Kentucky Trivia ● Kentucky Tweets

When I start thinking in the batter’s box, that’s when I get into trouble.  Dan Uggla

Localtonians wish a Happy Birthday to Scott County native James Fisher Robinson, born in 1800.  The 22^nd governor served the remainder of the unfinished term of Governor Beriah Magoffin.  Magoffin handpicked Governor Robinson when he was forced out of office in 1862.  Governor Robinson served for one year and two weeks.

October 4, 1886, two soldiers in the 1^st Regiment Kentucky Mounted Volunteers fought a duel in Port Lavacca, TX.  They exchanged two shots, and both officers escaped unhurt.  The cause of the duel was unknown, but Lt. Jackson, of Cassius M. Clay’s Regiment, resigned four days later.
Famous Kentucky Duels by J. Winston Coleman, Jr. pg: 145

October 4, 1862, Confederate artillery fired a salute as Southern troops escorted Confederate Governor Richard Hawes through Frankfort.  Upon reaching the Old State Capitol, Hawes’s inauguration began in the House of Representatives chamber, where Bragg, Hawes, and others gave speeches.  Union Troops quickly interrupted the ceremony.  Confederate Colonel David Urquhart wrote, “the inaugural was being read when the booming of cannon announced the near presence of the enemy.”  With Union troops approaching, Hawes “cut short his inaugural address.”  The rebels canceled the evening ball.

Localtonians wish a Happy Birthday to Louisville native James Bennett Pritchard, born in 1909.  The Asbury College graduate received the Gold Medal Award for Distinguished Archaeological Achievement in 1983.

October 4, 1919, Kentucky hosted Georgetown to open the Wildcat’s football season, winning 12-0.  Kentucky played seven more games in the season and in each game, Kentucky or their opponent would score zero points.  They ended with a 3-4-1 record, the Vandy game neither team scored.

October 4, 1922, the Kentucky Theatre opened with great fanfare and impressive production.  The opening program began with a musical overture played on the expensive Wurlitzer Unit Orchestra organ.  Next, the audience sang “My Old Kentucky Home” while lyrics were projected on the screen.  Governor Edwin P. Morrow then delivered a dedication speech and finally, the movie program started.  A short comedic parody of Valentino’s The Sheik, followed by a newsreel, and then the feature, a historical romance entitled The Eternal Flame.

On October 4, 1924, Male High’s football team in Chicago played Austin High School in the 1^st football game in a brand-new lakefront sports facility named Grant Park Municipal Stadium.  Male defeated Austin by a score of 26-0.  A little over a year later, the stadium’s name changed to Soldier Field.

October 4, 1924, Kentucky shutout Louisville for the 6^th time in the 6^th Governor’s Bowl, this time 29-0.  The next shutout would be in 2004 when the Cards scored 28 points.

October 4, 1930, Coach Harry Gammage and his Kentucky Wildcats opened their season hosting Sewanee and won 37-0.  Kentucky played eight games.  In six of those games, Kentucky or their opponent would score zero points.

October 4, 1944, U.S. Marine Wesley Phelps, from Neaufus in Butler County, died heroically in WWII fighting Japanese forces.  He posthumously received the Congressional Medal of Honor for his heroic actions and sacrifice of life during the Battle of Peleliu.

October 4, 1947, Keeneland Race Course, just before the beginning of the fall meet.  The track started racing in April 1936, 11 years before this image was taken.

October 4, 1969, a workout on the backside of Keeneland on the morning of the 1^st day of the Fall Meet.  The opening day crowd of 12,020 wagered $661,968.

October 4, 1974, Governor W. Ford used a breaking plow to turn the turf at the Kentucky State Horse Park groundbreaking ceremony.  Kentucky’s largest state-owned tourist attraction, a working horse farm and an educational theme park, opened in 1978.

October 4, 1989, at 11:45 a.m., Secretariat, affectionately known as “Big Red,” received a lethal injection at Claiborne Farm in Paris.  The 19 year old TC winner suffered from laminitis, a painful and usually incurable degenerative disease of the hoofs’ sensitive inner tissues.  Dr. Thomas Swerczek, a professor of veterinary science at the UK performed the necropsy.  “All of the horse’s vital organs were normal in size except for the heart, we were all shocked,” Swerczek said.  “I’ve seen and done thousands of autopsies on horses, and nothing I’d ever seen compared to it.  The heart of the average horse weighs about nine pounds.  Secretariat’s heart was almost twice the average size, and a third larger than any equine heart I’d ever seen.  It wasn’t pathologically enlarged, all the chambers and the valves were normal, it was just larger.  I think it told us why he was able to do what he did.”

October 4, 1996, Rupp Arena entered the Ice Age when the Thoroughblades debuted.

October 4, 1997, in Hal Mumme’s 1^st season, Tim Couch completed a 26-yard touchdown pass to Craig Yeast, in overtime, in Lexington, to stun Alabama, 40-34.  This Cats won for a 2^nd time in 34 tries.

On October 4, 1997, widow Robin Higgins christened the USS Higgins (DDG-76).  The Navy named the destroyer for Danville native USMC Colonel William R. Higgins.  The Hezbollah captured, tortured, and murdered him in 1988 in Lebanon.

October 4, 2007, Kentucky filed a lawsuit in Pike County against Connecticut’s Purdue Pharma, the oxycontin maker.  Kentucky AG Greg Stumbo claimed that Purdue knew the powerful pain-killer was being abused but did nothing to stop it.  Kentucky contended that Purdue misled pharmacies, physicians, and patients about their product’s addictive and dangerous nature.  The state and nation went after the head drug dealer Dr. Richard Sackler.

October 4, 2012, the Louisville Metro Government paid $8 million to Edwin Chandler for spending nine years in prison for a murder he did not commit.  Mr. Chandler’s lead council stated, “We are pleased that settlement recognizes that this was not just an innocent mistake but was the result of a very serious misconduct.”  The city had already settled a similar $4 million lawsuit in 2001. 

October 4, 2018, the KFC Yum Center! hosted their 1^st NBA game when the 2013 NBA Champion Miami Heat faced off against the New Orleans Pelicans in a preseason contest.

October, 4, 2019, the most baseball pitches thrown in 8 hours (individual) is 2,633, achieved by Matthew Graf in Louisville.  Matthew set out on this record breaking attempt to raise money through a live stream for the adoption him and his wife were pursuing.

On October 4, 2020, a 69-year-old man from Harlan County, a 71-year-old man from Jefferson County, an 80-year-old woman from Warren County and a 90-year-old man from Logan County died from coronavirus.  Still, no vaccine was available at the time.

Positives:  616 / 72,617
Deaths:  4 / 1,209 – 1^st death 3/16/20
50&over:  1,177 / 49-30: 28 / 29&under: 2