It Could Be Tomorrow! Black Sunday

Terrorism is a creeping phenomenon. It grows and evolves; changes and adapts. It lives off the fear and multiples the fear to spread. 

One part of the Paris terror attacks of Friday, 13 November 2015, targeted a European football (to North Americans, soccer) stadium. There were three suicide bombings outside the Stade de France (the national stadium of France) in Saint-Denis, a northern commune or suburb of Paris.

We are living in a time in which the potential for stadium terrorism is real and the threats are taken seriously. On Tuesday, November 17, 2015, the friendly soccer game between Germany and Netherlands was cancelled with just 90 minutes before kick-off, at the Niedersachsenstadion in Hannover, Germany. German chancellor Angela Merkel was due to be in the stadium for that match. Another stadium in Hannover, the TUI-Arena, was also evacuated. The music band Söhne Mannheims were set to play there that evening.

In Belgium, on Tuesday, November 17, 2015, a game between Spain at Belgium was cancelled due to the heightened security alert caused by the Paris terror attacks.

In the American psyche, through popular culture, a real fear has been that there will "soon" be a terrorist attack at a NFL game, in a major American stadium. With all the threats against Washington D.C., will it be at a game around the USA's capital? The Washington Redskin will play at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina, on November 22, 2015. What will happen tomorrow, on the anniversary of the John F. Kennedy assassination? Hopefully, nothing.

Nevertheless, this psychology for this forecast goes back to the 1970s. Long before the 2002 film, The Sum of All Fears, had an atomic bomb that was obtained from a Syrian go off at an NFL game in Baltimore, there was 1977's Black Sunday.

 But there's something in the air, and the terrorist organizations use this something.

 The tagline for the movie Black Sunday is "It could be tomorrow!"

Tomorrow is Sunday.

The International Skeptics Forum noted in 2011 that a certain researcher (its not important for this discussion to identify who) said that "there may be a nuclear bomb detonated during Superbowl XVL and if not tomorrow, at a future mass event, where hundreds of millions of viewers will be watching....[The] prediction is based on his interpretation of decades of pop culture, which he sees as the primary means of conditioning the populace, in the tradition of conspiracy theorist, James Shelby Downard, whose works examined perceived occult symbolism, twilight language and synchronicity behind historical events in the 20th century."

Black Sunday is a 1977 American action-thriller film directed by John Frankenheimer, based on Thomas Harris' novel of the same name. The film was produced by Robert Evans and starred Robert Shaw, Bruce Dern and Marthe Keller. It was nominated for the Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Motion Picture in 1978.

The novel that started it all.

The inspiration of the story came from the Munich massacre, perpetrated by the Black September organization against Israeli athletes at the 1972 Summer Olympic, giving both the novel and the film its name.

In the realm of syncs, a number of some significance, in recent years is 42, and its mirror, 24. Black Sunday's promotional photos prominently display a football player wearing "24."

In the film actual NFL footage is used of the Dallas Cowboys playing the Pittsburgh Steelers. In the book, the bomb via a blimp will detonate over Tulane Stadium during a Super Bowl between the Miami Dolphins and the Washington Redskins.

In Black Sunday, Marthe Keller plays Dahlia Iyad, an operative from the Palestinian terrorist group Black September. Although she was clearly scripted to be Palestinian, there was a hint that she was aligned with the German terrorist group the Red Army Faction (also known as the Baader-Meinhof Group or Gang during its early days; the RAF was active in German from 1977 through 1998). 

Black Sunday was banned in Germany and Japan.

Tomorrow is November 22, 2015.

Super Bowl 50 will be played on February 7, 2016, in the City of Santa Clara at Levi’s® Stadium, in the San Francisco Bay Area, California.

For Black Sunday, the landing and hijacking scenes were photographed at the Goodyear airship base in Carson, California with Columbia (N3A); a short scene in the Spring, Texas base with the America (N10A), and the Miami, Florida Super Bowl scenes with the Mayflower (N1A), which was then based on Watson Island across the Port of Miami.

Added 5:30 AM, November 22, 2015, - tweet response to this posting:

Cleveland Browns Suicide

Two NFL suicides occurred on Saturday.

The staffers of the Cleveland Browns, a National Football League (NFL) team, discovered an employee died by suicide on the morning of Saturday, December 1, 2012. The individual was found hanging in the equipment storage shed at the team's training facility in Berea, Ohio.

