Article Archives: Bumps in the Night

Obi-Wan Kenobi and the Curse of James Dean, Part 2

March 19, 2020 | by Al Hunter

“Live fast, die young and leave a good looking corpse.” James Dean was the epitome of that 1949 quote penned  by pioneering Chicago African-American author Willard Motley. Dean died in a car crash nearly 65 years ago (September 30, 1955) but he remains a fixture on the pop culture landscape … Read More

Obi-Wan Kenobi and the Curse of James Dean, Part 1

March 12, 2020 | by Al Hunter

Hoosier James Dean died in an automobile accident on a desolate stretch of highway in Cholame, California nearly 65 years ago, yet he remains ever-present in the collective memory of fans born well after his death. It is ironic that Cholame sits within a mile of the San Andreas fault … Read More

Jim Thorpe — Indiana Hoosier, Part 2

March 5, 2020 | by Al Hunter

The September 2, 1915 Indianapolis Star ran the headlines: “Jim Thorpe to Coach Indiana”…”World’s Greatest Athlete Will Help Childs with Backfield Men” and “Noted Indian Will Start Work When Baseball Season Is Ended.” The article reported, “This news, coming as it does on the eve of the opening of the … Read More

Jim Thorpe — Indiana Hoosier, Part 1

February 27, 2020 | by Al Hunter

So, are you going through football withdrawals yet? It’s been three weeks since the Kansas City Chiefs won the Super Bowl, the team’s first in half a century. Ironically, that victory came just over a century after the most famous Native American athlete in our country’s history landed on a … Read More

Big Ben Parker: “one quick shift of his clenched fist…”

February 20, 2020 | by Al Hunter

Recently, I wrote a two-part series on Carnation Day, the little known holiday created to honor our third assassinated President, William McKinley. While researching that story, I came across a man whose name should rightly echo through the halls of American heroism. Instead, his name is forgotten, his place in … Read More