On this day in 1938, the veritable Charlie McCarthy was awarded the first ever degree to a ventriloquist’s dummy. The “Master of Innuendo & Snappy Comeback” was awarded on air at Northwestern University, the alma mater of Edgar Bergen, McCarthy’s human partner.
Bergen was born and raised in Decatur, Michigan at least according to some sources. Others say he was born in Chicago.
Sources :
Michigan Historical Review Facebook Page, August 28, 2014.
On this day a state law banning hitchhikers and bicycles from freeways went into effect.
Source : Michigan History, July/August 2012
Michigan State Athletics is sad to announce that Jud Heathcote passed away Monday at the age of 90 in Spokane, Washington
George M. (Jud) Heathcote coached the Michigan State men’s basketball team from 1976-95, guiding the Spartans to 340 victories, three Big Ten titles, nine NCAA Tournament berths and one national title during his 19 seasons in East Lansing.
Heathcote is the second-winningest coach in MSU history with a record of 340-220 (.607), including a 14-8 (.636) mark in the NCAA Tournament. His overall record was 420-273 (.606) over 24 seasons, including five years at Montana.
In his third season in East Lansing, Heathcote led Michigan State to its first NCAA men’s basketball championship in 1979 and won back-to-back Big Ten titles in 1978 and 1979. During those two seasons, Heathcote had the opportunity to coach one of the game’s greatest players, All-American Earvin “Magic” Johnson, who propelled the Spartans to a 51-10 record in his two seasons at MSU.
A two-time Big Ten Coach of the Year (1978 and 1986), Heathcote coached seven All-Americans (Johnson, Gregory Kelser, Jay Vincent, Sam Vincent, Scott Skiles, Steve Smith and Shawn Respert) and 22 NBA players. Five of his players won the Big Ten scoring title a total of six times. During Jud’s tenure, MSU had at least one player among the first-team All-Big Ten selections in 12 of his 19 years.
Prior to his retirement, Heathcote ensured that the future of Spartan basketball would be in good hands. In 1990, he promoted assistant Tom Izzo to associate head coach, and fought for Izzo to be named his successor.
Source : “Heathcote Passes Away At 90“, MSU Athletics, August 29, 2017.
Michigan’s elk hunting season is getting underway.
The season is divided into three periods. Season 1 : August 28 – 31; Sept. 14-17; and Sept. 28-Oct. 1.
Season 2 : Dec. 15-23
Season 3 : Jan. 16-19
A total of 100 hunters are authorized to participate this season. Of those, 70 can take only antlerless elk.
Elk have been hunted in Michigan annually since 1984.
2018 marks the 100th anniversary of their reintroduction into the state. Seven elk were brought from the western United States in 1918 to locations near Wolverine, Michigan.
Michigan’s native elk had previously disappeared around 1875 — hunted to extinction.
The state Department of Natural Resources says the state now has a healthy and abundant elk population.
A DNR elk license plate will be available beginning in December.
Source : “Michigan’s annual elk hunting season opens today“, Detroit Free Press, August 29, 2017.
Michigan Wildlife Council, “After 99 years, Michigan’s elk herd is flourishing“, Detroit Free Press, February 20, 2017.
Elk Viewing in the Gaylord Area.
An experienced negotiator, Governor Lewis Cass was again called upon to work to secure more Indian lands for the United States. Therefore, he traveled to Chicago – then just a remote outpost – to meet with approximately 3,000 members of the Potawatomi, Ojibway, and Odawa nations. Believing it was morally wrong to influence negotiations with alcohol, an otherwise common practice, Cass forbade it. The result of the negotiations was the Treaty of Chicago, ceding of all Lower Peninsula lands south of the Grand River, except for a small piece of land in present-day Barrien County. The price for the almost five million acres: about $10,000 in trade goods, $6,500 in coins and a twenty-year annuity valued at about $150,000.
See the L-shaped gray portion of the map in southwest Michigan for area ceded.
Chief Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish signed the Treaty of Chicago in 1821, which was the first land cession to the U.S. government that directly affected his Band. Under the terms of the 1821 Treaty, the Tribe retained a three-square-mile reservation located at present day downtown Kalamazoo. The Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish Band of Pottawatomi Indians (Gun Lake Tribe) would eventually give us this reservation by signing the Treaty of St. Joseph in 1827, but remain in Michigan until this day, now operating the Gunn Lake Casino south of Grand Rapids.