The name of the deceased is Eric Eucker (above: Facebook photo), according to Browns spokesman Neal Gulkis. Eucker, originally from Olmsted Falls, Ohio, did painting and mowing for the Browns at Berea and the Stadium. He was hired by the Browns in 2002, and enjoyed NASCAR during his vacation time.

Berea lies on sedimentary rocks, including significant amounts of Berea sandstone. This sandstone was formerly quarried for construction and also for use as grindstones. Indeed, the city proclaims itself "The Grindstone Capital of the World." The town's symbol is a grindstone, a tribute to the many grindstones that came out of its quarries. Before concrete came into wide use, Berea dimension stone was an important construction material and huge amounts of it came from Berea. Several lakes in the area are former quarry pits that have been allowed to fill with water, including Baldwin Lake, Wallace Lake and Coe Lake.

Eucker's suicide happened concurrently with the Jovan Blecher murder-suicide events at the Kansas City Chiefs NFL facility's parking lot.


Sources: Twitter notes from Jay Glazer of Fox and Mary Kay Cabot of the Cleveland Plain-Dealer. News tip from Troy Church.

KC Chiefs Player Suicide at Arrowhead: Updates

Kassandra Perkins: The victim.

Jovan Belcher: The perpetrator

Brittni Glass: Another victim?

American professional suicides (see "NFL Suicides: 12 in 25 Years") are back in the news.

Following two violence incidents yesterday - one murder-suicide initially said to involve arrows in a location rich in Indian-soldier conflicts and another of a university football player being shot - a football player on an Indian-monikered NFL team killed himself at Arrowhead Stadium on the morning of December 1, 2012. 

In an apparent murder-suicide, a Kansas City Chiefs player shot himself in the head in front of his coaches at a team training facility after earlier shooting to death his girlfriend at her residence, police said.

Kansas City, Missouri, police spokesman Darin Snapp identified the player as linebacker Jovan Belcher, 25, who played football in college at the University of Maine.  Belcher, from West Babylon, New York, played at Maine from 2005-08. He graduated from Maine in December 2008 with a bachelor's degree in child development and family relations.

Jovan as a boy's name is of Latin origin. Variant of Jove, from Jupiter (Latin) "the supreme God." Jupiter was the supreme deity of Roman mythology, corresponding to the Greek Zeus.

The surname Belcher has its roots in medieval England, and, before that, in France. The name Belcher is composed of two syllables: Bel and cher. In Old French, Bel meant "beautiful or fine." The Middle English word cher (also derived from the Old French) meant an "an expression on the face"; in Middle English, this word was also spelled chere (as in Richard Belechere). A person's mood, especially gladness or joyfulness, as expressed on a person's countenance or face, was called chere orcher, the word we know today as cheer. Cheer denotes gladness or joy. Cheer was also spelled scher, shere, or chire (which is very similar to some of the variant spellings of siror sur, as in Belesur). When spelled cher or chere, the word also referred to good hospitality (such as one would find on the estate of a sir, knight, or gentleman). Thus, the Belcher name refers to a beautiful or fine expression on the face, hospitality, or, in summary, Bel = "good" + cher = "cheer."
Belcher took his life in the parking lot near Arrowhead Stadium as officers pulled up to park and saw him with a gun to his head talking to coaches. Before Belcher's suicide, the player was talking to Chiefs' general manager Scott Pioli, coach Romeo Crennel and an unnamed Chiefs staff member. Pioli and Crennel "never felt like they were in danger." Belcher, reportedly, thanked the general manager and coach for all they had done for him.

When officers arrived, the player walked away from the three Chiefs personnel and "a couple seconds later, they heard the gunshot," Snapp told reporters.

About 20 minutes prior to his suicide, the player shot his girlfriend in her nearby home, Snapp said. The NFL.com reported that Snapp said the mother described the relationship as "on-again, off-again."

The Kansas City Star, quoting an unidentified friend of Perkins, reported that Belcher confronted his girlfriend after she returned at about 1 a.m. following a Trey Songz concert. The couple had dated about three years and argued frequently recently.

The couple's daughter Zoey, born Sept. 11, 2012, is safe. The baby is in the care of Belcher's mother, who police said lived with the couple in their rented home.

