Early Americana

The Indianapolis Chiefs hockey team played in the IHL from 1955 to 1962 at the Indiana State Fair Coliseum. They won the Turner Cup in 1958, despite having a losing record.

The Indianapolis Clowns a professional baseball team in the Negro American League. They came to Indianapolis in 1946 after stints in Cincinnati, Miami, and as a barnstorming team. They left the Negro American League in 1954 but continued to play exhibition games into the...

The All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL) and played12 seasons starting in 1943 and ending in 1954. The Grand Rapids Chicks played from 1945 until the league folded, winning titles in 1947 and 1953. The AAAGPBL was founded by MLB executives Phillip Wigley, Branch...

Memorial Stadium in Baltimore was an iconic sports venue that hosted a number of baseball, soccer, and football teams, and held many great memories for the town's sports fans. It's most notable tenants were the original Baltimore Colts football team and the one that...

Dow Breweries was a brewery based in the province of Quebec, Canada and was founded by William Dow. The Dow Brewery eventually came under the control of National Breweries of Quebec in the 1920s, which itself was bought out in 1952 by Canadian Breweries. After...

Before the Cincinnati??Swords,??Stingers, Cyclones, and??Mighty Ducks, Cincinnati had the Mohawks. They were a member of the American Hockey League (AHL) from 1949 to 1952, before moving to the International Hockey League (IHL), where they won 5 straight championships. Their home ice was the??Cincinnati Gardens.

The Portland Eagles played in the Pacific Coast Hockey League from 1944 until 1951.

The Buffalo Blues played in the short-lived Federal League in 1914 and 1915. Despite many attempts, including the formation of another rebel baseball circuit, the Continental League in the late 1950s, big league baseball has never returned to Buffalo. In 2020, Toronto's baseball team...

The Nashville Elite Giants were a Negro league baseball team that played from 1920 to 1950, both independently and as part of several different leagues. The team called several cities home over the years, including Baltimore, Cleveland, Columbus, and Washington. The played in Nashville...

If you wore a store-bought Halloween costume between 1950 and the late 1980s, there's a good chance it was made by Ben Cooper, Inc. Consisting of an inexpensive vinyl smock and plastic mask to recreate various pop culture icons, the costumes were a staple...

The Big 8 Conference was a college athletic conference formed in 1907 as the Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Association and included the University of Kansas, University of Missouri, University of Nebraska, Washington University in St. Louis. Additionally, and University of Iowa. Membership grew to 10, but in 1928, it...

WTAM 1100 began broadcasting in 1923 from Cleveland. Over the years the station would also be known as KYW, WKYC, and from 1972 to 1996, WWWE, or 3WE. It was during the 3WE years that the station broadcast the Cleveland Cavaliers Miracle at Richfield, season...

In 1916, the Cincinnati Motor Speedway opened in Sharonville, OH, a suburb of Cincinnati. The track closed and was dismantled in 1919, with all of the lumber going to Chillicothe, Ohio to expand Camp Sherman which is still in operation. However, racing on the...

It's a sign! Skyline Chili was established in 1949 by Greek immigrant Nicholas Lambrinides. The first location in Price Hill offered a wonderful panoramic view of downtown Cincinnati, which inspired the restaurant's name. It has literally become synonymous with Cincinnati-style chili, as many folks around...

WQXI first went on the air in 1948 and played the pop standards of the day. In the 1960s it moved to a top-40/rock & roll format, before switching to oldies in the 1970s. The station is most famous for being the inspiration for...

Dutch Pantry was a restaurant chain founded in Selinsgrove, PA in 1945. It eventually grew to over 50 locations in 12 states but by the early 1980s the chain was in decline. Most were closed by the end of that decade.

Detroit's pro basketball team was established in Fort Wayne in 1937 as a semi-pro squad called the Zollner Pistons. Fred Zollner, a manufacturer of pistons, owned the team. They turned pro in 1941 and joined the National Basketball League (NBL). In 1957, the team...

Jerry's was founded in Lexington in 1946, quickly becoming a Kentucky favorite. In 1957, the restaurant began franchising. In 1990, the chain was acquired by Denny's who converted most locations to that nameplate while renaming about a dozen locations Jerry's J-Boy, after it's signature...

Municipal Stadium in Kansas City opened in 1923 as??Muehlebach Field. In 1937 it became??Ruppert Stadium, before changing its name again in 1943 to Blues stadium in honor of the AAA Blues that played there. However, another, better known team played there starting in 1937:...

The Homestead Grays were one of the longest-running Negro league baseball teams in history, playing from 1900 to 1950. Formed in Homestead, a suburb of Pittsburgh, the team grew represent the entire area, eventually sharing Forbes Field with the Pittsburgh Pirates. The team also...

The Tiny Hut tiki bar was a restaurant located in Walnut Hills, California. It was in operation in the 1940s and 1950s.

First appearing in 1926, Reddy Kilowatt??is a cartoon character that served as a mascot for??various??electric utilities across the United States, and a few other??countries for over,70 years.

Laurel & Hardy were one of the most famous comedy duos in history. Stan Laurel, born Arthur Stanley Jefferson in England, came to the U.S. in 1912 with a comedy troupe in which he performed. After the tour, he decided to stay and later...

Hilldale Club was a Negro league baseball team based in the Philadelphia suburb of Darby. They played in three different leagues as well as independently and won three league titles as well a step 1925 Negro League World Series. *Produce is officially licensed by...

The Harrisburg Giants were a Negro leagues team established in 1890. In 1924, they joined the Eastern Colored League. Even after the color line was broken, the Giants played on. Unlike fellow surviving Negro leagues teams, they weren't a barnstorming team, but had a...

The Buffalo Central Terminal was Western New York's main train station from the time it opened in 1923 until 1979. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1984. The building is currently being redeveloped. *A portion of proceeds benefits the??Central...

The Louisville Breckenridges, or Brecks for short, were members of the National Football League from 1921 to 1924.

The Bacharach Giants were a Negro Leagues baseball team established in 1916 in Atlantic City. Until 1923, they were an independent team, save for 1920 when they were members of the Cuban League. In 1923, they joined the Eastern Colored League, In 1929, they...

Robert Hall Clothes, better known as simply Robert Hall, was a warehouse-style clothing store foined in Waterbury, Connecticut in 1937. It eventually grew to over 350 locations in 36 states. Founder Jacob Schwab is reported to have pulled the name out of thin air....

Shillito's was Cincinnati's first department store. It was founded by John Shillito and William McLaughlin in 1830 as McLaughlin & Shillito, but that partnership soon split up. In 1878, Shillito's moved to a new building on Race and Seventh streets, which was remodeled in...