Jim Thorpe was stripped of his Olympic medals after it was revealed that he played professional baseball in the Eastern Carolina League for Rocky Mount, North Carolina. James Edward Sullivan, secretary of the Amateur Athletic Union stripped Thorpe of his amateur status, after which the International Olympic Committee revoked his medals.
The medals were restored after Thorpe’s death. (in 1985 I believe)
South African athlete Oscar Pistorius, a double amputee (his legs were amputated due to a congenital absence of fibulas), was disqualified from participation in the Olympics as it was ruled his prosthetic limbs gave him an unfair advantage due to, among other things, their lack of pain, the fact his body did not have to circulate as much blood as other athletes, and the shape of the blades/feet. He was won numerous medals in the Paralympics and other exhibitions.
South Africa was banned from Olympic competition due to its apartheid policies.
The Italian “Blue Team” bridge team won an incredible 12/13 world championship tournaments,
including a run of nine straight: 1957-59, 1961-69.
They retired for two years and the 1970-71 championships were won the US squads.
Then the Blue Team returned to competition and proceeded to win four more in a row 1972-75,
defeating the US several times in the process.
The US finally beat their aging great rivals for the 1976 title, and the Blue Team never again won it all.
No one has come close to matching their streak though.
how is that related to my post?
The U.S. Navy’s Ohio-class ballistic missile submarines each have two complete crews, called Blue and Gold, so that they can turn around between cruises more quickly, and be at sea approximately twice as long as other such subs.
Blue and gold are the school colors of Notre Dame (Indiana).
(Oscar Pistorius, “The Blade Runner” was allowed to try to qualify for the last Olympics, but didn’t make the SA team.)
Every year in Scouting Week in February, US Cub Scout packs hold “Blue and Gold Banquets” at which parents observe their sons being awarded emblems of accomplishment, and volunteers are recognized for their work.
In 1974, the NHL added two new franchises, the Washington Capitols and the Kansas City Scouts. The Scouts were undercapitalized and drew the lowest attendance in the league before finally moving to Denver in 1976, where they became the Colorado Rockies. The Rockies also struggled with attendance and moved to New Jersey in 1982, where they became successful as the New Jersey Devils.
Emilie Charlotte le Breton, who later became known professionally as Lillie Langtry (she had married an Irish landowner named Langtry when she was 20), was called the Jersey Lily because she was born on the British island of Jersey. Her numerous lovers included King Edward VII.
The Devils are named for the Jersey Devil (or Leeds Devil), a mythical evil creature in the Pine Barrens of southern New Jersey. The Jersey Devil, who has the wings of a bat, horns, a tail, the head of a horse, and hooves, was supposedly the 14th child of a whore named Mother Leeds, who declared that she wished this latest one were the son of the Devil himself. Commodore Stephen Decatur and Napoleon’s brother Joseph Bonaparte are among the notables who claim to have seen the creature.
By the word “competiton”.
King Edward VII was married to the famous beauty Alexandra of Denmark.
She was so chronically late for everything (perhaps as a form of retaliation
for his infidelities) that he resorted to the strategem of setting all the clocks
within sight of her 30 or so minutes fast.
Alas, the ruse did not work, and she remained as late as ever, even to the point
of making HRH late for his own coronation!
A British king, from his accession to his death and even before his actual coronation, is entitled to the style “His Majesty” (or HM) and not “His Royal Highness” (HRH), which is used by princes and princesses. Edward VII became king upon the death of his mother, Queen Victoria.
Queen Elizabeth I’s accession to the throne took place while she was literally up a tree – she was staying at the Treetops Hotel in Kenya (built in a tree) when her father died.
While she was in prison for the shooting of her three children, killing one and severrely injuring the other two, Elixzabeth Diane Downs gave birth to another baby girl, whom she named Amy Elizzabeth.
The child was put up for adoption and has recently resurfaced, renamed Rebecca “Becky” Babcock, with her story to tell and a book to sell.
Actually Queen Elizabeth II’s accession, just in case anyone doesn’t realize that the “I’s” is a typo.
For play: The Babcock Electric Carriage Company manufactured vehicles from 1906 to '12 in Buffalo, New York.
Babcock and Wilcox, with headquarters in Charlotte, N. Carolina, manufactures a variety of products for the energy industry, including nuclear reactors.
Charlotte is also a financial center.