Belcher was in his fourth year with the Chiefs after signing as an undrafted free agent out of Maine. He started 10 of the 11 games he had played this season, registering 38 tackles.

Other Kansas Chiefs players have experienced tragic deaths.

In February 2000, star linebacker Derrick Thomas of the Chiefs died from injuries sustained in an auto accident weeks earlier. Thomas was a Pro Bowler in nine of his 11 seasons with the Chiefs. In 2009, he was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

In 1983, Kansas City running back Joe Delaney drowned while trying to rescue three children who were struggling in a pond in Monroe, Louisiana. Though an inexperienced swimmer, Delaney made the rescue attempt. Two of the children also drowned. Delaney was a Pro Bowler in his second season with the Chiefs in 1982.

Updates:

The Chiefs played at home against the Carolina Panthers on Sunday and had an emotional win.

More details are surfacing, including the "Belcher spent night with [Brittni Glass] before killing," and that "In college, Belcher punched out window over girl."

More has come out, as well, about Belcher's use of pain meds and drinking to deal with head injuries and behavior outbursts. His football organization, however, noted they did not feel there was any problem in this area. Kansas City Chiefs chairman Clark Hunt told the media that "Belcher 'Had Not Had A Long Concussion History'."

Of course, that begs the question, what kind of concussion history did he have? In college? In high school?

Concussions have been linked to suicides and murders of and by NFL players in recent years.

NFL Should Worry About Suicides Again

Now that the replacement refs are a thing of the past, the NFL should worry about the suicide of its players again. Violence had returned to the NFL in a climate without rules. But what the recent events exposed were the raw violence just under the surface of the game.

Twitter, the sports media, and talk radio were abuzz with the outrageously terrible call giving a win to the Seattle Seahawks on Monday Night Football.

"The short version is that referees ruled that Seattle's Golden Tate caught a ball that, in fact, was clearly intercepted by the Green Bay Packers' M.D. Jennings. (The Atlantic Wire has the full story and the incredible video)," noted writer David Graham. "The officials and the National Football League ownership are at odds over retirement benefits and salary, as well as a couple more finer labor dispute points."

BTW, read "referees" as "replacement referees," that is "scabs," as in "strikebreakers."

What is incredible is that at a time when great attention was directed to how violent the sport of pro football had become due to the discovery of concussions, the NFL's ownership desire to not deal with the refs over 1/2250th of their total revenue had resulted in even more violent games.

Last weekend's games, including Monday night's battle, were showing direct evidence of the stripping bare of the basics of the game. The NFL contests were shown to be the graphically violent games that the sport had become, without proper guidance.

The most visual graphic of this was apparent during the Houston Texans' win over the Denver Broncos on Sunday, September 23rd, when Houston quarterback Matt Schaub took an illegal hit from Broncos defender Joe Mays. Schaub lost part of his earlobe on the play. (The image is at top.)

I seriously wondered if the NFL would allow what was happening proceed until someone was paralyzed on the field or killed in a tragedy on the 23rd yardline? Luckily, on September 27th, the NFL and regular officials settled.

But remaining in the background are suicides of NFL players that continue.

Unlike former star linebacker Junior Seau, who died by suicide with a gunshot to his chest in May 2012, and former star defensive back Dave Duerson, who took his life in similar fashion in February 2011, NFL player newest suicide victim, O.J. Murdock was not thinking about leaving his brain to science. He killed himself with a shoot to the head.

Murdock, 25, sent a text message to sports writer Bill Ward -- who covered his career at Tampa's Middleton High School -- just hours before he shot himself Monday, according to the Tampa Tribune. "Hey Mr Ward, it's OJ Murdock.... I just want to thank u for everything you've done for me and my family. Can't thank you enough," the text read.
Murdock, who signed with the NFL's Tennessee Titans last year, never responded to Ward's reply sent four hours later: "Hi O.J. Thanks for those kind words. Are you recovered from the Achilles and back in camp with the (Titans)?"

A Tampa police officer found Murdock "in his car in front of Middleton High School with an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound" at 8:30 a.m. on July 30, 2012. Murdock died two hours later at Tampa General Hospital.

