In 1960: A young boxer from Louisville named Cassius Clay (His mamma named him Cassius, we gonna call him Cassius) won the Gold Medal in the light heavyweight division at the Rome Olympics. The 18-year-old future heavyweight champ defeated Zbiginew Pietrzykowski of Poland by a unanimous decision. He turned pro later that year and changed his name to Muhammed Ali in 1964.
In 1972 At the Munich Olympics, 11 Israeli athletes were taken hostage by a group of Palestinian militants and were later killed in a shootout. The Games were put on hold for 24 hours and 80,000 people attended a memorial service in the Olympic Stadium. The next day, after serious debate, IOC president Avery Brundage made the famous declaration, “the Games must go on.”
In 1994: In front of a national audience on Monday Night Football and a Candlestick Park record crowd, Jerry Rice of the San Francisco 49ers caught his third TD pass of the game to break Jim Brown’s NFL record with his 127th career touchdown. Rice’s three scores paced the Niners to an easy 44-14 victory over the Los Angeles Raiders. Rice went on to score an untouchable 208 career touchdowns (Marvin Harrison of the Colts is the current active leader with 110).
