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ayaghmour2 · 04-23-2025, 12:53 PM

OCTOBER 13, 1963

WILDCATS EXTEND WINNING STREAK TO FOUR
Thanks to the most prolific passing game in the league the Chicago Wildcats are suddenly the hottest team in the American Football Association. Chicago struggled through a very slow September, dropping each of their first three games, but they have rebounded nicely with four straight victories.

The latest was a 44-23 thumping of a Detroit Maroons club that has also had a turn around. The Maroons won their first three games of the season but have fallen apart recently with three straight losses including Sunday's embarrassment at Thompson Field. The Wildcats passing game, led by third year starter Chip Fitch, has been on fire in recent weeks. Fitch leads the league by a wide margin in passing yards and his two favourite targets, Jim O'Hearn and Denny Haywood, are one-two in receiving yardage. Fitch passed for 249 yards against Detroit and after throwing three scoring passes Sunday, leads the league with 11 touchdown tosses. Add in the steady running of dependable veteran George Hornback to keep defenses honest and it is easy to see why opposing teams are struggling to contain the Chicago offense.

Chicago is still looking up at both Houston and St Louis in the West Division standings. The Drillers, surprise participants in the league title game a year ago in just their second season of existence, dumped San Francisco 27-7 Sunday to improve to 4-2, a half game up on Chicago. St Louis leads the way as the 5-2 Ramblers avenged their loss in Kansas City last Sunday by beating the Cowboys 27-3 in the rematch in St Louis.

Washington scored 17 unanswered points in the second half to rally past visiting Cleveland 20-13 and take over top spot in the East Division. Defending AFA champion Boston is also in the mix after the Americans outscored Philadelphia 20-13 to run their record to 4-3. In other action the New York Stars held off Pittsburgh 28-20 while the Los Angeles Tigers nearly blew a 17-0 halftime lead but outlasted Buffalo 20-19 thanks to a 39-yard fourth quarter field goal from Bill Beaver.

CENTURIONS TALLENT TOO MUCH FOR ST BLANE

Rome State climbed over perhaps its biggest hurdle in a bid to bring the Centurions back to the status the military academy enjoyed on the gridiron in the years during and shortly after World War II. The sophomore backfield duo of Don Tallent and Paul Gholson were simply too much for St. Blane to handle as they pair combined for 232 yards rushing in leading the Centurions to a 17-7 victory before a sold-out crowd at New York's Gotham Stadium.

St Blane struck first as the Fighting Saints, led by a stellar halfback of their own in Floyd Hale, methodically marched 68 yards on a 19-play drive that took up nearly eight minutes to start the opening quarter. It culminated in a 5 yard Hale touchdown run but that would be all the points the Fighting Saints would accumulate on the afternoon. St Blane did miss an opportunity to increase its lead but a 27-yard field goal attempt from Mike Senior sailed wide right early in the second period.

The Centurions struggled on their first possession but, behind a steady diet of rushes from Tallent and Gholson that were reminiscent of the glory days of another great Rome State backfield duo in Christian Trophy winning backs Gus Thompson and Chet Donelson, eventually wore down the St Blane defense. A trio of long runs from Tallent set up the first Rome State score, a 2 yard pass from Bob Burnett to Roy Dowdy and just four minutes later a Fighting Saints fumble gave Rome State terrific field position which was cashed in on thanks to Gholson's 1 yard plunge over the line to put the Centurions ahead 14-7 at the break. George Clampitt would round out the scoring with the only points of the second half coming on his 30-yard field goal for Rome State.

The win runs Rome State's record to 5-0 and returns the Centurions to the top five in the college football rankings for the first time since 1951. With none of their final four opponents (McKinney State, Wisconsin Catholic, Eastern Oklahoma and Annapolis Maritime) sporting a record currently over .500 there is plenty of talk about the Centurions perhaps winning their first national title since 1945.

*** No Changes At The Top ***

Rome State climbing to fifth was the only change this week at the top of the polls. Number one ranked Cumberland was idle as the 6-0 Explorers prepare for a trip to Louisiana and a meeting with Deep South Conference for Bayou State (3-3) next Saturday. Georgia Baptist held strong at number two after the 6-0 Gators had little trouble with a road win in Utah, topping Cache Valley 38-10. The Gators will face a stiff test next Saturday as they return to conference play and will host 9th ranked Western Florida (5-1). The Wolves downed in-state rival Miami State 20-7 on Saturday.

Third ranked Portland Tech used its overpowering ground game to handle Boulder State with ease in a torrential rain storm in the Pacific Northwest. Seniors Chris Moore and Barney Kaiser each surpassed 150 yards rushing in what ended up as a 38-0 rout for the 6-0 Magpies. Dick Bruns rushed for 5 touchdowns as #4 Texas Gulf Coast rolled over Valley State 53-10.

Other scores of note included Central Ohio (5-1) clobbering local rival Queen City 79-7 as Dan Crocker rushed for 285 yards and five touchdowns to lead the Aviators. Commonwealth Catholic, American Atlantic and Potomac College and Commonwealth Catholic each remained unbeaten at 6-0. The Knights beat College of San Diego 27-3 while the two Atlantic schools, both called the Pelicans, each scored 23 points Saturday: American Atlantic with a 23-13 victory over Boston State while Potomac College dumped Eastern State 23-7. Noble Jones College fell for the second week in a row as the Colonels, who had been ranked in the top five a couple of weeks ago, were upended at Thompson Field 16-10 by Detroit City College.

