It’s time for another Flashback Friday and this time we’re heading back in time on October 21st.

Now, if you missed last week’s edition of Flashback Friday which incidentally was our first one, you can find Flashback Friday October 14 by clicking here. We hope you enjoyed it and learned something new. If not, then maybe you were a smarty pants who knew it all anyway, or maybe you didn’t like it, but you enjoy torturing yourself and get off on doing things you don’t enjoy, which would mean you did enjoy it and now I’m opening a whole can of worms. Let’s just get to this week’s Flashback Friday, shall we?

Flashback Friday: October 21st

1964

We start off a little later in time this week as we head back to October 21st of 1964 where Abebe Bikila of Ethiopia managed a world record by running a marathon in 02:12:11.2 (two hours, 12 minutes and 11.2 seconds). Not only did he manage that though, beating British runner basil Heatley by more than four minutes, he did this at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, becoming the first athlete to win an Olympic marathon twice.

Flashback Friday October 21st.: Image of Abebe Bikila of Ethiopia running a marathon.

1973

Let’s jump nine years into the future to October 21st, 1973. It’s Game 7 of the World Series and the Oakland A’s are defending champions. It all comes down to this game to decide who wins it. With the then MVP and future hall of famer Reggie Jackson in their ranks though, was there really any doubt the A’s were going to lose? They beat the New York Mets 5-2 in the end at the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum to successfully retain their title. However, in a shock move, the A’s manager Dick Williams quit immediately afterwards.

1976

Next up we head three years into the future on October 21st 1976, and swap the “ase” to “asket” for this next sport. Yep, it’s basketball time and on this day way back when, the New York Knicks retired a number for the first time ever, but who for? Well, it was none other than the #19 Center and Power Forward, Willis Reed.

Born in Hico, Louisiana, Reed spent his entire professional playing career with the New York Knicks. During his ten years there, he managed to win two NBA Championships. They don’t make them like they used to, that’s for sure.

1984

The Formula 1 season of 1984 is still to this day the most closely contested there has ever been, even with all the theatrics of the 2021 championship that came down to some bad calls and dodgy decisions on the last day. On October 21st, it was the Portuguese Grand Prix at Estoril, when Niki Lauda and Alain Prost were mere points away from claiming the driver’s championship.

However, on the day it was Lauda who came out on top to claim his third Formula 1 Driver’s Championship as he finished 2nd in the Portuguese GP beating Prost by half a point. Yes, not even a full point, 0.5 points ahead. That’s how close it was. However, Mclaren won’t have been too disappointed with Prost as he helped ensure they won the Constructor’s Championship for the first time since 1977.

1990

Whilst it may have been Lauda and Prost on that fateful day taking all the plaudits, it was the man in third place who would go on to become one of the greatest names ever mentioned in Formula 1. Yes, Ayrton Senna six years on from then found himself winning his own Driver’s Championship, however it was by no means a pretty one for the Brazilian. That’s because during the Japanese GP at Suzuka, Senna crashed his Mclaren. We’re pretty sure he won’t mind though, after all he won the title and got a double mention in our October 21st edition of Flashback Friday.

1993

With so much controversy around the chess right now, it seemed relevant we include this one. On this day in 1993 Russian Chess Grandmaster and Political Activist Garry Kasparov beat English Grandmaster Nigel Short to win the Short World Championship in chess. He went on to be considered by many as the greatest chess player of all time. He also tried to run for office in Russia in the 2000s in opposition to Vladimir Putin but was not allowed to register, due to what he claimed to be interference from people who did not want him in power.

Flashback Friday October 21st: Garry Kasparov vs Nigel Short Short World Championship1993

Closing thoughts

And there we have it once again, the end of our October 21st edition of Flashback Friday. How are you enjoying this series? Is it helpful in building up your sporting knowledge for pub quiz time? Are you at least enjoying learning a little about sporting history? If so, we’ll have more again next week. If not, come back and torture yourself some more by wasting time reading this so you can complain how we stole five minutes of your life you can never get back.

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