The conflict between the refs and the NFL, the loss of games, the increasing violence of the televised play were all unfortunate. But it all hid, temporarily, the unseen violence that continues in the bodies and minds of these men who are today's modern gladiators. Their pain and concussions may have taken a back seat to what was happening out there on the grass and screen right now, but the players' deaths continued, due to the simple fact they are combatants who are entertaining audiences with violence.

Will there be more darkness and blood before the dawn?

See also:

Seau's Suicide Euphoria, published May 8, 2012.

NFL Suicides: 12 in 25 Years, published May 2, 2012.

NFL Suicides: 1942 - 2010, published September 21, 2010.

Seau's Suicide Euphoria

After hearing sports news commentators talk about a subject they are misreading, it is time to revisit the subject of Junior Seau's suicide. Speculation is one thing, and has been wild. But there is no reason to not look at his suicide based upon science.

Much decoding occurs when forensically examining suicide after the fact, of course, and no one really knows what a suicidal individual is thinking. Their thought processes are confused, so for relatively normal human beings to try to figure out what caused the suicide is difficult. Nevertheless, from the research, interviews, and decades of suicidology (the formal study of suicide), a few insights can be shared.

Junior Seau's SUV, October 2010.

Let us look, therefore, first, at one important piece of obvious misinformation being shared about suicide, suicide ideation, and the hidden signs of suicides concerning Junior Seau's suicide.

One of the most common items heard from sports newscasters and sports talk radio personalities when talking about the topic of Junior Seau's suicidality has been this kind of comment, "All those who knew him said he has been so cheerful in recent weeks; certainly this means he's wasn't suicidal."

Not true. Suicide is about an escape from the pain, real or imagined, in the suicidal person's life. Once the desire has been made to take one's own life, the suicidal individual often exhibits an unusually notable upturn in their mood, a time of what I call "suicide euphoria."

Here is what I wrote for the State of Maine about the relatively unknown condition of "Suicide Euphoria":

Sometimes depressed, despondent, angry, or agitated individuals consider, and then finalize, suicidal thoughts that may become a defined “suicide plan.” Once this occurs, the behavior in a potentially suicidal person may appear as “suicide euphoria” by an observer. This “feeling” of great happiness or well-being is based on the idea that very soon “no pain” will exist for the suicidal person. This state of euphoria may fool helpers and gatekeepers who are thinking that a “flight into health” is taking place for the individual. Friends and families of suicide victims are often confounded with a sense that this was not a suicide because of the cheerfulness of a person expressing this euphoria. When the action of suicide is planned, the vulnerable person may actually be appear calm, and demonstrate short periods of hard to understand happiness.

Junior Seau's suicide was thoughtfully completed. He called his children and left goodbye messages of love to them.

Methods and timing of suicides are important clues to decoding suicides. Seau's choice of the high lethality method of a gun, combined with the specific placement of the shot to his chest, was a direct copycat of the suicide of David Duerson on February 17, 2011. Duerson inflicted a self-inflicted gunshot to his chest and sent a text message to his family saying he wanted his brain sent for research to the Boston University School of Medicine to study it for chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) caused by playing professional football.

Seau purposely shot himself in his chest to make certain his head (and thus his brain) was not damaged, so testing could occur. He was sending a nonverbal message to his family and friends.

Junior Seau, Ray Easterling, David Duerson. Photo: TMZ.

It also, no doubt, was not lost on Seau that on April 19, 2012, ex-NFL football player Ray Easterling killed himself.

The timing of Junior Seau's previous suicide attempt is telling, as well, that Seau was aware of the deaths of his peers. Seau drove his white Cadillac SUV off a coastal cliff at Carlsbad, California hours after he was arrested on suspicion of domestic violence, on Monday morning, October 18, 2010. It is to be noted that NFL player Kendrick L. McKinley had killed himself on Monday, September 20, 2010, exactly a month before Seau's probable attempted suicide.

His suicide has resulted in some good insights from a few writers. But most have added more confusion than clarity.

Suicide euphoria, behavior contagion, and copycat behavior are all underpinnings of the Junior Seau suicide that are being ignored in mainstream sports discussions of this self-death. Seau's suicide will not be the last among former NFL players, and this will be especially true if people don't get the message he was trying to send.

There is a map among these deaths, and it is time to start reading it.