Source : Michigan Historical Calendar, courtesy of the Clarke Historical Library at Central Michigan University.
For more information about Lewis Cass, see Bill Loomis, “Lewis Cass, the titan of Michigan’s early years”, Detroit Free Press, June 28, 2014.
Charles Kettering became an iconic American inventor, engineer, and businessman. He filed 186 patents in his life. He was a founder of Dayton Engineering Laboratories Company, or DELCO, and was head of research at General Motors from 1920 to 1947. He moved to Detroit in 1925, qualifying him for this website!
Apart from self-starting ignition system, he is best known for development of leaded gasoline and Freon refrigerant for refrigeration and air conditioning systems. His house “Ridgeleigh Terrace” was the first in the United States to have electric air conditioning.
Courtesy – waymarking.com
During World War I, he worked with Orville Wright in developing the first unmanned aerial missile. Fortunately it was never put in used due to the WWI coming to a close.
“Kettering Aerial Torpedo” – World’s first aerial missile
In 1927, he founded the Kettering Foundation, a non-partisan research foundation.
He also did a lot of work in the medical fields, including developing an incubator for premature babies and jointly founding the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. His son and daughter-in-law, Eugene and Virginia, created the Kettering Medical Center in Ohio as a tribute to his life and work in healthcare research.
On January 1, 1998 the former General Motors Institute was renamed Kettering University to honor its founders. Most of his research papers are stored in its archives.
He died on November 25, 1958.
On the cover of Time Magazine, January 9, 1933.
Courtesy – Wikimedia
Stamp honoring Kettering issues by Micronesia in 2000.
Sources :
Charles F. Kettering wikipedia entry.
This Day in Patent History : 1st Self-Starting Automobile Engine, February 8, 1916, PatentYogi.com
Charles F. Kettering—Medical Philanthropist and Inventor, National Center for Biotechnology Information.
Helen Keller–pacifist, socialist, advocate for the disabled, and I.W.W. member–“listens” to Henry Ford speak during a 1916 visit to Detroit. The two found common cause in their pre-World War I peace efforts and Henry Ford’s work in accommodating disabled workers in his factories. Also in view are E.G. Pipp and Anne Sullivan, her teacher and guardian, in the background.
Courtesy of the Detroit News Collection
Image from the Walter P. Reuther Library.
According to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Steven Spielberg Film and Video Archive, this event may have occurred in 1914. See film.
On Aug. 29, 1925, prospectors began drilling into the earth in an area known as Deindorfer Woods after discovering what would become the state’s first oil field a week prior. The Saginaw Prospecting Company oversaw the operation and discovered oil at 1,873 feet, creating a well that yielded about 23 barrels per day.
Source: The Saginaw News
The first Michigan team won the the Little League World Series in 1959.
And it was led by a boy some consider the most legendary player in the history of Little League.
It was on August 29, 1959 when Hamtramck and star pitcher Art “Pinky” Deras pitched that championship game, a 12-0 shutout. In all, Hamtramck won 13 straight games in their journey. The mostly Polish-American community of Hamtramck went wild. Their native sons were Little League National Champions.
According to the National Polish-American Sports Hall of Fame, in the 72 year history of Little League Baseball more than 40 million boys ages 11 and 12 have played the sport, including Major League Hall of Famers Carl Yastrzemski, Tom Seaver and Nolan Ryan, among other future Major League players.
And then there was Art “Pinky” Deras — without a doubt, the greatest player to play in the Little League World series when he led the Hamtramck, Michigan team to the national championship in the l959 in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.
His 1959 statistics include an 18-0 pitching record and 10 no-hitters. In 108 innings the big right-hander struck out 298 batters and only 26 outs came in the field. He walked only 10 batters. At the plate, Pinky compiled a .641 batting average with 33 home runs and 112 runs batted in. His pitches, thrown from distance of 46 feet, were clocked at 71 miles per hour – the equivalent of a 100 mph major league fastball. Pinky’s bat speed was timed at 105 mph, pretty close to Mickey Mantle’s 115 mph.
