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This Week in NDN All-Stars History: Bucky Dent, Jim Thorpe, Johnny Bench & More · Sports History Network

• 0:58
  Two runs down, seventh inning.
• 1:01
  The Yankee season is hanging in the balance at Fenway Park.
• 1:05
  Then the hitter cracks his bat.
• 1:08
  So he borrows one from a teammate, steps back to the plate and sends the next pitch over the Green Monster.
• 1:15
  One swing changes the game, the season and the batter's place in baseball history.
• 1:20
  That story and more is coming up.
• 1:24
  Welcome to Indian All Stars.
• 1:26
  I'm Bill Black and every week we travel back to discover how Native athletes help shape the world of sports.
• 1:32
  Because history isn't trapped behind museum glass, it comes alive.
• 1:37
  Indian All Stars celebrates great Native American athletes from the past and the present, bringing these great All Stars back into the spotlight for new generations.
• 1:47
  Now let's look back and find out what happened.
• 1:50
  Here is what happened the week of September 27th through October 3rd in Indian All Stars history.
• 1:57
  We start on September 27th in 1914 with Ojibwe pitcher Charles Bender.
• 2:02
  Bender throws a four hit shutout and strikes out six as the Philadelphia Athletics beat St.
• 2:08
  Louis six to nothing.
• 2:10
  The win clinches the American League pennant.
• 2:12
  It is Bender's 17th victory of the season and his final regular season win in an Athletics uniform.
• 2:20
  Jump ahead to 1940 when Cherokee slugger Rudy York supplies every run Detroit needs against Cleveland.
• 2:27
  York takes Bob Feller deep for a two run home run in the fourth inning.
• 2:32
  Detroit wins two to nothing and clinches the American League pennant.
• 2:37
  Two years later in 1942, Yakima lineman Al Hoptowic makes his debut for the Chicago Bears.
• 2:44
  Chicago beats Green Bay 44 28.
• 2:47
  Hoptowic goes on to play in all 11 regular season games for a Bears team that finishes the schedule undefeated.
• 2:54
  Creek quarterback Jack Jacobs gives us the next highlight.
• 2:57
  In 1952, playing for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in 90 degree heat against the Edmonton Eskimos.
• 3:03
  Jacobs throws for five touchdowns in a 4018 victory.
• 3:08
  The five touchdown passes establishes a Canadian football single game record.
• 3:14
  Then comes 1973.
• 3:16
  Ute and Juanuno knockout artist Danny Little Red Lopez faces Goyo Vargas at the Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles.
• 3:25
  Lopez ends it in the first round.
• 3:27
  That makes him 21 for 21 as a professional.
• 3:31
  And every one of those wins has come by knockout.
• 3:35
  Green Bay football takes over in 1992 when Brett Favre Choctaw makes his first NFL start.
• 3:42
  The packers beat Pittsburgh 17 3.
• 3:45
  Favre never gives the regular season starting job back.
• 3:49
  That afternoon begins a streak that eventually reaches an NFL record.
• 3:53
  297 consecutive starts.
• 3:57
  17 years later in 2009, Fog delivers another unforgettable finish, this time for Minnesota with two seconds remaining against San Francisco.
• 4:06
  He escapes pressure and throws 32 yards to Greg Lewis at the back of the end zone.
• 4:13
  Vikings win 2724 lacrosse gives us a cluster of milestones in 2015.
• 4:20
  The Iroquois Nationals reach the World Indoor Lacrosse Championship final on how Denisoni homelands Ojibwe and Inuit transition player Jeff Shatler scores twice and earns all World honors.
• 4:33
  Mohawk scorer Craig Point adds another world medal to his international career.
• 4:38
  An Onondaga nations star Lyle Thompson earns first team All World honors at forward.
• 4:44
  Canada wins the championship game 128 leaving the Iroquois Nationals with silver.
• 4:50
  Now we move to 20 24.
• 4:52
  Cherokee relief pitcher Ryan Helsley records his 49th save as St.
• 4:56
  Louis beats San Francisco 6 3.
• 4:59
  That breaks Trevor Rosenthal's Cardinals single season record of 48.