SHAMROCKS, VALIANTS SWAP PROSPECTS

The New York Shamrocks and Montreal Valiants completed a swap of junior age players that saw the Valiants acquire last year's first overall draft pick. That would be highly touted goaltender Al Ferguson who spent last season with the CAHA's Hull Hawks. In return, the Shamrocks receive a pair of 19-year-olds in defenseman Pete Carmichael and goaltender J.R. Boisvert. They duo were Montreal's second and third round selections in the NAHC draft a couple of months ago.

The decision by New York to part ways with Ferguson is surprising to say the least. The Ancaster, ON., native is still only 20 and has some maturing to do but he was expected to be the replacement for longtime Shamrocks star Alex Sorrell, a two-time Juneau Trophy winner, who announced his retirement over the summer. Ferguson was likely not ready to step into the number one role but might have pushed longtime Shamrocks backup netminder Daniel Duco for playing time and clearly would have been the long-term solution between the pipes in New York.

Instead, the Shamrocks seem to now have major issues in net and it is hard to imagine Duco being the goalie that would lead the long struggling franchise- New York has made the playoffs just once in the past decade- back to respectability.

The return for trading a potential franchise goaltender was underwhelming. Boisvert has started each of the past three seasons for the Kitchener Roosters and played 31 games in the CAHA as a 16-year-old which is quite an impressive feat in a loop dominated by 19 and 20 year old players. However, scouts are not overwhelmed by his pro potential and he was selected 16th by Montreal last month, being the best of what was considered a very weak draft for goalies. Carmichael, taken in the second round 10th overall in the most recent NAHC draft, may turn out to be a very good defensive-minded rearguard. He had 15 points in 57 games for Sherbrooke last season. The Shamrocks will need Carmichael to develop into a solid pro otherwise this may be looked back at as one of the worst trades made by an often bumbling New York management over the past decade.

The deal likely means Ferguson remains in junior as while there was a strong chance he would crack the New York lineup as a backup goaltender, there is very little likelihood that happens in Montreal where the Valiants have two outstanding netminders in 33-year-old Nathan Bannister and 30-year-old Tim Burrows. Bannister is a three-time Juneau Trophy winner including last season and Bannister would quite likely be the starter with at least four of the other five NAHC teams. It does give the Vals the luxury of bringing Ferguson along slowly and perhaps ensuring he maximizes his development, something that might not have happened in the Big Apple.

MOTORS FIND NEW COACH

The surprising retirement due to health reasons of Badger Rigney had left the Detroit Motors struggling to find a replacement for their legendary coach but they hope they found the right man in former Detroit defenseman Harry Remington.

The 38-year-old has spent the past two seasons coaching senior hockey in Western Canada following a nine-year career patrolling the Motors blueline during which time he played in 476 NAHC games and was a member of three Challenge Cup winning teams. A hard-working player who commanded the respect of teammates and foes alike, Remington was drafted by Detroit in 1944 but it took him six years in the minors before he made his NAHC debut in the fall of 1950. His entire NAHC career was spent playing for Rigney coached teams and he calls the former Detroit coach his mentor.

Rigney, 65, led the Motors thru the franchises most successful era, winning 5 Challenge Cups in his 14 years at the helm of the club. His 497 regular season coaching wins are the most among modern era bench bosses and his 5 Cup wins are tied with former Detroit and Toronto coach Jack Barrell along with legendary Boston coach Max Dewar for the most coaching titles since 1940.

Mr. 163: Eagle Slugger Appears in All Scheduled Games -- And then One

When the FABL season expanded to 162 games, it was almost a guarantee that a new FABL games played record would be set. What wasn't expected is that the number of games would be 163.

During the first 162 games of the season, two first basemen managed to appear in all 162, but since the Pioneers slumped before their sweep and the Eagles looked like they couldn't lose, one of those two first basemen got to set the game record on his own. With an amount that would be hard to break in normal circumstances, the second year slugger ended up starting 160 of the 163 of the Eagles games this season. Fighting through injury to make almost every appearance, the now 21-year-old hit an outstanding .300/.393/.566 (151 OPS+) with 34 doubles, 14 triples, 34 homers, 128 RBIs, 115 runs, and 98 walks. Clearly the extra work did little to limit his offensive production, and he rewarded his medical staff for the faith they put in him to play through three injuries.

In the Continental, Cougar first basemen Gene Case appeared in all 162 games, so while he won't get a share of the FABL, he'll get to hold the Continental games record for the time being. A third year lefty, Case started 157 of the Cougars 162 games, each time coming on as a pinch hitter when he got the rare day out of the starting lineup. A few years older at 25, he took full advantage of his playing time, slashing .284/.388/.535 (144 OPS+) with 26 doubles, 9 triples, 34 homers, 108 RBIs, 108 runs, and 98 walks. Somewhat similar numbers to Whaley, the main difference was the 19 steals, but both young sluggers are skilled when it comes to walking, producing runs, and picking up bases. Expect both to make a push for 162 next year, while other's try to join the exclusive club.

