Friday Flashbacks: The Masters Goes Commercial-less in the Face of Protests

Here’s the rest of your flashbacks for the week of April 1 to April 7. I assure you, all these stories are real.

The sports world postpones games over the weekend in the aftermath of Martin Luther King’s assassination (1968) . . . NCAA’s decision to go forward with the Indiana-North Carolina championship game within hours of President Reagan being shot is controversial (1981) . . . Serie A matches cancelled to honor the death of Pope John Paul II (2005) . . . Knute Rockne dies in airplane crash (1931) . . . In a brawl-filled playoff game, the Boston Celtics’ Sam Jones wields a stool against Wilt Chamberlain, pic inside (1962) . . . Muhammad Ali fights 12 rounds against Ken Norton with a broken jaw (1973) . . .

Baseball opening day, Vietnam POW Daniel Pitler throws out first pitch in Washington in place of President Nixon (1971) . . . Mark McGwire hits a grand slam off Ramon Martinez on opening day (I was in that sellout crowd) (1998) . . . Ted Williams gets back in the news by blasting a former Senator and the Marine Corp (1957) . . . The umpires are on strike to start the 1979 baseball season . . . Congress passes law establishing daylight savings time across nation (1966) . . .  Congress considers gambling ban on college sports (2000) . . . NCAA bans live televising of sporting events (1951) . . . “Packers win Reggie White Sweepstakes” (1993) . . .

He won it on the dunk (1983) . . . Brent Musberger fired by CBS the day before calling the championship game (1990) . . . Coaching Rumors: Valvano to UCLA (1988) . . . Chris Patton becomes the second Maryland basketball player to die of a heart attack in a two month period (1976) . . . The NCAA adopts the 45-second shot clock after Villanova’s upset of Georgetown (1985) . . . Frank Filchock and Merle Hapes suspended indefinitely by NFL commissioner Bert Bell for role in game fixing (1947) . . . Harvey Penick, author of the Little Red Book, passes away (1995) . . . Paul Coffey breaks Bobby Orr’s goal scoring record for defensemen (1986) . . . “White Men Can’t Jump” tops the box office charts in its opening week (1992).