• 5:03
  Helsley finishes the year leading all of Major League Baseball in saves.
• 5:08
  And finally in 2025, Navajo and Salish offensive lineman Shias Pete is selected as one of Kentucky's four game cap for an SEC road game at South Carolina.
• 5:19
  Pete goes on to start all 12 games during his only season at Kentucky.
• 5:25
  September 28th begins in 1947 with one of the most complete games of Jack Jacobs career.
• 5:32
  The Creek quarterback throws two touchdown passes for Green Bay against the defending champion Chicago Bears.
• 5:39
  He runs for another score.
• 5:41
  He intercepts two passes from Sid Luckman and he handles the punting.
• 5:45
  Green Bay wins 29:20.
• 5:49
  Baseball moves us to 1971 Seminole slugger Willie Stargell hits his 48th and final home run of the season.
• 5:57
  Nobody in Major League Baseball hits more.
• 6:00
  The 48 homers are a career high for Stargell during Pittsburgh's World Series championship season.
• 6:06
  Sonny Sixkiller Cherokee takes us into 1975 playing for the Hawaiians of the World Football League.
• 6:13
  Sixkiller shares quarterback duties with Rick Casada against the Shreveport steamer.
• 6:18
  Hawaii falls 32 25.
• 6:20
  It becomes one of Sixkiller's final professional appearances as financial problems begin closing in on the league.
• 6:28
  Brett Favre shows up again in 2008, now quarterbacking the New York Jets.
• 6:33
  Favre throws six touchdown passes against Arizona.
• 6:37
  The jets win 56:35.
• 6:40
  It ties the franchise record and becomes the highest single game touchdown pass total of Favre's NFL career.
• 6:48
  Boxing gets the spotlight in 2012.
• 6:50
  Comanche middleweight George Comanche boy Tadua Nipa fights Gundrick King for the vacant Neva USA Middleweight Championship at the Comanche Nation Casino.
• 7:00
  King's corner stops the fight after the third round.
• 7:03
  Kaduanipa wins by technical knockout, claims his third professional championship belt and remains unbeaten three years later, in 2015, Onondaga Nation lacrosse star Lyle Thompson goes first overall in the National Lacrosse League entry draft.
• 7:20
  The Georgia Swarm makes the selection that gives Thompson the rare distinction of being chosen first overall in both major professional field and box lacrosse drafts during the same year.
• 7:32
  North Texas quarterback Mason Fine Cherokee adds another school record in 2019.
• 7:38
  Fine throws for 353 yards against Houston.
• 7:41
  It is the 15th 300 yard passing game of his career, the most in North Texas history.
• 7:48
  And in 2024, the Haudenosaunee Nationals defeat England to win bronze at the World Lacrosse Men's Box Championship.
• 7:56
  Mohawk and Six nations scorer Taehoka Nanakok records two goals and three assists.
• 8:02
  Onondaga Nation star Lyle Thompson scores twice and Mohawk and Six nations of the grand river player Justin Martin earns a medal in his World Box Championship debut.
• 8:12
  The Haudenosaunee continue their streak of reaching the podium at every men's World box championship.
• 8:18
  Then September 29th opens in 1917 with one heck of a college football introduction.
• 8:25
  White Earth Chippewa back Joe Gallon takes his first run from scrimmage for Georgia Tech, 75 yards for a touchdown.
• 8:33
  Guy on becomes a major part of a team that finishes the season undefeated and is recognized as national champion.
• 8:41
  Fast forward 40 years to 1957.
• 8:45
  Muskogee and Kiowa cornerback Milt Davis makes his NFL debut for the Baltimore Colts.
• 8:51
  He intercepts two passes and the opponent is Detroit, the same organization that had released him less than a year earlier.
• 9:00
  Yavapai third baseman Darrell Evans makes baseball history in 1973.
• 9:05
  His 41st home run gives the Atlanta Braves something no major league team had ever done before.
• 9:11
  3:40 Home run hitters on the same club.
• 9:13
  Davy Johnson finishes with 43, Evans hits 41 and Hank Aaron hits 40.
• 9:19
  Ten years later in 1983, Choctaw catcher Johnny Bench comes to the plate for the final time in his major league career.
