Very Special Birthday

Ladies and gentlemen, I wanted to take this chance to wish a happy 90th birthday to my Grandma Jean Fodor. She just got out of a successful surgery and will be partying it up with my parents tonight. By the way, she is a Bears and Illinois fan - (we'll agree to disagree on the second one.)

Ninety is one hell of an achievement, as I'm sure you'll agree, and so in Armchair Superstar Style, here are the sports-related highlights of October 7th throughout Grandma's long and storied career:

1916: Okay, so this is four years beforehand, but today was the day Georgia Tech beat Cumberland University 222-0 in college football. Tech's coach? John Heisman. Yeah, you may have heard of him.

1920: Along with Grandma, famous Manchester United player Jack "The Gunner" Rowley was born.

1931: Lowell "Cotton" Fitzimmons born in Hannibal, Missouri. Grandma is, meanwhile, growing up just a stone's throw away in Iowa. Fitzimmons goes on to a career as an NBA basketball coach for at least six different teams, including the Suns just before the Bulls got to them in the '93 championships.

Some other notables born on October seventh? Desmond Tutu, Oliver North, John Mellencamp, Yo-Yo Ma, Tony Braxton, Priest Holmes, Charles Woodson (last year's Defensive Player of the Year!), and Evan Longoria of the Tampa Bay Rays.

At SportsIllustrated, Steve Rushin makes the argument that October 7, 1975 was part of the most important three weeks in SPORTS HISTORY! It was the day the Reds swept the Pirates to get into the World Series -- by the way, this is a great article if you're a history nerd like me.

Finally, and most importantly to all us Bears fans, October 7, 1984, as Grandma was admiring her very first and most adorable grandchild, we saw Sweetness do this:



Happy 9oth, Grandma! Hope it's a great one.