Sunday sports. November 17, 1896. On this date the Western Pennsylvania Hockey League (WPHL) played their first game at at Pittsburghs Schenley Park Casino. The league consisted of four teams, the Pittsburgh Athletic Club, the Duquesne Country & Athletic Club, Western University of Pennsylvania and a team known as Pittsburgh, or the Casino team. The WPHL was the first ice hockey league to openly trade and hire players. In December the Casino ice rink burned down and the league went dormant until 1899 and had two seasons of play until the 1901-1902 season which is considered the official start of the WPHL. At that point the league was recognized as professional. They enticed players from Canada to come and play for pay which made them ineligible for the amateur leagues back in Canada. By 1907 so many top Canadian players had left to play in the WPHL, Canadas amateur leagues also turned pro, which would lead to the formation of the National Hockey League in 1917. November 17, 1968. On this day the broadcasting of professional sports was changed forever when NBC left the Oakland Raiders-New York Jets football game (at least on the east coast) with one minute to play to broadcast the movie Heidi. At the time the Jets were leading by a score of 32 to 29 but in that one minute the Raiders were able to score twice and win the game 43 to 32. The game would forever be known as the Heidi Bowl. The fact that NBC left the game at such a crucial point caused the viewers to go into a state of near apoplexy. Thousands of Jets fans flooded the NBC switchboard with outraged calls while others who couldnt get through to NBC called newspapers, other televison stations and even police departments to express their outrage and try and find out the final score. NBC flashed the final score across the screen during one of Heidis most touching moments angering the films viewers almost as much as they had angered the football fans earlier. So you can thank Heidi that today when any game in sports overruns its predicted end time, youll still be able to watch it to conclusion.
Posted on: Sun, 17 Nov 2013 14:53:37 +0000
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