“Anita was dressed up as the coach of the New York Giants. ‘They are losers–it’s ok to mock losers right?’ ‘Yes,’ I said. ‘It is righteous to mock losers in this country. We are number one.’”- Hunter S. Thompson October 31, 2001 HEY RUBE

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It’s the 31st of October. Also known as Halloween, All Hallows Eve, Harvest Day, Reformation Day, National Caramel Apple Day, and National Magic Day. Also, the day that the UHSAA Football Playoffs get fully underway and the Hometown Tigers play. Although, those things are not exclusive to October 31 perennially.

This is an October 31st post. All things seen will have transpired or will be relevant to the date October 31st. I’ll try to stick to sports, but if you read here regularly then you know there is bound to be a non-sports related fact or two that will find its way onto the page.

Now, it’s around three in the morning here in the desert. It’s inky black out the back door window and the only sound I can here are the keys clacking and the buzzing of a propeller plane. Thanks Bruce. Seemingly, every other human is still slumbering the day away. Not me. I’m wide awake and alert–waiting for “Thou glorious orb of light! Though chasest hence the gloom of night” as John Evans writes of the Sun. It’ll be a few hours, but the orb will rise in the East. It always does.

OCTOBER 31st thru the Years:

1517 Martin Luther presents his 95 Theses and fuels the fire for the Protestant Reformation.
1922 Benito Mussolini formerly becomes the Prime Minister of Italy
1923 Marble Bar, Australia begins it’s 160 day streak of 100 degree temperatures.
1926 Failed Assassination Attempt on Mussolini by a fifteen-year-old
1926 Harry Houdini dies at the age of 54 in Detroit from gangrene and peritonitis after his appendix ruptured.
1931 Dan Rather Born (94)
1941 Mt. Rushmore completed
1943 Washington Redskin Sammy Baugh threw six touchdowns in the 48-10 defeat of the Brooklyn Dodgers.

-A grossly incomplete summary of the NFL’s Brooklyn Dodgers goes like this–one of the owners of this short-lived football franchise was named Chris Cagle.

Cagle had played halfback for Army four seasons but did not graduate due to being married which was a violation of academy rules, and he was forced to resign May 1930. The things we do for love. But before his resignation, he put forth quite the effort for his team.

In 1929, he was named team captain and given the nickname, “Red Thunderbolt” by his teammates. Worth noting that he also featured on the cover of “TIME” this same year.

After the forced resignation from the Army, Cagle went pro in what he knew best, football. He played for the New York Giants for two seasons, where he was the highest paid player on the team, and then the Brooklyn Dodgers for three. Cagle earned $500/ game, and the rest of his teammates earned $100 or less/ game.

After making the move to the Dodgers, he bought in to be Co-Owner while remaining the starting halfback but only for one season. Millionaire Dan Topping bought Cagle’s share in 1934.

The Brooklyn Dodgers dissolved due to a lack of top-level talent as a result of the war and never regained its NFL status. There is a loose connection between the Brooklyn Dodgers and the Indianapolis Colts, but it’s not even worth mentioning as the NFL says, “there is no connection.” From what I’m reading, I agree. It is very loose. So, the Brooklyn Dodger franchise died in 1945.

Notable: The Brooklyn Dodgers hosted the Philadelphia Eagles on October 22, 1939, in the first NFL game ever Broadcast on TV. The Dodgers won 23-14
Chris “Red Thunderbolt” Cagle died 12/26/1942 during his prime of life. The report says, “it is believed that Cagle fell down a full flight of Subway steps on December 23.” He died a few days later from the skull fracture. He was 37, an insurance salesman, and still married to his college sweetheart.
- He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1954 for his efforts on the College Gridiron.

So, a quick detour on this road to all things that have happened on the 31st of October. Let’s get back to it.

