George Herbert Allen was a head football coach of a professional team for 14 years, 12 in the NFL and 2 in the USFL. His teams made the playoffs in 9 of those years. Seven years after his retirement, he accepted the job of head football coach at Long Beach State, where he guided the the 49ers to their first winning season in several years. After the season-ending victory over UNLV, his players dumped a cooler full of ice water on Allen, an act which may have been a factor in his death from ventricular fibrillation six weeks later.
Most of the sports teams at Long Beach State are nicknamed the 49ers, except for the baseball team: The Dirtbags. The term first appeared in 1989, the first year under head coach Dave Snow. Inheriting a program that was mired in an extended stretch of sub-par seasons, Snow began his tenure (partly by necessity) by focusing his recruiting efforts on prospects who had been overlooked by higher-profile programs, with an emphasis on finding “hard-nosed guys with something to prove.” Dirtbags who have made it to the majors include Jason Giambi, Evan Longoria, Troy Tulowitzi, and Jered Weaver.
Former LA Rams wide receiver Jack Thomas Snow (1943-2006) played for the Rams from 1965 to 1975. The Rams was the only pro team he played for, although he was originally drafted by the San Diego Chargers. His son, Jack Thomas Snow, jr., was born in 1968. The son is better known by the name, JT Snow, and he played Major League Baseball for four teams:
New York Yankees (1992)
California Angels (1993–1996)
San Francisco Giants (1997–2005)
Boston Red Sox (2006)
San Francisco Giants (2008)
Bastards in the north of Westeros are given the last name Snow in the *Song of Ice and Fire *series by George R.R. Martin. The true parentage of Jon Snow is a major question throughout the books (and the HBO adaptation, Game of Thrones).
In medieval England, a royal bastard’s coat of arms was marked with a “bend” or “baton sinister.” The surname “Fitzroy” means “son of a king” and was used by various illegitimate royal offspring, and by others who claimed to be such, such as Henry FitzRoy, son of King Henry VIII and mistress Elizabeth Blount.
The “Magnificent Bastards” are the Marines of 2nd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment (or, 2/4 [“two-four”], or 2nd Bn 4th Marines). The moniker of “The Magnificent Bastards” was first used by the incoming Battalion Commander, Lt.Col. Joseph R. (Bull) Fisher the day he assumed his command on 4 June 1964. On 24 September 1966, Battalion Order No. 5600.1B, was signed. It officially added (by legal order) the lower pennant with the nickname the “Magnificent Bastards”.
Bastards’ Road is the story of one of the Magnificent Bastards named Jon Hancock (or Jonathan Hancock) who returned from battle and struggled with PTSD. Hancock, in trouble, decided to walk across the USA from his home in Maryland and taking a circuitous route to visit the families of his fallen brethren. Hancock’s final destination was the 5th Marines Memorial Garden at Camp San Mateo in Camp Pendleton.
I happened to meet Hancock while on vacation in North Bonneville WA, near the Bonneville Dam, while he was on his walk across. He looked homeless, but he had a Marine Corps flag draped over his backpack. I just had to ask about it, and I learned about his story. After donating some money to his cause, Hancock continued walking south to Pendleton.
He said he’d be walking through San Francisco, and a few months later he called and we met him there for a nice steak dinner and drinks. The Marines Memorial Club in San Francisco put him up for several days, at no cost to him.
A few months after that, Hancock was finishing his walk and I drove down to welcome him home. It was a heartwarming event.
Bastards’ Road, https://www.bastardsroad.com/ – will become a documentary about his journey, soon coming.
Donations to this documentary are welcomed.
Good stuff, and thanks for sharing!
In play: There are 14 dams that span the Columbia river. 3 of these dams are in British Columbia, Canada, 7 are in the state of Washington, and the remaining 4 are on the border between Washington and Oregon. The last dam, Bonneville Dam, is located 40 miles east of Portland, about 120 miles from the Pacific Ocean.
Happy to share. Meeting him in that serendipitous manner, it was a moving experience and discussion. I never saw combat in my 13 years in, and here I was talking to someone who was calling me brother and had seen the heavy combat in Fallujah, suffered PTSD and other related problems, and was healing by walking across the USA. I am fortunate to have met the man.
In play: The Columbia River’s largest dam is the Grand Coulee Dam at 500 feet tall. Its reservoir is Franklin Delano Roosevelt Lake, named after the President who presided over the dam’s authorization and completion.