*** Remembering Mr. 161 ***

13 players appeared in 161 games this season, and now 41 of the top 42 most games played in a season have come in 1963. The 42nd? That came exactly 40 years ago.

Now if you're thinking, "wait, didn't the season used to be 154 games? How could someone else get so many games?"

As it seems is the answer often: FABL's scheduling quirks.

Back in 1913, there was a little known outfielder named Paul McDowell who played for the St. Louis Pioneers. Debuting in 1908, he started 147 of his 148 appearances, hitting a poor .196/.256/.257 (76 OPS+) in 620 PAs, but with excellent center field defense (16.1 ZR, 1.031 EFF) he still put together a 3 WAR season. Looking for a better bat, he was sent down to the minors, making a return as a bench bat in 1912. In 1913, he reclaimed the starting center field job, paving the way for a historic feat little may remember.

As we saw this year with the Pioneers, it's not all that often where FABL teams will have large discrepancies between games played during the beginning and middle of the season. This year, the Pioneers were behind the rest of the league, playing very few games early in the season, which was the opposite of the 1913 Pioneers. They had a ton of games early and often, and the elite defender started nearly all of them. By July 13th, he started all 86 of his appearances, hitting a respectable .207/.269/.365 (87 OPS+) once you factor in his excellent defense. But on a team battling for last place they didn't really need a glove first outfieler.

I'm not sure the Keystones did either, they'd be competing with the Pioneers, but they parted with Rudy Travers, a young infielder they just drafted in the 7th round the season before, to acquire the gifted gloveman McDowell. Placed in center again, McDowell started all his appearances for the Keystones, who were way behind the Pioneers in terms of games played. St. Louis had just 67 games left on the year, while McDowell played in each of the Keystones remaining 75 games. It was awful, McDowell hit just .192/.239/.303 (60 OPS+), but he did something no one has ever done before:

Appear in more then 154 games.

In fact, the Keystones played 2 fewer games then the Pioneers and 3 fewer then the first place Eagles, so there was a chance for McDowell to get into more games. Instead, he appeared in 161 games, seven more then you'd expect the schedule to allow, and a record that little knew or even realize was ready to be broken this season. In the 49 seasons after McDowell's, the most managed was 157, and perhaps it was because McDowell was no longer in the league. Banished to the minors in 1914 he was cut in 1915 after winning a minor league title, and since he was unsigned at 35, the historical footnote retired after the 1916 season.

Whaley's record isn't expected to last 50 years, it will be easier for someone to get 163 or even 164 now compared to the jump from 154 to 161, but it's still an impressive feat in its own right. Between a pennant race, injuries, and a rise in overall quality, Whaley's feat may have been more impressive, but FABL's scheduling quirk gave us an unlikely hero and a fun story as we look to entertain ourselves during the long and cold offseason.

Right after the season ended, the Miners and Cannons linked up for a minor trade. Cincinnati picked up AAA infielder Ray Fowler, a former 2nd Round pick, for a pair of minor leaguers. Despite a great arm, Fowler doesn't play third, and is more minor league filler then anything else. They didn't have to give up much, shipping off journeyman righty Jack Fricke and recent 13th Rounder Rufe Wallace.
Some were expected, but many notable FABL players called it quits. John Fast (.216, 1, 12), Ralph Johnson (.214, 1), Billy Forbes (.222), Sal Nigro (.195, 2, 11), Jim Urquhart (.235, 1, 7, 3), and Paul Watson (.244, 5, 29, 2) are among the most well known.
In Johnson's case, Detroit announced his #90 would be retired. "The Cornhusker Crusher" was once among the top players in the game, arguably better in Brooklyn, but he did appear in 1,019 games for Detroit. Winning a Whitney and WCS in his first full season with the Dynamos, he ended up with 4-Titles as a Dynamo, slashing .303/.376/.485 (136 OPS+) with 165 doubles, 33 triples, 119 homers, 495 RBIs, 544 runs, and 376 walks.
A lot of teams have coaching spots to fill, including a few managers. Boston decided to let second year manager Bill Freeman go, making the longtime bench coach one of the more interesting candidates available. The Cannons, Millers, Sailors, and Wranglers are looking to remake nearly their whole staff, while the Foresters and Saints are in need of managers as well. FABL teams tend to go through managers quickly, but it is unusual to see seven teams in need of a new skipper.
Always active in the trade market, the Chicago Cougars are looking to add to their squad. A 94-win season is their best since they won the 1941 pennant, and their .580 win percentage is best since 1946.

