Historically Speaking: Old No. 7

School might be out, but there's always room for learnin'. Oh, come on. We've even thrown in a song to make the learnin' funner.

* Some football broadcast firsts today: The University of Texas and Texas A&M debuted the art of play-by-play broadcast today in 1920 down in College Station, Texas. Forty-five years later, the NFL gave the world the first color television broadcast in the form of a Detroit Lions/Baltimore Colts 24-24 tie.

* Speaking of the Lions, a Buffalo Bill by the name of Orenthal James Simpson rushed for 273 yards against them today in 1976.

* The year was 1981 when a cat by the name of Rollie Fingers became the first relief pitcher to win the American League MVP award. Fingers accomplished the feat via 319 votes, a solid 11 votes more than runner-up Rickey Henderson, who, by the way, is most definitely not Tony Gwynn, or the third-best hitter of the past 25 years.

* Today in 1983, Larry Holmes defeated Marvis Frazier by way of technical knockout in the first round of a heavyweight championship fight in Las Vegas, Nevada.

* Sources indicate that, today in 2002, MLB Commissioner Bud Selig met secretly with Pete Rose to discuss The Hit King's lifetime ban from the game.

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



...Florida Marlin publicist Chuck Pool, who, in 1994, witnessed an upper-deck home run at Joe Robbie Stadium. The jack, hit by Cincinnati Red outfielder Kevin Mitchell, prompted Pool to say, "There have been a plethora of guys to hit it up there, but that was the plethorest."