On the 17 June, 1881, the only Canadian-born World Heavyweight Boxing Champion, Tommy Burns, was born in Normanby Township near Hanover, Ontarion. 

Born in Hanover, Ontario, into an impoverished Italian – Canadian family, Noah Brusso was the twelfth of thirteen children, five of which died before reaching adulthood. 

Brusso began his prizefighting career under his real name in Detroit, Michigan, in 1900, and took the Scottish-sounding name of Tommy Burns in 1904.

Tommy Burns met Marvin Hart for the heavyweight championship of the world in Los Angeles in February 1906, as the 2-1 underdog, but won the bout with a 20-round decision.

Nicknamed ‘The Louisville Plumber’, Hart came to prominence in 1905 after a win over the future champion Jack Johnson. Since the heavyweight title was vacant at the time, following the retirement of the champion James J. Jeffries, Hart’s record earned him a shot at the title, against the top-ranked Jack Root [1876–1963], who had previously beaten Hart in 1902. With James J. Jeffries acting as referee for the fight held in Reno, Nevada, ‘The Louisville Plumber’ KO’d Root in round 12 round, to temporarily clinch the vacant title.

Burns went on to travel the globe, famously challenging all comers as Heavyweight Champion, which led to the celebrated bout with Jack Johnson, which cost Burns his title in the fight held in Sydney, in December 1908.  The fight lasted fourteen rounds before being stopped by the police, and the referee awarded the decision and the title to Johnson.

Tommy defended his title 11 times within a period of 3 years, once twice in one night.

During the Great War Tommy joined the Canadian army, serving as a physical fitness instructor of troops in Canada.

After his retirement, Burns promoted some boxing shows, and in 1928  moved to New York City where he ran a speakeasy. Burns also worked as an insurance salesman and security guard. And in 1948 he was ordained as a minister, and at the time of his death, was an evangelist living in California.

He died in May 1955, after suffering a heart attack at the age 73, while visiting a church friend in Vancouver. He was interred in an unmarked pauper’s grave, and four people attended his burial, at Ocean View Cemetery in Burnaby, British Columbia.

Burns is one of the most over-looked heavyweight champions, yet he was the first truly international heavyweight champion, defending his title in America, England, Ireland, France and Australia. Standing at 5’7″, the ‘Little Giant of Hanover’ was the shortest heavyweight champion in history,

In 1961 a Vancouver sports writer raised funds to commission a memorial plaque for Burns’ grave.

17 June, 2019

On the 16 June, 1821, Thomas ‘Old Tom’ Mitchell Morris, was born in the ‘home of golf’, St. Andrews, Fife.

The son of a weaver, Tom began ‘golf’ aged 10, using a homemade club to knock wine-bottle corks pierced with nails around the streets of St. Andrew,. He was formally hired as an apprentice at age 14 to the world’s first professional golfer, Allan Robertson, who ran the St Andrews Links. Morris served four years as apprentice and a further five years as a journeyman under Robertson, by most accounts the world’s top player from about 1843 until his death in 1859.

From the early 1840s, Robertson often chose Morris as his partner in challenge matches, it is said the two never lost a team match played on even terms. The team became known as ‘The Invincibles’.

Morris worked under Robertson at St Andrews until 1851, when he was fired on the spot after being caught by Robertson playing the new ‘guttie’ golf ball, as he had a profitable business making the ‘feathery’ ball. which was threatened by the emergence of the guttie.

Morris was then hired by the newly formed Prestwick Golf Club, where he designed, laid out, and maintained the course, ran his own golf equipment business selling gutties and clubs, gave instruction to players, and ran events.

He returned to St Andrews in 1865, at the then-generous salary of ₤50 per year. Morris worked as a green keeper, club-maker, ball-maker, golf instructor, and course designer, as well as playing match and tournament golf.

Morris was influential in founding The Open Championship in 1860, along with James Fairlie, and struck the very first shot in that event. He came second in the first Open Championship in 1860, and won the following year. He followed this up with victories in 1862, 1864 and 1867. He still holds the record as the oldest winner of The Open Championship at 46, and was part of the only father and son couple being winner and runner-up.

