Historically Speaking: 2-25-09

Well, we're back with another round of semi-interesting stats and facts for you to kick off your morning. Here's to hopin' it's not long before you kick off your shoes with a Martini. Or something.

* In 1933, the National Football League made some vertical and horizontal adjustments to its playing field: The hash marks were moved 10 yards in; the goal posts were moved to the goal line.

*Seven years later, the New York Rangers and the Montreal Canadiens played in the first hockey game ever televised in the United States. The 6-2 Rangers victory was produced with one fixed-position camera and aired on W2WBS in New York.

* Cassius Clay defeated Sonny Liston by way of a technical knockout in the seventh round of their 1964 heavyweight boxing match. Clay would later change his name and become a complete prick.

* Dallas Cowboy owner Jerry Jones fired Tom Landry in 1989, bringing Landry's 29-year run in the hat, on the sidelines to an end.

* And on that same day, Mike Tyson knocked out Frank Bruno via TKO in the fifth for the heavyweight boxing title.

And your Sports Illustrated quote of the day came from the mouth of...



...baseball Hall of Famer and former Washington manager Frank Robinson, who, in 2005, remembered a conversation between his mother and a scout some years ago. Robinson said that his mother was told by the scout that he could sign for $3500, to which Robinson's mother replied, "That's fine, but I don't think I have $3500."