00:00so anyone who lived in Manhattan or went to school in Manhattan when they were in
00:28their early 20s always had a favorite pub they had a favorite bar downtown it just seemed like
00:33everybody had one mine was Flannery's mine was Flannery's on 14th Street and 7th Avenue and on
00:39June 17th 1994 we were there to watch the Knicks game it was Knicks Rockets it was game five and we
00:46were gonna be there I was I was with the Lardis boys I was with the Bishop Duffy Skip my brother
00:52Anthony and the whole crew was out to watch Knicks Rockets NBA Finals game five so the bar's packed
01:00the energy's crazy we're all underage except my brother but we're you know we're getting served
01:06it happens we're pounding black and tans we're getting loud we're having a great time and then
01:13we see this white Bronco come across the screen and I look around and I look at every TV in the
01:22bar and every TV in the bar has a white Bronco riding across the screen so you could just hear
01:30everybody in the bar yelling what the fuck is this what's going on people are throwing things nobody
01:36can understand what's happening it's Knicks Rockets we're in Manhattan this is the finals what the hell
01:42is this white Bronco well we find out later that 95 million people across the nation are watching Al
01:48Cowlings drive his white Bronco on a slow police chase on a Los Angeles highway as double murder
01:55suspect OJ Simpson is riding in the backseat Simpson of course was charged with the murders of his former
02:00wife Nicole Brown and her friend Ron Goldman June 17th 1994 the events of this day and how sports played
02:08a pivotal role in a dark American chapter of pop culture and the birth of the 24-hour news cycle
02:14are wonderfully portrayed in Brett Morgan's 2010 documentary titled June 17 1994 so it was a very
02:22busy day in sports and we're going to share a few different tickets here from this what we're calling
02:27the day of infamy first it was the FIFA World Cup the it was in in Chicago it was the commencement and
02:35this is what started our day it was the commencement of the FIFA World Cup in which the United States was
02:40hosting for the first time Oprah Winfrey and then President Clinton led the opening ceremony on a
02:46beautiful afternoon in the Windy City the first match of the World Cup following the opening ceremony
02:51Germany took on Bolivia and we have the ticket for this one take a look at this one it's a beautiful
02:56looking ticket this is game one this is the opening of the World Cup so as you can see it has the
03:03World Cup logo on the bottom it has game one what's really cool and in that red portion on the top
03:10it says that at 1 15 p.m was the opening ceremony again that's opening ceremony again 1 15 1 15 p.m
03:17central time and then 2 p.m central time is the kickoff between uh the first match that's kicking
03:24off the World Cup Germany and Bolivia at Soldier Field in Chicago beautiful ticket for a very famous day
03:32uh in America as it turns out to be Germany top Bolivia 1-0 in this contest nice little tidbit here
03:39Jurgen Kleinsmann had the only goal for Germany at the 61st minute and that was enough for the win
03:44Kleinsmann eventually became the coach of the men's soccer team the United States men's national soccer
03:51team in 2011 and he held that position for five years that's an interesting tidbit because he was
03:58the first player ever to score a World Cup goal in North American soil which really interesting there
04:04so yeah during that game in your wildest imaginations you couldn't even foresee the events
04:09that were going to transpire later in Brentwood California uh we should note that later that day
04:14in the Cotton Bowl in Dallas Texas there was also a match between Spain and Korea 2-2 tie that was their
04:22first match in group stage that was the only other World Cup match played on June 17th 1994
04:28turns out it was a real busy day in New York the New York Rangers were holding their ticker tape parade
04:35on the Canyon of Heroes celebrating winning the 1994 Stanley Cup when they defeated the Vancouver Canucks
04:41in a thrilling seven game series four games to three three days earlier it was game seven of the
04:48Stanley Cup and the New York Rangers beating the Canucks three to two for their first Stanley Cup in 54
04:55years and guess what we got the ticket for that this is a really cool one guys this is one of my
05:01favorite tickets that I own this is game seven signed by Mark Messier on the bottom it says let's go
05:08Rangers 1994 SC champs this is a stub uh but this is super super cool Mark Messier as we know scored the
05:18game winning goal in that game uh he had the guarantee earlier to get them there Mark Messier is
05:25everything for Rangers fans who remember uh him back then he once he came to his team uh everything
05:32changed and he was the leader that they needed so super cool ticket here um you know graded authentic
05:39by PSA uh Messier let's go Rangers 1994 Stanley Cup champs that was June 14th 1994 three days before our
05:50day of infamy so again going back to June 17th Ken Griffey Jr. on this day tied Babe Ruth for the most
05:58home runs before June 30th he hit his 30th home run that afternoon that afternoon on June 17th what was
06:05really funny is unceremoniously in Chicago but later that night while Al Cowling's white bronco was
06:12leading police on a slow chase in Los Angeles Frank Thomas hit a home run for the Chicago White Sox and yeah
06:18we got the ticket for that when I when I went to go meet Frank it was it was very funny I walked up I
06:24had this ticket and uh I said I have the ticket from the night where you hit a home run during the OJ
06:30Simpson chase and he laughed hysterically and a crowd formed a bunch of people just wanted to take
06:38a look at it and I said do you mind just writing home run OJ chase state and and that's what he wrote
06:44so Frank Thomas signature across the middle with the number 35 as he does he has a very distinctive
06:49autograph and home run HR OJ chase date June 17th 1994 and I said were you aware of what was happening
07:00during that time and and he wasn't he said the players weren't aware they figured it out when they
07:05got back to the locker room uh so again it was a different time it was 1994 it was before social media
07:12and cell phones so um you know they didn't find out until they went back to the locker rooms and
07:18they turned their tv on and and the reporters came in and everyone started talking about it I talked to
07:23the White Sox public relations department I said did you put any announcements on the jumbotron
07:30or on the big scoreboard and they said they didn't the game wasn't interrupted so unceremoniously
07:37as this is happening in in California uh Frank Thomas it's a home run and nobody really knows
07:43about nobody cares about it it seems so very interesting different uh uh in New York obviously
07:49of course what we spoke about earlier game five of the 1994 NBA finals Knicks Rockets NBC actually
07:56switched its broadcasts to cover the Bronco chase so they switched out like like I said when I was in
08:03Flannery's bar and I see the white Bronco that was with 639 left in the second quarter they just
08:10cut out of the game and go to the white Bronco and in Madison Square Garden they played the chase on the
08:15jumbotron so then with like 340 left in the third quarter and the Knicks leading 59 to 53 they moved the
08:22Knicks coverage to a box in the corner of the screen you know that kind of picture in picture box so that
08:28they could simultaneously show the chase and and they cut off Marv Albert's play-by-play Marv Albert's
08:35play-by-play of the game was swapped out for minute-by-minute reports about the chase it's very
08:40funny like the the NBA finals just took a complete backseat to this so here's a ticket for that one
08:46we're gonna uh we're gonna show you this is this is not my ticket this is my friend Dan Grannis's ticket
08:52uh so he was there with his father you know obviously it's home game three 1994 NBA championship
09:00uh really cool ticket known as you know the OJ chase date and the jumbotron when it's when it's
09:07graded by PSA they put that on the label but uh yeah I was at Flannery's and my friend Dan was there
09:13with his father his father took him to the game rest in peace pop you know really really interesting
09:19day in America and in the world of sports what led to this was OJ's arrest and the trial of the century
09:29and the 24-hour news cycle as we know today and so many things have changed since then um OJ was
09:38acquitted we all know the story is very well documented but um the day of infamy June 17th 1994
09:46OJ Simpson became the most famous fugitive on the planet
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