The Vancouver Millionaires were one win away from bringing home their first Stanley Cup in seven years. But upon facing elimination in the best-of-five championship round, the Toronto St. Patricks erupted.
With a 6-0 rout in Game 4, Toronto forced the rubber match for March 28, 1922. On that evening, the hosts romped again, 5-1, giving the NHL four straight titles in hockey’s de facto World Series.
One need not remind British Columbians of the way major-league hockey has continued to fail them on this front in the past century. They have had to settle for smaller moments of glory on that front.
But funnily enough, on the day of the Millionaires’ last Stanley Cup defeat, the future subject of one of Vancouver’s minor moments in another sport was born. March 28, 1922, was light heavyweight boxer Joey Maxim’s first day of Earthly existence.
The Cleveland native, who lived to be 79, would run up an 82-29-4 career record. He peaked on June 25, 1952, besting Sugar Ray Robinson at Yankee Stadium for his third World Heavyweight championship triumph.
Not long after that, Maxim’s standing went downhill. He won but four of his final 15 bouts, closing his career on a losing skid of six.
But on Sept. 29, 1956, he notched his last victory in, of all places, Vancouver. In his second of five fights outside the U.S., and his only one in Canada, he topped Argentina’s Edgardo Romero.
Also born on March 28, 1922: Abstract Expressionist painter Grace Hartigan. The Newark, N.J., native gained fame for her portraits of Marilyn Monroe and a slew of fellow artists. Although ironically, she was outspoken in her disdain for pop art and her desire to distinguish her work from it.
With influence from the likes of Henri Matisse and such contemporaries as Mark Rothko and Jackson Pollock, Hartigan would shape what her Guggenheim bio dubs an “inimitable Abstract Expressionist sensibility.” She thrived on New York’s art scene throughout the ’50s before imparting her expertise as a teacher in Baltimore. She remained there until her death at age 86 in 2008.
Besides these two notable births and Toronto’s victory, the day in question lives for an event of much greater gravity. On a visit to China, Baron Tanaka Giichi of Japan escaped an assassination attempt by two Korean conspirators. One bullet tragically struck and killed a female bystander.
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