By his mid-teens, his son ‘Young Tom’ Morris became an accomplished player in his own right, and in the mid-1860s, father and son formed a team and competed in challenge matches, usually played in the foursomes format, where they proved very successful. Their partnership, although not exclusive, would continue until the death of ‘Young Tom’ in 1875.

Morris kept working right up until his death, just before his 87th birthday in 1908, when he died after falling down a flight of stairs in the clubhouse of the New Golf Club in St Andrews.

He is buried against the eastern wall of the churchyard of  St. Andrew’s Cathedral, in a simple grave which stands beneath the notable monument to his son, ‘Young Tom’ Morris, which carries a bronze statue of the golfer in high relief against a white background, and is visible across the breadth of the churchyard. His grave attracts thousands of golfers each year wishing to pay homage to this golfing hero.

16 June, 2019

On the 15 June 1909, representatives from Australia, England, and South Africa met at Lord’s and founded the Imperial Cricket Conference, the global governing body of cricket. A month later a second meeting between the three members was held, and the rules were agreed, and the first ever Tri-Test series was held in England in 1912. 

In 1926, the West Indies, New Zealand, and India were admitted as Full Members, doubling the number of Test-playing nations to six. After the formation of Pakistan in 1947, which was given Test status in 1952, and became the seventh Test-playing nation.

In May 1961 South Africa left the Commonwealth and therefore lost membership. 

It was renamed as the International Cricket Conference in 1965, and in 1989 took its current name, the International Cricket Council (ICC).

The ICC Code of Conduct sets the professional standards of discipline for international cricket, but does not govern domestic cricket in member countries, and does not make the laws of the game, which remain under the control of the MCC (Marylebone Cricket Club). 

The ICC now has 105 members, and is responsible for the organisation and governance of cricket’s major international tournaments, most notably the Cricket World Cup. It also appoints the umpires and referees that officiate at all sanctioned Test matches, ODI’s (One Day Internationals) and Twenty20 International matches.

It has 12 Full Members that play Test matches, and 93 Associate Members.

15 June, 2019

On the 14 June, 1923, businessman, property developer, philanthropist, President and owner of  Wolverhampton Wanderers FC, Sir Jack Arnold Hayward, OBE OBE, was born in the Whitmore Reans area of Wolverhampton.

As a boy Jack failed the entrance exam for Wolverhampton Grammar School, and was educated at Northaw Preparatory School and later Stowe School.

At the outbreak of the Second World War, he cycled to Oxford to volunteer for the Royal Air Force (RAF), and served as a pilot officer, flying Dakota transporter supply aircraft.

After demobilization he began work in Rotary Hoes, part of the Firth Cleveland Group of Companies formed by his father, Sir Charles Hayward , as an agricultural equipment salesman in South Africa. In 1951 he founded the American arm of the Group in New York, where he was based for five years before relocating to the Bahamas. 

In addition to his home in Freeport, he owned a farm in Sussex, and was the Laird of Dunmaglass, a 14,000-acre estate near Inverness in Scotland. In 2009 he was placed 125th on the Sunday Times Rich List with an estimated fortune of £160 million.

Hayward, who first watched Wolves aged 5, and became the owner and chairman of Wolves after buying the club in May 1990 for £2.11 million.  It is estimated that he spent well in excess of £70 million of his personal finance on redeveloping the Molineaux Stadium, writing off annual debts, and purchasing players for the club, during the 17 years for which he was owner.

Hayward was knighted in 1986, adding to his OBE award of 1968, for his considerable charitable actions.

In 2007 he sold control of the club for a nominal £10 fee, in exchange for a conditional £30 million investment in the club. Hayward remained the life president of Wolverhampton Wanderers and was later inducted into the club’s Hall of Fame.

