Hans Remembers- Saturday September 12, 1970- 50 Years Ago.

• In Tennis- Margaret Court finished her 1970 Grand Slam [winning the four major tournaments Australian, Wimbledon, French and U.S. Opens} by defeating Rosemary Casals 6-2, 2-6 and 6-1 in the U.S Open. There have only been three winners of the Grand Slam in women’s tennis history- 1953 Maureen Connolly, 1970- Margaret Court and 1988 Steffi Graf. In 2015 Serena Williams had won the first three only to lose in the U.S. Open. Court in her career won a record 24 Grand Slam singles titles- but her name seems to have faded over the years-possibly due to her political views?

• 21 year old Texan Phyllis George was crowned the 43rd Miss America 1971- she would go on to more fame as one of the hosts on CBS’s NFL Today in the late 1970’s.
• The Sky Marshall Program began on online flights in the United States the day after President Richard Milhous Nixon announced that armed agents of the U.S. Department of the Treasury began serving on U.S. based airlines.
• The Soviet Union launched Luna 16 an unmanned lunar probe, stating only that the spacecraft would ‘carry out exploration of the Moon and near- Moon space.

• Dr. Timothy Leary-a former Harvard University professor and drug advocate escaped from the California Men’s Colony West- where he was serving a prison term for possession of marijuana. He would remain a fugitive for more than two years until being arrested in Afghanistan and brought back to the U.S. in January 1973.

• Eight days after Salvador Allende’s success in the Chilean presidential election- U.S. National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger contracted CIA Director Richard Helms and first discussed a planned coup d’etat once Allende took office.

• In a very significant game that had implications beyond the football field- powerhouse college teams USC and Alabama met- with USC beating Alabama like a rented mule- in Birmingham 42-21. At this time Alabama was still an all-white team. The legendary Alabama coach Bear Bryant had made a trip to Los Angeles to arrange this game-with the idea of finding a way to be able to finally recruit African-American athletes. USC running back Sam “Bam” Cunningham had a huge day against Alabama- the next year Alabama recruited their first black player- John Mitchell.