More October 31st Nuggets:

1950 John Candy Born (d. 1994)
1950 “Big Cat” Earl Lloyd became the first African American to play in the NBA. He scored six points for the Washington Capitols. Shoulders of giants. We all stand on them whether we admit it or not.
1951 Nick Saban Born
1961 A federal judge rules that “laws against integrated playing fields” in Brimingham, AL are illegal.
1963 The last on record meeting between Director of the FBI, Hoover, and sitting President John F. Kennedy.
1963 Dermont Mulroney born in Alexandria, Virginia
1968 After beginning their inaugural season 0-5, the Milwaukee Bucks won their first ever game 138-118 over Detroit.
1968 Nuclear Test conducted at Nevada Test Site
1973 Former USC Trojan and LA Dodger, Tom “Terrific” Seaver, won his second of three CY Young Awards while pitching for the Mets.
1974 Laura Aime disappears in Utah. Spoiler alert, it was Ted Bundy.
1983 Ron Grant completes his “run around Australia.” It took him 217 days, but he ran all 8,316 miles. You better run. Nearly everything can kill you in Australia. There’s a “Million ways to die in the West.”
1988: 19 degrees F is recorded as “the coldest ever October temperature for Cleveland, Ohio.”
1988 The first ever Monday Night Football game is played in Indianapolis. Denver lost in a 55-23 blowout.
- It was 45-10 at half.
- RB Eric Dickerson rushed for 159 yards and 4 touchdowns
1989 Nuclear Test conducted at Nevada Test Site
1992 the Catholic Church officially apologizes for its treatment of Galileo Galilei after ostracizing him for 359 years for his belief that the Earth revolves around the Sun. For him or for them?
1993 25 people killed during and directly after a soccer match between Ghana and Ivory Coast. Gnarly details too graphic for this site, even for Halloween. Be kind to your neighbor.
1993 River Phoenix perishes on a sidewalk outside the Viper Room while the owner and his band played “Michael Stipe,” which is a song that mentions Sofia Coppola and River Phoenix by name.
1994 “American tennis star Venus Williams makes her professional debut as a 14-year-old with a 6-3, 6-4 win over former NCAA champion and world No. 58 Shaun Stafford in the Bank of the West Classic in Oakland, California.”
1999 “The Roman Catholic Church and Lutheran Church leaders sign the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification, ending a centuries-old doctrinal dispute over the nature of faith and salvation.”
2008 “White Paper ‘Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System’ is published by the pseudonymous Satoshi Nakamoto; it describes a decentralized peer-to-peer network that could track and verify transactions while producing a transparent, verifiable record.”
2014 Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, Frank Thomas, Bobby Cox, Joe Torre, and Tony LaRussa inducted into the MLB Hall of Fame.
- Glavine was my first ever ‘Favorite Baseball player.’ He features in a book I’ve written about Parents and Heroes.
2018 The World’s Tallest Statue unveiled. Almost 600 feet tall. Dubbed “The Unity Statue.” Located in the Narmada Valley, India.
2018 MLB Legend Willie McCovey dies at age 80 from an infection.
2020 Sean Connery dies at the age of 90
2023 American Hero Ken Mattingly dies at age 87. Gary Sinise in “Apollo 13”
2025 A man is awake far too early in his drop-down den compiling these facts just for the fun of it.

It’s still far too early to be awake, but here I am still typing away. The Fuzzy has joined me and after she unloaded about a gallon of pee, she is sleeping soundly to my right. It’s nice to have a little company. You know? It might be time for a coffee and it’s certainly about time to begin the day.

I hope you enjoyed the frenzy of fun facts related to October 31st in some way. It certainly was a fun way to spend an hour and a half. Hopefully, your day is at least half as much fun as mine has been so far. I’m a nerd and nerds love to do stuff like this.

I’m also a sports fan and cannot wait for the High School Football playoffs that will kick in about 12 hours. Good luck to all of the young men. Only up.

“All five TV’s were tuned to the World Series. And the bartender laughed when I asked him to switch at least one of them to the basketball game. ‘Are you nuts?’ he jeered. ‘This is a men’s bar! We don’t watch no stinking basketball here.’–‘Well, you just lost the whole espn.com account.’–So we left and went to the county jail where I knew the prisoners would be watching the NBA game.”- Hunter S. Thompson October 31, 2001 HEY RUBE

The orb has yet to rise in the East. Let’s all wish Dan Rather a happy birthday.

Find the Humor and Keep on Movin’

Whit W.