++++

For first timers here, I know a bit about suicide. I have directed a few federal research projects on the topic, directed some documentaries on the hidden warning signs, written a few books (e.g. Suicide Clusters) and manuals on suicides and suicide prevention, and delivered trainings and consultations to over 10,000 professional and paraprofessionals about the factors in prevention and postvention events related to self-deaths.

Previously, my research on baseball suicides was highlighted in "Donnie Moore and the Burdens of Baseball," New York Times, July 30, 1989, and "The Moore Tragedy," Sports Illustrated, July 31, 1989. Just as Major League Baseball did in 1989, NFL football is now in a similar period of deep introspection.

NFL Suicides: 1942-2010

Kenny McKinley's suicide is the latest such event among NFL players. Here is a list of some famed, known American football players who have died by suicide.



2010

Kenny McKinley, a Denver Broncos (NFL) wide receiver who was out for the season recovering from knee surgery, was found dead of an apparent suicide September 20, 2010, Monday afternoon at his home, according to the Denver Post. The body of McKinley, 23, was found by authorities in a second-floor bedroom with what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound at around 3:25 p.m. MDT. A second-year player out of South Carolina, he had undergone season-ending surgery for a recurring knee injury in August 2010.

"Although the death of McKinley appears to be the result of a self inflicted gunshot, the investigation into this matter, conducted by the Arapahoe County Sheriff's Office and the Arapahoe County Coroner's Office, is on-going, " Arapahoe County Sheriff Grayson Robinson told Denver's Fox 31 News.

The death is the third for the Broncos since 2007. Cornerback Darrent Williams died in a drive-by shooting and running back Damien Nash collapsed at a charity basketball game in 2007. The Denver Post reports that current and former Broncos were attending a fundraiser for the Boys & Girls Club of Metro Denver, site of the Darrent Williams Memorial Teen Center, when they learned of McKinley's death.

Earlier football suicides

1942

Lyle Randolph "Al" Bigbee (August 22, 1893 in Waterloo, Oregon - August 5, 1942 in Portland, Oregon) was a former outfielder and pitcher for the Philadelphia Athletics and Pittsburgh Pirates and halfback for the Milwaukee Badgers. Bigbee died by suicide due to a self-inflicted shooting.

1961

John Henry Mohardt (January 21, 1898 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania – November 24, 1961 in La Jolla, California) was a former professional football and baseball player. Mohardt played in the National Football League for the Chicago Cardinals, Racine Legion, and Chicago Bears from 1922 - 1925. One of Mohardt's teammates with the 1925 Bears was pro football Hall of Famer Red Grange. Mohardt also played in five major league baseball games in 1922 with the Detroit Tigers. Mohardt later earned an M.D. and served in the United States Armed Forces during World War II. He died by suicide in La Jolla, California, on November 24, 1961, the day after Thanksgiving that year. (The football games and scores that Thanksgiving were Green Bay Packers 17, Detroit Lions 9 and New York Titans 21, Buffalo Bills 14.)

1980

James Efflo Tyrer (February 25, 1939–September 15, 1980) was an American football offensive tackle in the American Football League for the Dallas Texans/Kansas City Chiefs. He also played in the National Football League for the Chiefs and the Washington Redskins. After football, a series of apparent business misfortunes culminated on September 15, 1980 when Tyrer, the father of four, shot his wife and then died by suicide by turning the gun on himself.

1982

Benjamin "Benny" Friedman (March 18, 1905 – November 24, 1982) was an American football quarterback who played for the University of Michigan (1924-1926), Cleveland Bulldogs (1927), Detroit Wolverines (1928), New York Giants (1929-1931), and Brooklyn Dodgers (1932-1934). Suffering from severe diabetes, Friedman died by suicide in 1982.

1987

Larry Bethea (July 21, 1956 – April 24, 1987) was an American football defensive lineman who played six years in the National Football League for the Dallas Cowboys. He later played for the Michigan Panthers, Oakland Invaders and Houston Gamblers of the United States Football League. He died of an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound within hours of being identified as a suspect in two armed robberies.

1992

Michael Allen "Mike" Wise (June 5, 1964 – August 21, 1992) was a professional American football defensive end in the National Football League. He played five seasons for the Los Angeles Raiders (1986-1990) and the Cleveland Browns (1991). Wise was born in Greenbrae, California. He did by suicide at his home in Davis in 1992.

