Here’s a look back at what happened in the Chicago area on July 31, according to the Tribune’s archives.
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Weather records (from the National Weather Service, Chicago)
- High temperature: 99 degrees (2006)
- Low temperature: 51 degrees (1984)
- Precipitation: 1.29 inches (1888)
- Snowfall: None
1928: Women’s track was added to the Olympics for the first time at Amsterdam.
In the finals of the first event, 16-year-old Betty Robinson of Riverdale, Illinois, won the gold medal in the 100-meter dash. Her time: 12.2 seconds. Two finalists were disqualified for two false starts apiece. Myrtle Cook of Canada sobbed almost out of control. Germany’s Helene Schmidt shook her fist at the starter and swore revenge.
Robinson was seriously injured in a plane crash and could not defend her title in the 1932 Games in Los Angeles. Aided in her rehab at Northwestern University by Wildcats coach Frank Hill and trainer Carl Erickson, Robinson ran a leg on the gold-medal U.S. 4-x-100 relay team in the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Another Northwestern sprinter, Annette Rogers, ran on the same relay team.
1985: An early morning fire in Arlington Park’s adjacent Post and Paddock Club led to greater ruin when the fire spread and destroyed the main grandstand. No one was injured.
Less than a month later, more than 35,000 fans crowded into temporary tents and bleachers to watch the “Miracle Million,” as Great Britain’s Teleprompter defeated Greinton by less than a length. The Arlington team was recognized by the National Thoroughbred Racing Association with an Eclipse Award, the first ever awarded to a racetrack.
1993: Chicago Bears running back Walter Payton was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
“Life is short, it is oh so sweet, there are a lot of people that we meet as we walk through these hallowed halls, but the things that mean the most are the friendships that you meet and take along with you,” Payton told the crowd in Canton, Ohio.
The 5-foot-10-inch, 200-pound Payton retired after the 1987 season as the NFL’s all-time leading rusher with 16,726 yards, pushing well past Jim Brown’s previous record of 12,312. It is the closest thing football has to baseball’s hallowed home run mark, and Payton held it for 15 years before Emmitt Smith passed him in 2002 and ended up with 18,355.
Walter Payton: The life, career of the Chicago Bears Hall of Famer better known as ‘Sweetness’
When he died at 45 of bile duct cancer and liver failure on Nov. 1, 1999, the city mourned. His public memorial brought 20,000 people to Soldier Field, where speakers included NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue, Hall of Famers Dan Hampton and Mike Ditka and the Rev. Jesse Jackson.
The NFL Man of the Year Award, which he won along with his MVP in 1977, was renamed after Payton in 2000.
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