Howie Morenz's Tragic Death after breaking his leg, Ali/Frazier at MSG, and the Chaos in Daytona - This DiSH for March 8

This day in Sports History

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It's March 8th and on this day in 1937, the Montreal, Canadians, how a Marens died.

Marens was the first true hockey star of the NHL.

Marens spent 14 seasons in the league, mostly in Montreal, and he was known for his speed,

his puck handling, and his knack for knowing where the puck was going to be.

His teammate, Aral Jolieat, was an awe of the man.

Marens led the league in goals scored in the 1928 season with 33, and he led the NHL

in points twice, and was the heart MVP trophy winner three times.

Several hockey historians credit Marens for helping popularize hockey in the US, the way

he played, simply sold tickets.

Down this wing, Marens takes the pass, he goes in, he shoots, he scored for the Canadian.

Marens ended up against the board, but wasn't hurt, and that ties the old game up with less

than 10 minutes to go.

His death on this day was a direct result of what happened on January 28th in a game

between Montreal and the Chicago Blackhawks.

In the first period, Marens chased a puck into the corner in the Blackhawks end.

Marens lost an edge and he fell to the ice, sliding into the boards.

The boards surrounding the rink were made of wood, and Marens' left skate got stuck.

Chicago defenseman, Aral Seabird, was in pursuit, but when Marens went down, he couldn't

stop in time, and he crashed full force on top of Marens.

Up against the boards at the Montreal Forum, Big Earl Seabird of the Chicago Blackhawks

falls on him.

Apparently you could have heard the leg break anywhere in the building.

Marens was carried off the ice and taken to a local hospital, where it was determined

he had broken his leg in four places.

Initially, it was thought that Marens could possibly return to the ice in six weeks for

the final game to the regular season.

But then things started to look a little bit different in the following days.

He was soon ruled out for the rest of the year, with doubts drifting in about whether

he could actually return to the ice at all.

The thought of his hockey career possibly being over sent Marens into a morass of depression,

as he continued to convalesce in the hospital.

Visits from teammates did little to brighten his mood.

On the night of the eighth, Marens got up to visit the bathroom, but he collapsed and

he died on the floor.

It was initially called a heart attack, but was later determined to be a pulmonary embolism

caused by blood clots as a result of his injury on the 28th.

The Babe Ruth of Hockey died at the age of 34.

On this day in 1971, it was the fight of the century between Muhammad Ali and Joe

Frazier at Madison Square Garden.

This was arguably the most anticipated title fight in the history of mankind.

One of the big reasons is that this was the first title fight featuring two undefeated

boxers who had been or were champions at one time.

Ali had been stripped of his titles because of his refusal to stand forward for the draft

to fight in Vietnam.

Frazier was the heavyweight champ who stepped into that void of Ali's vacated belts with

winds over Buster Mathis and Jimmy Ellis.

Ali had only fought twice since his return from his suspension with winds over Jerry

Quarry and Oscar Bonavina.

Ali was 29 years old and he was 31 to know in the ring with 25 of those winds coming

by knockout.

Frazier was 2 years younger.

He had a 26-0 record with 23 by knockout and he was a slight favorite due to Ali's forced

layoff and only having two fights in the lead-up.

As he was prone to do, Ali stoked the fires in the weeks before the fight, but Ali stepped

over the line, calling Frazier an Uncle Tom and the white man's champion.

Frazier was stunned and he was hurt by those comments.

He'd been a supporter of Ali during his suspension and he helped him get his boxing license

back.

Newark star Ledger's sports writer Jerry Eisenberg said the fighters were used as stand-ins

in the battle between hippies and hardhats, the young generation against their elders.

Ali's taunts backfired against him though because Frazier used those words to provide

fuel to his training and his boxing on this night.

One writer covering the fight ringside described Frazier as like a wild beast caught in a

thicket.

In front of a sold-out crowd of 20,000 at the garden and millions more watching on closed

circuit screens all over the globe, this fight lived up to its billing.