1993


Jeffrey Lawrence Alm (March 31, 1968 – December 14, 1993) was an American football player who played defensive tackle for the Houston Oilers of the National Football League. According to an eyewitness, Alm and his best friend, Sean P. Lynch, had dinner at a Houston-area steakhouse on December 13, 1993. At 2:45 a.m. Central Standard Time the following day, Alm’s Cadillac lost control heading south on Intrastate 610 southbound at the 59 north exit ramp and Lynch was thrown out of the car through the passenger window to his death. Alm had been speeding and lost control of his 1993 Cadillac Eldorado on a curved exit ramp. After the crash Alm ran across the ramp and looked down an embankment towards the Southwest Freeway, discovering that his boyhood friend had been thrown to his death 30 feet below. Apparently distraught by his best friend’s death, Alm took out a pistol grip shotgun, fired two shots into the air and then shot himself in the face.

1995

Thornton Steve Stonebreaker (born October 28, 1938 in Moline, Illinois; died March 28, 1995 in Metairie, Louisiana) was a professional American football linebacker in the National Football League. He played eight seasons for the Minnesota Vikings (1962-1963), the Baltimore Colts (1964-1966), and the New Orleans Saints (1967-1968). Stonebreaker died by suicide on March 28, 1995 by inhaling carbon monoxide from a car exhaust.

2000

Lawrence Morgan "Larry" Kelley (May 30, 1915 – June 27, 2000) was an American football player born in Conneaut, Ohio. He played end, for Yale University. While at Yale he was a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity and Skull and Bones, and was the second winner of the Heisman Trophy in 1936, the year it was renamed in honor of John Heisman. To benefit of his nieces and nephews, Kelley sold his Heisman Trophy at an auction in December 1999 for $328,110 to the owner of The Stadium Museum, Restaurant & Bar in Garrison, New York, where it now resides. On June 27, 2000, in failing health, Kelley died of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound at his home in Hightstown. It was said to be a suicide by the Hightstown police.

2005

Terry Long (July 21, 1959–June 7, 2005) was a National Football League offensive lineman. He played from 1984–1991 for the Pittsburgh Steelers. He died in 2005 from drinking antifreeze.

2006

Andre Waters (March 10, 1962 – November 20, 2006) was an NFL defensive back who played for the Philadelphia Eagles and Arizona Cardinals from 1984 to 1995. On November 20, 2006, three days before Thanksgiving, Waters died by suicide shortly after 1 a.m. on November 20, 2006 (three days before Thanksgiving), according to the Hillsborough County (Fla.) Sheriff's Office, dying of a gunshot to the head. He was at his home in Tampa, Florida where he was found by his girlfriend. No suicide note was found. Later investigations have revealed a possible link to mild traumatic brain injury, which may have resulted in post-concussion syndrome.

2009

Shane Dronett (January 12, 1971 – January 21, 2009) was an American football defensive lineman, who played for the NFL's Denver Broncos, Detroit Lions and Atlanta Falcons between 1992 and 2002. On January 21, 2009, Dronett was found dead at his home near Atlanta, Georgia. The death was ruled a suicide by the Gwinnett County Medical Examiner's office.

McNair's 2009 Death



It will be recalled that Stephen LaTreal McNair (February 14, 1973 – July 4, 2009), born on Valentine's Day, died on Independence Day 2009, when his mistress, Sahel Kazemi, shot and killed him before turning the gun on herself. Steve McNair (nicknamed "Air McNair") was an American football quarterback who spent the majority of his NFL career with the Tennessee Titans. He retired as a Baltimore Raven in 2007.

Coach Killed on St. John's Day

High school football coach Ed Thomas, 58, was killed Wednesday, June 24, 2009, in the weight room of his high school in Parkersburg, Iowa. Mark D. Becker, 24, a former Thomas football player, is charged with first-degree murder. He is being held at the Butler County Jail in Allison.

----
Update
Authorities say Mark Becker was released Tuesday from a hospital where he had been brought for psychiatric evaluation after threatening a man with a baseball bat Saturday night and leading police on a high-speed car chase.

Police say they were supposed to be notified when Becker was fit for release, but that they weren't.

Covenant Medical Center in Waterloo said in a statement Thursday that its staff was not asked to notify authorities before releasing Becker. - SI/CNN reporting on Thursday, June 25th
====


Coach Thomas stands in the midst of the 2008 rumble caused by a tornado. ESPN.

