Eugene Bullard
With Veterans Day approaching, here’s a shoutout to the Flying Aces of World War One. The movie Flyboys is a good fictional film about their mystique (but based on the real-life Lafayette Escadrille).
EUGENE BULLARD – This African-American boxer from Columbus, GA served in the French Foreign Legion as early as the Battle of Verdun in 1916 and had already won a Croix de Guerre before joining the legendary Lafayette Escadrille on a bet.(!) He qualified but the prejudiced French Foreign Legion’s Dr Edmund Le Gros rejected him for service.
Bullard instead flew a Spad 7 with French Escadrille 93. Eugene still had an uphill fight against prejudice and the French supposedly failed to credit him with all of his kills, limiting him to just 2 in the official records but tradition credits Bullard with between 5 and 9. He had what may be the best nickname outside of the Red Baron and was called the Black Swallow of Death. On the side of his plane he painted the words “ALL blood runs red” in reference to the bigotry he had faced.
THE IACCACI BROTHERS – In the 1960s young American men would head to Canada to avoid serving in the Vietnam War. During World War One a number of young American men headed to Canada to serve in British Military Units because the U.S. had not yet entered the conflict.
Two of those men were Paul T Iaccaci and his younger brother August. The brothers served in the 20th British Squadron flying Bristol F.2 Fighters.
Both brothers were Ivy League men – Paul at Harvard, August at Princeton. Both Iaccaci’s became Aces on the exact same day – May 31st, 1918. Paul ended the war with 17 kills and his brother August … kept the uncanny coincidences going with 17 kills of his own. In late October of 1918 August was wounded in the eye and spent the few remaining days of the war hospitalized in England. Continue reading
AT THE EARTH’S CORE (1914) – This tale was originally serialized in several issues of All-Story Weekly in 1914, then was assembled in novel form in 1922. American mining heir David Innes and his much older inventor friend Abner Perry test-drive Abner’s diesel-punk subterranean tunnel-drilling vehicle the Iron Mole. 
DANGEROUS ASSIGNMENT (1952) – Brian Donlevy, famous as Professor Quatermass in a pair of movies, starred as secret agent Steve Mitchell. He received his missions from a man called “The Commissioner” (Herb Butterfield). 
NUMBER FIVE TOPPLED – In NCAA Division Two, the 8th ranked COLORADO STATE AT PUEBLO THUNDERWOLVES visited the number 5 team in the nation – the WESTERN COLORADO UNIVERSITY MOUNTAINEERS. By Halftime WCU was in front 21-7, but the Thunderwolves shut them out from there. It was 21-21 in the 3rd Quarter with CSU-Pueblo winning 24-21 in the 4th. 
DOWN GOES NUMBER EIGHT – Down in NCAA Division Three, the number 9 UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN AT RIVER FALLS FALCONS played host to the 8th ranked UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN AT WHITEWATER WARHAWKS. UW-River Falls made a definite statement, leading the Warhawks 31-7 at the Half before embarrassing them by a final score of 52-14 
CENTURY CLUB IN FOOTBALL? – My Century Club notes usually apply to college basketball teams that score 100 or more points in Regulation. In a very, very rare case in football, the NJCAA’s SNOW COLLEGE BADGERS welcomed the CALIFORNIA COMMUNITY CHRISTIAN COLLEGE SAINTS and utterly eviscerated them ONE HUNDRED ONE to SIX! 
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