Kentucky Trivia ● Kentucky Tweets

Nothing goes down slower than a golf handicap.  Bobby Nichols

September 15, 1875, Isaac Murphy won his 1^st race.  The win came at the Lexington Crab Orchard track, aboard B. F. Pettit’s chestnut filly Glentina.  Crab Orchard, located 46 miles south of Lexington, was the oldest circular track in the state and was a testing ground for potential stake winning horses and the talented jockeys.
The Prince of Jockeys: The Life of Isaac Burns Murphy By Pellom McDaniels III

On September 15, 1890, the Kentucky Post, Covington’s daily newspaper, printed its 1^st edition.  The newspaper was small and inexpensive, four pages for two cents a copy.  Nevertheless, it found a ready niche and grew by fighting for the working classes.  In 1899 and 1900, the Kentucky Post published many editions covering the turbulent campaign, election, and assassination of Governor W. Goebel.  The owner, Edward Willis Scripps, created forty-five such “penny papers” from coast to coast and became very rich.

September 15, 1950, Army PVT John L. Winchester from Hardin County died in the Korean War.

September 15, 1952, Army CPL Arthur Joseph from Woodford County and Marine Corps SGT Donald Baily from Stanford, both died in the Korean War.

September 15, 1951, Police Officer William M. Carrico, Sr., Carrollton Police Department died while responding to a disturbance call at an ex-convict’s home.  As Officer Carrico and his partner were driving towards the suspect’s house, the ex-convict shot Officer Carrico with a high powered rifle through the windshield, striking him in the head.

On September 15, 1963, Bobby Nichols won his 3^rd PGA event by beating Raymond Floyd by two shots in the Seattle Open Invitational for his only win of the year.

September 15, 1970, Army CPL David Bruce Toler from Ashland died in the Vietnam War.

September 15, 1973, Commonwealth Stadium hosted their 1^st UK football game.  The Wildcats defeated the Virginia Tech Hokies 31-26.  Fran Curci coached future NFL players Sonny Collins, Warren Bryant, and Doug Kotar during this season.

On September 15, 1976, the National Basketball Association (NBA) owners paid $3.3 million for the Louisville Colonels and $3.3 million for the Spirits of St. Louis.  The American Basketball Association (ABA) teams faced escalating player salaries and lacked television contracts so the six strongest ABA teams tried to merge, but the NBA owners only allowed the Nuggets, Pacers, Spurs, and Nets to join.

On September 15, 1978, 36-year-old Muhammad Ali won the heavyweight title back by beating Leon Spinks in a 15-round unanimous decision, making him the 1^st man to reign as champion three times.  After this fight, Ali retired for the first of two times.

September 15, 1987, J.C. Lawson posed in his marijuana patch near his home in Clay County.  The day after the Herald-Leader story ran about Lawson, the state police destroyed hundreds of his plants near his home.  In the story, Lawson said he no longer sold his marijuana retail and sold it all to Ohio dealers for $1,200 a pound.  He went on to say that, “a lot of the money in Clay County comes from pot.”  Lawson made it clear that he was a good citizen who provided jobs for as many as 22 people.

September 15, 1989, Robert Penn Warren of Guthrie, in Todd County, passed away.  From the 1950s until his death from cancer, Warren lived in Connecticut and at his summer home in Vermont.  He rests in Stratton, Vermont; however, a memorial marker is situated in the Warren family gravesite in Guthrie at his request.

Kentucky Trivia:  In 1921, Mr. Warren, 16, suffered a severe injury that led to his eye removal.  In the same year, a magazine published his 1^st poem while he attended the Citizens Military Training Corps, Fort Knox.  Because of the eye, Mr. Warren entered Vanderbilt University and graduated in 1925 summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, and as a Founder’s Medalist.  In 1939, he published his 1^st novel, Night Rider.

September 15, 1989, Patrolman Terry Lee Sanders, Mayfield Police Department, died in an aircraft accident while on duty.  The plane crashed as a result of heavy fog and rain.

September 15, 2006, Dan Uggla from Louisville hit his 25^th MLB home run, breaking Joe Gordon’s record for most home runs by a rookie second baseman.

September 15, 2007, with one perfectly thrown pass, Andre Woodson erased years of agony against Brian Brohm and turned Kentucky’s border battle with Louisville into a real rivalry again.  Woodson threw a 57-yard touchdown pass to Steve Johnson with 28 seconds left, and Kentucky shocked the #9 Cardinals 40-34.  It was the Wildcats’ 1^st victory over a top-10 team in three decades and halted a four-year losing streak to Louisville.  It also ended Woodson’s even longer skid against Brohm, a nemesis since high school.  The record now stood at 11-9, advantage Kentucky.

On September 15, 2007, the Green Monkey made his racing debut in a six-furlong maiden race at Belmont Park in Elmont, NY.  The public made him the 2–5 betting favorite, but the colt finished 3^rd.  The Green Monkey started his career for $16,000,000 in 2006; and ended with a 3-0-0-1 lifetime record.

On September 15, 2019, the two largest Kentucky newspapers’ top four stories included: bombs dropping on Saudi Arabia and America ready for war to protect them, federal gun control, campaign financing, and out-of-work Kentucky coal miners.

September 15, 2016, fifteen contestants travelled to a farm near Lancaster for the 35^th annual Garrard County Tobacco Cutting Contest.

September 15, 2020, the city of Louisville settled with the family of Breonna Taylor for $12 million and agreed to take steps toward police reform.  Taylor, 26, died in March when police executed a no-knock warrant.  Meanwhile, in Frankfort, the governor reported nine new deaths and allowed Kentucky bars and restaurants to close an hour later at 11:00 p.m.

Positives:  745 / 58,000
Deaths:  9 / 1,074 – 1^st death 3/16/20
50&over:  1,044 / 49-30: 29 / 29&under: 1

September 15, 2021, unsurprisingly another doctor, this time from UofL, touted the experimental vaccine, telling his listeners to ignore the side effects and concentrate on the good effects.  Jefferson County Schools required all their employees be vaccinated or regularly tested, while Louisville prisoners outnumbered jailers for “dangerous levels.”  For many organizations, the shutdown exaggerated underlying issues, such as manpower.