• 9:27
  Bench delivers a pinch hit two run single against San Francisco.
• 9:31
  His final swing produces his final hit and two final runs batted in before one of baseball's greatest careers comes to an end.
• 9:39
  Boxing brings us to 1992.
• 9:42
  Mandan Hidatsa and Arikara Light Head heavyweight Virgil Hill faces fellow 1984 Olympian Frank Tate in Bismarck, North Dakota.
• 9:51
  Hill wins by unanimous decision and regains the vacant WBA World Championship.
• 9:57
  It begins his second reign as champion.
• 10:00
  Lakota pitcher Bobby Mudrich gets his first major league complete game in 2004 pitching for Seattle against Oakland.
• 10:08
  Modric allows just three hits and one earned run.
• 10:11
  He throws 133 pitches and finishes the job himself in a 42 Mariners victory.
• 10:18
  Hockey takes over in 2016.
• 10:21
  Okay, show goaltender Carey Price makes 32 saves as Canada defeats Team Europe 21 to win the World cup of Hockey.
• 10:29
  Price finishes the tournament undefeated.
• 10:31
  His personal winning streak in a Canadian national team sweater reaches 16 games.
• 10:37
  Then in 2023, Minnesota officially proclaims Henry Bouchide.
• 10:43
  The state honors the Ojibwe hockey legend for his war road roots, Olympic silver medal, NHL career and his work supporting Native communities and the game of hockey.
• 10:54
  That same year, speed skier Ross Anderson, Cheyenne Arapaho and Mescalero Apache is announced as a member of the US National Ski and Snowboard hall of Fame Class of 2023.
• 11:07
  Anderson's 17 year professional speed skiing career includes eight national championships, a world championship bronze medal and an American record of 154.06 mph.
• 11:19
  September 30th starts with boxing n 1925, Cherokee champion Jack Dempsey and leading Black contender Harry Wells formally sign an agreement for a world heavyweight championship fight planned for the following year.
• 11:33
  The financing collapses.
• 11:34
  The fight never happens, but the signed agreement becomes the closest the long awaited Dempsey Wills matchup ever comes to reality.
• 11:43
  Baseball jumps in with 1934 Osage outfielder Pepper Martin lines a two run single as St.
• 11:50
  Louis beats Cincinnati nine to nothing and clinches the National League pennant.
• 11:55
  Twenty years later in 1954, Cherokee pitcher Early win makes the first World Series start of his career.
• 12:03
  Nguyen works seven innings for Cleveland against the New York giants.
• 12:07
  Cleveland loses 3 1.
• 12:09
  But Nguyen has reached baseball's biggest stage after helping the club win an American League record 111 games.
• 12:17
  A very different but newsworthy hockey story arrives in 1980.
• 12:21
  Ojibwe Olympian and former NHL player Henry Bucha appears before a United States House Judiciary subcontinent committee during hearings on excessive violence in professional sports.
• 12:33
  Bush's own career had been permanently changed by a violent on ice attack.
• 12:37
  Now his experience becomes part of a national discussion about player safety, league discipline and when violence in sports crosses the line.
• 12:47
  Brett Favre Choctaw reaches NFL history in 2007.
• 12:52
  He throws career touchdown pass number 421 to Greg Jennings against Minnesota.
• 12:57
  Minnesota.
• 12:58
  The score moves far past Dan Marino and makes him the NFL's all time career leader at the time.
• 13:04
  Canadian football provides our next story.
• 13:07
  In 2022, Wichita quarterback Dane Evans appears in the CFL feature Acknowledging Truth and Pursuing Reconciliation.
• 13:16
  Evans visits the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation and Six nations of the grand river while discussing Indigenous language, residential school history, reconciliation and his own Wichita family story and in 2023, Lumbee receiver Chandler Brayboy delivers one of
• 13:34
  the biggest games of his Elon career.
• 13:37
  Brayboy catches passes for 109 yards and a touchdown as Elon upsets fifth ranked William and Mary 14 6.
• 13:45
  His fourth quarter score puts Elon ahead for good.
• 13:49
  Then on October 1, professional football gives us a major native sports milestone.