Frazier and his trainer Eddie Futch came up with a great game plan for this fight.

They worked on dodging punches low to induce Ali to throw more uppercuts, which opened Ali

up for Joe's devastating left hook.

Frazier took a lot of punishment in this fight, taking two to three shots to his one, but

he was able to neutralize his reach difference and get inside on Ali.

Frazier also fought a close quarters fight, not allowing Ali to extend his punches, and

so Ali did a lot of clinching.

Frazier won the middle rounds, Ali came back in the ninth and the tenth until Joe turned

it back around, and the eleventh Frazier staggered Ali.

And then in the fifteenth Frazier connected his vicious left hook to Ali's jaw and sent him

to the mat.

Even though he knew he had to be leading on all the cards, Frazier tried for the kill shot

in the fifteenth, but he just couldn't make it happen.

Frazier won in a unanimous decision to remain the undisputed heavyweight champion.

On this day in 1930, Babe Ruth signed the world's biggest sports contract and had one

of the all-time great responses to a reporter's question.

Ruth had just turned 35, and he was coming off a year where he hit 345 with a league leading

46 home runs.

That was the fourth straight year he had led the league in that category, and that closed

out his contract where he was making $70,000 a year.

But here in 1930, not even six months past the Wall Street crash that plunged the nation,

and subsequently the world into what would become known as the Great Depression, where

unemployment would surge to about 25 percent at its height, and wages would fall by more

than 40 percent by 1933, Ruth held out for a pay increase.

But the thing is, he was worth it, and New York Yankees owner Jacob Rupert knew it.

Since bringing Ruth over from the Red Sox, he had led the league in home runs eight times,

led the Yankees to three world series titles, and made the team into a popular and profitable

one after being considered also ran before he got there.

Also remember that professional ball players did not have a lot of bargaining power on their

side other than holding out during contract negotiation.

Pre-agency would not exist for another 40 years.

And so on this day, Rupert and Ruth sat down and put ink to paper on a $2,160,000 contract,

paying him $80,000 per year, making him the richest athlete on the planet.

Yankees general manager Ed Barrow said nobody will ever be paid more than Ruth, which

of course is laughable now, but at the time seemed about right.

Later that five years later, Barrow would sign Lugerix, two-year contract extension with

the Yankees for just $31,000 per year after he won the American league triple crown.

It was not until Joe Demagio's 1949 contract for $100,000 a year that Barrow would be proved

wrong.

But back to Ruth.

After signing his name to the contract, he was asked by a reporter why he should be paid

more than President Herbert Hoover, whose salary was $75,000 per year at that point, to

which Ruth famously replied, why not?

I had a better year than he did.

Ruth would go on to prove his worth, leading the league in homers and walks for the two years

of his contract, while providing some much needed entertainment for a country-mired

and economic morass.

Understanding the optics and the economic situation the country was in, he would take a pay cut

the next time around in 1932.

And on this day in 1936, the first automobile race in Daytona was run.

With cars driving on a three-mile long beach and road course, it was fairly chaotic with

passing nearly impossible in the beachy turns, scoring issues leading to disputes and an

economic loss for the city of Daytona of more than $20,000, which, again, here in the

Depression was a tough pill to swallow.

The race was originally scheduled to go 78 laps, but it was stopped after 75.

Milt Marion was declared the first winner, though that was disputed by the guys who finished

second and third.

The man who finished fifth that day was Bill Frantz Sr., the man who would assume control

of the race two years later, and then go on to create NASCAR in 1948.

And time now for today's, that's got nothing to do with sports, fun fact.

On this day in 1910, illusionist Harry Houdini flew the first airplane ever flown in Australia.

He flew a biplane he purchased in Germany the year before and was in a race with two

other men to become the first to take flight in Australia.

After several successful flights down under, he disassembled the plane, crated it up and

shipped it back to England, though he intended to reassemble it and fly it again, he never

did, and the whereabouts of that plane are still a mystery.

This has been an original, thrifesweet production.