Hamtramck reached the Little League World Series by winning 10 games in a row, nine by shutouts. In the first game of the finals in Williamsport, Deras tossed a one-hitter to defeat San Juan, Puerto Rico 5-0. In the game he extended his personal string of scoreless innings to 69, while striking out 17 and maintaining his season average of 2.8 strikeouts per inning.
Hamtramck then defeated Oahu, Hawaii 7-1 behind a Deras grand-slam homerun to reach the final game. Deras then won the championship game by blanking West Auburn (Calif.) 12-0, giving up only three hits and running his scoreless streak to 75 innings. He hit 13 home runs in 13 tournament games.
Chrysler Corporation flew the l4-player hand-picked team and the coaches to Los Angeles for an appearance on the Lawrence Welk national television show. Welk’s popular musical show was sponsored by the Dodge Division of Chrysler – a natural since the cars were built at the Dodge Main Plant in Hamtramck. The boys also visited Disneyland and were introduced to the crowd at a Los Angeles Dodgers game
In 1999 to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Hamtramck’s national championship, the team received the National Polish-American Sports Hall of Fame “Special Recognition Award.” Eight of the 11 living members of the team attended the annual Induction Banquet.
Only two years after winning the Little League World Series, Hamtramck – again led by pitcher-hitter Art “Pinky” Deras – captured the World Pony League baseball title for 13- and 14-year-olds. The Hamtramck youth baseball program became the first to win both championships. Since then only Marietta, Georgia has duplicated the fete.
Deras played for a number of years in the minors, but never made it to the major league. A star in high school, he was offered a spot on the Michigan State University football team by Duffy Daughtery but passed because his family need the money a major league contract offered.
Later in life he served in Vietnam and as a police officer.
Sources:
1959 Hamtramck Little League : Inducted to the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame in 2017.
Ian Perratta, “A baseball legend’s tale is now ready to be told“, Hamtramck Review, 2010.
Ted Kulfan, “‘Pinky’ Deras: The greatest Little Leaguer there
ever was”, Detroit News, August 21, 2010.
Art “Pinky” Deras, National Polish American Sports Hall of Fame entry.
Brendan Savage, “The legend of the only Michigan team to win the Little League World Series“, MLive, August 10, 2017.
August 3, 2011 for unveiling of sign honoring Pinky Deras and the Hamtramck 1959 Little League and 1961 Pony League World Champs
Jackson Surma drove in four runs and Ethan Van Belle struck out eight as Michigan beat Ohio 5-2 on Sunday in the championship game of the Little League World Series.
The team from Taylor North Little League delivered the first LLWS title for the state of Michigan since 1959. Both teams are from the Great Lakes, marking the only time clubs from the same region played in the championship.
That was because international teams didn’t compete in the LLWS for the first time since 1975, due to travel restrictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Little League allowed two squads from each U.S. region to fill out the 16-team field.
Michigan jumped out to a three-run lead in the first after a two-run single by Surma and an RBI groundout by Jakob Furkas. Surma increased the lead in the fifth when he singled to center, driving in two more.
Ohio had plenty of chances. The team loaded the bases in the first on a pair of walks and a single by JJ Vogel, but Van Belle struck out Levi Smith with two out to end the threat. The team from West Side Little League in Hamilton, Ohio, juiced the bases again in the third with nobody out. The next two batters struck out looking before Chance Retherford was picked off at third base as he headed toward the dugout after strike two.
Ohio got its run in the second. Chase Moak led off with a triple and Cooper Clay singled him home to bring the score to 3-1. Gavin Ulin came into relieve Van Belle in the fifth and got into a jam himself with runners on first and second with one out. He induced a double-play grounder to emerge unscathed.
In the sixth, Ohio loaded the bases for the third time, as Ulin hit two of the batters, then walked in a run. But Retherford flew out to center to end the game.
Unlike 1959, the 2021 Little League Championship was played as a double elimination tournament. Michigan lost to Hawaii, but was able to play them a second time and won advancing to the title game where they faced Hamilton, Ohio, who they had beaten in a regional tournament.
Michigan ended up winning 15 of 16 games in roughly two months to claim the championship.
Sources :
ESPN/AP
Clay, “ Michigan Wins 2021 Little League World Series Championship “, 99.1 WFMK Blog, August 30, 2021.