MID-SOUTH MEMORIES
25 years ago — 1995
The University of Memphis Tigers had two more casualties in the sneaker wars Tuesday, but Converse Inc. says reinforcements are on the way. The Tigers had two players experience “blowouts” — gel leaking from plastic pods in the bottom of their Converse RAW Power model basketball shoes. Converse spokesman Jennifer Murray said the company plans to ship to the Tigers a different model shoe that does not contain the gel, possibly by today. The Tigers have lost 10 pairs of RAW Power shoes since Friday. The athletic department had attempted to contact Converse since then, coach Larry Finch said, but did not get a response until Tuesday. Senior guard Mingo Johnson and freshman forward Dorian Davis each missed practice time Tuesday while changing into different sneakers after theirs sprung a leak.
50 years ago — 1970
Once again tragedy has trod with heavy foot through the bear moat at Overton Park Zoo, and for the second straight year Hilda has become a mother in mourning for a lost cub. For the little polar bear whose birth was announced in this column last week is dead. “Hilda’s a good mother,” Robert H. Mattlin, zoo director, maintained. “She proved that last year when she raised Oh Boy to walking around stage. But ... I was worried last week when she was carrying the new baby around. She was nervous about something.” An autopsy ... indicated that Hilda either stepped on the cub or rolled on it, for several ribs were broken. Last year, the cub named Oh Boy fell into the moat pool and drowned.
75 years ago — 1945
HEIDELBERG, Germany – The condition of Gen. George S. Patton Jr. remained grave Wednesday night and one Army doctor expressed belief it is “highly questionable” whether the famed military leader “will ever completely recover.” Patton is still paralyzed from the neck down. Patton was cheered by the presence of his wife, who flew to his bedside Tuesday. Mrs. Patton helped dispel some of the gloom pervading the hospital Wednesday when she emerged from her husband’s room after a 15-minute visit with the statement: “Cheer up, stop worrying. he’s all right. I’ve talked with him, and I am not the least bit worried as he looks very well.”
100 years ago — 1920
If there were any highwaymen loitering about Memphis yesterday expecting to get away with a million or more in currency being moved from the old location of the Memphis branch of the Federal Reserve Bank to its new home in Goodwyn Institute, they were foiled by a dozen heavily-armed city policemen in command of Capt. Mike Kehoe, who carefully guarded each truck load of money until the last was safe in the giant new vault of the bank’s latest home quarters. It required nine hours to make this move. John J. Heflin, manager of the bank, and his assistants had laid their plans well and secretly. None of his most intimate friends or employees of the bank knew the day the transfer of the money was to be made.