Tragedy at Le Mans and the Jordan ‘Flu game’ – This DiSH for June 11

It’s June 11th and on this day in 1955, it was the greatest tragedy in motorsports.

This was the 24 hours of Le Mans, held each year in France. This race drew some of the greats in racing at the time like Juan Manuel Fangio and Sterling Moss who were driving the new Mercedes 300 SLR made of magnesium alloy, which was superlight weight for the time. Fangio and Mike Hawthorne in a Jaguar traded spots in the early going of the race, but on lap 35, a wreck on the frontstretch quickly turned the race into a horror scene. Hawthorne passed a lap car before realizing he was being called to the pits. There weren’t radios in their helmets then, they used sign boards to indicate a pit stop. So Hawthorne veered sharply towards the pits causing the driver he had just passed to take evasive action. At that point, Frenchman Pierre LaVeigh was in the wrong place at the wrong time and it cost him his life. His right tire hit the back of the car that had just swerved in front of him, launching his car into the air and into a concrete barrier dividing pit road and the race track at 150 miles per hour. LaVeigh’s car disintegrated. He was thrown from the car and down the track, dying instantly. The engine block, the hood of his car and other debris shot down the track showering spectators standing on the inside of the track. The hood acted like a guillotine to many, the engine block like a 200 pound cannon ball to others. LaVeigh’s car burst into flames, fueled not only by the gasoline and made more intense by the magnesium alloy that the car was made of. His wife watched horrified in the pits next to his replacement driver John Fitch. Along with LaVeigh, 83 spectators died that day and 178 more were injured. Last rites were performed as others searched frantically for their friends and family. But after the race track was cleared and bodies were still being removed from the spectator areas, the race was re-started and run to its completion. The Mercedes drivers that were still running were quietly withdrawn from the track in the early morning hours, fearing a public relations issue if a German made car won a death marred race in France with the not too distant memory of World War II still palpable. The man whose erratic maneuver caused the horrific wreck, Mike Hawthorne and his Jaguar team, were the eventual winners the following day. Days, weeks, months and even years later, blame was tossed about. Many blamed Hawthorne, who was apologetic immediately following the race but changed his tune over time. LaVeigh was blamed for being too old to drive at such speeds. (He was 50). The track was blamed for being old as well and in desperate need of improvements. And it was with the stand in the pit straight removed. The track surface was improved and widened to handle higher speeds. After this tragedy, motor racing was banned in several countries in Europe with a few still not permitting it. It would also be a long layoff for Mercedes in motorsports. It would be another 32 years until Mercedes would field another race team, when they returned to Formula 1 in 1987.

