The flag of Catalonia, four red bars on a yellow field, dates back from the 9th century. Supposedly the four red bars were drawn by King Charles the Bald, on the golden or copper shield of the Count of Barcelona, Wilfred I the Hairy. Grateful for Wilfred’s heroism in the siege of Barcelona, Charles wet his fingers in the blood from Wilfred’s wounds just before his death and drew them across the golden shield. In some versions of the legend Charles took the dying Wilfred’s fingers and slid them over the shield. However, there is no historical evidence to support this story.
Europe’s three most-visited cities are London, Paris, and Barcelona.
NFL Europe was a developmental league for the National Football League, with teams in several European countries.
NFL Europe was originally known as the World League of American Football, and had teams located in both Europe and North American in 1991 and 1992. After a two-year hiatus, the NFL relaunched the league (which was eventually renamed NFL Europe) in 1994, solely with teams in Europe; the league continued until 2007, when the NFL finally shut it down.
The original three European teams in the league were the London Monarchs, the Frankfort Galaxy, and the Barcelona Dragons.
NFL Europe was originally named the World League of American Football, or WLAF (What a Laugh!), which included North American teams. As always in startup football leagues, Orlando had a franchise, that time called the Thunder. Their division-mates were the Montreal Machine, New York/New Jersey Knights, and Raleigh–Durham Skyhawks (replaced by Ohio Glory in 1992).
In 2006, readers of ESPN’s Uni Watch column voted the Thunder’s fluorescent green jersey the 2nd worst football jersey of all-time, behind the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ original pastel colors.
Orlando had a team in the XFL and the USFL.
XFL: Orlando Rage
USFL: Orlando Renegades
The USFL’s New Jersey Generals were owned by a well-known real estate mogul who now resides in Washington. He was the driving force behind the failed league’s anti-trust suit against the NFL, in which he won damages of $1. Trebling for punitive damages raised the total to $3.
The USFL lasted 3 seasons. In the first championship game in 1983, the Michigan Panthers defeated the Philadelphia Stars, 24-22. In the 1984 championship game, the Stars defeated the Arizona Wranglers, 23-3. Then, in 1985, the Stars moved to Baltimore and again won the championship, defeating the Oakland Invaders, 28-24.
On January 25, 1985, the owner of the USFL’s New Jersey Generals, Donald Trump, signed rookie Doug Flutie out of Boston College for $7 million over 5 years – making Flutie then the highest paid pro football player and the highest paid rookie in any sport.
Doug Flutie led the Calgary Stampeders against the Baltimore Stallions, led by QB Tracy Ham, in the 1995 Grey Cup in Regina.
The game was almost postponed to the next day because the wind from the northwest was gusting to 50 mph against the temporary stands in the southeast end zone, occupied amongst others, by N. Piper and Mrs Piper. The CFL and the City of Regina were concerned that the stands might collapse in the wind but eventually decided “It’s Saskatchewan. What’s a little wind?”
Ham and the Stallions prevailed over Flutie and the Stamps, 37-20, the only time Lord Grey’s mug has gone south.
On January 1, 2006, in the final regular-season game of his football career, Doug Flutie (at that point a backup quarterback for the New England Patriots) successfully converted a point-after-touchdown kick using a “drop kick” technique; it was the first time that a drop kick had been used successfully in the NFL since the 1940s.
YouTube, Doug Flutie’s drop kick PAT at home against the Miami Dolphins — DOUG FLUTIE DROP KICK - YouTube.
Flutie’s drop kick was his last play in the NFL. After the game, New England coach Bill Belichick said, “I think Doug deserves it,” and Flutie said, “I just thanked him for the opportunity.”
The “Flutie Effect” refers to a spike in applications to a college which has experienced athletic success; recently, schools that have benefited are Villanova and Loyola Chicago. When Doug Flutie won memorably for Boston College in 1984, applications surged 30%. Boston University also noted an increase in applications, apparently from students who could not tell the two schools apart.
Doug Flutie was the lowest drafted Heisman Award winner ever drafted. In the 1985 NFL Draft, the Los Angeles Rams selected him in the 11th round, as the 285th pick in the draft.
As a senior at USC in 1968, O.J. Simpson rushed for 1,709 yards and 22 touchdowns in the regular season, earning the Heisman Trophy, the Maxwell Award, and Walter Camp Award. He still holds the record for the Heisman’s largest margin of victory, defeating runner-up Leroy Keyes by 1,750 points. In the Rose Bowl on New Year’s Day, #2 USC faced top-ranked Ohio State; Simpson ran for 171 yards, including an 80-yard touchdown run in a 27–16 loss.
OJ Simpson is one of six USC Trojan players to win the Heisman trophy. USC has the second-highest number of winners. Three schools are tied with the most, 7 Heisman trophies: Notre Dame, Ohio State, and Oklahoma. Ohio State has the distinction of the only two-time winner, Archie Griffin, leaving their total players to have won the trophy at six.
In 1935, the first Heisman Trophy (called the Downtown Athletic Club Trophy) was awarded to Jay Berwanger of the University of Chicago, which at that time competed in the Big Ten Conference.
At that time, John Heisman was the athletic director of the school. After his death the next year, the award was renamed to the Heisman Trophy.
Enrico Fermi and Leo Szilard built the first nuclear reactor, the Chicago Pile-1, under the stands of Stagg Field, the University of Chicago football stadium.
Chicago Pile-1 achieved criticality on 2 December 1942.
Chicago Pile-4 achieved criticality on 20 December 1951. Chicago Pile-4, in Arco, Idaho, was the world’s first breeder reactor. It is now called EBR-I, Experimental Breeder Reactor I.
In the early 1960s, Georgia O’Keeffe flew in an airplane for the first time and was inspired by the view looking down on the earth and clouds to create several large paintings. The largest and last one in the series, Sky above Clouds IV, 8 feet tall and 24 feet wide, is on display at the Art Institute of Chicago. It was scheduled to be displayed at the San Francisco Museum of Art in 1970 but it could not fit through any door of the museum.
The Georgia O’Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe, New Mexico opened on July 17, 1997, 11 years after she died. Georgia O’Keeffe (1887-1986) lived to be 98 years old. She holds the record for the highest price paid for a painting by a woman — $44.4 million in 2014 paid by the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas, for her 1932 painting Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1; image of painting — https://is.gd/5bpdPO.