• 13:55
  In 1922, Sac and Fox legend Jim Thorpe leads the all native Ourang Indians onto the field for their first NFL game.
• 14:03
  Thorpe serves as both player and coach.
• 14:06
  Dayton wins, 36 to nothing.
• 14:08
  But the score is not why the day matters.
• 14:10
  An NFL club built around native players has taken the field with Jim Thorpe leading it.
• 14:15
  Baseball gives us a 1922 farewell.
• 14:18
  Pawnee pitcher Moses Yellowhorse makes the final major league appearance of his career for Pittsburgh.
• 14:23
  Yellow horse throws one scoreless hitless inning against Cincinnati.
• 14:28
  He closes his two major league seasons with 38 appearances and an 84 record.
• 14:34
  Nine years later, in 1931, Osage outfielder Pepper Martin begins one of the great World Series performances ever.
• 14:42
  Martin goes 3 for 4 with a double and a stolen base against Philadelphia in game game one.
• 14:47
  St.
• 14:48
  Louis loses the game six two.
• 14:51
  Canadian football returns in 1951.
• 14:54
  Creek quarterback Jack Jacobs has Winnipeg trailing Edmonton eight six in the fourth quarter.
• 15:00
  Then he connects with Neil Armstrong on a 100 yard touchdown pass.
• 15:04
  Jacobs adds the convert and a field goal.
• 15:06
  Winnipeg wins 15 8.
• 15:09
  Early win Cherokee reaches the World Series again in 1959.
• 15:13
  Now with the Chicago White Sox.
• 15:16
  Wynn throws seven scoreless innings in game one against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
• 15:20
  Chicago wins 11 0.
• 15:23
  It becomes the only World Series victory of Wynn's hall of Fame career.
• 15:27
  College golf enters the story in 2007, Navajo golfer Rickie Fowler wins the Fighting Illini Invitational for his first collegiate victory at Oklahoma State, and it is only his second college tournament.
• 15:41
  Fowler shoots a second round 63 to match the Olympia field's course record and finishes one shot ahead of the field.
• 15:48
  Four years later, in 2011, Kiowa striker Chris Wondolowski scores all three San Jose goals in a 32 road win over Toronto.
• 15:56
  It is the first Major League Soccer hat trick of his career.
• 16:00
  And in 2024, Cherokee pitcher Ryan Helsley is named National League Reliever of the Month for September.
• 16:06
  Helsley records seven saves during the month without allowing an earned run.
• 16:11
  It is his third Reliever of the Month award of the season, the finishing touch on a year in which he leads Major League Baseball with 49 saves.
• 16:20
  Now it's October 2nd, and it features the story we teased at the beginning of the show 1978 the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox are playing one game at Fenway park for the American League east championship.
• 16:34
  Boston leads 20 in the seventh inning.
• 16:37
  Cherokee's shortstop Bucky Dent is batting ninth for New York.
• 16:40
  And just before the at bat, Dent cracks his bat so he borrows one from a teammate.
• 16:45
  Then he steps in against Mike Torres.
• 16:47
  Dent has hit only five home runs during the entire regular season.
• 16:52
  Here's the pitch.
• 16:53
  He swings.
• 16:54
  Crack a momentous three run homer.
• 16:57
  This one goes over the Green Monster.
• 16:59
  Yankees lead.
• 17:01
  New York holds on 54 and heads to the postseason.
• 17:05
  Bucky Dent has just hit one of the most famous home runs in baseball history.
• 17:11
  One year later, in 1979, Seminole slugger Willie Stargell delivers another enormous October home run game.
• 17:20
  One of the National League Championship Series is tied in the 11th inning.
• 17:24
  Stargell launches a three run homer against Cincinnati.
• 17:27
  Pittsburgh wins 52 and starts its march toward the World series.
• 17:32
  Foxing moves us to 1981.
• 17:35
  Salish and Kootenai cruiserweight Marvin Campbell defeats Bash Ali by unanimous decision over 12 rounds at the Cow Palace.
• 17:43
  Camel wins the USBA Cruiserweight Championship and moves himself back toward another world title opportunity.
• 17:50
  Then in 1983, Cherokee quarterback Jim Plunkett does something an NFL quarterback literally cannot do from any farther away.