He befriending fellow Wulfrunian, the cricketer Rachael Heyhoe Flint, and financed tours of the West Indies by the England Women’s cricket team in 1969–70 and 1970–71. And in 1973 sponsored the first ever women’s cricket World Cup, two years before the first in the men’s World Cup was inaugurated.

He was awarded the Freedom of the City of Wolverhampton on 9 July 2003.

Jack died aged 91, in 2015. Hundreds of fans lined the streets and gathered in Queen Square, Wolverhampton to watch Sir Jack’s Funeral, and several roads throughout the city were closed off.

The Wolverhampton Wanderers FC announced proposals to rename the South Stand in his honour, and a statue of former Wolverhampton Wanderers owner Sir Jack Hayward was unveiled on what would have been his 95th birthday.

14 June, 2019

On the 13 June, 1879, the elegant English batsman, George Gunn, was born in Hucknall Torkard, Nottinghamshire.

George first joined the Trent Bridge staff in 1898. He was professional for the Holloway Sanitorium CC in 1900 and 1901, before rejoining the Nottinghamshire staff in 1902. He made his first-class debut in 1902 against Surrey, and in 1919 scored the most runs ever made by a Nottinghamshire player in a single game against Surrey at the time, scoring 169 and 185 not out.

Gunn paid little attention to compiling high scores, but in 1928 he overtook Arthur Shrewsbury’s record for the most centuries made in Nottinghamshire first-class matches. Gunn’s total at the close of his career stood at 55.

Gunn served as a member of the Nottinghamshire Committee (1945-1955), and became the Club’s a Honorary Vice-President in 1955.
Gunn played in 15 Tests (1907 to 1930), alongside other notable batsmen such as Jack Hobbs, Frank Woolley, and Phil Mead. Gunn was one of a group of players who began their first-class careers in the Edwardian Era, which seemed to go on for ever. In Gunn’s case, it was from 1902 to 1932, during which he made more runs for Nottinghamshire than anyone else, before or since, 31,592 at an average of 35.70.

His first-class career was brought to a close in 1932, as the result of an injury he received whilst batting, his last first-class match for Nottinghamshire was against India at Trent Bridge,                                             

His Test career was an unusual one, in which only one of his Tests was played in England. This was the Lord’s Test of 1909, in which he scored only one run in two innings. He was not selected for the 1907-1908 tour of Australia, but decided to make the trip for the ‘good of his health’. It was agreed he could be called upon if necessary, and consequently appeared in the first Test in Sydney, scoring 119 in his first innings in Test cricket, and 74 in the second innings, ensuring his place in all five Tests.

After World War 1, Gunn fell out of favour, and his final four Tests were not until 1929–1930, against the West Indies.  

A member of a notable Nottinghamshire cricketing family, the younger brother of John Gunn, and a nephew of Billy Gunn, both of whom played Test cricket, and father of George Vernon Gunn.

He scored 164 not out on his fiftieth birthday at Worcester, and two years later In 1931, scored 183 against Warwickshire, with his son scoring 100 not out in the same innings.

He was a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1914, and in 1949, and was numbered among the first group of cricketers to be elected honorary life members of the MCC.

In 1958, aged 79, George Gunn died in his sleep at his son’s house in Tyler’s Green, Cuckfield, Sussex. 

13.06.2019

On the 12 June, 1861, the Nottinghamshire and England cricketer, William ‘Dick’ Attewell, was born in Keyworth, Nottinghamshire.

Renowned for his bowling accuracy and economy, Attewell is said to have been responsible for the development of the ‘off theory’. i.e. Bowling wide of the off stump to a packed off-side field, frustrating batsmen on the rapidly improving pitches of the 1890s.

Attewell first played for Nottinghamshire in 1881, as a result of a strike by a number of the club’s senior players. But did not become established until 1884, when he took 100 wickets for less than 13 runs each. From then on, Attewell was always in the front rank of English bowlers, and became the undisputed leader of the Notts. attack.

Attewell made his Test debut for England against Australia at The Oval in 1884, and his final appearance at The Oval against the ‘Aussies’ in 1892. The great strength of English bowling at the time meant he was not considered for a Test match again.