The Week That Was
Current events from the week ending 10/20/1963

The Aden Emergency started in Radfan, South Yemen, as a revolution against British colonial rule. Backed by the United Arab Republic (Egypt), the rebels were determined to drive the British out of Aden (where they maintained military bases) and the rest of South Yemen (Federation and Protectorate of South Arabia).
North American Aviation completed work on the first full-scale prototype paraglider wing for the Paraglider Landing System Program and shipped it to Ames Research Center for wind tunnel tests. Initially unsuccessful, the paraglider wing passed all tests by December. NASA's Mission Planning Coordination Group concluded that making docking rendezvous at first apogee should be provided in the mission plan for all Agena rendezvous flights.
Park Chung-hee won South Korea's presidential election. The former Republic of Korea Army general, who had led a military coup in 1961, had resigned from the military to run as a civilian. Park narrowly defeated challenger Yun Bo-seon, with 4,702,640 votes (46.6%) compared to Yun's 4,546,614 (45.1%).
Meeting at Vatican City, the Vatican ecumenical council voted overwhelmingly to allow local languages to be used in place of Latin in Roman Catholic sacraments, including those for baptism, confirmation, confession and extreme unction. Only 35 of the 2,242 prelates voted against the measure. The day before, a much broader proposal had failed to get a two-thirds plus one majority, by a margin of 78 votes.
Konrad Adenauer, who had been Chancellor of West Germany since the creation of that nation in 1949, presented his letter of resignation to West German President Heinrich Lübke. The 87-year-old Adenauer had been preparing for retirement for several months, before announcing the date on October 11.
At the United Nations, the United States and the Soviet Union both stated that they were in agreement with a UN Resolution to ban the placement of nuclear bombs and other weapons of mass destruction in outer space. Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko and American Ambassador to the U.N. Adlai Stevenson both said that they would vote in favor of the declaration, thus bypassing the need for the signing of a treaty between the two nations
Ludwig Erhard was sworn in as the new Chancellor of West Germany, after the Bundestag voted 279–180 to elect him as the successor to Konrad Adenauer. Erhard had served as West Germany's Economics Minister since 1949, when the nation had been created, and was "regarded as the father of West Germany's post-war economic miracle".
The record for a flight from Tokyo to London was cut by more than half after a U.S. Air Force B-58 Hustler bomber landed at 2:34 p.m. (local time) in London after covering the 8,028-mile (12,920 km) journey in eight hours and 35 minutes. The previous mark had been set in 1955 by a British Canberra jet, which had covered the same distance in 17 hours and 42 minutes. Piloted by USAF Major Sidney G. Kubesch, the American plane also set a new record for the longest supersonic flight in history, covering the 3,524 miles (5,671 km) between Tokyo and Anchorage, Alaska, in three hours and 10 minutes, at an average speed of 1,116 miles per hour (1,796 km/h). Aerial refueling was done five times while the jet was in flight.
The first pair of "Vela" satellites, designed to detect nuclear bomb detonations on Earth, were launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 9:33 p.m. The satellites were placed in an orbit 60,000 miles (97,000 km) above the Earth's surface, in order to verify compliance with the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty that had recently gone into effect.
In the United States, the Nickel Plate Road, the Wabash Railroad and several smaller carriers were merged with the more profitable Norfolk & Western (N&W) Railway.
In Stockholm, two Britons (Alan Lloyd Hodgkin and Andrew Fielding Huxley) and an Australian (John Carew Eccles) were announced as winners of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine "for their discoveries concerning the ionic mechanisms involved in excitation and inhibition in the peripheral and central portions of the nerve cell membrane".
NASA Astronaut Group 3 was introduced at a press conference in Houston. This latest addition to the astronaut corps brought to 30 the total number assigned to NASA's astronaut training center. Of the group of 14 men, described as "the most highly educated" of the three groups, two were civilians. The 14 men were selected from approximately 500 military and 225 civilian applicants who had responded to NASA's request for volunteers early in May 1963.
Félicette became the first cat sent into outer space, in a 15-minute sub-orbital flight that reached an altitude of 97 miles (156 km). After the USSR and the U.S. had successfully launched dogs and monkeys into space, France sent Félicette up in a rocket from its desert rocket base at Hammaguir in Algeria. The capsule then parachuted back to the desert and the cat was safely recovered.
Queen Elizabeth II met with Harold Macmillan, who had tendered his resignation as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom earlier that morning, to discuss his recommendations for a successor. Macmillan was a patient at the King Edward VII Hospital for Officers, recovering from surgery. Macmillan endorsed Alec Douglas-Home as the most acceptable choice to form a new government. Macmillan had resigned after having been incorrectly diagnosed with inoperable prostate cancer. He later charged that he had been hounded from office by a backbench minority, "a band that in the end does not amount to more than 15 or 20 at the most".
A day later, Buckingham Palace announced that Queen Elizabeth had formally invited the 14th Earl of Home to succeed Harold Macmillan as the new Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. He was the first member of the nobility since Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury (1895–1902), to serve as prime minister, and "the only man in modern times to do so without a seat in either house of Parliament",[84] having resigned from the House of Lords to run as a candidate for a by-election to the House of Commons.
Constance Worth (stage name for Enid Joyce Howarth), died at 51. The Australian film actress was known for The Squatter's Daughter (as Jocelyn Howarth in 1933 in Australia) and The Wages of Sin (as Constance Worth in 1938 in the U.S.). Her death from anemia was reportedly "surrounded by unhappy circumstances."
In the East German general election, voters voted in favor of the list of 434 candidates for the 434 seats listed on the ballot by the National Front. While the 434 candidates for the Volkskammer were nominally from nine different political parties, the choice was limited to approving or rejecting the National Front list in its entirety. In addition, starting with the 1963 election, the SED Party always held 110 seats in parliament; when the number of available was increased to 500, the SED had a similar proportion, 127 seats. Of the 11,533,859 votes cast, 99.95% were in favor of the list, while 0.05%-- less than 6,000—were no votes.
Diana Churchill, 54, eldest daughter of British statesman Sir Winston Churchill and Clementine Churchill, died from an overdose of barbiturates.