• 17:58
  Plunkett connects with Cliff branch for a 99 yard touchdown against Washington.
• 18:03
  99 yards, the longest possible touchdown pass and it remains the longest passing play in Raiders franchise history.
• 18:13
  Two years later, in 1985, Yavapai slugger Darrell Evans hits his 40th home run of the season for Detroit.
• 18:21
  Evans had already hit 41 for Atlanta in 1973.
• 18:25
  Now he becomes the first player in major league history with a 40 home run season in both the National League and the American League.
• 18:32
  He does it at age 38.
• 18:34
  College football gives us a game saving play in 2010, Choctaw long snapper James Winchester recovers a muffed punt in the closing minute as Oklahoma battles Texas in the Red river rivalry.
• 18:45
  The Sooners keep possession run out the clock and win 28:20.
• 18:51
  Golf returns in 2016, Navajo golfer Rickie Fowler defeats Olympic champion Justin Rose one up in Ryder cup singles at Hazeltine.
• 19:00
  The United States wins the Ryder cup for the first time since 2008.
• 19:05
  And in 2022, Cherokee pitcher Robbie Ray records the 1,500th strikeout of his major major league career.
• 19:13
  That same year, Cherokee Nation linebacker Malcolm Rodriguez records 11 tackles for the Detroit Lions against the Seattle Seahawks.
• 19:21
  Nine of those tackles are solo stops giving the rookie early career highs in both categories.
• 19:27
  Our final stop this week is on October 3rd.
• 19:30
  It begins in 1920 with White Earth Chippewa football star Joe Gallon playing professionally for the Canton Bulldogs against Pittsburgh Cairn Guyon scores three rushing touchdowns in the first quarter.
• 19:43
  Later, he throws a 35 yard touchdown pass.
• 19:46
  Four touchdowns accounted for by Joe Guyan.
• 19:49
  Canton wins 48 0.
• 19:52
  Notre Dame takes over in 1931, Snohomish center Tommy Yar leads the Irish onto the field as team captain for their first regular season game of the post Newt Rockne era.
• 20:03
  Notre Dame beats Indiana 250 Three years later in 1934, Cherokee pitcher Elon Hogsett makes his World Series debut for the Detroit Tigers.
• 20:15
  Hogsett enters game one against St.
• 20:17
  Louis in the sixth inning and throws three and a third scoreless innings.
• 20:21
  By the end of the series, he will have appeared three times while allowing only one earned run.
• 20:27
  Special teams decide the next one in 19.
• 20:31
  Choctaw and Chickasaw linebacker Ed Wahoo McDaniel blocks two San Diego field goal attempts for the New York Jets.
• 20:39
  The second comes with 23 seconds remaining.
• 20:42
  That block preserves a 17:17 tie.
• 20:46
  Now go back to Bucky Dent in 1978, one day after his legendary home run at Fenway park, the Cherokee shortstop drives in another run as New York beats can Kansas City 71 in game one of the American League
• 21:00
  Championship Series.
• 21:02
  Four years later in 1982, Seminole legend Willie Starjill plays the final game of his 21 season major league career and Starjill gets a hit in his final plate appearance.
• 21:13
  He retires with 2,232 hits, 475 home runs and 1,540 runs battled in just as remarkably, every major league game of his career came in a Pittsburgh Pirates uniform.
• 21:28
  And we finish in 2020 with Cherokee linebacker Zavin Collins filling up the stat sheet for Tulsa against 11th ranked Central Florida.
• 21:37
  10 tackles, three and a half tackles for loss, an interception, two pass breakups and a safety.
• 21:42
  Tulsa wins 34 26, ending Central Florida's 21 game home winning streak.
• 21:49
  That wraps up another week of incredible moments in Indian All Stars history.
• 21:54
  If you enjoyed today's look back, I invite you to visit IndianAllStars.com where you'll find more athlete stories, blog articles, videos, podcast episodes and exclusive merchandise celebrating great Native American athletes from the past and the present.
• 22:11
  I hope you'll join me again next next week as we bring more great Native athletes back into the spotlight.
• 22:18
  Until then, this is Indian All Stars.