He played 10 Test matches in all, scoring 150 runs, his highest score being 43 not out. In Sydney Australia, in 1892, he earned the distinction of being the first person in Test history to be dismissed for a ‘King pair’. i.e. When a batsman is dismissed with the first ball faced in both innings without scoring. He bowled 2,850 balls in Test cricket and took 28 wickets, his best performance being 4 for 42. I.

In his first-class career Attewell made 429 appearances, scoring 8,083 runs, his best tally being 102. His only century for Notts. came against Kent in 1897. Attewell bowled 108,264 balls and collected 1,951 wickets at an average of 15.3. He took 10 wickets in a match on 27 occasions, his best figures being 9 for 23.

Attewell retired at the end of 1899, and became a first-class umpire, continuing to stand on a regular basis until 1909.  ‘Dick’ Attewell died in Long Eaton, Derbyshire, the day before his 66^th birthday, in June, 1927.

12 June, 2019

On the 11 June, 1950, the American professional golfer, William Ben Hogan (1912-1997), generally considered one of the greatest players in the history of the game, won the 50^th US Open Golf Championship at the Merion GC, Pennsylvania, which later became known as the ‘Miracle at Merion’. Defeating Lloyd Mangrum by 4 shots, and George Fazio by 6 in an 18 hole playoff, 16 months after surviving a near fatal car accident.

Hogan’s particular skill was ‘shooting a number’. Meticulously planning and executing a strategy to achieve a score for a round on a particular course. Even to the point of leaving out the 7-iron in the ‘Miracle at Merion’, saying ‘there are no 7-iron shots at Merion’.

Noted for his legendary ball-striking ability, Hogan won 9 professional major championships, and is one of only 5 golfers to have won the Masters Tournament (1951,1953), The Open (1953), the US Open (1948,1950,1951,1953), and the PGA Championship (1946,1948).

Born in Stephenville, Texas, the youngest of 3 children. His father was a blacksmith, who committed suicide by a self-inflicted gunshot when Hogan was 9 years old. The family incurred financial difficulties after his father’s suicide, and the children took jobs to help their seamstress mother make ends meet. Ben sold newspapers after school, until a friend introduced him to caddying at the age of 11 at the Glen Garden Country Club, where one of his fellow caddies was Byron Nelson.

Hogan turned pro at the age of 17 at the Texas Open in San Antonio, in 1930. His early career was very difficult, and he went broke more than once. It took a decade before he won his first tournament, when he then won 3 consecutive events. Although it took 10 years for Hogan to secure his first victory, his wife Valerie believed in him, and this helped see him through some tough years when he battled a hook that he later cured.

In 1938, Hogan took an assistant pro job at Century CC in Purchase, New York (1938-1941), and later became head professional at the Hershey Country Club in Pennsylvania.

During his prime (1938-1959), Hogan won 69 pro’ tournaments despite the interruption of his career by World War II, when he served in the US Army Air Forces  as a utility pilot at Fort Worth, Texas.

In 1949, Hogan and his wife Valerie survived a near-fatal car accident in a head-on collision with a Greyhound bus at Van Horn Texas, which left Hogan with lifelong circulation problems and other physical limitations. His doctors said he might never walk again, let alone play golf competitively.

Hogan regained his strength by extensive walking and resumed his golf activities in November 1949. He returned to the PGA Tour to start the 1950 season at the Los Angeles Open, where he tied with Sam Snead over 72 holes, but lost the playoff.

Hogan retired from golf in 1971, and died in Fort Worth, Texas in 1997, aged 84.

11 June, 2019

On the 10 June, 1966, former English professional footballer, David Andrew Platt, was born in Chadderton, Lancashire.

Platt began his career as an apprentice at Manchester United (1982-1985), prior to a move to Crewe Alexandra (1985-1988), where he made 134 appearances and built a reputation as a goal-scoring midfielder, with a tally of 56 goals.