A photograph taken on April 25, 1865, shows Abraham Lincoln’s funeral procession, passing the home of Cornelius Van Schaack Roosevelt at the corner of Broadway and Union Square in New York. Two children are visible in the second story window, one of whom is Cornelius’s grandson Theodore Roosevelt, aged 6; the other is his younger brother Elliott Roosevelt. Theodore’s future wife, Edith Carow, who lived next door, was also in the house that day, but when she cried as the procession passed, the Roosevelt brothers locked her in a back room.
http://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/Research/Digital-Library/Record.aspx?libID=o284880
The Lonesome Train was a cantana (a vocal composition with an instrumental accompaniment, typically in several movements, often involving a choir). The cantana dealt with Lincoln’s death and subsequent trip by train back to Springfield, Illinois. It was first performed in 1944 and is best known for the LP recording by Burl Ives. Probably it’s most famous passage is:
A lonesome train on a lonesome track –
Seven coaches painted black –
A slow train, a quiet train
Carrying Lincoln home again;
The City of New Orleans is an overnight passenger train between Chicago and New Orleans. When its service began in 1947 it was the longest daylight run in the United States. The daylight train under that name ran through 1971.
Since May 7, the City of New Orleans, Louisiana has had the first female mayor in its 300-year history. The city is named for Philippe II, Duke of Orléans (1674–1723).
Louis Philippe, Duke of Orléans, was a descendant of Louis XIV and a Prince of the Blood. Notwithstanding his Royal antecedents, he was a strong supporter of the French Revolution, changing his name to Philippe Égalité. He sat in the National Convention and cast his vote for the execution of his cousin, Louis XVI.
Nonetheless, Philippe himself fell victim to the Reign of Terror and was also guillotined some time later, as a result of his son making approaches to the Austrians.
The 2009 New Orleans Saints were the last, most recent team to win their Super Bowl debut. To date, there have been 9 teams to have done this:
2009 New Orleans Saints
2002 Tampa Bay Buccaneers
2000 Baltimore Ravens
1986 New York Giants
1985 Chicago Bears
1981 San Francisco 49ers
1974 Pittsburgh Steelers
1968 New York Jets
1966 Green Bay Packers
Of those debut winners, to date only three teams remain with only a 1-0 Super Bowl record — their debut remains their only trip to the Super Bowl:
2009 New Orleans Saints
2002 Tampa Bay Buccaneers
1968 New York Jets
The National Supers Agency is the U.S. government agency in the Pixar *Incredibles *universe which shields, supports - and sometimes cleans up after - superheroes in their work to benefit American society. Rick Dicker, whose appearance is based on Richard M. Nixon, is the only NSA employee shown in either *Incredibles *movie.
Pixar has produced twenty feature films, beginning with Toy Story (1995), which was the first-ever computer-animated feature film. Originally part of Lucasfilm, and later majority-owned by Steve Jobs, it is now a subsidiary of Disney.
Although the final scenes of 2008 superhero movie The Incredible Hulk are set in Manhattan (Harlem to be exact), they were actually shot in Toronto, Canada, with the initial showdown between the Hulk and the Abomination being filmed on Yonge Street. Several Toronto icons are visible, most notably the “spinning disc” sign for Sam the Record Man, and the marquee of the Zanzibar Tavern. ETA: While the Incredible Hulk has appeared in cartoons, none of them were Pixar productions.
The Harlem Globetrotters were founded in 1926, not in Harlem but in Chicago. The original players all came from the Chicago area and the team was originally called the Savoy Big Five. When Abe Saperstein became involved with the team as its manager and promoter, he chose Harlem Globetrotters as the name because Harlem was considered the center of African-American culture at the time and an out-of-town team name would give the team more of a mystique.
The Globetrotters did not play in Harlem until 1968, four decades after the team’s formation.
Abraham Lincoln, Republican of Illinois and sixteenth President of the United States, did not like to be called “Abe.” His friends simply called him “Lincoln,” his wife Mary Todd Lincoln referred to him as “Mr. Lincoln” or “Father,” and he usually signed his name “A. Lincoln.”
Illinois is the first of 8 states along historic Route 66 when traveling from Chicago to Santa Monica. The states in order are Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California. In Kansas, Route 66 only cuts through the far southeast corner for about 13 miles — by far the shortest distance in any state.
By state, the Route 66 mileage is (approximately, due to route changes over the years, and using Route 66 Itinerary):
IL 289
MO 313
KS 13 — shortest
OK 376
TX 189
NM 392 — longest
AZ 388
CA 318