed, friends) who rose through the ranks of television to become leading names: Robards is Earl Campbell, a successful TV producer of many popular shows, and Hall is Jimmy Gator, a famous TV host. Both men have also wrecked their families during their rise, with Hall accused of molesting his daughter, and Campbell abandoning his wife and young son after she is diagnosed with terminal cancer. Both men come to a point of reckoning near the end of the movie.
Earl Campbell was a football running back. Nicknamed “The Tyler Rose” (for his hometown of Tyler, Texas), Campbell played college football for the University of Texas, where he won the Heisman Trophy as a senior, and then was the first overall pick, by the Houston Oilers, in the 1978 NFL Draft.
Campbell won the Rookie of the Year Award in 1978, and led the NFL in rushing in each of his first three seasons. He was named All-Pro and won the Offensive Player of the Year Award in each of those three seasons, as well as winning the Most Valuable Player Award in 1979.
However, Campbell’s hard-running style, which regularly featured him running through or over tacklers, quickly took a toll on his body; his production rapidly declined after 1980, and he retired at age 30.
Two jurists in a row who served as Chief Justice of the United States, Earl Warren and Warren Burger, shared the name “Warren.” The first was a Republican of California, appointed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1953; the second was a Republican of Minnesota, appointed by President Richard M. Nixon in 1969. Nixon had been Eisenhower’s Vice President.
The Wheel Inn, a defunct burger joint from Sedalia, Missouri, is credited for being the first to add peanut butter as a topping for their burgers. Called “the Guberburger” it was introduced in the 1940s and quickly became a sensation. In 2013 the Wheel Inn was demolished to make way for expansion of US Route 50.
Sedalia, Missouri, is home to the Missouri State Fair. In July of 1974, those fairgrounds were also home to the Ozark Music Festival. This Woodstock-like event featured an amazing list of musicians, including The Eagles, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Marshall Tucker, REO Speedwagon, America, and many more. Despite triple-digit temperatures, an estimated 300,000 enthusiastic fans were in attendance, much to the chagrin of the State Fair Board and the townspeople, who thought they were hosting a bluegrass festival that would draw perhaps 40,000 people.
(Note: I was there, and it was amazing!)
Missouri is rich in Route 66 history. Though Interstate 44 is now the main northeast-southwest throughway in the state, portions of the famed “Mother Road” remain. For example, Cuba, Missouri is home to the Wagon Wheel Motel, an extant (and still functioning) example of the sort of pop architecture that the road was associated with in the 1950s. Cuba is also painted with murals on many buildings along the route. Similarly, Springfield was once home to a Black-owned hotel that featured prominently in The Negro Motorist Green Book. And of course, Joplin is mentioned in the famed song “Get Your Kicks on Route 66” (“…it goes through Saint Louie*, Joplin, Missouri…”).
*Don’t call St. Louis “Saint Louie” when you’re in town.
And don’t call San Francisco “San Fran” when you’re in my presence. 
Play on!
I’m to understand that “Frisco” is equally ill-advised.
Route 66 has been memorialized on TV (Route 66 (1960-64)) and in music, with “(Get your Kicks on) Route 66”, written in 1941 by Bobby Troupe (who would go on to play Dr. Joe Early on TV’s Emergency series). Nat “King” Cole would be the first artist to record the song in 1946, and it rose to number three on Billboard magazine’s Race Records (now known as R&B) chart, as well as reaching number eleven on the broader singles (now Top 100) chart. It has been covered by notable artists like Chuck Berry, the Rolling Stones, and Depeche Mode.
In Robert B. Parker’s novel Small Vices, Spenser, a private detective, sings part of this song while traveling to California.
You’re to understand correctly!