04-23-2025, 12:53 PM	#1116
ayaghmour2 Hall Of Famer Join Date: Mar 2018 Posts: 3,010	October 20th, 1963 OCTOBER 13, 1963 WILDCATS EXTEND WINNING STREAK TO FOUR Thanks to the most prolific passing game in the league the Chicago Wildcats are suddenly the hottest team in the American Football Association. Chicago struggled through a very slow September, dropping each of their first three games, but they have rebounded nicely with four straight victories. The latest was a 44-23 thumping of a Detroit Maroons club that has also had a turn around. The Maroons won their first three games of the season but have fallen apart recently with three straight losses including Sunday's embarrassment at Thompson Field. The Wildcats passing game, led by third year starter Chip Fitch, has been on fire in recent weeks. Fitch leads the league by a wide margin in passing yards and his two favourite targets, Jim O'Hearn and Denny Haywood, are one-two in receiving yardage. Fitch passed for 249 yards against Detroit and after throwing three scoring passes Sunday, leads the league with 11 touchdown tosses. Add in the steady running of dependable veteran George Hornback to keep defenses honest and it is easy to see why opposing teams are struggling to contain the Chicago offense. Chicago is still looking up at both Houston and St Louis in the West Division standings. The Drillers, surprise participants in the league title game a year ago in just their second season of existence, dumped San Francisco 27-7 Sunday to improve to 4-2, a half game up on Chicago. St Louis leads the way as the 5-2 Ramblers avenged their loss in Kansas City last Sunday by beating the Cowboys 27-3 in the rematch in St Louis. Washington scored 17 unanswered points in the second half to rally past visiting Cleveland 20-13 and take over top spot in the East Division. Defending AFA champion Boston is also in the mix after the Americans outscored Philadelphia 20-13 to run their record to 4-3. In other action the New York Stars held off Pittsburgh 28-20 while the Los Angeles Tigers nearly blew a 17-0 halftime lead but outlasted Buffalo 20-19 thanks to a 39-yard fourth quarter field goal from Bill Beaver. CENTURIONS TALLENT TOO MUCH FOR ST BLANE Rome State climbed over perhaps its biggest hurdle in a bid to bring the Centurions back to the status the military academy enjoyed on the gridiron in the years during and shortly after World War II. The sophomore backfield duo of Don Tallent and Paul Gholson were simply too much for St. Blane to handle as they pair combined for 232 yards rushing in leading the Centurions to a 17-7 victory before a sold-out crowd at New York's Gotham Stadium. St Blane struck first as the Fighting Saints, led by a stellar halfback of their own in Floyd Hale, methodically marched 68 yards on a 19-play drive that took up nearly eight minutes to start the opening quarter. It culminated in a 5 yard Hale touchdown run but that would be all the points the Fighting Saints would accumulate on the afternoon. St Blane did miss an opportunity to increase its lead but a 27-yard field goal attempt from Mike Senior sailed wide right early in the second period. The Centurions struggled on their first possession but, behind a steady diet of rushes from Tallent and Gholson that were reminiscent of the glory days of another great Rome State backfield duo in Christian Trophy winning backs Gus Thompson and Chet Donelson, eventually wore down the St Blane defense. A trio of long runs from Tallent set up the first Rome State score, a 2 yard pass from Bob Burnett to Roy Dowdy and just four minutes later a Fighting Saints fumble gave Rome State terrific field position which was cashed in on thanks to Gholson's 1 yard plunge over the line to put the Centurions ahead 14-7 at the break. George Clampitt would round out the scoring with the only points of the second half coming on his 30-yard field goal for Rome State. The win runs Rome State's record to 5-0 and returns the Centurions to the top five in the college football rankings for the first time since 1951. With none of their final four opponents (McKinney State, Wisconsin Catholic, Eastern Oklahoma and Annapolis Maritime) sporting a record currently over .500 there is plenty of talk about the Centurions perhaps winning their first national title since 1945. * No Changes At The Top * Rome State climbing to fifth was the only change this week at the top of the polls. Number one ranked Cumberland was idle as the 6-0 Explorers prepare for a trip to Louisiana and a meeting with Deep South Conference for Bayou State (3-3) next Saturday. Georgia Baptist held strong at number two after the 6-0 Gators had little trouble with a road win in Utah, topping Cache Valley 38-10. The Gators will face a stiff test next Saturday as they return to conference play and will host 9th ranked Western Florida (5-1). The Wolves downed in-state rival Miami State 20-7 on Saturday. Third ranked Portland Tech used its overpowering ground game to handle Boulder State with ease in a torrential rain storm in the Pacific Northwest. Seniors Chris Moore and Barney Kaiser each surpassed 150 yards rushing in what ended up as a 38-0 rout for the 6-0 Magpies. Dick Bruns rushed for 5 touchdowns as #4 Texas Gulf Coast rolled over Valley State 53-10. Other scores of note included Central Ohio (5-1) clobbering local rival Queen City 79-7 as Dan Crocker rushed for 285 yards and five touchdowns to lead the Aviators. Commonwealth Catholic, American Atlantic and Potomac College and Commonwealth Catholic each remained unbeaten at 6-0. The Knights beat College of San Diego 27-3 while the two Atlantic schools, both called the Pelicans, each scored 23 points Saturday: American Atlantic with a 23-13 victory over Boston State while Potomac College dumped Eastern State 23-7. Noble Jones College fell for the second week in a row as the Colonels, who had been ranked in the top five a couple of weeks ago, were upended at Thompson Field 16-10 by Detroit City College. SHAMROCKS, VALIANTS SWAP PROSPECTS The