THOSE WERE THE DAYS
ON THIS DATE IN SPORTING HISTORY
1895: Baseball great George Herman ‘Babe’ Ruth was born. The New York Yankees hero began his career as a pitcher but went on to become arguably his sport’s greatest hitter. He helped establish the Yankees as one of the top teams of the Twenties and Thirties. He scored 2,174 runs and hit 714 home runs. Ruth died in 1948.
1924: Billy Wright was born. The Wolves great was the first footballer to win 100 England caps and captained his country 90 times – a record later equalled by Bobby Moore. He died in 1994.
1958: A plane carrying Manchester United players crashed at Munich airport as the team travelled back from a match against Red Star Belgrade. A total of 23 people died as a result of the accident, including eight United players.
2001: Hull were locked out of their Boothferry Park ground after bailiffs, under landlord David Lloyd’s orders, changed the locks.
2002: New Zealander Graham Henry stood down as coach of the Wales rugby union team. 2004: Former England boss Sir Clive Woodward was named British & Irish Lions head coach for their 2005 tour of New Zealand.
2007: Liverpool announced to the Stock Exchange they had agreed the terms “of a recommended cash offer” to be made by the American consortium led by George Gillett and Tom Hicks to buy the club. 2008: Goals from Shaun Wright-Phillips and Jermaine Jenas got Fabio Capello’s reign as England manager off to a successful start with a 2-1 win over Switzerland at Wembley.