Many events have taken place on Chicago Northside Wrigley Field over its 110 year history. The Cubs, Bears, Blackhawks, college football, soccer, and a wide variety of musical acts in the past two decades. One performance stands out, and I will institute a (retired) teacher tease.

The Chicago Whales opened the then Weeghman Park in 1914, and two years later the Cubs began playing there. The Bears spent a half-century there from 1921-1970. The Blackhawks/Red Wings “Winter Classic” filled the stands on January 1, 2009, and there have been occasional soccer games and I could only find one reference to the Bulls playing there.

Jimmy Buffet played two nights there in September of 2004 and many famous acts have followed. Considering all of this, Wrigley Field is an iconic baseball stadium, second only to Boston’s Fenway Park which opened in 1912. Consider some of the memorable hardball events in Wrigley’s history.

– May 2, 1917: The Double No-hitter between Jim “Hippo” Vaughn and Fred Toney. For nine innings, neither pitcher allowed a hit.
– October 1, 1932: Babe Ruth’s “called shot.” The Yankee slugger may, or may not, have pointed to center field and either way hit a home run.
– Sept. 28, 1938: Gabby Hartnett’s “Homer in the Gloamin’ . Cubs future Hall of Fame catcher hit a walk-off home run as darkness descended on Wrigley Field.
– May 12, 1955: The Cubs’ Sam Jones became the first African-American pitcher to throw a no-hitter. He walked seven and probably had a toothpick in his mouth.
– April 17, 1976: Philadelphia Philly Mike Schmidt, arguably the GOAT at 3B hit four home runs, with five hits and eight RBIs.
– June 23, 1984: Cubs second baseman Ryne Sandberg hit two home runs in the ninth and tenth inning off Bruce Sutter. Both would be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
– May 6, 1998: Twenty-year old Kerry Wood struck out 20 Houston Astros including two future Cooperstown members. One measly hit or we also have a no-hitter.

All of these are amazing performances, and I could have added to the list many more times, but the most incredible was in a football game on December 12, 1965. On that day, Bears Rookie Gale Sayers scored six touchdowns in a game. He is only one of four players to do this in the century-old National Football game.

The weather was abysmal and the field was called a “quagmire.” The “Kansas Comet” ran for four scores, and also scored on a punt return and a pass reception. Coach George Halas chose teammate Jon Arnett to score on a two-yard run after TD #6, so one could argue that could have been seven scores.

Sadly, Sayers’s career was cut short due to knee injuries. In 1968, he tore ligaments in his right knee at a time when sports medicine was not as advanced as it is today. He would hurt that knee again and again and was forced to retire at the age of twenty-nine. Sayers remains the youngest man elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame at just thirty-four.

You can throw, hit, and catch white balls. You can smack a round rubber disk with a stick. You can strum a guitar, bang on ivory keys, and serenade the surroundings with your sweet voice. The history of Wrigley Field is rich as the Rickets family who own it, but on one December day, a swift man cut ran atop the mud his opponents were mired in with a copper-colored oblong ball tucked between his hand and elbow.

That is the greatest performance in the history of Wrigley Field.