New York Shamrocks and Montreal Valiants completed a swap of junior age players that saw the Valiants acquire last year's first overall draft pick. That would be highly touted goaltender Al Ferguson who spent last season with the CAHA's Hull Hawks. In return, the Shamrocks receive a pair of 19-year-olds in defenseman Pete Carmichael and goaltender J.R. Boisvert. They duo were Montreal's second and third round selections in the NAHC draft a couple of months ago. The decision by New York to part ways with Ferguson is surprising to say the least. The Ancaster, ON., native is still only 20 and has some maturing to do but he was expected to be the replacement for longtime Shamrocks star Alex Sorrell, a two-time Juneau Trophy winner, who announced his retirement over the summer. Ferguson was likely not ready to step into the number one role but might have pushed longtime Shamrocks backup netminder Daniel Duco for playing time and clearly would have been the long-term solution between the pipes in New York. Instead, the Shamrocks seem to now have major issues in net and it is hard to imagine Duco being the goalie that would lead the long struggling franchise- New York has made the playoffs just once in the past decade- back to respectability. The return for trading a potential franchise goaltender was underwhelming. Boisvert has started each of the past three seasons for the Kitchener Roosters and played 31 games in the CAHA as a 16-year-old which is quite an impressive feat in a loop dominated by 19 and 20 year old players. However, scouts are not overwhelmed by his pro potential and he was selected 16th by Montreal last month, being the best of what was considered a very weak draft for goalies. Carmichael, taken in the second round 10th overall in the most recent NAHC draft, may turn out to be a very good defensive-minded rearguard. He had 15 points in 57 games for Sherbrooke last season. The Shamrocks will need Carmichael to develop into a solid pro otherwise this may be looked back at as one of the worst trades made by an often bumbling New York management over the past decade. The deal likely means Ferguson remains in junior as while there was a strong chance he would crack the New York lineup as a backup goaltender, there is very little likelihood that happens in Montreal where the Valiants have two outstanding netminders in 33-year-old Nathan Bannister and 30-year-old Tim Burrows. Bannister is a three-time Juneau Trophy winner including last season and Bannister would quite likely be the starter with at least four of the other five NAHC teams. It does give the Vals the luxury of bringing Ferguson along slowly and perhaps ensuring he maximizes his development, something that might not have happened in the Big Apple. MOTORS FIND NEW COACH The surprising retirement due to health reasons of Badger Rigney had left the Detroit Motors struggling to find a replacement for their legendary coach but they hope they found the right man in former Detroit defenseman Harry Remington. The 38-year-old has spent the past two seasons coaching senior hockey in Western Canada following a nine-year career patrolling the Motors blueline during which time he played in 476 NAHC games and was a member of three Challenge Cup winning teams. A hard-working player who commanded the respect of teammates and foes alike, Remington was drafted by Detroit in 1944 but it took him six years in the minors before he made his NAHC debut in the fall of 1950. His entire NAHC career was spent playing for Rigney coached teams and he calls the former Detroit coach his mentor. Rigney, 65, led the Motors thru the franchises most successful era, winning 5 Challenge Cups in his 14 years at the helm of the club. His 497 regular season coaching wins are the most among modern era bench bosses and his 5 Cup wins are tied with former Detroit and Toronto coach Jack Barrell along with legendary Boston coach Max Dewar for the most coaching titles since 1940. Mr. 163: Eagle Slugger Appears in All Scheduled Games -- And then One When the FABL season expanded to 162 games, it was almost a guarantee that a new FABL games played record would be set. What wasn't expected is that the number of games would be 163. During the first 162 games of the season, two first basemen managed to appear in all 162, but since the Pioneers slumped before their sweep and the Eagles looked like they couldn't lose, one of those two first basemen got to set the game record on his own. With an amount that would be hard to break in normal circumstances, the second year slugger ended up starting 160 of the 163 of the Eagles games this season. Fighting through injury to make almost every appearance, the now 21-year-old hit an outstanding .300/.393/.566 (151 OPS+) with 34 doubles, 14 triples, 34 homers, 128 RBIs, 115 runs, and 98 walks. Clearly the extra work did little to limit his offensive production, and he rewarded his medical staff for the faith they put in him to play through three injuries. In the Continental, Cougar first basemen Gene Case appeared in all 162 games, so while he won't get a share of the FABL, he'll get to hold the Continental games record for the time being. A third year lefty, Case started 157 of the Cougars 162 games, each time coming on as a pinch hitter when he got the rare day out of the starting lineup. A few years older at 25, he took full advantage of his playing time, slashing .284/.388/.535 (144 OPS+) with 26 doubles, 9 triples, 34 homers, 108 RBIs, 108 runs, and 98 walks. Somewhat similar numbers to Whaley, the main difference was the 19 steals, but both young sluggers are skilled when it comes to walking, producing runs, and picking up bases. Expect both to make a push for 162 next year, while other's try to join the exclusive club. * Remembering Mr. 161 * 13 players appeared in 161 games this season, and now 41 of the top 42 most games played in a season have come in 1963. The 42nd? That came exactly 40 years ago. Now if you're thinking, "wait, didn't the season used to be 154 games? How