The Parker Pen Company was founded in 1888 in Janesville WI, which is on the Rock River in the south central part of the state and only 15 miles from the Illinois state line. The company was founded by George Safford Parker (1863-1937) who had a side job repairing fountain pens. Dismayed by fountain pens’ propensity to leak ink, he tried different methods to improve this flaw. He obtained a patent in 1889 and established a factory in Janesville which soon became the reported largest pen manufacturing facility in the world. Parker pens became one of the first premier pen companies in the world. In Janesville WI, the George S. Parker High School is named in his honor.
Yaphet Kotto played Parker, chief engineer of the starship USCSS Nostromo, in the Ridley Scott-directed 1979 sf/horror film Alien. Parker’s first name is never given in the film.
Parker Brothers was a successful toy and game manufacturer that was originally run by three brothers (George, Charles, and Edward) and best remembered for introducing Monopoly and the Nerf ball. Monopoly is often cited as the world’s most popular board game (after chess), and the Nerf line of toys is one of the most popular with kids and adults. In 1991, Parker Bros. were bought by Hasbro, who merged them with Milton Bradley (an earlier acquisition) before reincorporating both brands under the “Hasbro Games” division. Incidentally, Hasbro was also started by three brothers (Henry, Hillel and Herman Hassenfeld) in 1923. The name is a portmanteau of “Hassenfeld brothers.”
The 4” diameter Nerf ball was the first Nerf toy and was introduced in 1970 by a Minnesota-based inventor. By the end of its first year more than four million of those Nerf balls had been sold. Other Nerf toys followed, including the Nerf football in 1972. Development of that Nerf football involved Fred Cox, the long-time NFL kicker with the Minnesota Vikings. The Nerf football quickly became the most popular Nerf toy.
Fred Cox had a 15 year NFL career, all with the Vikings.
On a personal note, Nerf footballs helped me a great deal when I was a kid — because you had to learn how to throw one with a perfect spiral or else it would not fly far. My best friend and I threw Nerf footballs many an afternoon. Learning that then helped with throwing regulation footballs, and when I was younger and stronger I could accurately throw an NFL football 70 years on a rope. And to my eye, an accurately thrown football with a perfect spiral is a beautiful thing.
Watergate special prosecutor and former Solicitor General Archibald Cox was, like Supreme Court Associate Justice John Paul Stevens, noted for frequently wearing bow ties.
Archibald Cox was fired as the Watergate special prosecutor during the “Saturday Night Massacre” of 20 October 1973 because he subpoenaed Richard Nixon’s secret Watergate tapes. Nixon wanted Cox fired because Cox pursued Nixon and refused to limit his investigation against him.
It was called the “Saturday Night Massacre” because when Nixon ordered Attorney General Elliot Richardson to fire Cox, Richardson refused and immediately resigned; then, Nixon ordered Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus to fire Cox and the same thing happened: Ruckelshaus refused and immediately resigned. Finally, Solicitor General Robert Bork carried out Nixon’s order. This caused a massive public outrage and initiated immediate impeachment proceedings. On 09 August 1974, Nixon resigned the Presidency.
Bork later said that he too intended to resign immediately but he was persuaded by Richardson and Ruckelshaus to stay on for the good of the Justice Department.
After Cox was fired he famously stated, “Whether ours shall continue to be a government of laws and not of men is now for Congress and ultimately the American people to decide”.
Archibald Cox’s replacement as the Watergate special prosecutor was Leon Jaworski.
That should have won you a lot of Punt, Pass, and Kick competitions.
In play:
Three U.S. presidents have been formally impeached by the House of Representatives: Andrew Johnson (1868), Bill Clinton (1998), and Donald Trump (2019 and 2021). All three were acquitted by the Senate and none were removed from office. Donald Trump is the only president to be impeached twice.
The Senate trial of Andrew Johnson lasted almost 3 months, and he was ultimately acquitted by one vote.
That was in college, not as a teen so that’s not eligible for PP&K!
In play:
In accordance with the Former Presidents Act of 1958, should a president be removed from office they shall forfeit all pensions and benefits, but shall be accorded lifetime protection by the US Secret Service.