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April 18 is Champions’ Day

In 1936, Michigan governor Frank Fitzgerald and Detroit mayor Frank Couzens declared April 18th would henceforth be known as Champions’ Day, to honor an outstanding sports season.

The Lions wonchampions' day their first NFL championship, the Tigers won their first World Series and the Red Wings won their first NHL championship. In addition, Detroit’s own Joe Louis dominated boxing and several Olympic athletes including gold medalist Richard Degener hailed from the city.

Six hundred fans paid $3 per ticket to attend the banquet at the Detroit Masonic Temple. Players from every team sport spoke at the dinner, which was broadcast live on the WXYZ-AM radio station. Joe Louis attended but didn’t speak. Many in the media nicknamed Detroit the “City of Champions.”

Three months later, on July 16, 1936, a plaque with the signatures of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and every state governor was presented to the city.

The wooden plaque had five figures carved across the bottom. In the original plan, the images were to depict a boxer, a power boat racer, a baseball player, football kicker and hockey player.

On June 19, 1936, less than a month before the presentation, Joe Louis suffered the first defeat of his career to Max Schmeling. As a result, the boxer carved onto the plaque was replaced with a diver. Twenty-four wins mattered less than one loss.

champions' day

Could this be one of the reasons Champions’ Day quickly disappeared? After a few losses, did it become an unwelcome reminder of what had been? According to sports historian Charles Avison, World War II was a major factor in the day being forgotten.

In 2014, sports fan Will McDowell happened upon the story of Champions’ Day while doing research for an app he was designing. He has revived the celebration with help from the Detroit Drunken Historical Society.

Champions’ Day festivities begin with an event at the Detroit Historical Museum, where the 1936 plaque is on display. Charles Avison will speak and the museum staff will show memorabilia from its archives that are not exhibited to the public. Discussion will continue at a local bar. Tipplers and teetotalers are welcome.

Thank you, Will McDowell, for bringing this holiday back to life. (Any chance we could Scotch-tape a certain prize fighter’s image on the bottom of that plaque?) Happy Champions’ Day, everybody!

Copyright © 2017 Worldwide Weird Holidays

 

National Corndog Day

national corndog day

Corndog

National Corndog Day is an unofficial holiday celebrated each year on the first Saturday of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament.

Lauded as a gustatory miracle on par with Jesus’ loaves and fishes, National Corndog Day commemorates the day in 1992 when a box of meat-on-a-stick magically appeared in the freezer of two hungry basketball fans.

This eliminated their need to leave home to buy food and enabled them to continue watching March Madness uninterrupted. To this day, they insist they have no idea how the corndogs got in the freezer and attribute it to a higher power.

For those of you unfamiliar with the corndog or, as it is known in some circles, the corn dog, here is the Merriam-Webster dictionary’s definition:

a frankfurter dipped in cornmeal batter, fried, and served on a stick

 

National Champion Crab Races Day

Today is National Champion Crab Races Day. How did it get its start?

There’s only one Kentucky Derby, there’s only one Indy 500, and there’s only one crab race – the NCRA.”

So says Jim Morgan, who founded the National Crab Racing Association (NCRA) in 1979. His first act was to appoint himself “Commissioner for Life,” preventing the possibility of being voted out, a problem which plagues other sports.

Next, he went looking for a few good crabs. For six months, he scoured Florida for world-class racers, to no avail. Fate intervened one day on a beach in Siesta Key where he struck up a conversation with the head of Florida Marine Research (FMR), the number one importer of hermit crabs in the world.  Thirty-seven years later,  their business relationship is still going strong.

national champion crab races day

FMR crabs in designer shells

Crabs with the most potential are put through a rigorous training program to develop discipline, skill and a winning attitude. As with all athletes, only the most outstanding racers make the cut.

Crabs with the right stuff join the roster of the official racing circuit. Each year one champion receives the prestigious Morgan Trophy, the NCRA equivalent of college football’s Heisman Trophy.

A racer’s professional career lasts only six months; it’s a physically demanding sport. After retirement, they are adopted by good families to live out their lives in comfort.

Crabs in captivity may live only one year but with regular activity, other crabs to socialize with, and a visually stimulating “crabitat,” can live up to 20 years. See Hermit Crabs for Dummies to learn more.

Since 1979, the NCRA has toured the USA and Canada. (Quarantine laws prevent travel for overseas competitions.) It hosts many races at fairs, festivals, seafood restaurants and corporate events.

Have a happy National Champion Crab Races Day! And don’t keep it to yourself—that would be shellfish.

Copyright © 2017 Worldwide Weird Holidays

February 11 is Pro Sports Wives Day

pro sports wives dayToday is the 11th annual Pro Sports Wives Day, a national day of recognition for the contributions of pro sports wives to their husband’s careers and the community. According to Statista, which gathers statistics from more than 18,000 sources, 2014 revenue of U.S. sports markets totaled 60.8 billion dollars.

Pro Sports Wives Day was instituted in 2006 by the Professional Sports Wives Association (PSWA), an organization that seeks to unite all sports wives and provide information about financial planning, childcare, household management, marital support, franchise opportunities and domestic violence.

PSWA publishes a quarterly e-magazine and its website includes videos about diabetes control and securing pensions. There is also a PSA that looks suspiciously like an ad for a traumatic brain injury treatment center, and another that turns out to be “an intimate message from God to you.”

The association began Pro Sports Wives Day to acknowledge the critical role that the wives of professional athletes play behind the scenes by helping to support their families, charities, foundations, and each other.

Pro Sports Wives Day honors the past year’s most distinguished mentors, philanthropists, and entrepreneurs. It also awards Married Female Athlete of the Year, Pro Sports Wives League of the Year and the Pro Sports Wives Courage Award, which typically goes to a wife who’s dealt with a devastating illness, either her own or that of a family member.

“Most fans think that the player’s lives are glamorous and that players, wives, and families do not have any problems that non-public families face, which is not true,” said Gena Pitts, founder of PSWA. “In fact, we face more physical, emotional, financial, divorce, and stressful situations simultaneously that money can not solve than most people face in a lifetime.”

That’s enlightening. We didn’t know that pro sports players and their families have it harder than the rest of us. No matter what we may think of that assertion, we should all take a moment to recognize the challenges these women face and overcome on a daily basis. And have a happy Pro Sports Wives Day!

Copyright © 2017 Worldwide Weird Holidays