Sadly, many will remember where we were Sunday Certain dates are locked in memory, and Kobe Bryant’s death will be one

No doubt Kobe Bryant’s death will be one of those “I remember where I was when I heard” moments that happen a perhaps once or twice a decade.

In the age of instant communication, news spread quickly Sunday in the Antelope Valley, across the nation and around the world that one of the greatest basketball players of all time was dead.

I was at the gym, and people stopped to watch the “Breaking News” bulletins on the bank of televisions above the cardio equipment.

Waiting in line at Dollar Tree, I saw a woman come in and announce, “Did you all hear? Kobe was killed in a helicopter crash.”

Yes, everyone had heard. It was lunchtime conversation across the tables at Souplantation, and, of course, social media went into overdrive.

People first hoped it might be a cruel hoax, then sadly acknowledged that multiple legitimate sources were confirming the terrible news.

For the World War II generation, as pointed out, ironically, by President John F. Kennedy in 1961, “the only two dates that most people remember where they were when they heard the news were Pearl Harbor and the death of Franklin Roosevelt.”

I suspect most people of that age would also remember where they were when news broke of victory in Europe and victory in Japan, meaning the war was over.

For the baby boomer generation, those who were old enough, the single most memorable date is Nov. 22, 1963, the day the JFK was assassinated in Dallas.

I was a little too young to remember exactly where I was when I heard the president had been shot, but I remember listening to the news on the school bus on the ride home and watching the coverage all that night and through the weekend.

Tragically, not only would JFK’s death become an unforgettable date, so did his brother Bobby’s death five years later. That same awful year (1968), Martin Luther King’s assassination etched April 4 into the national memory.

I’ve done stories on local immigrants who were in their home countries in 1977, and it’s amazing how many can tell you where they were when they heard that Elvis died.

Many people old enough to remember the ‘90s and the first decade of the 2000s may remember where they were when they heard the news that O.J. Simpson was acquitted, that Princess Diana was killed, and that Michael Jackson had died.

Far bigger than those dates, of course, was Sept. 11, 2001, the day of the terrorist attacks on America.

On another topic: In a column last week, I mentioned my surprise at learning, in a biography of Vince Lombardi, that players still smoked cigarettes at halftime in NFL locker rooms as recently as 1968.

Another thing that surprised me was that the NFL used to have a consolation game.

From 1960 to 1969, the second-place teams from the Eastern and Western conferences squared off for third place in the league.

Started by then Commissioner Bert Bell, the game was known as the Playoff Bowl, and they played every year at the Orange Bowl in Miami.

A benefit for the players’ pension fund, the event raised more than $1 million for the cause.

Lombardi positively detested the game, calling it the “Loser Bowl,” and it gave him added incentive to drive his players to make the championship game.

After the merger of the NFL and the old AFL, league officials dropped the game, figuring Lombardi was right: No one wants to play for third place.

William P. Warford’s column appears every Tuesday, Friday and Sunday.