Thomas was shot multiple times at point blank range, including once in the head, according to the school's business manager Pat Gosch. No one else was injured in the incident, the Cedar Rapids Gazette reported.

Sports secretary Sue Muller said Thomas was supervising the early-morning weightlifting in Parkersburg when the shooting happened around 7:45 a.m. About 30 students were present at the time. The school has about 230 students.

The Des Moines Register said the Aplington-Parkersburg High School coach died at Covenant Medical Center in Waterloo after being shot at about 8:30 a.m. in the weight room next to the school.

Aplington-Parkersburg school superintendent Jon Thompson told the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation would be investigating the shooting, which occurred in front of students.

Named the NFL High School Coach of the Year in 2003, Thomas led his school to nearly 300 victories, and 19 state playoff appearances in his 37-year coaching career. Thomas had coached a few NFL players, including Landon Schrage, Aaron Kampman, Brad Meester, Jared DeVries and Casey Weigmann.

Thomas coached football for 37 years, with a career record of 292-84. He led the Falcons to 19 state playoff appearances and two state titles, in 1993 and 2001.

Coincidentially, exactly one year ago, on June 24, 2008, ESPN published a story on the recovery the town had made from a recent tornado, in large part because of the leadership efforts of Coach Thomas.

It was a just about four weeks ago, on the evening of May 25, when an EF5 tornado, three-quarters of a mile wide, with winds in excess of 200 mph, ripped through this community of 1,900, destroying or damaging nearly half the town. The tornado, which stayed in Parkersburg for 34 seconds before traveling another 43 miles, killed six people and leveled 21 businesses, the city hall and the heart of the community: Aplington-Parkersburg High School.

***

This is the building -- in the middle of nowhere -- that produced four active NFL players, the fifth-most of any high school in the country.

[Jared] DeVries, Aaron Kampman of the Packers, Casey Wiegmann of the Broncos and Brad Meester of the Jaguars had always given the credit to Ed Thomas, Aplington-Parkersburg's longtime coach. Thomas taught every boy in this town how to play football, but also how to be a man. Now his life lessons were being put to the test, especially when he asked six of his players to dig the graves for those killed by the storm,

wrote Wayne Drehs, ESPN, "Iowa town turns to football to recover from tornado," June 24, 2008.

June 24th is St. John’s Day.

Some previous events on this day include:

Knights Templars display “Mysterious Head” at Poitiers (1308). Founding of the Order of the Garter (1348). John Cabot discovers North America (1497). Galileo released (1633). “Woman of the Wilderness” utopian community arrives in America (1694). “W of W” angelic visions (1701). Grand Lodge of Freemasons inaugurated (1717). Ambrose Bierce born (1842). Red rain, Italy (1877). Ice fall, Ft. Lyon, Colorado (1877). Fall of jelly-like mass, Eton (1911). Fred Hoyle born (1915). Mick Fleetwood (1942) and Jeff Beck (1944) born.

First day of flying saucer history, Mt. Rainier & Mt. Adams, Washington State - Kenneth Arnold sighting (1947). Filmstock fire kills seventeen people, Brussels (1947). Movie theaters evaluated during huge fire, Perth Amboy, NJ (1947). United Airlines plane struck by lightning over Cleveland. Ohio (1947). Invasion of grasshoppers battled with flame-throwers, Guatemala/El Salvador (1947). Woman attacked and killed by bees or wasps, Seattle (1947). Bizarre aerial sightings near Daggett, California (1950) and on Iwo Jima (1953). The Angora Fire (2007) starts near South Lake Tahoe, California, destroying over 200 structures in its first 48 hours.

The deaths of various aerial and related phenomena researchers, writers, and fans (Frank Scully, June 24, 1964; Frank Edwards, near the coming midnight of the 24th, still on June 23, 1967; Arthur Bryant, June 24, 1967; Richard Church June 24, 1967; Willy Ley, June 24, 1969; Jackie Gleason, June 24, 1987). June 24, 2006 saw the death of renegade publisher Lyle Stuart who published anomalist writer Frank Edwards’ Fortean book, in 1959, Stranger than Science, a paperbook full of information on cryptozoology as well as ufology.

Mystery deaths are often associated with St. John's Day.

Respect the wonder of the 24th of June.