At the age of 22, he signed for Aston Villa (1988-1991), and made 12 appearances in a Villa shirt, scoring 50 goals. This soon attracted the attention of the England manager Bobby Robson, and Platt made his debut for England in 1989 (1989-1996), and made a total of 62 appearances, scoring a total of 27 goals.

Platt’s reputation as a goal scorer, with both his head and feet, improved during the 1990 FIFA World Cup, along with that of his excellent technique, passing ability, and high work rate. Earning him a move to the Serie A club Bari (1991-1992), where he scored 11 times in 29 outings.

The following year, Platt moved to Juventus for a season (1992-1993), but only scored 3 goals in his 16 appearances. He then joined Sampdoria for two seasons (1993-1995), where his goals coring ability re-emerged, scoring 17 times in 55 games. He returned to England to join Arsenal (1995-1998), finding the net 13 times in 88 appearances in the 3 period, during which the club won Premier League and FA Cup in 1998.

Platt made a total of 448 appearances in his senior career, scoring a total of 151 goals

Platt went on to manage Sampdoria (1998-1999) and Nottingham Forest as its player manager (1999-2001), making 5 appearances and scoring only once. Platt also managed the England Under-21 team (2001-2004). In 2015, Platt became the manager and head coach of FC Pune City, but after one season, announced he would not be returning to the Indian club for 2016.

10 June, 2019

On the 9 June, 1899, the American professional boxer, James Jackson Jeffries (1875-1953) KO’d Bob Fitzsimmons in Brooklyn, New York, in round 11 to win the World Heavyweight Championship.

In 1891, the Jeffries family moved from their Ohio farm to Los Angeles, California, where James worked as a boilermaker before going into boxing, under the nickname ‘The Boilermaker’.

Jeffries boxed as an amateur until the age of 20, when he turned professional. A natural left-hander, Jeffries stood 6 ft 1 ¹⁄₂ inches tall and in his prime weighed in at 225 pounds . Known for his enormous strength and stamina, he was able to absorb tremendous punishment, and possessed one-punch knockout power with his left hook.

In his second title defence following his win against Fitzsimmons, Jeffries set the record for the quickest KO in a heavyweight title fight, in 55 seconds against Jack Finnegan. In his next bout he KO’d the former heavyweight champion, the legendary, James J. Corbett, with a left to the jaw in the 23 round of the scheduled 25 round fight.

In his day Jeffries was considered one of the greatest Heavyweight Champions of all time by fellow boxers and boxing experts. And it is said he fought many more bouts than the recorded number of 22, many of which are lost in history. However, he was never been defeated in the ring before his original retirement.

In later years, Jeffries trained boxers and worked as a fight promoter.

Following his death in 1953, the city of Burbank installed a bronze plaque at the spot where Jeffries died. He was buried in the Inglewood Park Cemetery, California..

James J. Jeffries was elected to the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1990.

9 June, 2016

On the 8 June1879, the British tennis player, Ethel Larcombe, was born in Islington.

Ethel first competed at Wimbledon in 1902, losing in the 1st round to Agnes Morton.

Larcombe did not play competitive tennis for four years from 1907 until her return in 1911, and in 1912 she became Wimbledon champion defeating Charlotte Cooper Sterry 6-3, 6-1 in the All-Comers’ final, and subsequently receiving a walkover in the Challenge Round. In total she participated in 11 editions of the Wimbledon Championships between 1902 and 1921. She also won the Scottish Championship singles title three times (1910–12) and the singles title at the Irish Championships in 1912.

Ethel played her service underhand, in contrast to most of her contemporaries. She possessed an effective smash, but her favoured shot was the backhand down the line.

In addition Ethel won as 11 badminton titles at the All England Badminton Championships. Five of them in women’s singles (1900, 1901, 1903, 1904, 1906), four in women’s doubles and two in mixed doubles.

In 1906 she married Major Dudley Larcombe, the secretary of the All England Club (1925-1939).

She died in Budleigh Salterton, in 1965, aged 86.

8 June, 2019