On this day in 1997, it was the Michael Jordan ‘Flu game.’ So most people know the story of this game. It was talked about during ‘The Last Dance’ documentary. Heck, it’s been part of NBA lore since it happened 27 years ago but it’s just too good and too big to leave on the shelf. Refresher on the basics. This is game 5 of the NBA finals. It’s the Chicago Bulls and the Utah Jazz. This game is in Utah with the series tied at 2 games a piece. Also, this was a 2-3-2 series where now they play a 2-2-1-1-1, meaning that in 94, the first two games were in Chicago, Bulls won both, games 3, 4, and 5 were in Utah; Jazz had won 3 and 4 and had a chance to take a 3-2 lead with a win. So this is a big game … I mean they all are in the Finals, but you don’t necessarily want to be playing with your backs against the wall, staving off elimination. Alright, now Jordan’s illness. Throughout the broadcast, and for sure what the NBC announcers had been told was that Michael was suffering from Flu like symptoms. That’s how this game is the ‘flu game’ and will always be the ‘flu game.’ But as we learned in ‘The Last Dance’ and this is similar to what would happen to Kobe in 2000 in Sacramento that we talked about a few weeks back, Jordan started to get hungry around 10 or 10:30 the night before. The Bulls were staying in Park City, Utah, about 40 minutes from Salt Lake City and Michael decided to order a pizza from a local Park City pizza restaurant. But when the pizza showed up, there were five guys making the pizza delivery. Jordan’s personal trainer Tim Grover is the one who told that story on the documentary and he said he had a bad feeling when he saw the throng of people delivering the pizza. But Michael took it and said he was the only one who ate any of the pizza despite there being several other Bulls players and NBC’s Ahmad Rashaad in the room with him. He woke up at 2 in the morning and began throwing up. It continued the rest of the night and into the morning. The trainer said it was food poisoning. He tried to eat later in the day but struggled to hold anything down. He missed the morning shootaround which was an indication to his teammates that MJ was struggling and may not be able to go. But he was determined to play in game 5 if he could. The bus ride from Park City to the arena is a windy mountain road and when Jordan got off the bus, he was dizzy and having trouble walking straight. So the Bulls doctor gave him 4 or 5 cups of coffee which apparently is good for an inner ear disturbance. In pre game warm ups, he looked like a ghost. Vacant eyes, struggling with his energy level. But what happened next, surprised a lot of people. Well, not immediately. The Jazz jumped on top, feeding off the energy of the hometown crowd and shot out to a 16 point lead in the first quarter. That’s when Jordan found that little something deep down. He scored 17 points in the second and pulled the bulls back to just a four point deficit at half. Something else to keep in mind, Karl Malone had been named the MVP for the season despite Michael winning the scoring title over Malone by more than 2 points a game. That was fuel in the tank for Jordan… something to prove that whoever voted for Malone over him was wrong. Malone came out in the second half and did something strange. He shot jumpers. It’s not to say he couldn’t score the mid-range ‘j’ but he settled and it hurt his team. He missed 5 of his 6 attempts in the second half and only had 19 on the night. But Jordan struggled in the third quarter as well, only scoring a bucket in that 12 minute span and as the game went to the fourth, the Jazz had the lead and built it to an 8 point advantage with 10 minutes to play. That’s when the fuse on MJ’s rocket got lit and he took off. He scored 10 straight to give the Bulls the lead. It went back and forth from there until the :46 mark. Jordan on the free throw line, hit the first to tie the game but missed the second. The Jazz couldn’t grab the rebound and Jordan came away with it. And that’s when Utah made a mistake. Byron Russell, thinking that Michael was too worn out to take a three, decided to double team Scottie Pippen. Pippen sent the ball back to a now wide open Jordan who hit the three to put the Bulls up with 25 seconds to go. With 6.2 seconds left, the jazz had an opportunity to tie it but Jeff Hornacek’s shot was short and the Bulls won game 5, 90-87. Jordan’s flu game stats; he played 44 minutes, scored 38 points, including 15 in the fourth quarter, he grabbed 7 rebounds and handed out 5 assists and added 3 steals to the mix. Here’s what he said to Ahmad Rashad after the game.

(SOT : I was really tired, very weak…

It was a game that only added to the lore that was Michael Jordan. Interesting fact, it took him about 45 minutes to recover in the locker room after the game. The team doctor wanted to give him an IV of fluids to aid his recovery but Michael’s aversion to needles negated that option.

And with the Mike Tyson - Jake Paul fight coming up in November it’s interesting to note that Tyson fought his last professional fight on this night in 2005. And it did not go well. Tyson lost to Kevin McBride when he refused to answer the bell for the seventh round. Tyson admitted he wasn’t in shape for the fight, he hadn’t prepared and only took it as a payday. He ended up losing three of his last four and said his heart just wasn’t in it any longer.

Time now for today’s non-sports, ‘did you know’ and this seems appropriate considering the Bulls Jazz story … but until 2017, there was a law in Utah, called the Zion Curtain, that required a bartender to make a drink out of view of the patron. Most bars put up frosted glass between customer and the barkeep. When the law was repealed, the sound of shattering glass could be heard reverberating around the state.

That’s all for today. I’ll have more tomorrow on This DiSH. And as a reminder, This Day in Sports History is a member of the Sports History Podcast Network, your headquarters for the yesteryear of your favorite sports. Learn more at SportsHistoryNetwork.com