could someone else get so many games?" As it seems is the answer often: FABL's scheduling quirks. Back in 1913, there was a little known outfielder named Paul McDowell who played for the St. Louis Pioneers. Debuting in 1908, he started 147 of his 148 appearances, hitting a poor .196/.256/.257 (76 OPS+) in 620 PAs, but with excellent center field defense (16.1 ZR, 1.031 EFF) he still put together a 3 WAR season. Looking for a better bat, he was sent down to the minors, making a return as a bench bat in 1912. In 1913, he reclaimed the starting center field job, paving the way for a historic feat little may remember. As we saw this year with the Pioneers, it's not all that often where FABL teams will have large discrepancies between games played during the beginning and middle of the season. This year, the Pioneers were behind the rest of the league, playing very few games early in the season, which was the opposite of the 1913 Pioneers. They had a ton of games early and often, and the elite defender started nearly all of them. By July 13th, he started all 86 of his appearances, hitting a respectable .207/.269/.365 (87 OPS+) once you factor in his excellent defense. But on a team battling for last place they didn't really need a glove first outfieler. I'm not sure the Keystones did either, they'd be competing with the Pioneers, but they parted with Rudy Travers, a young infielder they just drafted in the 7th round the season before, to acquire the gifted gloveman McDowell. Placed in center again, McDowell started all his appearances for the Keystones, who were way behind the Pioneers in terms of games played. St. Louis had just 67 games left on the year, while McDowell played in each of the Keystones remaining 75 games. It was awful, McDowell hit just .192/.239/.303 (60 OPS+), but he did something no one has ever done before: Appear in more then 154 games. In fact, the Keystones played 2 fewer games then the Pioneers and 3 fewer then the first place Eagles, so there was a chance for McDowell to get into more games. Instead, he appeared in 161 games, seven more then you'd expect the schedule to allow, and a record that little knew or even realize was ready to be broken this season. In the 49 seasons after McDowell's, the most managed was 157, and perhaps it was because McDowell was no longer in the league. Banished to the minors in 1914 he was cut in 1915 after winning a minor league title, and since he was unsigned at 35, the historical footnote retired after the 1916 season. Whaley's record isn't expected to last 50 years, it will be easier for someone to get 163 or even 164 now compared to the jump from 154 to 161, but it's still an impressive feat in its own right. Between a pennant race, injuries, and a rise in overall quality, Whaley's feat may have been more impressive, but FABL's scheduling quirk gave us an unlikely hero and a fun story as we look to entertain ourselves during the long and cold offseason. Right after the season ended, the Miners and Cannons linked up for a minor trade. Cincinnati picked up AAA infielder Ray Fowler, a former 2nd Round pick, for a pair of minor leaguers. Despite a great arm, Fowler doesn't play third, and is more minor league filler then anything else. They didn't have to give up much, shipping off journeyman righty Jack Fricke and recent 13th Rounder Rufe Wallace. Some were expected, but many notable FABL players called it quits. John Fast (.216, 1, 12), Ralph Johnson (.214, 1), Billy Forbes (.222), Sal Nigro (.195, 2, 11), Jim Urquhart (.235, 1, 7, 3), and Paul Watson (.244, 5, 29, 2) are among the most well known. In Johnson's case, Detroit announced his #90 would be retired. "The Cornhusker Crusher" was once among the top players in the game, arguably better in Brooklyn, but he did appear in 1,019 games for Detroit. Winning a Whitney and WCS in his first full season with the Dynamos, he ended up with 4-Titles as a Dynamo, slashing .303/.376/.485 (136 OPS+) with 165 doubles, 33 triples, 119 homers, 495 RBIs, 544 runs, and 376 walks. A lot of teams have coaching spots to fill, including a few managers. Boston decided to let second year manager Bill Freeman go, making the longtime bench coach one of the more interesting candidates available. The Cannons, Millers, Sailors, and Wranglers are looking to remake nearly their whole staff, while the Foresters and Saints are in need of managers as well. FABL teams tend to go through managers quickly, but it is unusual to see seven teams in need of a new skipper. Always active in the trade market, the Chicago Cougars are looking to add to their squad. A 94-win season is their best since they won the 1941 pennant, and their .580 win percentage is best since 1946. The Week That Was Current events from the week ending 10/20/1963 The Aden Emergency started in Radfan, South Yemen, as a revolution against British colonial rule. Backed by the United Arab Republic (Egypt), the rebels were determined to drive the British out of Aden (where they maintained military bases) and the rest of South Yemen (Federation and Protectorate of South Arabia). North American Aviation completed work on the first full-scale prototype paraglider wing for the Paraglider Landing System Program and shipped it to Ames Research Center for wind tunnel tests. Initially unsuccessful, the paraglider wing passed all tests by December. NASA's Mission Planning Coordination Group concluded that making docking rendezvous at first apogee should be provided in the mission plan for all Agena rendezvous flights. Park Chung-hee won South Korea's presidential election. The former Republic of Korea Army general, who had led a military coup in 1961, had resigned from the military to run as a civilian. Park narrowly defeated challenger Yun Bo-seon, with 4,702,640 votes (46.6%) compared to Yun's 4,546,614 (45.1%). Meeting at Vatican City, the Vatican ecumenical council voted overwhelmingly to allow local languages to be used in place of Latin in Roman Catholic sacraments, including those for baptism, confirmation, confession and extreme unction. Only 35 of the 2,242 prelates voted against the measure. The day before, a much broader proposal had failed to get a two-thirds plus one majority, by a margin of 78 votes. Konrad Adenauer, who had been Chancellor of West Germany since the creation of that nation in 1949, presented his letter of resignation to West German President Heinrich Lübke. The 87-year-old Adenauer had been preparing for retirement for several months, before announcing the date on October 11. At the United Nations, the United States and the Soviet Union both stated that they were in agreement with a UN Resolution to ban the placement of nuclear bombs and other weapons of mass destruction in outer space. Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko and American Ambassador to the U.N. Adlai Stevenson both said that they would vote in favor of the declaration, thus bypassing the need for the signing of a treaty between the two nations Ludwig Erhard was sworn in as the new Chancellor of West Germany, after the Bundestag voted 279–180 to elect him as the successor to Konrad Adenauer. Erhard had served as West Germany's Economics Minister since 1949, when the nation had been created, and was "regarded as the father of West Germany's post-war economic miracle". The record for a flight from Tokyo to London was cut by more than half after a U.S. Air Force B-58 Hustler bomber landed at 2:34 p.m. (local time) in London after covering the 8,028-mile (12,920 km) journey in eight hours and 35 minutes. The previous mark had been set in 1955 by a British Canberra jet, which had covered the same distance in 17 hours and 42 minutes. Piloted by USAF Major Sidney G. Kubesch, the American plane also set a new record for the longest supersonic flight in history, covering the 3,524 miles (5,671 km) between Tokyo and Anchorage, Alaska, in three hours and 10 minutes, at an average speed of 1,116 miles per hour (1,796 km/h). Aerial refueling was done five times while the jet was in flight. The first pair of "Vela" satellites, designed to detect nuclear bomb detonations on Earth, were launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 9:33 p.m. The satellites were placed in an orbit 60,000 miles (97,000 km) above the Earth's surface, in order to verify compliance with the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty that had recently gone into effect. In the United States, the Nickel Plate Road, the Wabash Railroad and several smaller carriers were merged with the more profitable Norfolk & Western (N&W) Railway. In Stockholm, two Britons (Alan Lloyd Hodgkin and Andrew Fielding Huxley) and an Australian (John Carew Eccles) were announced as winners of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine "for their discoveries concerning the ionic mechanisms involved in excitation and inhibition in the peripheral and central portions of the nerve cell membrane". NASA Astronaut Group 3 was introduced at a press conference in Houston. This latest addition to the astronaut corps brought to 30 the total number assigned to NASA's astronaut training center. Of the group of 14 men, described as "the most highly educated" of the three groups, two were civilians. The 14 men were selected from approximately 500 military and 225 civilian applicants who had responded to NASA's request for volunteers early in May 1963. Félicette became the first cat sent into outer space, in a 15-minute sub-orbital flight that reached an altitude of 97 miles (156 km). After the USSR and the U.S. had successfully launched dogs and monkeys into space, France sent Félicette up in a rocket from its desert rocket base at Hammaguir in Algeria. The capsule then parachuted back to the desert and the cat was safely recovered. Queen Elizabeth II met with Harold Macmillan, who had tendered his resignation as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom earlier that morning, to discuss his recommendations for a successor. Macmillan was a patient at the King Edward VII Hospital for Officers, recovering from surgery. Macmillan endorsed Alec Douglas-Home as the most acceptable choice to form a new government. Macmillan had resigned after having been incorrectly diagnosed with inoperable prostate cancer. He later charged that he had been hounded from office by a backbench minority, "a band that in the end does not amount to more than 15 or 20 at the most". A day later, Buckingham Palace announced that Queen Elizabeth had formally invited the 14th Earl of Home to succeed Harold Macmillan as the new Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. He was the first member of the nobility since Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury (1895–1902), to serve as prime minister, and "the only man in modern times to do so without a seat in either house of Parliament",[84] having resigned from the House of Lords to run as a candidate for a by-election to the House of Commons. Constance Worth (stage name for Enid Joyce Howarth), died at 51. The Australian film actress was known for The Squatter's Daughter (as Jocelyn Howarth in 1933 in Australia) and The Wages of Sin (as Constance Worth in 1938 in the U.S.). Her death from anemia was reportedly "surrounded by unhappy circumstances." In the East German general election, voters voted in favor of the list of 434 candidates for the 434 seats listed on the ballot by the National Front. While the 434 candidates for the Volkskammer were nominally from nine different political parties, the choice was limited to approving or rejecting the National Front list in its entirety. In addition, starting with the 1963 election, the SED Party always held 110 seats in parliament; when the number of available was increased to 500, the SED had a similar proportion, 127 seats. Of the 11,533,859 votes cast, 99.95% were in favor of the list, while 0.05%-- less than 6,000—were no votes. Diana Churchill, 54, eldest daughter of British statesman Sir Winston Churchill and Clementine Churchill, died from an overdose of barbiturates.