The Postcard
A postcard by XL of London EC. The card was posted in Brighton using a 1d. stamp on Saturday the 13th. August 1938. It was sent to:
Miss B. Parker,
57 Broad Street,
Canterbury,
Kent.
The pencilled message on the divided back of the card was as follows:
"21 Montgomery Street
Hove.
13-8-38.
Dear Babs,
My Daddy starts his
holiday next week.
I have just been to M.M.
Thank you for P.C., it is
very pretty.
Love from your loving
friend Doris."
A Deadly Airplane crash in Germany
So what else happened on the day that Doris posted the card to her friend Babs?
Well, on the 13th. August 1938, a Czech Airlines Savoia-Marchetti S.73 crashed in Oberkirch, Germany, immediately killing 16 of the 17 individuals on board.
The stewardess, Marie Krentnerová, was the only survivor, although she died a day later in a hospital in Offenburg.
The aircraft, which had started its journey in Prague, crashed into wooded mountainside on its approach to Strasbourg in poor weather conditions.
The First Amateur World Series
Also on that day, the first Amateur World Series, a forerunner of the Baseball World Cup, began in England.
It was contested by Great Britain and the United States over a series of five games from the 13th. August 13 to the 20th. August 1938 in England. It was won by Great Britain.
The five venues were:
-- Liverpool (Wavertree Stadium)
-- Kingston upon Hull (Old Craven Park)
-- Rochdale (Spotland Stadium)
-- Halifax (The Shay)
-- Leeds(Headingley Stadium).
Bill Masterton and his Premature Death
The 13th. August 1938 also marked the birth in Winnipeg, Manitoba, of the Canadian ice hockey player Bill Masterton who played for the Minnesota North Stars.
Minnesota North Stars coach Wren Blair described Masterton's qualities as a player:
"Because he had a habit of giving
everything he had for every second
he was on the ice, Bill was the type
of player who didn't have to score a
lot of goals to help a club."
-- Masterson's Death at the Age of 29
Masterton is the only player in NHL history to die as a direct result of injuries suffered during a game, the result of massive internal brain injuries suffered following a hit during a January 13, 1968 contest against the Oakland Seals at the Met Center.
He carried the puck up the ice at full speed, passing it off as two Seals defenders, Larry Cahan and Ron Harris, converged on him. Masterton was knocked backward in the resulting collision and landed on his head. Like most players of his era, he was not wearing a helmet.
Referee Wally Harris compared the hit to an explosion, adding:
"He was checked hard, but
I'm sure it wasn't a dirty play."
The force of the impact caused Masterton to bleed from his nose, ears, and mouth. The impact of the hit caused him to lose consciousness before he hit the ice; according to some accounts, he briefly came to and muttered:
"Never again, never again."
He then passed out and received treatment on the ice and in the dressing room before being rushed to Fairview-Southdale Hospital.
His wife Carol, who was watching the game from the stands, and Masterton's parents, who were listening to the game from their home in Winnipeg, rushed to his bedside at the hospital.
Bill was attended to by two neurosurgeons and three other doctors. They soon concluded that the injury was too severe for surgery to be a viable option.
Some 30 hours after his fall, on the 15th. January 1968, Masterton died without ever regaining consciousness. His parents, brother, wife and two children were at his side.
Masterton's Minnesota teammates, who were playing a game in Boston, were informed that he had been removed from life support in the dressing room in what was ultimately a 9–2 loss to the Bruins.
Ron Harris was haunted for many years by his role in Masterton's death:
"It bothers you the rest of your life.
It wasn't dirty, and it wasn't meant to
happen that way. Still, it's very hard
because I made the play. It's always
in the back of my mind."
However, Masterton's family held no animosity towards the players involved or the game. Carol referred to the incident as a fluke, saying that it could have happened to anyone.
-- Bill Masterton's Legacy
Few NHL players wore helmets in 1968. According to several of Masterton's teammates, wearing a helmet was frowned upon in the NHL of that era; at least one North Star who wore a helmet during a game was traded after the season.
Masterton's death sparked an immediate debate on whether their use should be compulsory, with legislators in New York considering a new law to make their use mandatory.
However by 1971 the NHL had voted three times on a rule requiring players to wear helmets, and each time rejected it.
Some players began to wear helmets following Masterton's death, but adoption was slow. Three years later, only six Minnesota players wore them, the most of any of the NHL's teams.
The "macho" attitude of the game, including fear of being called a coward, was an often-cited reason for reluctance. It was 11 years before the NHL finally mandated the use of helmets by all players entering the league, beginning in the 1979–80 season.
A later analysis by the Toronto Star in 2011 suggested that the "macho" attitude of the NHL in that era, as well as Masterton's aggressive playing style, played a significant role in his death.
Coach Wren Blair believed that Masterton was playing through a pre-existing brain hemorrhage. He and the Stars' trainer had noticed Masterton's face was "blood red, almost purple," and were concerned enough that they wanted Masterton checked out by a doctor. However, Masterton brushed it off.
Longtime NHL coach John Muckler, who was then the coach of the Stars' second-tier farm team, the Memphis South Stars, believed that Masterton may have suffered a brain injury as early as training camp.
During the season, several players and coaches recalled seeing Masterton black out during rushes in practice. Goaltender Cesare Maniago recalled that the night before the fatal hit, Masterton had been complaining of severe migraines that he had had for over a week.
They felt that it caused what was otherwise a clean, albeit hard, bodycheck to turn fatal.
Toronto neurosurgeon and concussion expert Charles Tator reviewed Masterton's autopsy, and opined that Masterton had suffered a second-impact syndrome, which occurs when a person suffers a second concussion on top of an earlier, untreated concussion. When this happens, it can cause rapid and often fatal brain swelling.
